Skip to content

John Getman

AKA: John Gettman
Released
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1700s
State:Pennsylvania
Support
Anti-Federalist Fries's Rebellion
No image available

Biography

John Getman (also spelled Gettman) was a Pennsylvania German tailor of Milford Township, Bucks County, who lived within about half a mile of John Fries and was, with Fries and Frederick Heaney, one of the most active instigators of Fries’s Rebellion against the federal house tax of 1798. He was tried for treason in the U.S. Circuit Court at Philadelphia in 1800, convicted of levying war against the United States, and sentenced to hang alongside Fries and Heaney. President John Adams pardoned all three on May 21, 1800.

Case

Walnut Street Prison
Charges: Treason (levying war against the United States).
Released: May 21, 1800
Sentence: Death by hanging; pardoned by President John Adams on May 21, 1800. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted of treason in the U.S. Circuit Court for Pennsylvania (1800). Charges as recorded: Treason (levying war against the United States) — for his leading part in the armed resistance to the 1798 federal house tax.
Prosecutor: William Rawle (U.S. Attorney)
Judge: Justice Samuel Chase, with District Judge Richard Peters
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Pennsylvania