Dear Cousin Elaine,

  Thanks for sharing the HARDY CANE affidavit in the matter of RICHARD BRASWELL 141's 1745 arrest and trial for counterfeiting. The full transcript of this case is to be found in Colonial Court Papers, Criminal Papers, General & Assize Courts, 1745 - 1749, (CCR 126 & 178, Archives, Raleigh).

  Justice John Haywood of Edgecombe County brought the indictment May 20, 1745, stating that "...about Six Weake laste paste he Did See some spainish miled peices of Eight & half peices of Eight and some pistereans maid of putter and the moulds they were Caste In and Did verrely bleive that oald Mr RICHARD BRASWELL was the Coiner of them and that the sd BRASWELL had uttered and paste Some of the aforesd fals Money to Coll ANDREW MEADE In Virginia and that there was no Silver In the sd Coins by him Caste...and that there is at this presente time a Considerable quantity of the aforesd fals Money now In the possestion of the aforesd BRASWELL..."

  Accordingly, HARDY CANE, an Edgecombe Constable, was issued a search and arrest warrant who executed "...the sd Warrt the next day on the sd RICHARD BRASWELL who told this sd Dept (CANE) that he was right welcome to Search his house....he did & found nothing....Then this Dept went to sd BRASWELLs storehouse but found nothing in the lower Room, the sd BRASWELL then ask'd whither he would not go up in the loft above and accordingly brought a Ladder, & the sd BRASWELLs Wife {ANN CARVER} came into the Store & told the Dept She would go up first because there was some Honey and he might spil it,and accordingly she went up first and this Dept immediately followed her and as soon as Mrs BRASWELL got up in the loft he the Dept saw the sd Mrs BRASWELL put her foot against the little barrel (now produced on the Table) & Slide it away & put some old thing up & threw upon the barrel, ...but having a Mistrust this Dept went to the Barrel and asked Mrs BRASWELL what it was & felt in the barrel, & felt a parcell of wooden Moulds & other Stuff in it, and then handed it down to one THOMAS PRICE who was below in the Store, & he immediately went down and Examined what was in the barrel wch the sd RICHd BRASWELL look'd strange at and admired how these things came there, & looking further into the barrel he, this Dept found Three Counterfeit pieces commonly called Georgia Peices & Four Couterfeit pieces in likeness of Portuguese money, one peice in likeness of a Spanish peice of Eight & two small peices in likeness of Pistereens.... That this Dept coming along with the sd RICHd BRASWELL to this Court last Night ....told this Dept that he sometime agoe asked one HUGHS and one CLIFT whither they could make any money Genteely and accordinlgly he made some which sd BRASWELL did not like, and that one of them {HUGHS or CLIFF} said they could make money as good as any if they had Ingredients, upon which the sd BRASWELL sent his Son to Williamsburgh and gave him forty shillings to buy Ingredients to run this Silver money seemingly by his discourse but that his Son could not get any."

  July 25, 1745, PETER PAYNE and WILL ASKILL agreed to post £250 each to make RICHARD's bond "for his appearance at next General Court at Edenton to answer charge of uttering and passing false coin." Presumably PAYNE and ASKILL failed to honor their agreement for on the back of this document is the notation that RICHARD BRASWELL JNr and ROWd WILLIAMS {Sr's nephew?} posted £250 each on August 5th.

  Meanwhile RICHARD broke out of jail according to another document in this file dated July 25th: bond of JECHONIAS YANCEY as a witness to give "Evidence.... against RICHARD BRASWELL of and Concerning his Making his Escape oute of his Costody being a prisoner for fellonias fourging of Coine."

  In his arraignment at the July General Sessions of the General Court in Edenton, the charges read "RICHARD BRASWELL of Edgecomb County... Planter not having God before his Eyes but being seduced by the instigation of the Devil on the eight Day of April in the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord King George the Second &c at Fishing Creek in the County of Edgcomb afsd did false and traiterously forge Counterfeit... Coin..."

  RICHARD's case (#33) was heard in the October (1745) General Sessions. The jury found him not guilty: "Say we of the Jury do find the Deft Not Guilty neither that he fled &c". Had he been found guilty, he would have hanged. No doubt his jury were sympathetic because they understood RICHARD's motivation for looking for any way to "make any money Genteely': it was the so-called British mercantile policy that systematically drained the colonies of cash. That is why foreign "Proclamation money" circulated as colonial currency. So RICHARD's descendants shouldn't worry about criminal tendencies in their DNA . Blame it on the mercantile policy, one of the real causes of the American Revolution. We descendants of his brother VALENTINE can use the same short-signed and rapacious mercantile policy to excuse his perpetual indebtedness.

Carey