1775 - A warrant directing Pennsylvania sheriff arrest several men on the charge of "Felonious Trespass" signed by Justice of the Peace Thomas Smith, a member of the Bedford County Pennsylvania revolutionary Committee of Correspondence, who would become a Revolutionary War Colonel and later be arrested for opposing the state's first Constitution of 1776

Bedford County Pennsylvania, 1775. Unbound. Very good. This impressive warrant from Bedford County, Pennsylvania measures 13" x 4". It is dated the "Thirteenth Day of July in the fifteenth Year of [the] Reign" of George III, i.e., 1775. In nice shape.

It reads in part:

"George the third by the Grace of God of Great Brittain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c To the Sheriff of Bedford County Greeting We command you as we have often done heretofor Commanded that you take Pierce Noland . . . Paul Ernstberger . . . Adam Kefer . . . Henry Stegner . . . Peter Boucher . . . and Frederick Vertress . . . if they be found in your Bailiwick and them Safely keep so that you have their Bodies before our Justices as well as our Peace to keep [for] Divers Felonies Trespasses and other misdeeds within our Said County Perpetrated . . . to be Assigned . . . at our County Court of General Quarter Sessions . . . to be Held the third Tuesday in October next to answer us of a Certain Offence whereof they Stand Indicted. . .."

. Perhaps as a result of revolutionary turmoil, Bedford County Court records shed little more light on the men's offences other than to indicate they were accused of "riot and assault" and that they failed to appear at court.

Smith, a native of Scotland, became the deputy surveyor of Cumberland County in the early 1770s and an influential Bedford land lawyer by 1772, eventually being appointed as a Justice of the Peace. He was named as a representative to the county's revolutionary Committee of Correspondence in 1775 and commissioned as the Colonel of the Second Battalion of the Bedford County Associators in 1776. Although he helped draft the state's Constitution of 1776, he vehemently opposed some provisions and was jailed for refusing to turn over county records to the state's "Supreme Executive Council." He was finally freed after pledging to support the document; however, he continued to voice his opposition until the Constitution was rewritten in 1790.

(For more information, see the Bedford County Court Records and "Thomas Smith, 1791-1794" at the Bedford County History of Judges website.)

An attractive and scarce colonial arrest warrant, issued in 1775 following the battles at Lexington and Concord. Perhaps, a little more research could determine if the trespass, riot, and assault charges against Pierce Noland were related to early conflicts between American revolutionaries and loyalists.

.