Punishment for crimes in Colonial Virginia was swift and severe. From its very outset, Virginians understood that a colonial court needed to set an example of criminals so as to preserve good order and discipline so far away from England. The first complete set of laws in Virginia – Thomas Dale’s “Divine Lawes Morall and Martiall” – were indeed a form of martial law, the spirit of which was sustained even after the famous starving time in the early days of the colony.
Punishment was not just corporal, but social and psychological. A punished man or woman was not simply the recipient of their just deserts at the time of punishment. They carried with them in this tight-knit colony where news traveled fast the lingering reputation of a criminal – one who did not support, or was active in the destruction of, the common wealth and dignity of the colony.
But there was also room for mercy – even after punishment was administered. Stripes could leave permanent scars on the body, but the stripes inflicted upon the soul and reputation could be removed – the stain of guilt pardoned by executive order.
On March 11, 1624, Captain Richard Quaile was pilloried by his neck and hands, with “his eares nayled thereto & they either to be cutt of or redeemed by payinge the fine of 100 lbs sterli[ng].” He was also thereafter reduced to the rank of “carpenter.”
Captain Quaile was master of the transport ship Ann, who brought passengers to Virginia and thereafter led fishing expeditions. Like many Virginian’s he realized that life in the New World was harsh and demanding upon body and soul. His wife died, his servant died, and his hopes of striking it rich ended with him deeply indebted to creditors in England and Virginia.
Surely frustrated with his personal and social state of affairs, Captain Quaile began to speak out publicly against Virginia’s political leaders. Such an act, regardless of their veracity, was considered slander, and punishment for such slander was almost certain.
For his crime, Captain Quaile was “ignominiously degraded,” from his rank of Captain, and symbolically degraded by having his sword broken, and being sent out of the city “with an ax on his shoulder afterwards to be brought in agai[n]” bearing a degraded title.
After his ears were nailed to the pillory and ripped off, Richard Quaile immediately plead for mercy from the Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt. Quaile’s plea is transcribed below, with orthography modernized to assist the reader.
The Humble Petition of Richard Quaile to the Honorable the Governor the Right Worshipfulness and Worshipfulness’s in Council:
Honorable, right Worshipfulness, etc.
May it please you to understand that your and distressed supplicant having from your just censure undergone punishment for mine offense, have presumed upon your wonted [accustomed] goodness to present this my humble petition, most humbly craving at your hands, to be pleased to cast an eye of pity upon my poverty, and to vouch safe to lend me on hand to raise me up again, as you have had an hand to humble me. I beseech you let my poor case plead my cause, who have made of this place a mere plantation of sorrows and crop of trouble, having been plentiful in nothing by want and wanting nothing but plenty. It is not unknown how I have buried my good fortunes in my servant’s deaths, in long sickness of myself and the death of my wife, so that the pillars of my raisings are fallen and I cannot expect to stand long after, besides all which (even which completes the number of my calamities), I have so little to trust to my future relief, that I am more indebted to others than I can without my great hurt and damage discharge. I beseech you therefore, honorable and right worshipfulness, to pity my estate, and not to suffer me to sink in the dregs of extremity, but of your own clemency and my unfeigned sorrow vouchsafe to pity me, and be pleased to ease me of that heavy burden of my fine imposed on me, which I am not able to undergo. Let pity plead my pardon and my misery second it, and in time to come (God assisting) my fidelity to my king, my country, and you, shall give you cause not to repent of your underserved favors.
Your Humble Distressed Supplicant
RICHARD QUAILE
Captain Quaile’s petition apparently did not fall on deaf ears. Gov. Wyatt pardoned his crime, and restored his good standing in the community as swiftly as it was taken from him. Captain Quaile eventually returned to sea, transporting goods and persons from Virginia to the West Indies on the ship Great Seahorse.
