Gang, While sitting here this Sunday afternoon with no new revelations on our Spence families, I reread an article by Fred Hughes of High Point NC concerning the Surry county NC neighbors of one Thomas Spence. Those new to the group, understand that I am grasping at any shadow of the lives of a Spence ! Since I have found the depositions online of Peter Spence and David Spence in TN to which they had moved, I thought it a good time to share what the William Ridge court case was all about. This case clogged up the court system for almost 20 years in Surry and surrounding counties. The following article was written by Fred Hughes on his Surry County Historical map. Fred was a cartographer and completed several counties of NC before his death. He went through the deeds in each courthouse and charted the approximate location of the settlers homesteads. A WIDOW , A THIEF, AND A QUAKER Quakers are noted for their quiet manner, plain speech and dress and hatred of war. There is something astonishing in the thought that one would deliberately use violence. Yet, it happened, repeatedly. Anger that has been raised to righteous wrath is wonderous to behold. William Ridge died in 1780 leaving his widow Winifred and six orphan children; Mary, Elizabeth, Sythe, William, Thomas and Winifred. Ridge had been an associate of David Allen (Ironworks) and left nine slaves, apparently workers in the ore beds or forges. In the eighteenth century, the courts took the responsibility for looking after orphans. In case of need, the courts would assign orphans to responsible adults to insure proper food, clothing, shelter and education. William Terrell Lewis was a Justice in Surry County and the case of the Ridge orphans came before him for proper disposition. Recognizing the potential of the situation, Lewis immediately converted three young female slaves to his own use. He claimed purchase- but did not pay for them. Winifred Ridge tried and tried to collect from Lewis, to no avail. She finally resorted to lawsuit- which Lewis promptly had thrown out of court. Every time Winifred tried to collect or recover, the court would retaliate by demanding an "accounting of the Estate of William Ridge, deceased." This kind of harassment went on for 4 years. Winifred had remarried, to Nathan Allen, and he too was being harassed by the court. Lewis had fabricated a charge of arson against the only witness to the fraudulent transaction, Thomas Ridge, brother of William. Lewis had the witness locked up in Morgan District jail. Arson was a hanging offense, so Thomas Ridge broke jail and fled to Virginia. He knew he could not survive in Lewis' court. Lewis promply declared Thomas Ridge an outlaw ! 12 August 1784- During one of her court fights Winifred Ridge sold her slaves "now in possession of William Terrell Lewis" to Jonathan Haines. Haines was taking her problems off her shoulders, he thought. When Haines tried to collect or recover, a fist fight ensued. For the next 6 years he was in nearly every court on assault and battery charges. He fought with William Terrell Lewis, Joel Lewis, James Martin Lewis. Twice Haines would "submit" and pay his 25 shilling fine, but a couple of times he countersued. And every fight would trigger another demand by the court for Winifred to account for her dead husband's estate. 11 May 1786- "Mary Ridge and Elizabeth Ridge, orphans of William Ridge, deceased, chose William Cook and Jonathan Haines as their guardians: At the same time court assigned Cook and Haines as guardians to Sythe Ridge, William Ridge, Thomas Ridge and Winifred Ridge, orphans of the said deceased William Ridge." And the fights continued...... May 1786... with James Martin Lewis and William Terrell Lewis August 1786.... with William T. Lewis, Haines countersued. November 1786 with William T. Lewis and James Martin Lewis February 1787 with William T. Lewis May 1787... with James Martin Lewis Another problem came up ! Threats to Winifred- Feb. 14, 1788..... Ordered Jonathan Haines and William Cook take possession of Winifred's children and Winifred to appear in court and show cause why her children should not be bound out. Still another complication- May 15, 1788.... Job Cole, blacksmith, prosecuted Jonathan Haines for assault and battery. Cole had abused Jacon Mosby an orphan boy bound into his custody. Jonathan Haines had whipped Cole. Haines was exonerated. Jacob Mosby was removed from Cole's household and Cole was prosecuted. In 1790, the Assembly met in Fayetteville on November 1. William Cook and Jonathan Haines submitted a petition for removal of the Outlawry charge against Thomas Ridge. Within 6 weeks the Assembly acted, starting the process that solved Haines problems. Assembly minutes, Fayetteville, Monday December 13, 1790- "The Bill for the relief of Thomas Ridge was read for the 3rd time, passed and ordered engrossed." The false charge of Outlawry was lifted ! Another petition was presented for relief of Winifred, also approved. In August of 1791, William Terrell Lewis was brought to trial. He was ordered to pay 150 pounds comensation to William Cook and Jonathan Haines, guardians of the Ridge orphans. Haines and Cook sold to William Ridge and Thomas Ridge, for this 150 pounds, " 200 acres, south of the Yadkin River, opposite the mouth of the Mitchell River." Deed records show that William Cook paid 200 pounds for this land, 50 pounds more than he charged the orphans ! Jonathan Haines was so impressed by the actions of the Assembly, that he ran for and was elected Assemblyman 1791-92 and 1792-93. END OF TRANSCRIPTION For what it is worth, this gives us a clue in how things were ! Let's not forget that Thomas and David Spence ( whoever they were) were moving and shaking with William Terrell Lewis ! Whether it was out of friendship or fear, I do not know. I do know that the hostilities didn't end in 1791. William Terrell Lewis died in Davidson County TN in 1802, and the year before in 1801 was when David Spence gave his deposition in Robertson County TN. Again, it was pending action between Jonathan Haines, plaintiff with William T. Lewis as the defendant. They say this was one of the biggest files that they have in the NC Archives ! David Spence's deposition is the one I referenced in an earlier post . In it, he seems to be trying to keep himself in a neutral corner. But he says he was in Surry County NC in 1780, which is what I have trouble understanding...... And leads me to question exactly who he was ........ If you delve further into the William Ridge case you will see that most of these depositions indicate that William Ridge was a Tory, and it goes into accusing the Ridge family and Combs families and others of murders and all sorts of activities. The other factions contended that William Terrell Lewis was the truly "bad" one, with his abuse of power in his position as Justice of the county. If you have time, check out all the depositions and get a fascinating study of what our ancestors of old, said and did ! They certainly had more to do than watch the chickens scratch ! HA HA <A HREF="www.mindspring.com/~baumbach/cody/tory/index.html">William Ridge Tory</A> click here to go the depositions Carolyn