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Mr. E.W. Mapy was chosen as the foreman of the Grand Jury summoned to attend the circuit court of law and chancery on September 20, 1842. Mapy’s job was to painstakingly record the indictments or “true bills” returned by the grand jury for a trial in the court.
Only felonies in those days were heard in court, the misdemeanors and debts being settled by the Justices of the peace. Mapy’s collection of Rappahannock citizens had three cases to hear: one simple case of horse theft, one perjury case and one case of carrying a concealed weapon. This September court day was chosen as an example of a typical day in Rappahannock court. The cases were routine.
Mapy’s formal language is that used by an educated man of his day to describe legal proceedings. His careful script, in ink on parchment, would later be copied by hand into the record by the clerk of the court. The documents prepared by the Grand Jury were sealed and filed in a bundle under the date of the proceedings.
The grand jury first called a Joseph H. Latourandais, who was the witness bringing the complaint in the concealed weapons case. Mapy wrote: “l Ipon our oalii ire present that Franklin Turner of the county aforesaid (Rappahannock) habitually and generally keeps and carries about his person a pistol from the use of which the death of any Person Might probably ensue and keeps this same hidden and concealed from common observation, Within Twelve Months last past, upon the knowledge and information of Joseph //. Latourandais, one of the Grand Jury, sworn in open court to give evidence before our badge.” A TRUE BILL.
The perjury case heard by Mapy’s jurors had a romantic twist and appears to have been brought by an angry father to invalidate his son’s marriage: “Upon
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