Mercy Leroux

In 1816, when reflecting on his many influential court cases, John Adams reflected: “Panton and Corbet ought not to have been forgotten. Preston and his soldiers ought to have been forgotten sooner.”

So what was the Panton and Corbett case, which Adams considered more important than the Boston massacre trials?

This trial took place just under a year prior to the massacre, and saw John Adams teaming up with James Otis to defend four sailors accused of murdering a British Navy lieutenant. Some historians consider the victim the first person slain in the American Revolution, which indeed implies this was a pretty important trial.

The Lieutenant

32-year-old Lieutenant Henry Gibson Panton was the unfortunate victim. He served on the frigate Rose, and was, by all accounts, polite and genteel. Judging by baptism records, Panton was born in the winter of 1737, to a Henry and Ann Panton who lived in Westminster, London. He had at least two younger brothers, Hugh (b. 1740) and John-Alexander (b. 1741).

Realizing that he had chosen a risky career that required being at sea for lengthy periods of time, Panton was only twenty-two when he drafted his will on December 13, 1759, about ten years prior to his demise. The pious opening surprised me a little, as I haven’t read any wills from the eighteenth century like this:

first and principally I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God hoping for Remission of all my Sins through the Merits of Jesus Christ my Blessed Savior and REDEEMER and my Body to the Earth or Sea as it shall please God

Panton bequeathed everything to his “honoured father” and his two executors, his friends Thomas and William Maudt. Unfortunately, his parents may never have received his effects; although both have fairly common names, the same church that baptized both Hugh and John-Alexander lists an Ann Panton as buried March 25, 1762, and a Henry Panton as buried on January 19, 1768. It thus seems plausible that Panton’s parents predeceased him.

The Defendants

The unfortunate defendants were Michael Corbett, John Ryan, William Connor (Conner), and Pierce Fanning (or Fenning). According to newspapers, all reportedly hailed from Marblehead, Massachusetts, but were originally from Ireland.

Sadly, I could not find any records on who Fanning was, and nothing certain on Connor. There was a William Connor living around Newbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts who married a Mary Hooper on March 11, 1755, and had a son William Jr. on October 2. However, this name is very common.

Thankfully, there are more concrete details on Ryan and Corbett. In between voyages, Ryan had fallen in love with a woman named Margaret Mauney. Corbett, likewise, was putting down roots: on March 25, 1769, he wed Abigail Chapman, who seems to have been about seven months pregnant.

In other words, at least two of these men had lovers and a desire for future families, and all had lives they desired to choose for themselves.

Bloodshed

Just over a month after Corbett’s wedding, Corbett, Ryan, Fanning, and Conner were returning to Massachusetts aboard a brig called the Pitt Packet, which was approached by the frigate Rose. Their captain could do nothing as Panton led several seaman to board their smaller ship. However, before Panton went below deck to search, he drew his sword – strongly implying his search was not, in fact, for cargo, but men. (The British army did not impress men at this time, but the Navy did.)

Realizing they were at risk of impressment, our four sailors hid themselves in the ship’s forepeak (a small storage space right below the deck at ship’s bow). One took a fish gig, another a musket, a third a hatchet. Corbett held a harpoon. Whether alcohol was stored there or brought there when they hid, I do not know. The fact remains that alcohol was indeed involved, never beneficial to a tense situation.

When Panton finally found the hidden men, he asked them nicely to come out. They refused, and warned him that they would kill him before they were impressed. Panton replied with a joke: if they were to kill him, he would like to take a pinch of snuff first.

Insisting he had orders, Panton sat down on the salt cargo outside their hiding place, and tried to coax the men out. The men steadfastly refused. Realizing they were not going to comply, Panton ordered his men to break open the forepeak.

Naturally, as their hiding spot slowly splintered apart, so too did the calm. The sailors told Panton in no uncertain terms that the first man to break in would die. At one point, a midshipman shot into the forepeak, injuring John Ryan and grazing Corbett in the process. Panton tried to calm the situation by confiscating the pistol and assuring Corbett “satisfaction” if he would come out, but the sailors were having none of it.

Panton ordered his men to break down the bulkhead anyways, and after a bit, told the men to pause. He tried joking again, asking one of the four sailors “to lend him his Ax” to make it go quicker. The sailors retorted that they’d lend him it to scalp himself.

Panton told his men to resume opening the bulkhead – and, just then, Corbett’s harpoon landed directly in Panton’s neck.

“The rascal has stabbed me through the jugular vein!” Panton immediately cried. Given the trial description of an “amazing” spurt of blood, his diagnosis seems to have been spot on (unless it was the carotid, but I digress). The doctors couldn’t do much, and he died shortly thereafter.

Another pistol was fired, and the injured John Ryan stumbled out of their hiding place. The doctor was away treating the dying Panton, but after Panton’s demise, the man positively refused to help Ryan. Poor Ryan was left “remaining in his own gore,” with the doctor declaring “let the Rascal bleed and be damn’d. He ought to have a Brace of Balls drove thro his Head.” The remaining three sailors were only disarmed and seized when they had drunk themselves into a subduable state.

Corbett refused to believe he had actually killed Panton. Eventually, they showed him the body. He was visibly distressed, and shouted at the midshipman who had fired the pistol that this was his fault.

The Trial

Panton’s body was taken for burial at King’s Chapel in Boston, while the four sailors were placed in the Boston gaol. The case underwent a series of delays, and by June 11, Abigail Corbett delivered a son she named Michael. Three days later, her new husband was on trial for his life.

Most trials at the time lasted less than a day; this one extended to four. Adams and Otis’ main defense was that if Panton was leading a press gang, the men had a right to defend their liberty to the death. This argument was evidently impactful enough that the prosecution tried to suggest Panton’s mission was for customs rather than impressment.

The judges included Tory Governor Francis Bernard, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, and snarky Justice Peter Oliver, yet they all agreed with the defense. In fact, they did not even let Adams finish his closing argument before adjourning. When they resumed court, they simply (yet dramatically) declared a verdict of “justifiable homicide,” releasing the sailors to their families and friends.

No wonder Adams said this case should be remembered: the idea that you have the right to defend your liberty to the death would certainly be impactful in the ensuing decade (and is also notable hypocrisy in the case of slavery, considering slaves who killed their masters met awful ends, including in Boston).

Aftermath

Panton’s will was proved in court on July 20, 1769, and presumably his friends received all of his worldly possessions. As for his brothers, I haven’t been able to track anything on Hugh. The same church did record a marriage of a John Panton marrying widow Phillis Roberts in 1765, but again, this name is common enough I can’t be certain.

Assuming William Connor is the man from Newbury, he also was part of the militia who responded to the Lexington alarm on April 19, 1775. A widowed Mary remarried to a John Fowler in 1784. William Jr., in turn, wed Nancy Harvey in 1791 and had four children of his own, including a third William.

There are no records of Michael Corbett or the mysterious Pierce Fanning serving in the war, but it does seem that Corbett stayed in Marblehead. A Michael Corbett married Hannah Severy in 1791 at Marblehead, which seems more likely to be the son than father to me, but I cannot be certain. Either way, this couple had a son they christened Michael in 1794, but by 1798, Hannah had remarried to Wilson H. Russell, indicating Michael had passed away.

I found the most on John Ryan, and what a life he had! He recovered from his injuries, and John Adams helped him successfully sue the midshipman who shot him. This man actually offered Ryan a job on his ship to outweigh the costs, but Ryan declined, as he was determined to stay in Marblehead with Margaret. They married on July 16, 1769.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, John joined the Continental army. He is listed as a sergeant on the ill-fated Québec mission in 1775, and disappears from records for the next year. In 1777, he reappears as a private soldier in Captain Samuel Page’s company, part of Colonel Ebenezer Francis’s 11th Massachusetts Regiment, which battled Burgoyne’s forces in during the Saratoga campaign. They would have seen action at Hubbardton (at which Colonel Francis was killed), and been part of a decisive victories at Bennington, Freeman’s Farm, and Bemis Heights. Later that year, the regiment, now led by Colonel Benjamin Tupper, wintered at Valley Forge. Unfortunately, Ryan is reported as deserted on January 25, 1778. We don’t know why, but it is worth noting that the army was starving and sickly at the time.

He may have returned to work as a mariner in Salem, Massachusetts, where per probate records, a John Ryan died in 1823. His estate was administered by his son, James (described as a laborer who does not seem to have been literate, given that he left his mark rather than signature. This may be the James Ryan who wed widowed Abigail Smith in 1796, and Mary Burroughs in 1811, both in Salem). I could find nothing more on Margaret or any other children.

It is admittedly hard to sympathize with Panton, since he was, you know, leading a press gang. But something about Corbett’s horrified reaction, and Panton’s little jokes, stuck out to me when I first read about it – emphasizing the humanity of both. And I’m always a sucker for love stories and troubled soldiers like Ryan.

So hopefully you now remember them all, too.

Sources

England & Wales, Christening Index, 1530-1980

England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858

Essex County Probate Records

Rex vs. Corbet, John Adams Papers

St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1934

Vital Records of Marblehead, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849

Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849

Vital Records of Newburyport, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849