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ArchbishopBy Matthew Surridge Defies customs,”King meaning the royal right In 1155 , the to try and punish criminal priests. thirty-seven-year-old of Becket believed that the supposed , was named chancellor customs had no historical basis, to the King of England by the newly and believed also that to surrender crowned Henry II. The appointment the church’s right to try churchmen was a considerable promotion, but would set a precedent of handing the Becket knew that there were poten- church’s authority over to the crown. tial political conflicts associated with Becket, along with the other the post. bishops, told the king that they would Becket was a clever, energetic, and support royal customs to the extent amiable young man who had been that they felt was lawful for church- born to a merchant family in London. men to do so—meaning that they In his twenties he had found his way held that law superseded the into the service of , king’s claims. Henry was not satis- the . It was fied, and told Becket he would accept Theobald who had named Becket only a simple and unconditional archdeacon, and urged Henry to “yes.” The king then left the meeting. select him as chancellor, the highest Thomas Becket depicted in stained glass at . The next morning, Becket was ecclesiastical member of the king’s summoned to meet Henry. Henry court—effectively the royal chap- bishop would be a challenge much relieved to find that despite Henry’s ordered Becket to give up control lain—even though Becket had not greater than any he had faced in his initial reaction, Becket’s decision did of certain estates that he had con- been formally ordained as a priest. role of chancellor. Becket, therefore, not immediately sour the friendship trolled as royal chancellor, and that Becket’s main responsibility as chan- attempted to decline the honor. between the two men. Henry had allowed him to continue cellor was to deal with the finan- But then a messenger from Pope Then in the summer of 1163, to oversee even after his resigna- cial and legal chores, including the Alexander III urged Becket to take Henry attempted to intervene in the tion. Henry then left the city, ending issuing of governmental payments the position. The pope was an ally of case of a canon who had committed the council. The brief meeting had and receipts. Henry, and seems to have believed a murder and had been punished by been a stinging public rebuke for As he learned the ways of the that Becket would be an effective an . Henry wanted the archbishop. Becket understood court, Becket soon became the agent of both king and church, to reopen the affair, and impose that Henry’s anger was personal; he king’s best friend. At the same time, helping to keep both institutions harsher penalties. Becket perceived felt that Becket had betrayed him. Theobald seems to have been satis- in harmony. In the face of this this as an attempt to strengthen royal Becket himself was hurt by Henry’s fied that Becket was a good influ- urging, Becket agreed to take the authority at the church’s expense. As public anger but also strongly ence on the king. Worldly-wise and a archbishopric. Becket had feared, Henry wanted to believed in the rightness of his own capable administrator, Becket deftly Many of the English bishops prosecute felonious churchmen in actions. balanced the interests of both Henry expressed reservations about the an effort to establish the primacy of and Theobald for several years. installation of Becket as archbishop, secular law over church law. Becket In 1161 Theobald died after a long arguing that the position was tradi- was determined to prevent this. period of infirmity. Henry told Becket tionally given to a monk. The bishops In October of 1163, Becket he intended to have him serve as felt that a man who had spent much attended a council in London held both chancellor and as the new arch- of his life at court was too secular by Henry with all his bishops and bishop. Becket realized that Henry in his orientation to be archbishop. several dozen barons. At the council, hoped to use their friendship to assert Henry’s insistence overcame their Henry argued that secular courts rights over church policies that Henry opposition. Becket was formally should have jurisdiction over eccle- regarded as traditional powers of the elected archbishop by a council of siastical criminals. Henry argued throne. Specifically, Henry resented English churchmen and barons late in that most ecclesiastical punishments, the fact that churchmen charged with May, and established on June 3. He such as being forced into a monas- a crime could only be tried in an immediately resigned his position of tery, were too lenient, while the pun- ecclesiastical court, not a lay court. chancellor, believing he needed to do ishment of exile was something that Becket suspected that Henry would so in order to be fully free to act as only the king’s courts could rightfully try to assert the crown’s right to bring archbishop. decree. ecclesiastical criminals to trial; if so, The resignation surprised and Becket could not allow Henry’s Henry would expect Becket as arch- angered Henry, but Becket felt action to go unopposed, even at bishop to agree with him. Becket, strongly that the action was neces- the cost of angering the king. He though, believed that as archbishop it sary. As chancellor, he had led a launched a detailed rebuttal of the would be his responsibility to main- lifestyle that often involved lavish royal proposal. Henry interrupted tain the church’s powers to the best of feasting and other displays of wealth; him. He demanded to know whether Medieval sculpture shows his ability. He felt that attempting to as archbishop, he had to adopt a dif- Becket and his bishops would Archbishop Thomas Becket serve both king and church as arch- ferent way of living. Becket was observe what Henry called “royal returning to England from France. page two Not long after this confrontation, installing a new bishop. In theory, the with the sardonic question: “Do you Becket decided to leave the messengers from Pope Alexander king could then allow a bishop’s seat find my kingdom not big enough for country. He believed that by continu- III came to Becket. The pope, who to remain vacant in order to collect both of us?” ing to reject Henry’s claims from was at that time in Sens, France, the revenues from the land. The king seemed determined foreign soil, he would be more effec- had learned of the quarrel. The pope Upon seeing the Constitutions of to coerce Becket into signing the tive than if he continued in England urged moderation; he felt that the Clarendon, Becket realized that the Constitutions of Clarendon. In mid- under Henry’s power. He fled that king had been so intransigent only pope had been wrong in his assess- 1164 a baron brought a legal case night at midnight, in disguise. After to maintain his standing before the ment of the king’s character and against Becket over the control of some difficulties, he left England on barons at the council. Alexander aims. Henry’s victory in London land that was part of the archbish- November 2 and landed in Flanders believed that if Becket acceded to over the issue of trying criminal opric. When Becket was unable to later that day. Henry’s demands to recognize royal priests had simply emboldened him. appear at the court due to illness, a Becket was received with open customs, the king would not take Not only did Becket feel it wrong royal council found him guilty of arms at a French abbey. King Louis undue advantage in defining those to agree to the Constitutions, but he disobedience and of contempt of of France guaranteed him finan- customs. Becket reluctantly followed also realized that Henry would likely the summons. He was fined heavily, cial help and sanctuary. Meanwhile, the pope’s suggestions. He went to demand more powers in future. Since but Henry, not content with this, ambassadors from Henry and allies speak to Henry at Oxford, where Henry had made him agree to the demanded a payment of a past loan of Becket were both making their the king was staying. Becket told royal customs in the Constitutions and a complete accounting of rev- cases to the pope. Becket went Henry he would accept the customs before seeing them, though, he enues for all vacant sees and abbeys to Sens to speak to Alexander. Henry had insisted on. Becket was could not explicitly reject them. He Becket had controlled as chancellor. Ultimately, the pope confirmed annoyed to find this was not enough accepted his copy of the documents Becket could not possibly make these Becket in his position. for Henry. but did not sign them. payments; they would bankrupt him. For six years Becket remained The king organized a second A dejected Becket wrote to the While Becket was appearing in exile in France. He wrote letters council in January of 1164 at a pope begging forgiveness for what before the royal council in October, to Henry, and commanded the hunting lodge called Clarendon, near Becket saw as his sin of disloyalty. a group of bishops heard credible excommunication of the traitorous Salisbury. Henry forced Becket to Exactly what he had feared had come rumors that Henry intended to charge bishops. As he had no real power state publicly that he would accept to pass, and he believed that he had their archbishop with treason. Some in England, the excommunica- the royal customs that Henry would failed at both his tasks, alienating of the bishops were alarmed by this tions were mere formalities, even put forward. The king then presented the king while also allowing him to escalation of the conflict between though some were also pronounced a written list of sixteen customs in take over powers that belonged to the church and state, and they blamed it by the pope. Attempts by agents of the form of a document called the church. on the personal animosity between the pope to effect a reconciliation Constitutions of Clarendon. Alexander seems to have forgiven Henry and Becket. They visited were fruitless, and in 1169 Henry As had been previously conceded, Becket. The pope agreed with Becket Becket in his lodgings to urge him to passed several decrees forbidding some of the articles gave the king that the Constitutions of Clarendon resign. the importation of papal letters into jurisdiction over criminal priests. were unacceptable, but he still hoped Becket had decided that he would England. In addition, the clergy, including to keep Henry as an ally, so he did yield no further. He deeply regret- In 1170 reports reached Becket the bishops and archbishops, would not explicitly reject the new laws, ted his initial agreement to Henry’s that Henry was preparing to crown be forbidden to leave the country either. demands, and he had decided to his son, Young Henry, heir appar- without the king’s permission, and Becket attempted to travel to fight back. He castigated the bishops ent. This form of coronation rite they would not be able to excom- France to speak directly to the pope, for their disloyalty and faint-hearted was frequently practiced in medi- municate anyone without the king’s but he was stopped at the coast. council, and told them he would eval Europe. Although Young Henry agreement. The king would take Henry was determined to enforce confront Henry. If he was harmed, would have no greater political all revenues from the lands of any the Constitutions, with or without he ordered them to excommunicate power, the line of succession to the cathedral that lacked a bishop or his archbishop’s agreement. Becket whoever committed the violence. English throne would be clearly archbishop, and he would control again went to speak to the king in Becket said mass, then, still established. the entire process of nominating and person but was dismissed by Henry wearing his stole, went to face Henry Such a ceremony would tra- at his castle in . Becket ditionally have been performed found that the bishops had pre- by the archbishop of Canterbury. ceded him. He was not allowed into Instead, Henry would have his ally, the court but kept in an entry room. the , perform A peculiar debate developed, with the ritual. The pope was outraged Becket in one room, and the king, at Henry’s usurpation of a church who refused to see the archbishop, prerogative. He refused to sanc- in another, along with his barons and tion the coronation unless it was some bishops. Messengers went back performed by the proper official— and forth between the two rooms. Thomas Becket. He threatened Eventually, some of the bishops to put England under an decided to broker their own deal with unless Henry allowed Becket to the king. They agreed that if Henry return in safety and resume his convicted Becket of treason, and they office. Under an interdict, no one in did not have to pass sentence, they England could be married, baptized would appeal to the pope, saying or buried by the church. The pope’s that the archbishop had forced them ultimatum was smuggled into to be disloyal to Henry; they would England but reached the English then ask the pope to depose Becket. church officials too late to prevent The king agreed. He had his barons the coronation. conduct a “trial” of Becket, result- ing in the archbishop’s conviction for treason. When a deputation of barons MOVING? came to Becket’s room to deliver the sentence, the haughty and enraged The U. S. Postal Service will Becket forbade them to do so, claim- not forward periodicals, so ing that as laymen they had no right you will not get Old News af- to judge an archbishop. He then ter moving unless you notify stood, and went to leave. The barons us of your new address. Send a reacted angrily, shouting, “Traitor!” note by mail or e-mail, or call and throwing whatever came to hand us by telephone. at Becket. Becket and the bishops who were allied with him broke out OLD NEWS of the castle. The barons were still 3 West Brandt Blvd. somewhat cowed by the sacredness Landisville, PA 17538-1105 of Becket’s office, and it appeared 717-898-9207 that Henry had decided that open subscriptioninformation @ violence against the archbishop was a oldnewspublishing.com King Henry II of England. step too far. page three

Although the coronation went allies, asking that their sentences be outburst varied; one account claims refused to yield. He said: “I did not ahead on June 14, Henry, realiz- lifted. Becket refused, claiming that he said, “What a set of idle cowards return to flee again. Anyone who ing the furor his action had caused, only the pope, who had pronounced I keep in my kingdom, who allow wants me can find me here. . . . I will agreed to the pope’s terms and these sentences, could revoke them. me to be mocked so shamefully by strike anyone who violates the right promised to allow Becket to return Orders from the king then came to a low-born clerk?” Another account of the Roman see or the church of to Canterbury. Becket met his old Becket at Canterbury preventing states that he simply demanded rhe- Christ.” friend in France on July 22. Henry him from traveling within England. torically, “Who will rid me of this The knights began shouting and promised to change his ways. Nevertheless, Becket arranged turbulent priest?” In any event, four threatening Becket, who refused The issues of the Constitutions of to have his grievances—both his knights decided among themselves to to back down. “Have you come Clarendon, and of the restitution of case for the return of church lands, take action against Becket. to kill me?” he asked. “I commit Becket’s property, were to be offi- and his complaints against the On December 29, at 3 p.m., myself and my cause to the Judge cially settled later. For the moment, Constitutions of Clarendon—put Becket was working in his inner of all men. Your swords are less Henry’s repentance seemed genuine, before Young Henry, who was then rooms at Canterbury with a number ready to strike than is my spirit for but Becket remained in France until ruling in London while his father of monks and clerks when his sen- martyrdom.” The knights turned to he was sure of it. journeyed in his French territories. eschal brought the four knights to Becket’s clerks, commanding them However, as the months passed, Becket expected that Henry would his chambers. The men sat without to abandon the archbishop if they Becket found reason to doubt take action, possibly violent action, speaking to Becket, who eventually were loyal servants of the king. No Henry’s good faith. Henry prom- against him but felt that it was his greeted all of them. One of them, one moved, and the knights went to ised in writing to accept peace with duty to protest against what he per- FitzUrse, answered: “God fetch their followers. Becket, but added “saving the honour ceived as injustice. help you,” at which Becket flushed Becket at first refused to move of my kingdom.” Henry still sur- It appears, in fact, that Henry with anger. from his rooms, but when the rounded himself with churchmen made plans on Christmas Eve to send Becket and the knights then had monks urged him to at least go who had supported Henry’s side an armed force to Canterbury to take a heated argument, in which the into Canterbury Cathedral to say during the long conflict, even though Becket prisoner, while dispatching knights demanded that Becket lift vespers, he agreed. They had to the pope had officially excommuni- other men to watch the coast in case the excommunications on the king’s take a roundabout route to avoid the cated them. And agents Becket sent Becket tried to flee. But while pre- allies and warned him that the king knights, who could be heard breaking to England reported that the return of paring these plans, he unleashed a was losing patience with him. Becket their way into the church. the archbishop’s property had been tirade against Becket. Reports of his officially postponed. Nevertheless, Becket, believing his closeness to the pope would protect him, left France in November of 1170 to resume his duties in England. He reached Canterbury on December 2. Becket found, as had been reported, that many of the lands that were his by right as archbishop were still occu- pied by Henry’s men. Also, Henry continued to try the clergy in secular courts, and still seemed to consider the Constitutions as being in full effect. The people of England, on the other hand, were overjoyed by Becket’s return. New taxes imposed by Henry, as well as his general interest in increasing the power of the throne, had made him unpopular; Becket was viewed as a champion of the people against the king. Appeals soon came from the Thirteenth-century manuscript Altar marking the place where Becket was murdered in Canterbury excommunicated bishops and their illustration of Becket’s murder. Cathedral.

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- Over the following years, following Over the On Sunday morning, August 31, On Sunday morning,

scourged by the community of monks of monks community by the scourged had suc- dying, Becket there. By with winning his dispute ceeded in the king. one of Europe’s became Canterbury for pilgrimages. most popular sites dra- Becket’s of retellings Many have been written, martyrdom matic and Anouilh by Jean plays including contin Becket Thomas S. Eliot. T. both in saint as a be revered ues to Anglican and the Roman Catholic churches. SOURCES Frank. Thomas Becket. Barlow, and Nicolson, Weidenfeld London: 1986. Knowles, David. Thomas Becket. Black, Charles & Adam London: 1970. Chicago, where there were large Chicago, where there were large audiences for various styles of blues and jazz music. He later recalled asking friends who had been to my with Chicago, “Can I make it They answered, “No, they guitar?” listen to that kind of old blues don’t not in Chicago.” you’re doing now, decided to stay Waters Muddy home. 1941, he was in his cabin on the plan- tation when he learned that a stranger, him.for looking was man, white a His first thought trouble for selling bootleg liquor. was thatHe had stashed his whiskey near his home. he was in Fold on line. on Fold -

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State...... Zip...... The four knights were excommu four knights were The was Thomas Becket In 1173 Muddy Waters had grown up had grown up Waters Muddy BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO 15 LANDISVILLE PA in letters to the pope that Becket had Becket pope that to the in letters King Louis in sedition. been engaged to hand, wrote on the other of France, demanding justice. the pope the to appealed when they nicated; a on go to them sentenced he pope, In 1172 years. fourteen for crusade meet envoys of the Henry agreed to restore would he that swore and pope, its lands all to the see of Canterbury appeals to Rome, and revenues, allow the contro- renounce and effectively in the Constitutions versial articles He did not explicitly of Clarendon. but agreed to renounce the document allow the church and its officers their old freedoms. Henry did In 1174 canonized. vigil public penance and a night’s was and Cathedral, Canterbury at and fifty miles a couple “I stayed maybe recalled: to Saint Louis. He enough getting or so. I wasn’t months [so I] went back work with my guitar, to Clarksdale.” on the Stovall Plantation, where he was well liked by the Stovall He sometimes considered family. leaving the plantation to pursue a career as a professional musician, but he was reluctant to leave his read or write, and job. He couldn’t he worried that he would not be able to find enough work to support Some people of himself in a city. his acquaintance had moved to POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE - X OLD NEWS 3 W BRANDT BLVD LANDISVILLE PA 17538-9964

Reports of the archbishop’s murder murder the archbishop’s Reports of Henry was shocked by the death Henry was shocked Muddy Waters had a reputation Waters Muddy Fold on line. head. Before leaving the cathedral, the cathedral, leaving Before head. - lodg broke into Becket’s the knights stole his valuables. ings, and people horrifying rapidly, spread of image The Europe. throughout down in his own the archbishop cut had a pow- altar, church, right by his the devout people erful resonance for soon Legends Europe. of medieval mir healing about to spread began acles worked by relics of Thomas Thomas relics of acles worked by Becket. close a been once who had man of a his frus- not meant had friend—he to be taken as an trated exclamation Now he feared that he himself order. He clad would be excommunicated. ashes, and and sackcloth in himself - fasted. Henry refused all responsi insisted but still killing for the bility had learned from an older musician, from an older had learned of style This distinctive Son House. then “Delta blues,” was music, called performed only by black musicians of western counties few a in living Arkansas Mississippi and eastern on the floodplain of the Mississippi River. in player as a good singer and guitar area but was unknown the Clarksdale beyond that. Eager to promote his music, he traveled sixty-eight Tennessee, Memphis, to north miles looking for gigs. He had no success. was twenty-seven, In 1940, when he hundred over three he traveled

Artwork for User Defined (4" x 6") Produced by DAZzle Designer 97, Version 3.02 Layout: C:\ENVMGR32\DAZZLE32\OLDBRM.LYT (c) Envelope Manager Software, www.EnvelopeManager.com, (800) 576-3279 U.S. Postal Service, Serial # January 8, 2002 1:25 pm Alan Lomax Records Records Alan Lomax with another blow to the By David Vachon

When monks tried to bar the doors the doors tried to bar monks When church, the into burst knights The rushed him, and then knights The and the knights resisted, Becket

During the late 1930s, McKinley late the During Songs By Muddy Waters By Muddy Songs page four page within the cathedral, Becket insisted Becket the cathedral, within doors open, the leave they that is not to church of God saying: “The into a fortress.” be made in hand, and con- with drawn swords near pillar, a before Becket fronted demanded again knights The an altar. “I a repeal of the excommunications. not change my have told you I will mind,” Becket said. tried to take him prisoner. their blades. Becket with attacked and col- in his head, cut took a deep “I accept saying: to his knees, lapsed death for the name of Jesus and his The knights then struck church.” swords, with their again Becket him­ killing Morganfield worked as a field hand near plantation cotton Stovall on the his in Mississippi. He was Clarksdale, twenty-two- earned and mid-twenties, make To cents an hour. and-a-half he trapped raccoons, extra money, fur; sold and minks for their rabbits, bootlegged whiskey; and played joints. juke and parties at guitar blues raised who had His grandmother, him “Muddy” him, started calling became He when he was little. fans as known by his friends and the blues He played Waters. Muddy way he slide, the with a bottleneck page five

To avoid being confronted there, he make a record and become famous. for the first time, was pleasantly wrote to Lomax in April, giving went to the plantation commissary He invited Lomax over to his cabin, surprised. He later recalled: “When permission to make the pressings. to meet the stranger, who introduced and together they unloaded the [Lomax] played back the first “Do what you want to do with the himself as Alan Lomax. He said that equipment. Muddy Waters later song, I sounded just like anybody’s records. . . . Be sure to send me two he was a musicologist working for recalled, “We got his stuff out of the records. Man, you don’t know how I of [them].” the Library of Congress in Washing- car and all his long batteries and set felt that afternoon when I heard that Muddy Waters was eager to receive ton on a project to record the Negro ’em up on my front porch, and I was voice and it was my own voice. I copies of the record—evidence music of the Mississippi Delta. in my front room with my guitar thought, ‘Man, I can sing.’” that he was a recognized musician. “I want you to do something for [and the] microphone.” A few days after the recording Opportunities were opening up for me,” he told Muddy Waters. “Will The sound from the microphone session, Muddy Waters had a him. A new radio station, KFFA, had you let me record some of your was transmitted to a small lathe that friend write a letter to Lomax in just begun broadcasting throughout songs, and I’ll play them back and cut into the black acetate coating on Washington. Asking about the the Delta region of Mississippi and let you listen to them? I want to sixteen-inch glass discs, producing a recordings, he wrote, “Did they Arkansas, and whenever Muddy take it to the Library of Congress.” high-quality recording. take? Please sir, if they did, please Waters played live on the radio with Muddy later recalled, “I didn’t know Over the next few hours, Muddy send some to Clarksdale.” other musicians, people liked it. He what did he mean by the Library of Waters sang and played several Lomax answered Muddy Waters’s recalled: “If we got a chance to do a Congress.” Muddy Waters became tunes. Lomax was especially letter six months later, in March of couple of songs, man, when we got less suspicious when he noticed interested in knowing more about 1942. He wrote: “The Library of back to Stovall, that was the whole that the whole backseat and trunk a song called “Country Blues.” Congress is going to make pressings talk. Everybody that’s heard it on of Lomax’s car were filled with While the recorder was still running, of some of its best records. . . . the radio was running, telling all the equipment: a recording machine, he asked Muddy Waters many We would like very much to use a people on the plantation, ‘I hear them, a disc cutter, and a generator that questions: Were the lyrics his own? record of yours containing on one man, I hear them, they’re on it!’” converted the car’s DC current to Had he heard anyone else use the side the ‘Country Blues,’ and on Muddy Waters felt that his AC. Then, when Lomax pulled same melody? the other ‘I Be’s Troubled.’ Our music career was taking off. On out his guitar and started playing Muddy Waters answered every payment to all people who give us January 23, 1943, the two copies some blues riffs, Muddy Waters question, but he was puzzled by permission to use their records in of his recording finally arrived, was convinced that Lomax was Lomax’s eagerness to document this fashion is $10.00 per side. The along with the check for twenty not a revenue officer, but someone the history of his songs. He did not payment to you would be $20.00 for dollars. Muddy Waters dressed up interested in recording his music. realize that Lomax regarded Delta the two sides and we would send and had a studio portrait made as Muddy Waters was excited about blues as a dying form of folk music, you four copies of the record when he held up a copy of the record. the prospect of recording. He knew a rare historical artifact that would it is released. . . . I think the release Then he brought the other copy that his mentor, Son House, and soon be obliterated by the growth of of this record will serve to make you to Will McComb’s cafe, a juke two other local musicians, Charlie commercial radio and the recorded known in quarters where greater use joint on Highway Number One, Patton and Robert Johnson, had music industry. Muddy Waters did might be found for your talent.” near his home. “I carried that made blues records. None of them not see his music as a relic of the With help from a literate record up the corner and put it had made much money as a result, past that needed to be preserved acquaintance, Muddy Waters on the jukebox,” he recalled. but they had become well known for posterity. He wanted to join the for a time across the South. They commercial music business, to make had been recorded by a talent scout popular records, and to hear his for record companies selling black music played over the airwaves. music to a black audience—a At the end of the recording sector of the music business known session, Lomax played back what as “race records.” Muddy Waters they had recorded. Muddy Waters, hoped this might be his chance to hearing his own voice on a record

Stovall plantation commissary.

In 1943 Muddy Waters sat for this photographic portrait with a copy of the recording of his singing made by Alan Lomax for the Library of Alan Lomax. Congress. page six

“Just played it and played it and for gigs. deliberately distorted the tone of Although Waters had laid the said, ‘I can do it, I can do it.’” He found that club owners were his instrument via extreme electric foundation for rock and roll, he had A few months later, working on the not interested in his quiet country amplification. The combination of no interest in playing it. The only plantation, Muddy Waters realized blues. Night clubs were so loud that electric slide and distorted harmonica music that he cared for was Delta that the new general manager, Ellis his acoustic guitar could hardly be created bizarrely beautiful harmonies. blues and its electrified cousin, Rhett, was paying some field hands heard. A guitarist he was playing With the addition of bass, drums, Chicago-style blues. By the late twenty-seven cents an hour, while with, Jimmy Rogers, persuaded him second guitar, and piano, Muddy 1950s, blues music was losing its paying Muddy Waters just twenty- to electrify his guitar by buying a Waters’s band could sound like a audience to rock and roll, and Muddy two-and-a-half cents an hour for the magnetic pickup and an amplifier, and fast train being chased by a pack of Waters’s records stopped selling. same work. as a result the two men started getting howling wolves; but Muddy Waters’s He struggled financially for the Muddy Waters was sitting on gigs at house parties. deep voice, gentle and conversational, next two decades, until the blues a tractor during a break when he In 1945 Muddy Waters bought anchored every song against the wild revival in the 1970s made him a hero spoke to Rhett, asking for a raise to an electric guitar and amplifier. drive of the instruments. Muddy to a new generation of young fans, twenty-five cents an hour. Muddy Audiences were accustomed to Waters was singing and playing most of whom were white. During Waters recalled, “[Rhett] says I’m hearing electric guitars played in a in the same style he had learned the late 1970s, he formed a new band, the only man ever ask him for a conventional way, but the electric in Mississippi, but the music was went on tour, and drew large crowds. raise and if I don’t want to work for slide sound was fresh and exciting. transformed. Muddy Waters died in 1983 at what I’m working for, get down off Although Muddy Waters Muddy Waters and his band the age of seventy. Today he is his tractor—leave it setting on the personally preferred his acoustic tone, mates produced a string of hits for considered one of the greatest blues road, don’t take it to the barn, don’t he could see that his novel electric Chess Records of Chicago during artists of the twentieth century. The take it to the shop.” Muddy Waters slide sound was more popular, so the early 1950s, and other bands recordings made of Muddy Waters by walked away from the tractor and he stayed with it. Soon after going began imitating their sound. The new Alan Lomax, including interviews, decided that it was time to leave the electric, he found himself working music, which was called “Chicago- are available on a CD entitled The plantation. Two days later he spent steadily in clubs, and in 1946 local style blues,” was perfectly suited to Complete Plantation Recordings. part of his savings to buy a train studios began recording his songs for the new generation of urban blacks ticket to Chicago for eleven dollars possible commercial release. His first who had risen from rural poverty to SOURCES: and ten cents. hit came in 1948 when he recorded a a faster-paced, more prosperous city Cohen, Ronald D., ed. Alan Lomax: In Chicago, Muddy looked up new version of “Country Blues,” the life. Assistant in Charge. The Library some old friends from Mississippi, tune Alan Lomax had first recorded In 1956 Muddy Waters arranged of Congress Letters, 1935-1945. and stayed with them until he could on the Stovall Plantation. It was a recording session for an aspiring Jackson: University of Mississippi find his own place. He found a job the released under the title “I Feel Like guitarist named Chuck Berry, who Press, 2010. first week, in a paper factory where he Going Home,” and it rose to number was experimenting with a new style Gordon, Robert. Can’t Be Satisfied: made five times what he had earned eleven on the “Most Played Race of music that combined elements of The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. on the plantation. There was plenty Records” chart. Also in 1948, Muddy Chicago-style blues with riffs derived Boston: Little, Brown and Company, of work, and he didn’t care what job Waters added a second novel sound from white “hillbilly” music. This 2002. he did; but having a well-paying job to his repertoire by joining forces synthesis, called “rock and roll,” Lomax, Alan. The Land Where the allowed him to spend many hours with a harmonica player named proved to be popular with both black Blues Began. New York: The New every day playing music and looking Marion “Little Walter” Jacobs, who and white teenagers. Press, 1993. Buried Museum

By Paul Chrastina Woolley to become an “archeologist,” UnearthedThe science of archeology was still the young man was puzzled. He later at Ur young in the spring of 1904, when recalled, “I was not quite sure what Charles Leonard Woolley graduated an archeologist was. I had never so from Oxford University in England. much as seen an excavation.” The twenty-four-year old had earned Following the teacher’s suggestion, a degree in classical literature and Woolley became an assistant curator theology. He had never studied in the archeology department of archeology, because no courses in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. There that subject had ever been taught at he was mentored by the museum’s Oxford. chief curator, Arthur Evans, who had When one of his teachers advised become famous for his discovery of the Minoan civilization of ancient Crete. Evans taught Woolley new The ziggurat of Ur during the excavation. scientific methods of excavation that could be used to reconstruct the history of archeological sites. Among the principles that Evans taught Woolley was the use of stra- tigraphy, the careful mapping of the location of every artifact discov- ered in each layer of an excavation. Evans accepted the principles of L. J. Traulle, who had reasoned that the deeper an artifact was buried, the older it must be. By charting the various levels at which artifacts were found, Evans had learned to uncover clues to many aspects of a site’s history, including the evolution of culture, population size, and environ- Charles Leonard Woolley. mental change. Woolley’s reconstruction of the ziggurat as it was originally built. page seven

Woolley enthusiastically spent gems. Although his workmen were began to clear the rubble from around struction, other kings had modified the next decade applying the new excited by this discovery, Woolley a truncated pyramidal temple struc- and refurbished portions of the zig- scientific methods to excavations in ordered them to backfill the “gold ture, or ziggurat, which rose from the gurat. “Very often they would raze Sudan, Turkey, and Syria. In 1914 he trench” for later excavation, telling top of Tell al-Muqayyar. The overall the old walls, but leave in position interrupted his archeological career to them that they did not yet have shape of the ziggurat was reminiscent one course of bricks to serve as a serve as a British intelligence officer enough experience to properly exca- of the great pyramids of Egypt, but guide to the new builders,” Woolley in the Middle East. Captured by the vate the rich burial site, which he as work crews removed thousands of wrote, “and when such reconstruc- Turks, he spent two years as a pris- suspected comprised the tombs of tons of debris from the sloping sides tion has been repeated more than oner of war before being released in Ur’s royalty. of the ziggurat, they revealed massive once we may find in the lower four 1917, when he went back to archeol- Woolley was less interested in stairways, gates, paved terraces, or five courses of the standing walls ogy. precious objects than in clay tablets and sheer walls made of sun-baked bricks stamped with the names By 1922 Woolley was regarded inscribed with cuneiform writing, bricks, none of which were features of three or four kings of different as one of the most experienced and which he could read thanks to the of Egyptian pyramids. dates, giving with each course a proficient field archeologists in the efforts of previous generations of Woolley was intrigued to find fresh chapter in the life-history of world. That year he accepted an offer scholars who had deciphered the that, like the buildings he had exca- the temple.” to lead an ambitious excavation of inscriptions. “Our object was to get vated in the previous year, the zig- During the third season, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur history, not to fill museum cases gurat represented several phases in Woolley excavated a series of in Iraq, midway between Baghdad with miscellaneous curios,” Woolley the history of Ur. It had originally buildings at the entrance to the and the Persian Gulf. wrote, “and history could not be got been built in about 2000 B.C., but ziggurat. At first the artifacts that The ruins of Ur lay buried within unless both we and our men were parts of the structure dated to exten- were uncovered seemed to hope- an artificial mound called Tell al- duly trained.” sive restorations made in 650 B.C. lessly confuse the chronology of Muqayyar. The mound had been Woolley focused on the less by Ur’s last ruler, Nabonidas. In- the temple complex. built up over thousands of years as glamorous architectural ruins. The between these major periods of con- Woolley wrote: the city’s inhabitants successively excavation work, though tedious, built their mud-brick homes, temples, was rewarded by the discovery of markets, and other buildings on top inscriptions identifying the structures of crumbling older structures. Cover- as parts of a temple and storehouse ing more than one hundred acres and complex and dating them to 2100 rising sixty feet above the surround- B.C. Complicating this record were ing plain, Tell al-Muqayyar had been other inscriptions indicating that the visited sporadically by inquisitive structures had been partially restored Europeans since the mid-nineteenth by the Babylonian king Nebuchadne- century, when it was established to zzar in about 600 B.C., indicating to have been the site of Ur, a city men- Woolley that the theoretical “layer- tioned in the Bible as the birthplace cake” interpretation of the site’s stra- of the patriarch Abraham. Woolley’s tigraphy might not be as straightfor- expedition, sponsored jointly by the ward as he had expected. British Museum and the University of The first excavating season at Ur Pennsylvania, was planned to be the came to an end in spring of 1923 as most thorough study ever made of an soaring temperatures made further ancient city. Woolley intended to dig work unbearable. Woolley returned down through the progressively older to England until the autumn, when layers of the ruins to discover how the excavations resumed. During civilization had arisen in Mesopota- the winter of 1923-24, the workmen Woolley examining an artifact. mia. In 1922 most historians believed that Mesopotamian civilization was an offshoot of a more ancient Egyp- tian culture, so Woolley expected to find evidence of Egyptian influence in the deepest layers at Ur. To undertake the excavation, Woolley was authorized to hire hun- dreds of local workmen and a team of specialists to clean, reconstruct, and interpret the artifacts that were uncovered. Woolley left England on October 26, 1922, and began the excavation of Ur on November 2. “The first thing I did,” he wrote, “was to dig trial trenches which might give us some idea of the layout of the old city.” One of Woolley’s two exploratory trenches uncovered nothing more than the top of a large wall and the ruins of several buildings, but the other one exposed graves containing jewelry made of gold and precious

Cuneiform writing from Sumeria, Among the artifacts found at Ur was a wooden box inlaid with mosaic tiles depicting scenes of war and peace from circa 26th century BC. the third millenium B.C. page eight

The pavement was very trimmed so as to make it look shaped clay object on which the princess Bel-Shalti-Nannar close to the modern surface, neat and to preserve the writing; were four columns of writing; . . . and in the collection was which was terribly denuded by and the name on the statue the first three columns were this clay drum, the earliest weather, and not more than a was that of Dungi, who was in the old Sumerian language, museum label known, drawn foot of loose rubbish covered king of Ur in 2058 B.C. Then and the contents of one at least up a hundred years before and the brickwork; there seemed came a clay foundation-cone were familiar to us, for we had kept, presumably together with little hope of finding anything of a Larsa king of about 1700 found it on bricks of Bur-Sin, the original bricks, as a record in such a spot. But suddenly the B.C., then a few clay tablets of king of Ur in 2005 B.C., and the of the first scientific excavations workmen brought to light a large about the same date, and a large other two were fairly similar; at Ur. oval-topped black stone whose votive stone mace-head which the fourth column was in the top was covered with carvings in was uninscribed, but may well late Semitic speech. “These,” After further study of the inscrip- relief and its sides with inscrip- have been more ancient by five it said, “are copies from bricks tions, Woolley learned that the prin- tions; it was a boundary-stone hundred years. found in the ruins of Ur, the cess Bel-Shalti-Nannar was the recording the position and the What were we to think? Here work of Bur-Sin king of Ur, daughter of King Nabonidus, who outlines of a landed property, were half a dozen diverse objects which while searching for the had restored the ziggurat. It became with a statement as to how it found lying on an unbroken ground-plan [of the temple] poignantly clear that Ur’s last royal came legally into the owner’s brick pavement of the sixth the Governor of Ur found, family, threatened by encroaching hands and a terrific curse on century B.C., yet the newest of and I saw and wrote out for Persian armies, had developed a keen whosoever should remove his them was seven hundred years the marvel of beholders.” The sense of nostalgia for their city’s neighbor’s landmark or deface older than the pavement and the scribe, alas! was not so learned illustrious past, and had established or destroy the record. earliest perhaps sixteen hundred: as he wished to appear, for his the world’s first known museum to Now, this stone belonged to the evidence was altogether copies are so full of blunders commemorate the accomplishments the Kassite period of about 1400 against their having got there as to be almost unintelligible, of their forerunners. B.C. Almost touching it was a by accident, and the trimming but he had doubtless done his Amused by the realization that fragment of a statue, a bit of of the statue-inscription had a best, and he certainly had given his efforts to unearth the heritage of the arm of a human figure on curious air of purpose. us the explanation we wanted. Ur had been preceded by the efforts which was an inscription, and Then we found the key. A The room was a museum of of the city’s own inhabitants almost the fragment had been carefully little way apart lay a small drum- local antiquities maintained by two thousand years earlier, Woolley headed home in the spring of 1925 and began preparing his notes for publication. During the next two- and-a-half digging seasons, he exca- vated additional temple ruins near the ziggurat. In the early spring of 1927, he decided that his work crews had enough experience to return to the “gold trench,” the presumed royal burial ground they had uncovered five years earlier. Woolley excavated hundreds of gravesites dating from the Sume- rian period of about 2500 B.C. Sixteen of these Woolley dubbed “Royal Tombs,” containing “trea- sure which revealed to us the wealth and splendor of archaic Sumer beyond our wildest dreams.” The most spectacular find was the tomb of a queen named Shubad, who was buried with a staggering amount of personal property, including a headdress made of hammered gold leaves; a wardrobe decorated with gold and jewels; a silver cosmet- ics case; a silver chariot; jewel- encrusted lyres; and a set of gold serving plates and utensils.

The world’s oldest known museum label, a clay cylinder inscribed in three languages, from Princess Bel-Shalti- Nannar’s museum at Ur. One of Woolley’s excavations in progress at Ur. page nine

The meticulous excavation of Shu- to the period of 2500-2600 B.C. Woolley was knighted by King tamia. Boston: Little, Brown and bad’s tomb lasted for several weeks, Digging deeper, he finally reached a George V in 1935. He went on to Company, 1979. and Woolley noted: “We are doing level at which “all traces of human write many books and articles about Meade, C. Wade. Road to Babylon: marvelously well: I’m sick to death activity ceased and we were at the his life as an archeologist. He died in Development of U.S. Assyriology. of getting out gold headdresses, but bottom of Mesopotamia.” Here 1960. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, the other things are wonderful.” fragments of pottery and stone Today the site of Ur is located 1974. When the details of the discovery tools that have since been dated to inside the security perimeter of Winstone, Harry Victor Freder- were released to the public, newspa- 4000 B.C. marked the baseline of a Nasiriyah Airport in Iraq. The airport ick. Woolley of Ur: The Life of Sir pers that had only occasionally men- civilization that appeared to have was used as an American base during Leonard Woolley. London: Secker & tioned the excavations during the arisen independently of Egyptian the occupation of Iraq, when many Warburg, 1990. previous five years headlined what influence. Woolley discovered that United States armed forces person- Woolley, Charles Leonard. Dead the New York Times characterized as written records had existed in Ur nel were stationed near the ancient Towns and Living Men: Being “intrinsically much more interesting” several centuries before the Egyp- ziggurat at “Camp Adder.” In recent Pages from an Antiquary’s Note- finds at Ur. Because of this publicity, tians had invented their own system years, plans to develop the ruins as book. London: H. Milford, 1920. Woolley arranged with the local gov- of writing. Woolley concluded that a tourist attraction have been stalled Woolley, Charles Leonard. Ur of the ernor to post guards over the excava- Mesopotamia, not Egypt, was the by ongoing political conflict in the Chaldees: A Record of Seven Years tions when he returned to England in site of the world’s oldest civilization. region. of Excavation. London: Pelican February of 1928. In the early 1930s, the financial Books, 1938. During the next five field seasons hardships of the Great Depression led SOURCES: Zettler, Richard L., et al. Treasures Woolley excavated nearly two thou- to a cut in funds for the excavations Fagan, Brian M. Return to from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Phila- sand additional burials at Ur, most at Ur, and on February 25, 1934, the Babylon: Travelers, Archaeolo- delphia: University of Pennsylvania of which he dated from inscriptions dig ended. gists, and Monuments in Mesopo- Museum of Archaeology, 1998. Lady Plots Rescue Of Rebel Lord By Rick Bromer Lady Nithsdale was unwilling to “By the assistance of Evans,” Lady Nithsdale approached two female In 1715 Winifred Maxwell, be confined in the Tower because that Nithsdale wrote, “I had prepared friends who were both about the Countess of Nithsdale, became would prevent her from working for everything necessary to disguise my same height as her husband. She involved in a rebellion aimed at her husband’s release, but she went to lord, but had the utmost difficulty explained to them her plan to rescue overthrowing King George I of Great the prison anyway, accompanied by to prevail upon him to make use of her husband, and asked for their Britain. She was twenty-five, while her maid, Mrs. Evans. A few bribes them. However, I at length succeeded assistance. She wrote: “Their surprise her husband, William Maxwell, Fifth persuaded the guards to bend the by the help of Almighty God.” and astonishment, when I first opened Earl of Nithsdale, was thirty-six. Like regulations to allow Lady Nithsdale On the evening of February 23, my design to them, made them many of their neighbors in southern to visit the earl in his cell. the day before Lord Nithsdale was consent, without even thinking of the Scotland, Lady Nithsdale and her Although the Tower was full of scheduled to be executed, Lady consequences.” husband believed that their rightful armed men, they seemed relaxed and king was James Francis Edward careless. The guards were allowed to Stuart, the heir of the deposed James house their families in the prison, and II of England. so its otherwise grim corridors were After the followers of James took full of cheerful women and playing control of most of Scotland, the earl children. joined the rebel army on a southward Lady Nithsdale was determined march to invade England in October to help her husband escape, but by of 1715. Lady Nithsdale remained the time she reached her husband’s at home to manage their estates in cell, she had decided that it would be Scotland. impossible for a group of conspirators In late November she was to fight their way into the prison. She dismayed to learn that the rebel army therefore commenced plotting to had been crushed in battle at Preston, sneak Lord Nithsdale past the guards Lancashire, and that her husband had by disguising him as a woman. been taken prisoner, along with 1,468 When she met her husband, she other rebels. Worse news arrived found that he had grown a beard in early January of 1716, when the during his imprisonment, apparently countess learned that her husband because he was not allowed a had been imprisoned in the Tower of razor. She realized that this would London and condemned to death for complicate the task of disguising him treason. as a woman. In a letter to her sister, Lady On February 17 the government Nithsdale later recalled: “I took announced that Lord Nithsdale horses and rode to London, though and two other rebel lords would be the snow was generally above the executed on February 24. During the horses’ girths, and arrived safe final week of his life, Lord Nithsdale without any accident.” would be allowed to receive visitors, On her arrival in London, Lady but only two persons at one time Nithsdale requested permission to would be permitted to enter his cell. visit her husband in his cell. She Lady Nithsdale and her maid, was informed that no visitors were Mrs. Evans, had meanwhile procured allowed in the Tower, and that the a female wig and four very large only way that she could enter Lord women’s cloaks and riding-hoods, Nithsdale’s cell was by agreeing to all sized to fit Lord Nithsdale. Two of remain confined with him until his the outfits were brown, and two were execution. gray. Winifred Maxwell, Lady Nithsdale. page ten

One of Lady Nisdale’s tall disguise, Miss Hilton donned her because he had the same dress which eyes. . . . The guards opened friends, identified in her account as gray riding hood before leaving the she wore.” the door, and I went down stairs “Miss Hilton,” was slender, with cell with Lady Nithsdale. There were many people in the with him. . . . As soon as he had a feminine walk. The other friend, “I conducted her back down the room outside the cell, none of whom cleared the door I made him “Mrs. Mills,” was in an advanced staircase,” Lady Nithsdale wrote. “I seemed to notice anything suspicious walk before me, for fear the stage of pregnancy, which made her dispatched her safe and went partly about the altered appearance of sentinel should take notice of walk heavily, like a man. According downstairs to meet Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Mills. Lady Nithsdale wrote: his walk.” to Lady Nithsdale, “She was not only who had the precaution to hold her “Everybody in the room, who of the same height, but nearly of the handkerchief to her face, as is natural were chiefly the guards’ wives and same size as my lord.” for a woman to do when she is going daughters, seemed to compassionate Mrs. Evans was waiting at the Slender Miss Hilton first put on to take her last farewell of a friend me exceedingly, and the sentinel base of the stairs. She took Lord a brown cloak and riding-hood, and on the eve of his execution. I had, officiously opened me the door.” Nithsdale’s hand and led him to a then concealed that outfit beneath indeed, desired her to do so, that After escorting Mrs. Mills partway waiting coach, which took him to a gray cloak and hood. Mrs. Mills my lord might go out in the same down the stairs, Lady Nithsdale a house near Drury Lane. There he donned her gray outfit first, and then manner.” returned alone to her husband’s cell, was dressed in the livery of a male concealed it beneath a brown cloak When Mrs. Mills entered the while Miss Hilton and Mrs. Mills servant of the Venetian minister. He and hood. earl’s cell, she removed her brown left the prison and returned to their then set out for the coast, to flee by Lady Nithsdale, her two friends, outer clothing and gave the earl the homes. With her friends safely out ship to France. and her maid boarded a coach and set handkerchief into which she had of harm’s way, Lady Nithsdale was Lady Nithsdale wrote: “I was off for the Tower of London. Lady sobbed on her way into the cell. ready to launch the escape attempt. obliged to return upstairs and go Nithsdale wrote: “When we were in Mrs. Mills was then left wearing her Mrs. Evans continued to wait back to my lord’s room in the same the coach, I never ceased talking, that formerly concealed gray cloak and outside the lieutenant’s quarters as feigned anxiety of being too late.” they might have no leisure to reflect.” hood, which were identical to the Lady Nithsdale commenced to dress As she hurried past the guards and When the coach reached the clothes that Miss Hilton had worn on her husband in his disguise, trying their wives, they seemed to sincerely prison, the four women entered her earlier visit to the cell. to make him resemble Mrs. Mills. sympathize with her distress. and Lady Nithsdale introduced her Now there were two brown Lady Nithsdale had dressed in extra Reaching the cell, Lady Nithsdale friends to the lieutenant in charge of disguises in the cell, and Mrs. petticoats. To conceal the motion of entered it and slammed the door the guards, giving them false names. Mills was ready to depart, but Lady her husband’s legs, she removed the shut. She then paced nervously back She identified Mrs. Mills as “Mrs. Nithsdale hoped to give the guards petticoats and fastened them around and forth across the empty room, Betty,” and she called Miss Hilton the impression that the brown-clad her husband’s waist. addressing many loud questions “Mrs. Catherine.” visitor remained in the cell. Mrs. She wrote: to her missing husband, and Lady Nithsdale told the officer Mills therefore departed in her gray occasionally muttering a deep, gruff that the two ladies wished to bid outfit, leaving her face uncovered so Her [Mrs. Mills’s] eyebrows reply to herself. farewell to Lord Nithsdale. The that the guards could easily see that were rather inclined to be sandy, The light outside the barred lieutenant gave permission for the she was a woman. and my lord’s were very dark window slowly faded. When the two guests to visit the condemned Although Lady Nithsdale and her and very thick; however, I had night was truly dark, Lady Nithsdale lord, but he reminded Lady friends had not yet done anything prepared some paint of the felt sure that her husband must have Nithsdale that the prison regulations illegal, this was a dangerous moment color of hers to disguise his reached the safe hiding place she had specified that only two visitors could because it seemed possible that a with; I also brought an artificial arranged for him. She opened the cell enter her husband’s cell at one time. guard might notice that, while only headdress of the same colored door and slipped into the outer room, Leaving her maid, Mrs. Evans, with one lady in gray had entered the hair as hers, and I painted his where the guards and their wives Mrs. Mills, standing outside the cell, two in gray had departed. To face with white and his cheeks were relaxing. lieutenant’s quarters, Lady Nithsdale distract the guards’ attention from with rouge, to hide his long Holding the cell door only slightly then set off with Miss Hilton to visit her companion, Lady Nithsdale acted beard which he had not time to ajar, Lady Nithsdale spoke through her husband. distraught, loudly expressing feelings shave. . . . When I had almost the opening. “If the Tower is still When Lady Nithsdale and Miss of desperation to Mrs. Mills. finished dressing my lord in open when I finish presenting my Hilton reached the earl’s cell, they Lady Nithsdale wrote: “I took her all my petticoats except one, I petition, I will return to spend the firmly closed the door behind them. by the hand and led her out of my perceived it was growing dark, night with you, my lord,” said Miss Hilton removed first her gray lord’s chamber. . . . I had taken care and was afraid that the light of Lady Nithsdale to the empty cell. cloak and hood, and then the brown that Mrs. Mills did not go out crying, the candles might betray us, so “Otherwise, I will certainly return cloak and hood that were concealed as she came in, that my lord might I resolved to set off. I went out early tomorrow, and I flatter myself beneath them. Leaving the brown better pass for the lady who came in leading him by the hand, whilst that I will bring favorable news.” clothing with Lord Nithsdale for his crying and afflicted, and the more so, he held his handkerchief to his Then, bidding her lord good night, she shut the door. “I shut it with some degree of force, to be sure of its being well shut,” she wrote. On her way out she asked the attendants not to disturb Lord Nithsdale. “Do not send him candles till he calls for them,” she said. “He is now at his prayers.” The guards did not enter Lord Nithsdale’s cell until the next morning, when they were ordered to take him to the scaffold for execution. Finding him gone, the guards were at first astonished, but they soon deduced what method the earl had used to make his escape. Both Lord and Lady Nithsdale successfully escaped from England to France. Their Scottish estates were seized by King George, but they resided comfortably together in Rome for the rest of their lives as members of James Francis Edward Stuart’s court-in-exile.

SOURCE: A Letter from the Countess of Nithsdale, &c. With Remarks by Sheffield Grace. Nithsdale, Winifred Maxwell, Countess of. London: J. The Tower of London. Rider, 1827. page eleven New York Police Test New Crime-Solving Method by Lona Manning their inspector general, it was known set of prints taken with the complete partments and prison bureaus across In 1905 Detective Joseph A. Faurot as “the Henry method.” collection, but Inspector Henry and America were using Bertillon’s “an- of the New York Police Department In the fall of 1905, Faurot per- his assistants had devised a way of thropometric” methods for identifi- became interested in a new method of suaded New York Police Commis- cataloging and retrieving fingerprints cation, the New York Police Depart- identifying criminals by their finger- sioner William McAdoo to send him based on assigning number values to ment should rely on this system to prints. This method had been devel- to England to study this new method the whorls and arches. By studying share information. oped by police in British India during of identifying criminals. Detective Henry’s system, Faurot learned to One evening about a year after the late 1890s, and had been adopted Faurot crossed the Atlantic by steam- categorize fingerprints and to quickly Faurot’s return to New York, the hotel by the Metropolitan Police of London ship in December of 1905. On arrival find existing duplicates in the London detective from the Waldorf Astoria ar- in 1901. in London, he reported to the police police files, sometimes in a matter of rested a man who had been behaving Faurot thought that fingerprint headquarters at Scotland Yard, where minutes. suspiciously, tiptoeing down the cor- identification might be superior to the he was assigned to study fingerprint- Faurot’s studies convinced him ridor in his stocking feet. The prowler Bertillon system that his New York ing under Inspector Charles Collins, that fingerprinting was superior to the was brought into the detective bureau Police Department used to keep track one of Henry’s deputies. Bertillon system. Fingerprints could at police headquarters for question- of repeat offenders, who often moved The technique of fingerprinting not only identify repeat offenders ing; he insisted he was a respectable from town to town and used aliases. was simple. A police officer spread who were in police custody, but they citizen named James Jones. The po- Whenever they were caught, the printer’s ink onto a copper plate with could also be used to solve crimes. lice thought he must be a thief on criminals pretended to be first-time a roller. The officer then compelled Burglars sometimes left sweaty fin- the prowl, but they had no evidence offenders and escaped the longer pris- the arrested person to place his finger- gerprints on objects at the scenes of against him. Faurot noticed that he on terms handed out to career crimi- tips on the ink and to roll his fingers their crimes, and murderers some- had an English accent, so he decided nals. The Bertillon system, developed across a blank card. Although some times left bloody fingerprints on cloth to check with the English authorities. in 1885 by Alphonse Bertillon of the prisoners resisted, taking fingerprints or weapons. He grabbed a piece of office notepa- Paris Police Department, or Sûreté, from a struggling suspect was still Faurot was eager to introduce the per, took the man’s fingerprints, and helped to identify criminals no matter faster and easier than making the sus- new system to his own police depart- sent them off by steamship to Scot- what alias they used. Whenever a sus- pect hold still for all the precise body ment. But when he returned to New land Yard without, as he later wrote pect was arrested, the police recorded measurements demanded by the Ber- York in February of 1906, he ran into in a newspaper account, “further de- his hair color, eye color, and other tillon system. opposition from General Theodore scription of any kind.” Faurot asked distinguishing characteristics, and The only disadvantage of finger- Bingham, the city’s new police com- the detectives in England to compare also recorded various body measure- printing was that specialized training missioner. Bingham instructed Faurot the prints to their records. Fourteen ments such as height, forearm length, was required to analyze the prints. to forget about fingerprinting and to days later, the answer came back: the and width of the head. These details In the Bertillon system, information return to taking Bertillon measure- Englishman was a thief named Henry were noted on index cards with “mug on criminals was sorted by distin- ments. Johnson with a long string of convic- shot” photographs, giving each crimi- guishing characteristics, such as eye Bingham’s opposition may have tions and aliases. nal a unique identification. color, and body measurements, such been partly inspired by bad feeling Faurot’s colleagues were amazed The new method of identifying as height. Classifying and comparing between him and his predecessor, when Faurot showed them the criminals by their fingerprints was the minute differences of fingerprints William McAdoo. Bingham tended photograph that the English au- based on the fact that each person has with their loops, whorls, and arches, to be strongly prejudiced against any thorities sent along with their let- a unique and unchanging pattern of was more complicated. Scotland Yard innovative project that McAdoo had ter—it was definitely the man they ridges on his fingertips. Developed detectives already had 90,000 sets of launched. Bingham also felt that, held in custody, identified sim- by Hem Chandra Bose and Qazi Azi- fingerprints by the time Faurot- ar since most of the large police de- ply on the basis of his fingerprints. zul Haque of the Bengal Police under rived there. It would be hopelessly the direction of Sir Edward Henry, time-consuming to compare each new

Detective Joseph A. Faurot. According to his fellow officers, he was a A Bertillon system card from the files of the New Orleans Police calm and patient man, good at teaching others how to use fingerprinting Department. methods. page twelve

His fingerprints had “reached had discriminating tastes because, at Faurot’s ability to persuade the judge principle; [because] a new science, across the ocean to con- one house, detectives found a soup la- and jury that fingerprint evidence was which I knew was of inestimable demn him,” Faurot recalled. dle the thief had tossed aside because scientifically valid. Faurot knew that value to police work, was in reality, “Afterwards his store of loot from it was silver plate, not sterling. Faurot the presiding judge, Otto Rosalsky, on trial, and I was there to see that it other big hotels was found. He had tested the ladle for fingerprints and did not always side with the police should take its proper place and add been operating here for a long while. found a clear thumbprint with three against the accused. He had sent a po- a new chapter to the history of crimi- Had we not had his fingerprints he “deltas,” or triangles where ridges liceman to prison for perjury and had nology. I knew it to be far more reli- might have been discharged from came together. It was very unusual publicly criticized the police force for able and far-reaching than the Bertil- custody.” for a fingertip to have more than two “railroading” suspects. lon system, and, furthermore, I knew This success gave Faurot the confi- deltas. Faurot could find no match for In addition, potential jurors were it would be a greater aid as a means dence to request permission to set up the thumbprint in his files. skeptical about the new fingerprint of identification than [mug shots].” a fingerprint registry. Faurot was al- Soon thereafter, a man named Her- evidence. The New York Times re- Before passing sentence on Crispi, lowed to collect fingerprints, but his man Kaplan was detained near Cen- ported: “When the trial began . . . As- Judge Rosalsky told the defendant: work was still considered to be ex- tral Park early one morning. Police sistant District Attorney Wasservogel “[I]t is [in] the interest of justice and perimental. discovered he was carrying a small had great difficulty in getting twelve science that you tell the truth. It is in- In 1908 a nurse named Nellie crowbar and a set of skeleton keys— jurors who were willing to convict on valuable for us to know whether or Quinn was found murdered in her the tools of a burglar. He was brought finger-print evidence.” not the expert testimony given dur- apartment on East 118th Street. Fau- down to police headquarters and fin- Faurot recalled: “This was the first ing your trial was correct or other- rot visited the crime scene, afraid that gerprinted. As soon as Faurot saw time, as far as I knew in the crimi- wise. The fingerprint experts are of policemen and reporters had hope- Kaplan’s prints, he knew that he had nal jurisprudence of the country that the opinion that the science of identi- lessly tampered with the evidence. found his “soup ladle” thief. Kaplan such a case had ever been tried, and it fication, by means of finger-prints, is But underneath the victim’s bed, he was brought to court, and his unusual meant everything to me. . . . For two more exact than the Bertillon system found a bottle, which he dusted for thumbprint was introduced as evi- days I lectured to that jury on the ef- and photography. Did you remove the fingerprints according to his -train dence. Just as the judge was giving ficacy of the print system, and to tell pane of glass, in evidence here, from ing from Scotland Yard. He sprayed his final instructions to the jury, Ka- the truth, I could not tell how I was the door of the loft of H. M. Bernstein a very fine powder on the bottle and plan confessed. progressing—whether I was making a & Brothers?” found some fingerprints, which he Successes like this helped Faurot favorable or unfavorable impression. “I did,” Crispi confessed. He ex- then photographed and enlarged. As win complete acceptance for finger- The jurors’ faces were masks, for not plained that he had committed the part of the investigation, he ques- printing in the detective bureau. “If a gleam of interest seemed to flash crime at four o’clock in the morning, tioned Quinn’s male friends and took you ask any man in the police depart- from the twelve pairs of eyes that while his wife was asleep. In view their fingerprints to compare with the ment about the finger-print system were coldly focused on me and my of the fact that Crispi had assisted in ones on the bottle. Faurot matched the these days,” the Washington Post exhibits. Crispi was least concerned proving the usefulness of fingerprint prints to one of her friends, a plumber reported in 1909, “he will tell you it of all. He sat back in his chair with evidence, Judge Rosalsky gave him named George Cramer. Confronted is the best ever invented. Commis- the air of a man excessively bored by the minimum sentence of six months with the fingerprints, Cramer broke sioner Bingham is pleased with it. a discourse which he was compelled in prison. “I at first had little faith down and confessed that he had killed Everybody is pleased.” However, the to hear.” in this expert evidence,” the judge the victim during a drunken fight. department still regarded fingerprint- Crispi’s lawyers kept up a steady admitted, “but after the experiment Next, Faurot tried to catch a thief ing as a useful adjunct to the Bertillon barrage of interruptions and objec- conducted by Lieutenant Faurot in on the basis of a single thumbprint method, not as a replacement. tions as Faurot tried to explain how the court-room, in the presence of the left at a crime scene on the Upper In February of 1911, Faurot was fingerprinting worked. Finally, Faurot Court and jury … when he was able West Side. The police department no- called to investigate a theft in a gar- asked Judge Rosalsky to allow him to designate the person who made the ticed that a burglar was targeting the ment factory in Manhattan. The thief to demonstrate the accuracy of fin- imprint on the glass, I became satis- mansions of New York’s most afflu- had removed a pane of glass from the gerprint identification, and the judge fied that there is something to this ent citizens. They knew that this thief door of the factory to bypass the bur- agreed. According to the New York science.” Rosalsky added, turning to glar alarm. Faurot found a fingerprint Times: the jury, “Gentlemen, I am satisfied on the glass and matched it to a set of that you would not have hesitated fingerprints in his files. The prints be- Twelve men, mostly report- to convict this defendant on the evi- longed to Charles Crispi, aka Cesare ers and court officers, were then dence of the finger prints alone.” Fau- Cella, who had an extensive criminal asked to step up and have their rot recalled that “the foreman nodded record. But when the police arrested finger prints taken. [While Fau- his head as an endorsement of this Crispi, there was no trace of the sto- rot was out of the courtroom], remark, as did several of his fellow len clothing. one of the twelve was told to jurors.” Faurot questioned Crispi at po- step up and grasp the same pane Charles Crispi was the first person lice headquarters, where the suspect of glass as that which the pris- in the United States to be convicted calmly denied that he had had any- oner is alleged to have removed of a crime solely on the basis of fin- thing to do with the burglary. He had from the door of the building in gerprint evidence. Shortly after his been at the theater with friends, he Wooster Street. Faurot was then triumph in the Crispi case, Faurot said, and then he had gone home with called back into the room. His was promoted to captain and selected his wife. He had an alibi for the entire assistant, Sergt. Haney, in the to be one of the instructors at the New night. meantime, sprinkled some pow- York Police Department’s new detec- The only evidence against Crispi dered chalk over the glass and tive academy. Faurot taught the use of was Faurot’s identification of his rubbed it lightly with a brush. fingerprinting, and it quickly -super Charles Crispi, a burglar. fingerprints. A conviction hinged on [Faurot] was then told to exam- seded the Bertillon system. ine the fingerprints and compare Faurot’s fame spread across the them with marks on the glass. country. The Indianapolis Star re- This was done and in ten min- ported that “Captain Joseph A. Faurot utes he looked up and told the was a modest detective sergeant six jury that the marks upon the years ago,” but “his patient applica- glass corresponded with the fin- tion and analytic mind [has] caused gerprints marked ‘LL.’ This was [fingerprinting] to be accepted by the found to be correct. municipal authorities.” Faurot continued his distinguished Faurot recalled that “when court career with the New York Police De- adjourned Wednesday evening, Crispi partment, retiring in 1926 as a Dep- was far from being the self-confident, uty Police Commissioner. He then swaggering criminal that he had been lent his name to a fingerprinting sup- earlier in the week. . . . I knew that he ply company that is still in existence. realized he was doomed.” Faurot died in 1942 at the age of sev- The next morning, Crispi’s lawyers enty. withdrew his “not guilty” plea. “At last my victory was at hand,” Faurot SOURCE: wrote. “For weeks I had worked on Beavan, Colin. Fingerprints: the Ori- In this staged photograph, New York police detectives demonstrate how this case with only a little smudged gins of Crime Detection and the Mur- they “mug” a reluctant suspect—forcing him to pose for a photograph for daub to back my contention that this der Case that Launched Forensic Sci- “the rogues’ gallery.” man was guilty. It was a battle for ence. New York: Hyperion, 2001.