10 August 2013

The Execution Of Daniel Clark's Nephew


Found in this MEMOIR:  

In 1816, Lieutenant Richard C. Smyth, formerly of the United States army [23rd Infantry], was executed at Philadelphia for the murder of Captain John Carson, of the merchant service. This execution was memorable because it was the first one that had occurred in the city since the close of the preceding century. The cause was wild passion and infatuation which the criminal felt towards a wicked and misguided woman, the wife of Carson

Smyth was of good family; he was a nephew of Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, the father of the celebrated wife of General Edmund Gaines, of the United States army, and in after years the claimant of a great amount of property, as the heir of her father, in that city. Father Hurley administered the consolations of the church to Smyth, who was hanged on the northwest, now Logan, square, on the 10th of August, 1816.



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