Peter Alston (after 1765 - February 8, 1804) was an American
counterfeiter,
horse thief
Horse theft is the crime of stealing horses. A person engaged in stealing horses is known as a horse thief. Historically, punishments were often severe for horse theft, with several cultures pronouncing the sentence of death upon actual or presu ...
,
highwayman, and
river pirate
A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted ...
of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. He is believed to have been an associate of
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
Little Harpe, and a member of the notorious
Mason Gang.
Early life and family
Peter Alston was born in the 1700s, the son of infamous colonial-era counterfeiter
Philip Alston
Philip Geoffrey Alston is an Australian international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Globa ...
, who was associated with notable outlaw lairs at
Cave-in-Rock, Illinois, and
Natchez, Mississippi. His father had three wives: Mildred McCoy (Peter's mother), Temperance Smith, and Mary Molly Temple. Alston had two brothers, Philip, Jr. and John McCoy, and two sisters, Frances and Elizabeth Elise. His paternal grandparents were Solomon Alston and Sarah Ann "Nancy" Hinton Alston. His paternal uncle, John Alston, was also a counterfeiter.
The Alston family had its origins in the British Royal colony of the
Province of South Carolina
Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...
, where the Alston surname was very common. There is scant information on his childhood and pre-criminal activities. His possible birthplaces include
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, Natchez,
West Florida
West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...
(now Natchez, Mississippi),
Fort Nashborough
Fort Nashborough, also known as Fort Bluff, Bluff Station, French Lick Fort, Cumberland River Fort and other names, was the stockade established in early 1779 in the French Lick area of the Cumberland River valley, as a forerunner to the settl ...
, Virginia (now
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
), or Russellville, Virginia (now Russellville, Kentucky). The family probably moved frequently to avoid pursuit from the law.
Criminal activities
According to Alex C. Finley, in ''The History of Russellville and Logan County, Ky'', Peter Alston used the alias "James May". Alston also used the aliases Samuel May and Isaac May.
The earliest recorded use of the James May alias dates back to around 1797 or 1798 in
Red Banks, Kentucky (now
Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as t ...
) where Alston appeared with a woman who claimed to be his sister and was ostensibly lame. This woman could have been one of his two sisters, Francis or Elizabeth Elise. While in Red Banks, Alston stole horses, but he was caught in Vincennes,
Northwest territory (now
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur ...
), and brought back for trial. He broke out of jail the first night he was incarcerated and was never tried.
In the summer of 1799 regulators cleaned the frontier criminal element out of
western Kentucky
Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state.
;Always included
* The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...
and Cave-in-Rock,
Northwest territory (now
Cave-in-Rock, Illinois). Alston, gang leader Samuel Mason and Peter's father Philip all moved to
Stack Island
Stack Island is an island game reserve, with an area of 23.7 ha and a high point 54 m above sea-level, in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group which lies between north-west Tasmania and King Isl ...
on the lower Mississippi River. Alston cast counterfeit silver coins there, as well as taking part in river piracy operations.
Arrest, escape, and execution
According to
Spanish colonial court records, Spanish government officials arrested
Samuel Mason
Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang o ...
and his men, early in 1803, at the Little Prairie settlement, now
Caruthersville, in southeastern Missouri. Mason and his gang, including his family members, were taken to the Spanish colonial government in
New Madrid, Spanish Upper Louisiana Territory, along the Mississippi River, where a three-day hearing was held to determine whether Mason was truly involved in river piracy, as he had been formally accused of this crime.
Although Mason claimed he was simply a farmer who had been maligned by his enemies, the presence of $7,000 in currency and twenty human
scalps found in his baggage convinced the Spanish he indeed was a river pirate. Mason and his family were taken under armed guard to
, where the Spanish colonial governor ordered them handed over to the American authorities in the
Mississippi Territory, as all crimes they had been convicted of appeared to have taken place in American territory or against American river boats.
While being transported up the Mississippi River, Samuel Mason and gang members
Wiley Harpe and Alston overpowered their guards and escaped, with Mason being shot in the head during the escape. One of the 1803 accounts claimed Captain Robert McCoy, the commandant of New Madrid, was killed by Mason during their escape. McCoy actually died in 1840, and was neither crippled nor killed by Mason.
American territorial governor William C. C. Claiborne immediately issued a reward for their recapture, prompting Harpe and Alston to bring Mason's head in an attempt to claim the reward money. Whether they killed Mason or whether he died from his wound suffered in the escape attempt has never been established. Setton and May were recognized and identified as wanted criminals, Harpe and Alston were arrested, tried in
U.S. federal court, found guilty of piracy, and hanged in
Old Greenville,
Jefferson County,
Mississippi Territory in early 1804.
[Wagner, Mark and Mary R. McCorvie, "Going to See the Varmint: Piracy in Myth and Reality on the Ohio River, 1785–1830", In ''X Marks The Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy'', edited by Russell K. Skowronek and Charles R. Ewen, pp. 219–247. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.]
Gallery
File:Keelboat and flatboat.jpg, While on the Ohio River and later the Mississippi, Peter Alston joined Samuel Mason
Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang o ...
and his gang of river pirate
A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted ...
s, chose flatboat
A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...
s, keelboat
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...
s, and raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels ...
s, as profitable targets, to attack, because of the valuable and plentiful cargo on board.
File:Old Cahokia Courthouse.JPG, Peter Alston along with Wiley "Little" Harpe were captured with the Samuel Mason Gang, in 1803, and brought before the Spanish Territorial commandant, Colonel Robert McCoy, in New Madrid, Spanish Upper Louisiana Territory, New Spain The courtroom would have been small and simple, like the Old Cahokia Courthouse, in Cahokia, Illinois Country
The Illinois Country (french: Pays des Illinois ; , i.e. the Illinois people)—sometimes referred to as Upper Louisiana (french: Haute-Louisiane ; es, Alta Luisiana)—was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s in what is n ...
, Northwest Territory (pictured).
File:Old Cahokia Courthouse - Interior.JPG, When Peter Alston, Wiley "Little" Harpe, and the Samuel Mason Gang, received their hearing in the Spanish colonial court of New Madrid, the frontier courtroom may not have been much bigger than the courtroom of the Old Cahokia Courthouse (pictured).
File:OldTraceSunken.jpg, The old path of the " Natchez Trace", where, between 1799 and 1803, Peter Alston, Wiley "Little" Harpe and the Samuel Mason Gang committed highway robbery and murder against unsuspecting travelers.
File:William C C Claiborne rectangleLAState.jpg, In 1803, Mississippi Territorial governor, William C. C. Claiborne (pictured), offered a $2,000 reward, a very large sum of money, at the time, for the capture or severed head of Samuel Mason. Peter Alston and Wiley "Little" Harpe brought in the head of Mason to collect the reward and were identified and hanged.
References
Further reading
*
Asbury, Herbert. ''The French Quarter: The Informal of the New Orleans Underworld''
*Magee, M. Juliette. ''Cavern of crime''. ''Livingston Ledger'', 1973.
*Rothert, Otto A.
The Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock'. Cleveland: 1924; rpt. 1996
*Wagner, Mark J. ''The Wreck of the '"America" in Southern Illinois: A Flatboat on the Ohio River''. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.
*Wagner, Mark and Mary McCorvie. "Going to See the Varmint: Piracy in Myth and Reality on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, 1785–1830," ''X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy''. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006.
*
Wellman, Paul I. ''Spawn of evil: the invisible empire of soulless men which for a generation held the Nation in a spell of terror''. New York: Doubleday, 1964.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Peter
1760s births
1804 deaths
Crime families
American outlaws
18th-century American criminals
19th-century American criminals
18th-century pirates
19th-century pirates
American highwaymen
People extradited from Spain
People extradited to the United States
People executed by Mississippi by hanging
19th-century executions of American people
People from Natchez, Mississippi
People of pre-statehood Illinois
People from Hardin County, Illinois