Nelson, Thanks for the website reference. History hasn't been published, other than the very obscure Ontario Supreme Court William Riddell's thesis of 1929 on these cases (ref: a sequetered case law approaching 200 years), that the Assize Court continued to 1818. 50 more families were prosecuted under this Court for Treasonable acts. In the Honourable Judge Riddell's thesis he ommits seven of these 50 family surnames, most probably due to the then qustionable judgement against them! (at least by my ancestor court testimony against him - one of the excluded) The Honourable Riddell also continues to discuss at length the Overholzer case, which suffered by an exclusion of British Law at the time, namely giving evidence by "Affirmation". Overholtzer's "witness", was a Quaker named Thomas Clarke. He gave testimony to British General Riall, and the Niagara Justice of the Peace. Their testimony to the court was dismissed due to it being "hearsay". Overholzer's witness, the Quaker Clarke wasn't able to testify on his behalf due to the "oath" requirement, which was abhorrent and restricted for the anabaptist faiths. Of note: Overholtzer's accuser's were arrested for horse stealing...stealing his horses! Most notably in the resulting booty, were those lucative contiguous cleared lands of Quakers and Mennonites, that would fall into Provincial hands by their prosecution (but I digress). These same results also occured during the American War of Independence (Brandywine, Germantown, and Saratoga to name a few losses of these faithful). The very sequestering of these Assize court case records for almost 200 years, flies in the face of Common Law with it's "impudence", which is the foundation of not only British Law, but current Canadain, and American law as well. There remains no option for appeal. Those that were hung at Ancaster, 1814 seem to be clear cases of "armed" treason. British Drummond needed a "show case trial" to drive home loyality among the Niagara residence. Afterall, the British had abandoned them, so let's cloud the issue with 'Treason":) There still was a war to fight afterall! The continuing Assize Court post war, in my humble opinion, was the basis for the Great Discontent of 1818, in Niagara UC. The resulting oppresion post war, also made Canadian citizens one of the big loosers, subjugated to the "Family Compact" and their cronies. Murray - today's actions are tomorrow's history >>>original message Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 11:22:24 -0500 From: "Nelson Denton" <ndenton@cogeco.ca> To: WARof1812-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Ancaster's Bloody Assize Here is a site that relates a series of trials of "Traitors" who were hung in Ancaster(Hamilton) Ontario in 1814 http://war1812.tripod.com/ancaster.html Interestingly many of the surnames names are of prominent "Loyalist" families in the area: McNeil, Overholtzer, Peacock, Petit, Crysler etc. Again a sign that politics often crossed over to open warfare even in family units. Nelson Denton. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .