Craven County, NC - Gov. Richard Spaight & John Stanley Duel, 1802

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A gentleman who came passenger in the schooner Appomatox, from Norfolk
informs us that on the 6th instant a Duel was fought at Newbern, NC
between Gov. Spaight and John Stanley, Esq (the former lately a
member of Congress, and the latter the present representative from
the same district) in which Gov. Spaight was killed at the first
shot. The quarrel, it is said, originated in politcal controversy.

Source: New York Herald
        September 22, 1802

A Duel was fought a short distance from Newbern, N. Carolina, on Sunday 
evening the 4th inst. between Richard Dobbs Spaight, Esq. formerly 
Governor of North Carolina, and John Stanley, Esq. a member of Congress. 
After exhanging three fires, each without effect, at the fourth fire, 
R.D. Spaight received a ball directly under his right arm-pit, which 
put a period to his existence four hours afterwards. The cause of this 
unhappy affair proceeded from a dispute of a political naure.

One of the Paris papers proposes as a remedy for Duelling, that the man
who kills his antagonist should be obligated to attend the funeral of
the latter, that he may be compelled to witness the grief and bear the
reproaches of the sorrowful widow, orphans and relations, which a 
pitiful point of honor has produced.

Source: The Rutland Herald
        October 11, 1802

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
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