Monday, August 3, 2015

William D. Fountain bigamy claim

On 17 January 1842, William D. Fountain married Francis Dies in Crawford County, Georgia.  However, on 6 August of that same year, John Dies, presumably Francis' father or brother, brought charges against Fountain claiming that he committed bigamy.   This record was found in the Crawford county loose records at the Georgia archives.  More work needs to be done to determine what happened next.


Georgia
Wilkinson County]  Be it remembered that on the sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & forty two John Dies of Crawford County & State aforesaid by his lawful attorny and Sam Beall ..... [gap in original] personally came before me Saml J. Bush a justice of the peace and acknowledged themselves to owe to his Excellency the governor of said State and his successors in office the sum of five hundred dollars, current money of the said state, to be levied of their goods & chattels, lands & tenements to the use of the said State, if he the said John Dies shall fail in the condition underwritten.
         //signed// S.J. Bush J.P.                                    //signed// John Dies  //seal//
The condition of the above written recognizance is such, whereas one William D. Fountain was this present day brought before the justice within mentioned at the instance of the above bounden John Dies and was by him charged with commiting the offence of bigamy knowingly and wilfully on the seventeenth day of January last past, in the county of Crawford & state aforesaid, and thereupon was bound in a bond on recognizance for his personal appearance at the next Superior Court to be held for the County of Crawford & State aforesaid //insert// on the third monday in the present month August.  If therefore the said John Dies shall & do at the next Inferior Court to be held for the county of Crawford on the third monday in the present month August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fortytwo, prepare or cause to be prepared one bill of indictment of the said felony, against the said William D. Fountain, & shall then also give evidence there concerning the same, as well to the jurors that shall their inquire of the said felony, as also to them that shall pass upon the trial of the said William D. Fountain; that there the said recognizance to be void or else to remain in full force for the said State.

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