William Brisbane

Released

Date of birth:11. 12. 1811

Date of death:1890

Age:78^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Era:1800s

State:New York

Support

Tenant Rights Anti-Rent War

Biography

William Brisbane was an Anti-Rent lecturer imprisoned after the August 7, 1845 killing of Undersheriff Osman N. Steele at the Moses Earle farm in Andes, Delaware County, New York, where a rent-distress sale on a patroon-system leasehold drew hundreds of disguised "Calico Indian" Anti-Rent militants. Unlike the disguised militants he attended the Earle sale openly, and was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in state prison. He was freed by Governor John Young's mass Anti-Rent pardon on January 27, 1847. He was born in 1811 and died in 1890.

Case

Charges: Second-degree manslaughter.

Arrested: August 1845

Incarcerated: August 1845

Released: Jan 27, 1847

Sentence: Seven years in state prison. Freed by Governor John Young's mass Anti-Rent pardon of January 27, 1847. One account says eighteen Anti-Rent prisoners were still in the state prisons at that point, so one of the nineteen recorded here had already left custody — the surviving lists do not agree on which — and the pardon date recorded as the release may overstate one man's term. Accounts differ on where the Anti-Rent prisoners were held: some say the Delaware County men went first to Sing Sing, while later accounts place at least Boughton and Earle at Clinton Prison before the pardon, transfers likely explaining the disagreement — so no institution is asserted here. Verdict as recorded: Yes — of second-degree manslaughter at the Delhi sessions, 1845. Charges as recorded: Second-degree manslaughter — the Andes rent-distress confrontation and the killing of Undersheriff Osman N. Steele, August 7, 1845. He attended the sale openly rather than in disguise.

Convicted: Yes

William Brisbane

Biography

Case

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