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Monday, October 21, 2019

Revolutionary War Patriot David Jones Pell Served as Westchester County Coroner After the War


John Ryer was drunk.  He was really, really drunk.  He also was a ne'er-do-well who came from a respected and affluent cattle family.  He was, however, a black sheep of the family.

 Ryer was in Hunt's Inn (also known as Hunt Inn), a tavern and stagecoach stop in the Hunt's Point area of Westchester County (now the Bronx).  It was the evening of May 17, 1792.  Ryer, who already had had frequent run-ins with the law, was making trouble in the tavern; so much trouble that he had attracted the attention of a local Constable who found it nearly impossible to deal with the drunken rascal.  The Constable asked for local Westchester County Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith to help him subdue Ryer.  

 Deputy Sheriff Smith burst into the tavern that night and encountered Ryer who held a loaded flintlock pistol in each hand.  Smith courageously told Ryer he was under arrest.  Ryer raised the pistol in his left hand and fired a bullet deep into the chest of the law enforcement officer.  

 As Deputy Sheriff Smith lay dying on the tavern floor, Ryer ran outside, took Smith's horse, and fled.  Smith, a Revolutionary War veteran, farmer, and doctor who served as the first Supervisor of the Town of New Castle in Westchester County, died that evening.


Hunt's Inn.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.
During the Revolutionary War, Tory James DeLancey
frequented Hunt's Inn with other like-minded Tories
during the British occupation of New York City.

 In contrast to American Patriot Isaac Smith, his murderer fought with the British during the Revolution.  After murdering Smith, John Ryer fled to Canada.

 The next day, one of the Westchester County Coroners from Pelham, David Jones Pell, held a coroner's inquiry into Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith's death.  David Jones Pell was a son of Philip Pell II and Gloriana Tredwell Pell.  He was an officer during the closing days of the Revolution and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 3rd New York Militia.  Pell was born in the Manor of Pelham on January 13, 1761.  On March 7, 1790 he married Hester ("Hetty") Sneden.  David J. Pell inherited the farmhouse built by his father that now forms a portion of the home known as Pelhamdale that still stands at 45 Iden Avenue and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The couple had at least ten children whom they raised in the Pell farmhouse that, at the time, overlooked Old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) and a valley that swept down to the Hutchinson River.  

 After the Revolutionary War, David Jones Pell served in a number of local capacities including, for a time, as one of the coroners of Westchester County.  The day after the murder, on May 18, 1792, Pell's inquest concluded that Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith was "inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office."  Despite fleeing the jurisdiction, Ryer was charged with the murder of the peace officer.  

 Within a week, New York Governor George Clinton issued a proclamation offering a $500 reward "to any person or persons who shall apprehend and deliver the said John Ryer to the keeper of the common Gaol of the said county, so that he may be brought to justice."  The proclamation specifically noted that David Pell had conducted a coroner's inquest.  The proclamation stated, in part, as follows:

 "WHEREAS by an inquisition taken before DAVID I. [sic] PELL, Esquire, one of the Coroners of the county of Westchester, on the eighteenth day of May, instant, it appears that ISAAC SMITH, deputy Sheriff of the said county, was on the seventeenth day of the said month, inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office; and that a certain JOHN RYER, late of the town of Westchester, in the county of Westchester aforesaid, stands charged with the commission of the said horrid crime".

 Apparent bounty hunters from Westchester County took off for the Canadian frontier to track down John Ryer.  John Hutchens and two others found Ryer in New Brunswick and took him into custody.  

 Ryer was returned to the "gaol" (i.e., jail) in White Plains.  After a one-day trial held in September, 1793, Ryer was found guilty of the murder of Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith.  

 Thereafter Ryer confessed to the crime and published it with an account of his life.  See Ryer, John & Ryer, Margret, Narrative of the Life, and Dying Speech, of John Ryer:  Who Was Executed at White-Plains, in the County of Westchester, State of New-York, on the Second Day of October, 1793, for the Murder of Dr. Isaac Smith, Deputy-Sheriff of that County (Danbury, CT:  Printed by Nathan Douglas for the Publisher, 1793).

 As the title of the book indicates, on October 2, 1793, Ryer was marched to a tree behind the old Westchester County Courthouse where a kerchief was tied over his face.  After he prayed next to his waiting coffin and thanked jailers and family for their help in his travails, he was hanged from a limb of the tree until dead.  See Liebson, Richard, Crime Scene:  Deputy Sheriff Was Felled by Flintlock, LoHud.com (Mar. 24, 2015) (visited Oct. 12, 2019).

 At about the turn of this century, Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith's name was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.  See Forgotten No Longer, Law Enforcement News, Jun. 30, 2000, Vol. XXVI, No. 536, p. 4, col. 4.  

 Pelham's David Jones Pell, a Westchester County Coroner, played a role in bringing the rascal John Ryer to justice -- another brief chapter in Pell's long life of service in a host of public roles.

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Proclamation by New York Governor George Clinton
Offering Reward After Westchester County Coroner's Inquisition by
Coroner David Jones Pell Concluded a Local Deputy Sheriff Was
Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
American Memory Collection.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"Proclamation
BY His Excellency GEORGE CLINTON, Esquire, Governor of the State of New-York, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the same.
WHEREAS by an inquisition taken before DAVID I. [sic] PELL, Esquire, one of the Coroners of the county of Westchester, on the eighteenth day of May, instant, it appears that ISAAC SMITH, deputy Sheriff of the said county, was on the seventeenth day of the said month, inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office; and that a certain JOHN RYER, late of the town of Westchester, in the county of Westchester aforesaid, stands charged with the commission of the said horrid crime; and whereas it is represented to me, that the said JOHN RYER hath fled from justice:
NOW THEREFORE, I have issued this my proclamation, hereby offering a reward of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, to any person or persons who shall apprehend and deliver the said John Ryer to the keeper of the common Gaol of the said county, so that he may be brought to justice. And I do by these presents strictly enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, and all other the good citizens of this State, to be aiding and assisting in the premises to the utmost of their power.
And I do further hereby enjoin and require the Magistrates of the said county, to cause to be apprehended (if that is not already done) every person who may have been in any wise accessory to the said offence, who may have aided the said John Ryer in his escape, or who may have with-held that assistance which was required of them by the said deputy-sheriff in the execution of his said office, and which, by law and their duty as good citizens, they ought to have rendered, in order that they may be held to answer for the same.
GIVEN under my hand and the privy Seal at the City of New-York, this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year 1792, and in the sixteenth year of the Independence of the said State.
GEO. CLINTON."

 Source:  Proclamation by His Excellency George Clinton, Esquire, Governor of the State of New York, May 24, 1792, From Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress American Memory Collection.

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I have written about David J. Pell on numerous occasions.  For a few of many other examples, see, e.g.:


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