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Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Thompson
Warrant, 2 August 1842–A [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Warrant, 2 August 1842–B [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Subpoena, 2 August 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Minutes, 2 August 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Recognizance, 2 August 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Bond, 2 August 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Docket Entry, circa 2 August 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Warrant, 2 August 1842–A [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
Source Note
Source Note
JS as Mayor, Warrant, to Nauvoo City Marshal [], or Nauvoo City Constable, for William Thompson, , Hancock Co., IL, [2 Aug. 1842], City of Nauvoo v. Thompson (Nauvoo Mayor’s Court 1842); handwriting of JS; notations by , [, Hancock Co., IL], [2 Aug. 1842]; notation by , 2 Aug. 1842; notation by , [ca. 2 Aug. 1842]; two pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Includes notations.
Single leaf measuring 9⅝ × 7¾ inches (24 × 20 cm). The right and top edges of the recto have the square cut of manufactured paper. The left edge is slightly jagged and the bottom edge was unevenly cut. The warrant was written in blue ink. It appears to have been folded once horizontally for transmission. The warrant was subsequently canceled by strikethrough in black ink. The recto and verso include notations in the handwriting of , constable for the Nauvoo courts; , marshal for the Nauvoo courts; and , who served as the Nauvoo city recorder and clerk for the Nauvoo Municipal Court from February 1841 to July 1843. The notations on the verso correspond with subsequent folds.
The warrant, along with other records of the mayor’s court, was likely included among the municipal court records listed in early inventories that were produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL). It was cataloged as part of the Nauvoo, IL, Records, in 2006. The document’s probable inclusion in Historian’s Office inventories suggests continuous institutional custody.
Footnotes
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 2 August 1842, JS, acting as mayor and a justice of the peace of , Illinois, wrote out a warrant for the arrest of William Thompson, who was accused of attempting to rape , his eighteen-year-old stepdaughter. Nauvoo’s city charter gave the mayor and aldermen “all the powers of Justices of the Peace therein, both in civil and criminal cases arising under the laws of the State” and granted the mayor “exclusive jurisdiction in all cases arising under the ordinances of the corporation.” In June 1842, a few weeks after JS’s election as mayor, governor commissioned him to serve as a justice of the peace. JS was thus empowered to issue warrants for crimes committed in Nauvoo.
At about noon on 2 August, while in the back room of James Brown’s house, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Burket heard “Cries of Murder” coming from the home of William Thompson. Burket notified Brown, who rushed to Thompson’s house, which was located about eighty yards away. Homer Jackson and Alexander Stephens, also in Brown’s house, heard the cries and also hurried to Thompson’s home. The fact that these individuals all heard screaming was crucial in charging Thompson with attempted rape. In an era when female victims struggled to obtain legal redress, the effort to cry out was a vital indication that a woman did not consent to a man’s sexual advances. At each step in the legal process, a female victim’s claims were mediated by men. Under the legal principle of , a married woman’s legal identity was subsumed under her husband’s and her property was transferred to him upon marriage. Coupled with the notion that female sexuality was the domain of male relatives, coverture often obliged men to protect the women in their lives. In this situation, ’s male neighbors, rather than her husband, who was absent, provided physical and legal aid.
What the men saw confirmed what they had heard. When Brown arrived at Thompson’s house, he saw through an open window that Thompson had his left arm around “the neck of a female, & his right hand . . . in the Act of pulling up her Clothes.” Warren Smith, another neighbor, arrived as Brown was ordering Thompson to open the door or he would “break it.” Thompson complied. , crying “in distress,” stated that Thompson had “wanted to kiss her.” Thompson protested that “he was trying to get [Woolsey] to tell what his Wife was doing on the last Winter.” Brown ignored Thompson’s excuse and accused him of “attempting a Rape,” leading to a scuffle in which Brown wrestled Thompson to the ground.
Warren Smith reported the crime to JS, in his role as a justice of the peace, and swore out an oath before him, which may not have been recorded. Based on Smith’s oath, JS wrote a warrant charging Thompson with an attempt “to commit a rape.” Due to jurisdictional conflicts and JS’s failure to include standard legal language and information, this warrant was canceled by strikethrough, and city recorder and clerk of the municipal court prepared a new warrant in its place, which JS certified and signed. After the warrant featured here was canceled and replaced, the document was used to record information relevant to the case.
Footnotes
- [1]
Thompson’s biographical details are unclear, as is how he became the stepfather of Lovina Patterson Woolsey. A stepfather at the time could be a father through marriage or a father-in-law.a Although there were several William Thompsons living in Nauvoo, a comparison of the witnesses’ land records indicates that the man mentioned in the featured warrant lived in a house on lot 2 of Nauvoo’s block 66, which he owned.b By this point, Thompson may have married Lovina’s mother, Eliza Patterson. Eliza’s first husband, Jeremiah Ephraim Patterson, had apparently died sometime in 1840. Eliza, who performed a proxy baptism for the dead in December 1841, appears to have been alive in 1842.c In June 1842, a William Thompson and his wife, identified only as “Eliza Thompson,” signed a quitclaim deed, transferring land just south of another lot Thompson (the William Thompson implicated in this trial) owned on block 66.d This June 1842 land transaction may have involved a different William Thompson, William G. Thompson, and his wife, Elizabeth McCauley, who were members of the church living in Quincy, Illinois.e
(a“Step-father,” in American Dictionary [1828]. b“Abstracts Containing a Description of All City Lots,” 1842, block 66, lot 2, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. c1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 169; Nauvoo Temple, Record of Baptisms for the Dead, vol. A, 64, 122; “Jeremiah Ephraim Patterson, 1792–1840,” Individual Record, FamilySearch Ancestral File [Ancestral File no. 4H1V-ZT]. dNauvoo Registry of Deeds, Record of Deeds, bk. A, 31; William Thompson to Thomas Winward, Bond, Nauvoo, IL, 20 June 1842, Winward Family Papers, CHL. eQuincy, IL, Branch, Record Book, 21 June 1840, 7; 28 Nov. 1840, 25; 21 Nov. 1842, 35; see also Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 12:344–345.)An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845. CHL.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Nauvoo Temple. Record of Baptisms for the Dead, 1841, 1843–1845. CHL.
FamilySearch Ancestral File. Compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.familysearch.org/search/family-trees.
Winward Family Papers, 1842–1843. CHL.
Quincy, IL, Branch, Record Book / “Record of the Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Quincy, (Ill),” 1840–1846. CHL. LR 5361 21, fd. 1.
Carter, Kate B., comp. Our Pioneer Heritage. 20 vols. Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1937–1977.
- [2]
- [3]
- [4]
Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840. For an example of JS’s prior use of this power, see Warrant to City Marshal, 21 July 1842, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Although the charter referenced only JS’s jurisdiction within the city, state law granted justices of the peace power to issue warrants for crimes committed throughout the state of Illinois. (An Act to Regulate the Apprehension of Offenders, and for Other Purposes [6 Jan. 1827], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1837], p. 238, sec. 3.)
Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845. CHL.
The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.
- [5]
Notes of Evidence, 2 Aug. 1842, City of Nauvoo v. Thompson [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1842], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. The name “James Brown” was connected to various properties near Thompson’s land on block 66, which lay between Woodruff and Page streets (which ran north-south), and along Cutler Street (which ran east-west). A person named James Brown owned lot 1 of Nauvoo’s block 66. The same individual, presumably, also paid taxes on nearby properties, including lot 3 of Nauvoo’s block 63, lot 3 of block 5, and lot 4 of block 6 of Wells’s addition to the city of Nauvoo. The name “James Brown” shows up three times in the March 1842 census of Nauvoo’s second ward, although in at least two of the three cases, the name appears to refer to the same individual. Elizabeth Burket and her parents, George and Sarah Burket, may have lived with John Burket in a house on lot 2 of Nauvoo’s block 10. (Book of Assessment, 1842, Second Ward, 1, 2; “Abstracts Containing a Description of All City Lots,” 1842, block 66, lot 1, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; Nauvoo Second Ward Census, Mar. 1842, [1], [2], [3], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. V, p. 328, 24 June 1843, microfilm 954,605, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845. CHL.
Nauvoo Stake. Ward Census, 1842. CHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
- [6]
Brown was married to Stephens’s sister Martha until she died in 1840. (James Brown Family Record, 1, 3.)
James Brown Family Record, ca. 1863. Typescript. CHL.
- [7]
Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 39, 131–133. In this period, gendered assumptions, such as the idea that women were overly passionate or had ulterior motives, led male judges and juries to generally view the claims of female victims with suspicion. (See Mary Block, “Rape History in the United States: Nineteenth Century,” in Smith, Encyclopedia of Rape, 181–183; Alexander, History of Women, 1:54–55, 275–277, 507–508; and Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 48–51.)
Block, Sharon. Rape and Sexual Power in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Block, Mary. “Rape History in the United States: Nineteenth Century.” In Encyclopedia of Rape, edited by Merril D. Smith, 181–183. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Alexander, William. The History of Women, from the Earliest Antiquity, to the Present Time; Giving an Account of Almost Every Interesting Particular Concerning That Sex, among All Nations, Ancient and Modern. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J. H. Dobelbower, 1796.
- [8]
“Coverture,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:271; Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 4, 88–125, 240.
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Block, Sharon. Rape and Sexual Power in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
- [9]
Rape was understood as a crime against male heads of households, which in this case would have been Lovina’s husband, James Woolsey. While patriarchy could cut off women from avenues of justice and even serve as an excuse for sexual violence, as it may have in this case, it also could provide protection. (Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 29–30; see also Mason, Mormon Menace, 5–6. For earlier examples of fathers and stepfathers using their roles to pursue illicit sexual interactions, see Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 74–76, 96.)
Block, Sharon. Rape and Sexual Power in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Mason, Patrick Q. The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- [10]
Lovina had married James Woolsey in 1839 and, although they had children together, James appears to have been absent often. He later abandoned Lovina and their children, who traveled to Utah with James’s brothers, Thomas and Richard Woolsey. Lovina is listed with her three surviving children, Joseph, Brigham, and Abigail, in the 1850 census of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. (“Death of Nauvoo Veterans,” Deseret Evening News [Salt Lake City], 16 Oct. 1903, 9; 1850 U.S. Census, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa Territory, 141; Whitaker, Chronology of Joseph Woolsey, 6.)
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Whitaker, Wilford W. Chronology of Joseph Woolsey 1771–1839 and Abigail Schaeffer 1786–1848 Our Mormon Pioneer Ancestors. Murray, UT: W. W. Whitaker, 2013.
- [11]
Notes of Evidence, 2 Aug. 1842, City of Nauvoo v. Thompson [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1842], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Based on the valuation of Warren Smith’s properties, his house was likely located on lot 3 of block 4 in Wells’s addition to the city of Nauvoo. Smith also owned lot 2 of Nauvoo block 65. The name “Warren Smith” appears twice in Nauvoo’s second ward census of March 1842, although in some cases the census listed the same individual multiple times. (Book of Assessment, 1842, Second Ward, 15; “Abstracts Containing a Description of All City Lots,” 1842, block 65, lot 2, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; Nauvoo Second Ward Census, Mar. 1842, [2], [3], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
- [12]
Notes of Evidence, 2 Aug. 1842, City of Nauvoo v. Thompson [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1842], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. “The Island” appears to be a reference to land in the Mississippi River situated between Nauvoo, Illinois, and Montrose, Iowa Territory. It had been used to obtain timber in 1842, but it was also used for more secretive purposes. Within a few days of issuing this warrant, JS used it as a place to meet with friends while hiding from ongoing attempts to extradite him to Missouri. And, according to the minutes of an 1843 high council trial, a single man and a married woman, who had separated from her husband, were married “on the island.” Thompson’s inquiry about his wife may have reflected the public perception that the island was a place of secretive business. (Heber C. Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, “Manchester or Liverpool,” England, 17 June 1842, Parley P. Pratt, Correspondence, CHL; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 1 Jan. 1842, 1–3; JS, Journal, 11 Aug. 1842; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 25 Jan. 1843.)
Pratt, Parley P. Correspondence, 1842–1855. CHL. MS 897.
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
- [13]
Notes of Evidence, 2 Aug. 1842, City of Nauvoo v. Thompson [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1842], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
- [14]
The leaf on which JS inscribed the warrant includes this question in the handwriting of James Sloan: “Was there an Oath in Writing.” (JS, Warrant for the Arrest of William Thompson, [2 Aug. 1842], City of Nauvoo v. Thompson [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1842], Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
- [15]
Beginning in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, states began to create laws against attempted rape. The Illinois criminal code, which drew upon British common law, described rape as “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly, and against her will,” and attempted rape as “assault, with an intent to commit . . . rape,” punishable by “confinement in the penitentiary for a term not less than one year, nor more than fourteen years.” (Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, 29, 127–130, 145–146; An Act Relative to Criminal Jurisprudence [26 Feb. 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois [1834–1837], p. 206, secs. 48, 52; see also “Carnal Knowledge” and “Rape,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 1:156, 2:323–324.)
Block, Sharon. Rape and Sexual Power in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
- [16]
Warrant for William Thompson, 2 Aug. 1842–B. For a discussion on the jurisdictional issues pertaining to this case, see Historical Introduction to Warrant for William Thompson, 2 Aug. 1842–B. In addition to his work for the Nauvoo Municipal Court, Sloan kept the docket book for the Nauvoo mayor’s court for JS. (See Historical Introduction to Docket Entry, Nauvoo Mayor’s Court, ca. 5 July 1842.)
- [17]
The notations include a witness list and court fees. For more information about the new warrant and the ensuing case, see Historical Introduction to Warrant for William Thompson, 2 Aug. 1842–B.
State of — SS}
Whereas complaint has been made before me Joseph Smith Mayor of the city of Hancock Co— and sworn to that Willlam Thomson [William Thompson] has atemted to commit a rape one [on] and sworn to before me by Warren Smith this is to command the or any constable in said to take him and bring him bef[o]re me— for Trial &c &c
Joseph Smith
Mayor of said
<Was there an Oath in Writing.—> [1/4 page blank] [p. [1]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
- Related Case Documents
City of Nauvoo v. Thompson, Nauvoo, IL, Mayor's Court, 2 August 1842
- Editorial Title
- Warrant, 2 August 1842–A [City of Nauvoo v. Thompson]
- ID #
- 9392
- Total Pages
- 2
- Print Volume Location
- JSP, D10:344–349
- Handwriting on This Page
- Joseph Smith Jr.
- James Sloan
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [1]
Ss. is a legal abbreviation for scilicet, a Latin adverb meaning “that is to say, to wit, namely.” (“Scilicet,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:379.)
Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.
Notation in handwriting of James Sloan.
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