Kicking Butt in 1789, Isaiah and Joel Jr Phillips

I discovered an interesting court case while researching Phillips in Wilkes County, Georgia. This case concerns Isaiah and Joel Phillips Jr., sons of Joel Phillips. Both were born about 1760. I found this in the Georgia Archives

According to the plaintiff, John Hardee, Isaiah and Joel Phillips Jr, "on the fifth day of December in the year of our [Lord] one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine in the county aforesaid, with force and arms, to Whit, with Swords, Staves, Gunns, knives, Clubs, fists & feet, made an assault upon your petitioner, and then and there did beat, wound and evily treat, so that his life was Greatly dispared of and other enormities then and there did, to your petitioner against the peace and dignity of the State, and against the welfare of the Inhabitance thereof, to the damage of your petitioner, five hundred pounds."

In other words, it appears Isaiah and Joel beat the stew out of John Hardee, and he was suing for five hundred pounds. Unfortunately none of the juicy details were included in the four page document.

Isaiah and Joel (or their attorney) were required to appear in court the fourth Monday in July 1790. They were charged with trespass, assault, and battery.

There appears to have been a jury trial, and the defendants were found guilty. The funny thing is, they were only required to pay 10 pounds instead of the 500 pounds that John Hardee was suing for.

I was curious as to how this would work out in today's money. I found a nice currency converter at the National Archives. It converts old money to new, at least to 2005's standard, which is close enough for me.

John Hardee sued for 500 pounds.
In 1790, £500 would have the same spending worth of 2005's £28,015.00.

A little google search and

28015 British Pound equals

42797.11 US Dollar

And the result:
In 1790, £10 would have the same spending worth of 2005's £560.30

A little googling with that result and we come up with this:

560.30 British Pound equals

855.94 US Dollar

It looks like they got off fairly easy. It is not stated if they had to pay this individually or together. Either way it's a BIG drop from what they were being sued for.

It makes you wonder what was in those court minutes, doesn't it?

Remembering Private Kenneth George Wrigley POW Sandakan North Borneo

Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of QX21789 Private Kenneth George Wrigley 
Copyright expired - public domain 

From Australian War Memorial: The above photo is a Queensland Australia Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of QX21789 Private Kenneth George Wrigley, 2/10th Ordnance Field Workshop, Australian Army Ordnance Corps. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of E Force. The 500 Australian and 500 British POW's who made up E Force left Changi on 28 March 1943, on board the S.S. DeKlerk arriving at Berhala Island (adjacent to Sandakan Harbour) on 15 April 1943. The POW's were held there until 5 June, when they were taken by barge to Sandakan. The next day they were transferred to the 8 Mile Camp, which was about half a mile from the B Force compound. Private Wrigley, aged 24, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 26 February 1945. He was the son of Walter James Wrigley and Mable Elizabeth Mary Bullock Wrigley, of Murgon, Queensland. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 28. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)


Kenneth was born March 23, 1920 in Murgon, Queensland, Australia. He was almost 25 when he died.

From Sandakan Death Marches Wikipedia: In 1942 and 1943, Australian and British POWs who had been captured at the Battle of Singapore in February 1942 were shipped to North Borneo to construct a military airstrip and prisoner-of-war camps at Sandakan, North Borneo (Sabah). The prisoners were forced to work at gunpoint, and were often beaten while also receiving very little food or medical attention. In August 1943, with the intention of controlling the enlisted men by removing any commanders, most officer prisoners were moved from Sandakan to the Batu Lintang camp at Kuching. Conditions for the remaining prisoners deteriorated sharply following the officers' removal. Any rations given were further reduced, and sick prisoners were also forced to work on the airstrip. After construction was completed the prisoners initially remained at the camp. In January 1945, with only 1,900 prisoners still alive, the advancing Allies managed to successfully bomb and destroy the airfield. It was at this time with Allied landings anticipated shortly that camp commandant Captain Hoshijima Susumu decided to move the remaining prisoners westward into the mountains to the town of Ranau, a distance of approximately 160 miles.


The first phase of marches across wide marshland, dense jungle, and then up the eastern slope of Mount Kinabalu occurred between January and March 1945. The Japanese had selected 470 prisoners who were thought to be fit enough to carry baggage and supplies for the accompanying Japanese battalions relocating to the western coast. In several groups the POWs, all of whom were either malnourished or suffering serious illness, started the journey originally under the intention of reaching Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu). Although the route took nine days, they were given enough rations for only four days. As on the Bataan Death March, any POWs who were not fit enough or collapsed from exhaustion were either killed or left to die en route. Upon reaching Ranau, the survivors were halted and ordered to construct a temporary camp. "Those who survived... were herded into insanitary and crowded huts to then die from dysentery. By 26 June, only five Australians and one British soldier were still alive."

Kenneth was my husband's second cousin, once removed. Rest in peace Kenneth.

Meggs to Meigs and Back Again-Same but Different #52Ancestors

Wikipedia, public domain, Snowflakes

I recently had a fourth cousin once removed contact me through my blog. I was glad to meet my cousin Wendell Meggs. He is 91 years young, and he allowed me to share this story:

     That "second name change", as I call it - after Vincent or John first changed from Meggs to Meigs back in about 1644, when they moved from Mass. to CT.

     My Grandfather, James Anderson Meggs, 1872, told me this story:  Stephen C Meggs, (great grandson of John T)  born 1868 in Bibb Co., AL, left to go to medical school when he was old enough. He did become a DR. While away he met some people whose name sounded like his surname, only they spelled it Meigs. He became convinced that the original spelling was Meigs. When he got back to AL from his studies, he began persuading as many as possible to change the spelling of their surname from Meggs to Meigs.

     My Grandfather was the first born in the family of Stephen Strider Meggs in Sep. 1872. After Dr. Stephen began his effort to change names, my great grandfather Stephen S Meggs b 1846, did change to Meigs. 8 of his 12 children changed as well. My grandfather and 3 other siblings did not change. I met my grandfather's brother Walter one time in the 1960s and he was a Meigs.

     James Elijah Meggs, who wrote the book about the descendants of John T, said that the name was always spelled MEGGS in England, which, of course, is the origin of our name.

    I'm glad to share that story. In the time that I knew him, starting in 1925 when he and the remaining family moved to Nashville, where we were living at that time, he was always a stubborn man, and my Dad and a couple of his brothers were just as stubborn. So it is no wonder to me that he refused to change the spelling of his name.

     Certainly you may use that story on your blog. As you, no doubt know, some of the websites don't like to use undocumented stories as part of their records.

     That story about the name change has a bearing on John T as well. He started life as a Meggs, but then long after he was dead some began to use the Meigs for his name. That plus the fact that so many say that John T's father was Stephen Strider Meigs (Jr), who was in the French and Indian War (1756-1763) and may well have been in the Northwest corner of Virginia, where there was fierce fighting during the period of John T's birth.

     If you find any other information about John T, I would really like to hear it. I am hoping I can the complete story about John T and Polly before I get completely unable to keep searching.

Best regards, Wendell Meggs

My reply:
Hi Wendell,
I'll be more than happy to share any stories you would like to tell...
I think it's important to record them. Unless you've written a book, you may be the only one that would know them.
I consider it to be documented as long as I can document where I got the story :--)

I, like Wendell, would love to hear any info you have on John T Meggs and family. Hopefully Wendell has more stories he would like to tell.