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CAPTAIN JOSEPH RICHARDSON.
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house of the neighborhood has a portion of the garret separated from the rest by a plastered partition, forming a false chamber without windows; and in this dark receptacle, called still by the country folk “the Richardson hole,” it is said that he and the Doanes used to hide away their booty. Once he went to Bromback's tavern in Chester county, and laying a loaded pistol within reach, ate a meal while the cowed bystanders looked on without daring to interfere. At another time, being closely pursued by a body of horsemen, among whom, we are told, were several of the Vanderslices, he rode across the country to the Delaware, and nothing daunted, plunged into the river. His horse fatigued by a long course, struggled ineffectually against the waves, and so leaving the animal to its fate, he threw himself from its back, and swimming across to the Jersey shore again escaped. “But the fox must sleep some times, and the wild deer must rest,” and February 24th, 1777, a vigilant individual wrote to inform the Committee of Safety that the “famous or infamous Ritchardson” had been seen in Philadelphia. Three days later, General Thompson, Major Butler, and some other officers, captured him between the city of York and the Susquehanna river, and conveyed him to Lancaster, and there had him securely confined in the jail. His good fortune however, did not yet desert him, and, strange to relate, either because of his innocence or shrewdness there seems to have been an entire lack of evidence against him. The mittimus in the first instance charged him with being a tory; but this accusation was abandoned, and that of forging and counterfeiting substituted. Having demanded and received from William Atlee, Chairman of the Committee of Lancaster county, a certificate to the effect that there was no proof of his being in league with the enemy, he wrote concern-

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