Provost Dungeon: Colonel Isaac Hayne
Isaac Hayne was a wealthy planter from South Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, Hayne fought as a Captain and private for the patriots. Following the Siege of Charleston, he was paroled by the British. During this period, the British required all paroled militia take an oath of allegiance to the crown; Hayne made the pledge. Nevertheless, Hayne would take up arms against the British again, this time as a Colonel. During a raid near Charleston, Hayne was taken prisoner and held in the Royal Exchange. The British used this opportunity to make an example out of Hayne and quickly charged him with treason and hanged him. The below is an excerpt from a five-page account by John Colcock, Hayne's defense attorney, concerning his legal case.
The Colonel being in the Provost, taken as is said in Arms against His Majesty; received on Thursday Evening intimation from Major Fraser in the words “A Court of Enquiry consisting of A Field Officer & 5 Captains will assemble tomorrow at 10 o’Clock at the State House for the purpose of ascertaining in what point of view you are to be looked upon.” The Court met the next morning & the Prisoner attended. Neither the Members or Witnesses were sworn. The Prisoner not conceiving it more than a Court of Enquiry previous to a trial neither availed himself of the leave given him for having Counsel or produced witnesses to a great many facts necessary for his defence, for which indeed he had but little time. He has this morning received notice that Lord Rawdon & the Commandant have come to a resolution in consequence of the Court of Enquiry that he shall be Executed on Tuesday the 31st…The Prisoner enquires, whether the proceedings had are warranted by an Law of the Sentence there upon legal? 1stly – That is the notification of your intended examination before the Court of Enquiry, there is not even by Military rule a sufficient certainty or charge [illegible word] to be considered by the Court, or defended by you.
2dly – That no Enemy is liable to suffer Death by the Articles of War or any other Military rule or Law of which I have ever had cognizance without Trial, except Spies, who are by the Articles of War expressly deprived of that right.
3dly – That no Subject is liable or can be deprived of this Life, Liberty or property but by the judgement of his Peers or the Law of the Land, & that there is no Law that I know of which warrants such a Trial & Condemnation as has been had in this case.
That it is a fixed rule in Law that a man is to be presumed innocent till found Guilty. That even being found or taken in Arms is not such a proof of guilt as presents a defence upon proof of conpulsion or thereways & that many so taken have been on such proof acquitted.
4thly – That I am therefore clearly of opinion that considering you as an Enemy (not a spy) the proceedings had against you are not warranted by Law & that as a Subject they are directly [illegible] & contrary there for.
John Colcock
Charleston July 29 1781
Source:
Colcock, J. (1871, July 29. [Legal Case Concerning Colonel Isaac Hayne, 1781]. Lowcountry Digital Library, South Carolina Historical Society. Retrieved from https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/272795.
