Gloucester County NJ Archives News.....Murder of George TILLER, May 20, 1820
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Berks And Schuykill Journal May 20, 1820
Woodbury, N.J. May 3. 
Murder
It is with feelings of pity for the deluded creature who committed the horrid 
deed, and regret for the outrage against the laws of society, we relate the 
following account of a murder, committed near Barnsborough, in this county, on 
Tuesday, the 25th ult. The circumstances which gave rise to this act, are as 
near as we can learn, as follows:
John Gooby and George Tiller, the deceased, (both coloured men) lived 
adjoining each other. Tiller owned a hog which was occasionally in the 
practice of trespassing upon Gooby's property, and this circumstance 
frequently led to quarrels between them. On the day of the rencounter the 
animal had broken into Gooby's ground, who, upon discovering the hog, took his 
gun and repaired to the house of the deceased, and told him he would have 
satisfaction, and he, the deceased, must take his gun and defend himself. 
Tiller, thinking he was in jest, said, "then we had better fight a duel," he 
accordingly took down his gun and went to the door, but seeing Gooby’s 
threatening appearance, said, "I believe you are in earnest," the other 
replied, "to be sure I am.' 'If you are,' returned Tiller, 'I will put up my 
gun; for I would not kill you for all America.' Gooby then told him if he 
would not fight, he should come and see what damage his hog had done, to which 
the deceased consented. They then left the house, and in the course of the 
dispute, the deceased called Gooby a d____d liar, upon which the latter 
levelled his gun, (which was loaded with duck shot) and killed him instantly. 
The load entered the neck and passed through the spine.
It is said that Gooby, the day previous to the murder, went to a neighbor's 
house, and asked for as much shot as would kill a man, expressing at the time, 
his intention to murder Tiller, the person to whom he made application refused 
his request. He then wished to borrow twenty five cents, that he might 
purchase some shot: this was also refused. He then went away saying, 'I 
believe I have one charge at home, sufficient to kill the d____d negro,' 
alluding to Tiller.
A coroner's jury was held over the body of the deceased, who brought in a 
verdict of wilful murder. The wife of the deceased, (who was gone from home,) 
was sent for, and on seeing the dead body of her husband, threw herself upon 
it, and a scene of lamentation ensued, which was sufficient to have affected 
the hardest heart. But the hardened wretch was unmoved; and on being asked if 
he did not feel sorry he had occasioned so much misery, he replied, 'I only 
wish I had one more charge, that I might have shot her also.'
The deceased and Gooby it appears, had frequent quarrels, and the animosity of 
the latter seems to have gathered strength daily. He is a man of the most 
violent temper; and when committed to prison, expressed no symptoms of 
penitence whatever. He has a most astonishingly retentive memory and it is 
seldom we see a man possessing a more intimate knowledge of the scriptures -- 
yet he is superstitious in the highest degree.
The deceased has left a wife and four small children.


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