Law Case File 1900
Francis Giltner v Charles Gorham et al
October 18, 1848
Chatham, Ontario

Deponent further states that on the said month of January, 1847, early in the morning on a Wednesday deponent believes the door of her and her husbands house was violently broken open by one Frances Troutman and David Giltner who then came in the house with Mr. Dixon, the Deputy Sheriff, and two other men who endeavored to take this deponent her husband and family to Squire trial as they said; deponent said she would not go to trial with them or allow her children to go, for she would die first as they [T]hey offered to get a wagon to take her with her family to trial but deponent persisted in not going if they did bring a wagon after a good deal of conversation Giltner sat down and cried and said if deponent would give up the children, they would not take deponent and her husband away but leave them alone deponent refust [sic] however to give up the children, saying to Giltner that they meaning her former owner had the best part of her life at their service and she intended keeping her children to take care of her in her old days . . . after some people came round the house Troutman, Giltner, and the three other persons who accompanied them went out of the house and talked together and no other attempt was made by them that this deponent knows of to take this deponent[']s family away—

 . . . [D]eponent saith that between nine and ten o'clock on the said Wednesday morning she left the grounds with Mr. Hackett and Mrs. Reid,---deponent then did not notice any of the defendants at the time she left the house but saw them a little while before and did not see any of the white defendants at any time after and before she left the village at Hackett[s']—deponent left the village of the said Wednesday after the occurrence [sic]—deponent further saith that she does not know if the defendants were at her house on the afternoon or evening succeeding the attempt to seize her, deponent however saw some of the colored defendants at Hackett's on the said afternoon, in presence of Mr. Hackett and others whom this deponent thinks, if any of the white defendants had been at Hacketts that afternoon or evening she would have seen them—

 . . . [D]eponent saith that all her family had left her house and the grounds before she left with Hackett some time and that, John her son had left the house some time before quite the early part of the affray and that no resolution was passed on the ground in her presence

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