BIOGRAPHIES INDEX

The Haycraft Family

The Haycraft Family
James Haycraft, Jr. | Samuel Haycraft, Sr.

JAMES HAYCRAFT (1719-AFT. 1760)

In his celebrated 1869 History of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, James' grandson, Samuel Haycraft, Jr., included some biographical sketches of Hardin County's prominent early families. In regard to his own, Haycraft asserted that his grandfather was a seaman in the Royal navy who arrived in America about 1740, adding: "How he happened to stay, none living can now tell." Speculating that grandfather James either took "French leave" (i.e., deserted) or was discharged, he remarked that one way or the other his emigrant ancestor "liked the looks of the country and concluded to make it his own." In 1878, this version of the family's New World origins was perpetuated in a sketch about James' son, Samuel Haycraft, Sr., which was published in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky. However, this version of events in not completely accurate.

Whether Samuel Haycraft, Jr. was truly ignorant of the actual circumstances that led to his English grandfather's arrival in America or was simply trying to protect his family's good name is uncertain. Whatever the case, it is a shame that he didn't know (or wouldn't tell) what really happened, for it is quite an interesting story.

It appears that James Haycraft, Jr. was born in London in 1719. In any event, the parish register of Saint Andrew's Church in Holborn records the christening of a child by that name on December 19th of that year. The infant's father was also named James Haycraft (or Haycroft as it was also spelled). His mother's given name was Hannah. Her maiden surname is unknown. Although severely damaged by German bombs during World War II, Saint Andrew's, one of several London churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was rebuilt and is still standing to this day at Holborn Circus, EC1.

At about the time he reached adulthood (if we accept that he was the same person whose christening is recorded in the Saint Andrew's parish register), James Haycraft met a young woman named Ann Henley or Henry. Ann would later claim that she and James were married at the town of Malden, in Kent, about 1741. It may be, however, that their relationship was merely a "common-law" arrangement.

In 1744, during the reign of King George II, James Haycraft and Ann Henley were living together as man and wife in Saint Margaret's Parish, Westminster, in a dwelling of some sort, located in Angel Court, Story's Gate, close by Westminster Abbey. Modern day visitors to London will find that Angel Court no longer exists but Story's Gate still leads to the southeast corner of Saint James' Park, just as it did in the mid-eighteenth Century. Saint Margaret's Church also still stands, immediately adjacent to Westminster Abbey, and not far from where the two young people resided.

At this time James Haycraft made his living as a chimney sweep. A fellow sweep, Samuel Smytheman, lived in nearby Petty France street with a young woman named Elizabeth Eaton. From all accounts, Haycraft and Smytheman met in late 1743 or early 1744 and in short order the two couples became friends.

Life was hard for the working poor in Georgian London, particularly chimney sweeps, who were poorly paid, worked in dangerous conditions, and whose face, hands, and clothing seemed to be perpetually coated with black soot. Moreover, the work was seasonal. In order to make a living in the summer months, sweeps oftentimes "chose to be 'nightmen' engaged in emptying privies," which was not an especially pleasant task. Although these circumstances do not excuse what happened, they certainly go a long way toward explaining why my ancestor and his friends turned to a life of crime.

In late March 1744, Haycraft and Smytheman decided that they would burglarize a shop owned by William and Ann Griffiths. If Smytheman's testimony can be trusted, it was not their first such "job." The location of the Griffiths' shop is uncertain but it was probably situated in Westminster where the robbers lived, or Holborn where they "fenced" the stolen goods. Smytheman later claimed that Ann Henley originally proposed the scheme whereas she said the robbery was his idea. In either case, it seems clear that the motive was simply to obtain far more money than either Smytheman or Haycraft could earn legally by sweeping chimneys, selling soot, or cleaning privies.

That same day, apparently, the youthful thieves went to Holborn, "overagainst Gray's-Inn Gate," where they first tried to sell the stolen goods to a stallholder for 20 shillings. Rejecting an offer of only 8 shillings, Eaton and Henley next approached a shopkeeper named Francis Whiting, telling him they had some hardware to sell. He agreed to meet them later in a nearby alehouse. When Whiting arrived, Haycraft and Smytheman were there as well. Probably over drinks, he agreed to give the four young people 17 shillings, 6 pence for the stolen items, an amount they accepted and promptly divided among themselves "share and share alike." At the same meeting Whiting asked if they had any "wipes," meaning handkerchiefs. "If they had," Eaton later testified, they were to come back to the alehouse on Wednesday and Whiting would "buy them of them, and give them as much as any body would."

Armed with a search warrant, a parish constable named Thomas Rawlins discovered the stolen goods in Whiting's shop window in Holborn. After Ann Griffiths identified the items stolen from her shop, Whiting and the four robbers were apprehended and taken to Newgate Prison, located on the site of today's Central Criminal Court Building, which is popularly known as the "Old Bailey." Ironically, the place of their incarceration was only a short distance from the scene of their crime.

Of the British capital's fourteen prisons, Newgate was "the most ancient and notorious," known to Londoners "as 'hell above ground.'" Prisoners awaiting trial had "heavy iron manacles…clapped on their hands and feet" and were thrust into the "hold," a dark room with a stone floor, which "was entered by a hatch measuring fifteen by twenty feet." Inside was a single "barrack bed" on which a prisoner could sleep if they could stand the smell. Disorderly prisoners were chained to ring bolts placed around the room, from which they would be released provided they were willing and able to pay a fee to the jailor or "turnkey." Removal of the manacles also required payment of a fee.

Fortunately for the four young burglars, justice was reasonably swift. On April 12, 1744 they were brought into court before Justice Poulson, to who they each confessed their role in the crime (although at first Haycraft claimed that he and Smytheman had found the items in a trunk while on their way home from an early morning sweeping job). William and Ann Griffiths, Thomas Rawlins, and Francis Whiting also testified. Although some of their statements were contradictory, there seems no doubt that all four young people were guilty as charged and not surprisingly, Haycraft and Smytheman were so found, as was Eaton. Surprisingly, Ann Henley was acquitted. Whiting was bound over for trial at the next session, "for receiving those goods knowing them to be stolen."

As punishment, Haycraft, Smytheman, and Eaton, along with twenty other petty criminals, were sentenced to seven years "transportation" to America. They were fortunate. Five people who stood trial at the same court session were sentenced to death, no doubt by hanging. One, Joseph Griswold or Greswold, was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. Another, Robert Ker, was branded.. In May 1744, probably at Rotherhithe or Deptford, Haycraft was taken in chains aboard the H.M.S. Justitia, a 260-ton British prison hulk. Altogether, twenty-five people were sentenced to transportation in Middlesex County Court between February and May. Although we cannot be certain, it is probable that all were transported aboard the Justitia. In alphabetical order, the names of the nine women and sixteen men were as follows:

As the Justitia, one of two "flagships" of the convict fleet (the other was the Tryal), sailed down the River Thames toward the sea, it seems unlikely that James Haycraft and his fellow transportees, no doubt chained together in a dark, dank hold below decks, were able to take a last look at their English homeland. I cannot help but wonder what James was thinking as the voyage began whether he thought he might return to London some day (he didn't) or whether Ann Henley, the "wife" the hapless young chimney sweep was forced to leave behind, was in his thoughts. Surely, she must have been. And did Ann watch from a distance as James was taken aboard Did she call out to him one last time before they were parted forever Did she watch the ship as it sailed out of sight down the river Or was the last time she saw him in the courtroom Unfortunately, we can only imagine.

Although the situation in which he found himself was unfortunate to say the least, James Haycraft probably did not know that it could have been far worse. On April 17, 1744, only five days after James and his friends were sentenced, the previous captain of the Justitia, Barent Bond, was himself brought to trial on four counts of "murder on the high seas." The charge stemmed from a voyage a little more than a year earlier, when 163 convicted felons and indentured servants were brought aboard. The ill treatment they received at the hands of Bond during the voyage to America resulted in no less than forty-five deaths. Remarkably, despite a preponderance of evidence against him, the sadistic captain was acquitted but he "never again" worked "in the transportation trade, at least in England." Afterward, Bond went to America, where he died in Maryland a few years later.

Jack Campbell, about whom nothing is known, was Bond's replacement as captain of the Justitia when the vessel crossed the Atlantic in the spring of 1744. Whether he treated his unwilling passengers any better or any worse that his predecessor I am unable to say. In either event, we know that James Haycraft and Samuel Smytheman survived the voyage, which lasted from six to eight weeks, because they both have descendants living in the United States today. (What became of Elizabeth Eaton is unknown.) Although official records only name "America" as its destination, at the end of the voyage the Justitia probably anchored in Chesapeake Bay, off the Maryland or Virginia shore. There, at same unnamed port, Campbell set about ridding himself of his unfortunate passengers "selling" them at auction to the highest bidder, undoubtedly to be used in most cases as laborers on tobacco plantations until the expiration of the term of their sentence.

The way this was accomplished was described in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers, as follows:

They are placed together in a Row, like so many oxen or cows, and the Planters come and survey them; and if they like 'em, they agree for price with the person entrusted with the selling of 'em. And after they have paid the money, they ask 'em if they like him for Master and is willing to go with him. If they answer in the Affirmative, they are delivered to him as his Property. If, on the contrary, as sometimes happens, they should answer in the Negative, the Planter has his money again and another Planter may make choice of him, whom he may likewise refuse, but no more, for with the Third it seems, he is obliged to go, whether he likes him or not. As there are frequently People who run away from their Masters, there is a reward of twenty shillings paid for the taking of 'em, which makes it very difficult for 'em to escape. When a Master gives them a discharge, he always gives them a Pass, by the Authority of which they may safely go anywhere; and without one, they are liable to be put into a Gaol and confin'd for some days to see if any Enquiry be made after them.

One felon, sentenced in 1738, later described the process in a book he wrote about his experiences:

The Captain ordered a Gun to be fired as a Signal for the Planters to come down, and then went ashore; he soon after sent on board a Hogshead of Rum and order'd all the Men Convicts to be close shaved against the next Morning, and the Women to have their best Head Dresses put on, which occasion'd no little Hurry on board, for between the Trimming of Beards and the putting on of Caps, all hands were fully employed. In the morning the Captain ordered publick Notice to be given of a Day of Sale; the Convicts, who were pretty near a Hundred, were all ordered upon Deck, where a large Bowl of Punch was made, and the Planters flock'd on board.

From all accounts, James Haycraft was indentured first to George Neville, a Prince William County, Virginia planter who in 1743 obtained 181 acres of land "beginning on the west side of the Bull Run Mountain on the drains of Broad Run." Later, Haycraft's "master" became George's brother, John, who either already lived in or removed to the vicinity of Winchester, Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains.

Together Haycraft and his wife in America (whoever she was) had three children, all boys: James, Samuel, and Joshua. When the eldest was about twelve years of age, both parents died, probably from an epidemic illness.

The Haycraft Family
James Haycraft, Jr. | Samuel Haycraft, Sr.

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