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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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CHISWELL, WILLIAM (17??-18??)

CHISWELL, WILLIAM, teacher and rapist.

William Chiswell was about thirty years of age in 1817 when he was engaged to teach in one of the earliest schools in Ludlow parish. During the next five years he taught in Nelson parish, in St Mary's parish in York County, and again in Ludlow. His name then disappears from the record until 1847, when the Circuit Court for Kent County found him guilty of raping a girl under ten years of age and sentenced him to hang at Richibucto. When news of his conviction was announced, the New Brunswick Reporter observed that the Mr Chiswell who taught school at St Mary's twenty-seven years previously had been "almost too mad to wear his clothes." His sentence was later commuted to life in prison with hard labor.

Sources

NB Courier 14 Aug 1847; NB Reporter 13 Aug 1847; Weekly Chronicle 3 Dec 1847


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