In Chester County in 1686 Mouns Peterson sued Hans Urin for slander. The witnesses presented a damning picture of Urin. Thomas Bowles of Tinicum Island declared that Urin came among his carpenters and stole his nails and gave the carpenters\u00a0a pot of rum not to call him a thief. (Bowles himself was not a spotless character. The following year he was in court himself for allowing people to be drunk at his house.)<\/p>\n
Bowles went on to say that, coming some time after to Tinicum, Urin spread the report that Mouns Peterson had\u00a0gotten all his estate by privateering and murdering of men and that Bowles\u00a0should have a care of him.\u00a0Robert Brothers being attested declared the same.\u00a0Samuel Weight added\u00a0that Urin\u00a0offered him two pigs to stop his evidence.<\/p>\n
The jury found for Peterson with\u00a0twenty shillings damage and plus the cost of the court suit.<\/p>\n
Urin must have held a grudge, since the next year he was an accomplice when Morton Mortenson, Mouns Peterson’s son, beat his father bloody with a paddle. Mortenson and Peterson\u00a0were both neighbors of Urin.<\/p>\n
In 1694 Urin sued Mounce Staker, another of his neighbors, for defamation, when Staker called him a rogue and a hog thief. Plenty of witnesses heard\u00a0Staker say\u00a0it. It stemmed from an incident when Urin was constable.\u00a0Henry Taton said that as\u00a0constable\u00a0Urin\u00a0had taken a pig from Mounce Staker and put it in a barrel, and that Staker got a warrant against Urine, and the Justice of the Peace John Blunston ordered Urin to give the pig back to Mounce. In the defamation matter the jury found for Urin with 12d damages, a minimal amount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Chester County in 1686 Mouns Peterson sued Hans Urin for slander. The witnesses presented a damning picture of Urin. Thomas Bowles of Tinicum Island declared that Urin came among his carpenters and stole his nails and gave the carpenters\u00a0a pot of rum not to call him a thief. (Bowles himself was not a spotless … Continue reading Slander and a hog in a barrel<\/span>