1767: Obadiah Greenage, colonial gangster
July 31st, 2016 Headsman
From the Newport (R.I.) Mercury, September 7-14, 1767:
CHARLESTOWN, South-Carolina,
August 3. The gang of villains from Virginia and North-Carolina, who have for some years past, in small parties, under particular leaders, infested the black parts of the southern provinces, stealing horses from one, and selling them in the next, notwithstanding the late public examples made of several of them, we hear, are more formidable than ever as to numbers, and more audacious and cruel in their thefts and outrages.
‘Tis reported, that they consist of more than 200, form a chain of communication with each other, and have places of general meeting, where (in imitation of councils of war) they form plans of operation and defence, and (alluding to their secrecy and fidelity to each other) call those places Free-Masons Lodges.
Instances of their cruelty to the people in the black settlements, whom they rob or otherwise abuse, are so numerous and shocking, that a narrative of them would fill a whole gazette, and every reader with horror.
They at present range in the Forks between Broad, Saludy, and Savannah rivers. Two of the gang were hanged last week at Savannah, viz. Lundy Hust, [sic] and Obadiah Greenage: Two others, James Ferguson and Jeffe Hambersam, were killed when those were taken.
The Georgia Gazette of August 5, 1767 confirms the date of the execution for Obadiah Greenage at Savannah, but noted that Lundy Hurst was in fact not hanged, but reprieved by the governor.
On this day..
- 1909: Sheikh Fazlollah Noori, anti-constitutionalist martyr - 2020
- 1849: Maximilian Dortu, republican martyr - 2019
- 1940: Udham Singh, Jallianwala Bagh massacre avenger - 2018
- 1934: Otto Planetta and Franz Holzweber, for the Juliputsch - 2017
- 1701: Esther Rodgers, repentant - 2015
- 1868: Stefan Karadzha, Bulgarian national hero - 2014
- 1812: Hölzerlips, Blood Court prey - 2013
- 1722: Cartouche's brother, hanged by the armpits - 2012
- 1602: Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron - 2011
- 1903: Hilario Hidalgo and Francisco Renteria - 2010
- 1959: Cho Pong-am, Presidential runner-up - 2009
- 1963: 21 Iraqi Communists - 2008
Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,England,Execution,Georgia,Hanged,Organized Crime,Outlaws,Public Executions,Theft,USA
Tags: 1760s, 1767, july 31, lundy hurst, names, obadiah greenage, savannah
