Description

On Friday, 7 April 1865, some 150
residents of Charlottetown accompanied
John Morris, High Sheriff
of Queens County, to the farming community
of Alberry Plains, Lot 50, some
18 miles from the capital, near the
Kings County line. Their purpose was
to execute an arrest warrant against
Samuel Fletcher, a tenant farmer who
had resisted arrest for non-payment of
rent for his farm three weeks earlier.
The spring roads were in poor condition,
"almost impassable," according
to one newspaper.
The expedition failed. Fletcher was
not apprehended, and there is no record
to indicate that he was ever apprehended,
although as late as January
1866 the government was eager to capture
him. Members of the posse comitatus,
which had left town at 8 a.m.,
straggled back into Charlottetown
either late at night or on Saturday
morning, depending upon whether they
had travelled on foot, on horseback, or
by wagon. It had been a gruelling experience,
which few relished. Almost no
one suggested a repetition.