THE FAMOUS/INFAMOUS SHEARS
THE SHEARS THAT WERE HANGED
During my research i came across an article and it said. Settlers
in
Soon after the insurrection a Sir Henry
Shears and a Warren Shears
were politician's in
In the article the name is spelt Shears / Sheares It’s an interesting
piece of history with the family name
Executions in
NAME DATE OF REASON OF EXECUTION
SHEARES, 1799 12 Jul High treason in
In
The reign of Henry VIII. (38 Years) It is said that no less a number than72,000
criminals were executed. In the ten years between 1820 and 1830 there were
executed in
' POETIC PICTURES OF
The Smugglers
'Tis no encouragement to rack one's brains,
Then get one's statement doubted for one's pains.
Spirit of Chattertoil who wrote a lot of poems and
poked them in the coffee-pot
To give them the appearances of age and get a lot of
money for each page,
So they for” Rowley Poems” fairly passed; but poor
young man they found him out at last,
Which got the genius into such disgrace that he
resolved to quit his native place, And go to
How Bob Elliott Was Buried
Old Smuggler Bob Had done many a job
In running across the bay, with a cargo of stuff, For
Bob wasn't a muff,
And
did things in a business way. He’d a very small crew,-But Bob Elliott knew
They
were stars of the very first water. His skiff was his pride,
Like a phantom she'd glide, No Custom~house crew ever
caught her.
And many a ruse, But all of no use, His Majesty's men
had tried;
For old Bob was too deep, And managed to keep, By
stratagem, on the right side.
The crew of the smack Were Slippery Jack Bob Dugdale,
and Aaron Trier;
There were Fogwell and Shears,
Green, Lakeman, and Myers, In fact, all bold men could require. But Bob had the
gout so couldn't get out When a cargo of stingo was due, And for many a week
Had Smugglers Creek Been watched by a vigilant crew. .
For
the weather was clear and to come too near was a' risky thing to do,
As
now and again the coastguard men their glasses were scanning through.
But
good luck seemed to aid the rogues,so it made the night as black as a coal;
And
ere the morn broke they had managed to poke the haul in a' secret hole.
Which is said to have led from Berry Head to a spot in
Brixham town;
Called, the Old Laywell, Which. Rose and fell as the
tide went up and down.
Yet they felt in a fix for they'd still got six
small four-gallon kegs to stow;
But't would take no more, and the mate he
swore in’ a way only smugglers know.'
No' time for delay, so they scampered away’ With the
kegs to Captain Bob,
Who gave them a prayer For bringing it there, And
promised each
"One for his nob."
Here am I with the gout, and can't get out; Oh what,
with these kegs shall we do they'll be here without doubt, and bowl us out. So
it's all up with I and you."
"I'm on the tack," Says' Slippery Jack, We
must give out that your gone dead.
You can sit in a chair Like your grandmother there,
and we'll Stow all 'the stuff in the bed."
The bright sun rose, And a coast man’s nose Was
sniffing' the morning air; And he knowingly said, With’ a twitch’ of the head,
There’s a cargo bin landed,
I'II swear.,, Bob
Elliott, no doubt, But we'll find it out. "So they made for the smuggler's
door,
And
although 'twasn't kind, were delighted to find that troublesome Bob was
"no more.
'l'hen the Commodore said, Respect for the dead
Restrains us from searching the den; But we'11
keep it in sight By day and by night, Till they've buried the duffer-and
then?"
'There was no other chance but to lead them a dance,
so a coffin of monstrous size was made, and good need, For Bob was no reed, Yet
the box caused a little surprise.
'Twas a mournful day When they bore him away not he in
his grandmother's clothes; Twas his sprit they bore, whilst to keep from
a roar in a kerchief Bob buried his nose
The crew of the
Bess Seemed in deep distress, as each marched, with a handkerchief white
to the burial-place, Quite hid up his face, Twas a
seno-comical sight.
The men of Excise Even piped their eyes, for they
looked on Bob as a "brick;"
But little they knew, as they searched the house
through, how cleverly Bob did the trick.
That very same night a terrible sight was beheld, by
coastguards three,
On the Totnes road, with a phantom load, they could
solemnly swear 'twas he.
And each declared Bob Elliott glared like one whom
they'd rather not name. Whilst the nag cocked his tail like a harpooned while
and snorted a crimson flame
But Commodore Green Was a man who had seen A bit of
the world, and so he made up his mind for himself to find If the thing was
manoeuvred or so next night to Bob's house He crept like a mouse, And listened
outside the door,
When he heard Bob say, "Then they all ran away,
"Which set the whole crew in a roar.
"Oh," said Commodore Green, "Then done
we 'ye been, as he poked his head inside, which scared 'em at first-then a
lotider 'burst, For it wasn't to be denied.
The Commodore saw 'Twas no use to be "raw, “So he
called them "a d----- bad lot,
Past mending, I fear; But whilst I'm' here I may as
well have some and hot
next
morning they. knew .At the rendezvous how cleverly they'd been done.
He was named for that job "Resurrection Bob,
"And he handed it down to his son.
THE OUTLAWS
Contributed By Thomas E James
The family connection of Jesse James (outlaw) and Shears as it has been related to me.
John R James and Robert Sallee James were brothers.
John ,by my family folklore was my gggfather, Robert was Jesse's father.
John R. to John E.(born in
George Shears Hung in
Contributed By Barry William Shears
There are extant records in
that George was a member of the "Plummer Gang."
William Henry Plummer was elected Sherriff of the towns of Bannack and
camps of
On
They adopted a set of by-laws and 24 individuals signed an
oath of allegiance. During January and February of 1864 they
executed twenty-one men by hanging, with more to come in the months and years
ahead. Not one of the executed
men had a trial, nor an appeal, nor even a chance to set his
affairs in order before being hung.
An answer to an email sent in December 1998 to Louis Schmittroth elicited
the following response:
I have never had a question about George Shears before. He seems to one of the
almost anonymous victims of the killing spree. In fact there is even some
controversy about where he was executed. In VIGILANTE VICTIMS, Mather
and Boswell write:
While Williams had been interrogating Skinner and Carter, vigilante Number 84
had led a party of two to a ranch in the
On their arrival, the twenty-one year old, who was armed with only a knife,
immediately surrendered.
As they walked to the barn for the execution, they passed the corral, and Shears (or so Number 84 claimed)
helpfully pointed out which horses were stolen so his
captors would know which ones to take.
To save the time of fashioning some sort of gallows, Number 84 looped a rope
over a barn beam and then asked
the youth to scale a
ladder and insert his head in the noose. Shears casually complied and on reaching
the top rung asked, "Gentlemen, I'm not used to this business, never
having been hanged before.
Shall I jump off or slide off?" Amazed at his seeming
indifference to death, Number 84 replied, "Jump!"
"All right," Shears said, "goodbye." The rope was
long, and the jolt hard. Due to the time saved by skipping an
examination and using a ladder scaffold, Shears
died before midnight, making his
execution date one day earlier than Skinner's and Carter's.[76]
Whereas Dimsdale says he was hanged at Frenchtown, which is NOT in the Bitterroot
valley.
Anyone with a interesting story about the Shears and
would like to have it
Added to this page please email Fred Shears Email Me