John Pelley Took an Axe

John Pelley took an axe. And while he didn’t give his victims forty whacks, the few he did level on them were more than enough to finish the job.

This week, we’re going to be doing things a little bit differently. While this case is still a re-telling of a true event, there’s a fair amount of speculation, legend, and folklore thrown in.

A couple weeks ago, I had the good fortune of spending a holiday in Newfoundland. While in the community of Cow Head, I took in some live theatre, as the Gros Morne Theatre Festival was underway. I was most fortunate – and incredibly excited – to take in a play titled The Double Axe Murders. This play had me sitting on the edge of my seat, completely enraptured by the story. And better yet – it was based on the very real murders of two trappers and the subsequent hanging of their murderer.

Along with local legend and true facts, this is the story of how John Pelley took an axe and gave two trappers several whacks.

Shallow Bay, now known as the community of Cow Head, is found along the west coast of Newfoundland, often called the Northern Peninsula. This part of the province was known for drawing in French fisherman who set up shop and settled along the west coast.

Though fishing was the main industry along this coast, many merchants found success in fur trading, often employing trappers to do the dirty work.

Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross were two such trappers under contract for merchants along Rocky Harbour in the Bonne Bay area, a small settlement roughly 28 miles (or 45 kilometres) from Shallow Bay. Joseph and Richard would make the trek to and fro so often, Joseph had built a camp in Shallow Bay in order to rest during overnight stays. Joseph and Richard often worked together with another man, John Pelley (pronounced Peelley), who also frequented the camp.

Two other key players in this tale are John Paine (or Payne, some sources spell the name different ways), and Sarah Cross Singleton. Sarah was Richard’s sister and Joseph’s fiancée. She was also the housekeeper for Mr. Paine. They were quite familiar with Joseph and Richard’s routine – the two men go out once or twice a week to check the traps, stay a night or two at the camp, and return to Rocky Harbour.

All in all, it was business as usual when Joseph and Richard set out to check on their traps on April 10^th, 1809. They assured Sarah and John that they’d return in due course. The pair were never seen by them again.

A week after Rendall and Cross disappeared, Sarah and John grew increasingly worried. Joseph and Richard had never been away for this long without sending word before, and they hadn’t heard from the men since they’d left. Not knowing what else to do, Sarah and John set out to trek from Rocky Harbour to Shallow Bay in search of Joseph and Richard.

When they made it to Joseph’s camp, they found John Pelley residing in the cabin. He informed them that he hadn’t seen Richard at all, but he’d seen Joseph the day before. They’d shared a few words, and then Joseph went off into the woods. Pelley hadn’t seen him since the previous evening. He didn’t know when either man would return to the camp.

It was late when Sarah and John made it to the camp – they asked Pelley if he wouldn’t mind if they stayed the night in order to set out on their search again first thing in the morning. He consented. The night the three spent together – according to legend and The Double Axe Murders – was one of anxiety and tension.

There are two versions of events as to what transpired next.

In one version, Pelley drunk himself into a stupor, pouring himself spot after spot of moonshine. As it was early spring and still cool, there was a need for heat from the wood burning stove. Pelley, being dead asleep, couldn’t go out to fetch more wood, which left the task to John. When he returned, he showed Sarah a pile of belongings, as well as a pair of racketshoes (or snowshoes) which she identified as belonging to her brother. With Pelley still sleeping off the moonshine, Sarah and John quickly made their way back to Rocky Harbour in order to alert the others of their suspicions – Pelley had murdered Richard and Joseph.

In the second version of events, Pelley set out to get more firewood while Sarah hung up a few damp items of clothing to dry on a line. As she was moving some of Pelley’s things around, Sarah came across a couple pairs of mittens. She recognized them immediately – she’d knitted them for Joseph and Richard. On the insides of the cuffs, she found coloured thread she’d woven into the wool so that the two men could tell their mittens apart. The mittens belonged to her brother, and her fiancé. She adamantly told John that neither man would ever leave without their mittens.

When Pelley returned to the cabin with the firewood, Sarah and John spent the night fearful that Pelley would come after them next. They did the best they could to make it seem as though everything was in order.

At some point, Pelley went off to bed, taking his shotgun and an axe with him. When John questioned him about this odd behaviour, Pelley explained that he’d seen a weasel in the house – a statement that would immediately keep Sarah and John on edge.

When they were absolutely certain that Pelley was asleep, Sarah and John quickly and quietly left the camp and made haste to Rocky Harbour, where they alerted others to their suspicions.

Here is where consensus comes back into play.

A few days after alerting the community, an armed search party set out for Shallow Bay in order to either find Richard and Joseph, or confront Pelley with their accusations. They’d waited in order to determine whether Sarah and John were wrong in their suspicions, hoping Joseph and Richard would come back. When the two trappers failed to return, the search party set off.

As the search party, with John Paine in the lead, approached a marsh close to Joseph’s camp, they found Pelley trying to get into a boat with his gun and his axe. Pelley spotted the search party, and took off into the woods, headed for the camp. He was quickly caught and apprehended – local legend states that John Paine threatened to shoot Pelley then and there lest he come to a stop and drop his weapons.

Here’s where the story gets a wee bit colourful. When the party levelled their accusations at Pelley, he immediately denied murdering Joseph and Richard. The party wasn’t convinced. They tied Pelley to a tree beside the camp and threatened to light him on fire unless Pelley told the truth. Pelley confessed to murdering both men.

He told the party that he murdered Joseph and Richard because they were encroaching on his trap lines – they were on his territory. Pelley was worried they were trying to steal his traps, and therefore, steal his wages. He was livid. So he levelled them with his axe – though not the axe the party found him with.

At Pelley’s direction, the party were led to a spot near the camp where they were told to remove the snow and boughs built up from the recent snowstorms. Underneath the snow, the party found the frozen bodies of Joseph and Richard. Their skulls had been bashed in by an axe.

What the search party did the bodies and the murder weapon is very unclear. But I assure you, this comes up again a little while later.

The search party then took Pelley to Rocky Harbour where they held him prisoner until further into the spring. Rumour has it that Sarah and John kept him in the pantry of John’s home while they waited for a British man-o-war ship to transport Pelley to St. John’s, where he’d be tried for the murders of Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross.

On September 1^st, 1809, John Pelley stood trial before Chief Justice Thomas Tremlett. The trial did not last long, with Sarah and John Paine acting as the primary witnesses against Pelley.

On September 5^th, 1809, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged from a yardarm of a naval ship in the harbour of St. John’s, acting as an example to others who felt murder was an appropriate course of action.

Pelley may have met his fate, but the story doesn’t quite end there.

Before returning to Rocky Harbour, John Paine and Sarah Cross Singleton were married in St. John’s. Many of the Paynes who now reside on the French Coast, around Rocky Harbour and Cow Head, are said to be the descendants of the couple.

And what of the bodies and the axe, you may ask? In 1919, a road as finally built in order to connect Cow Head to Rocky Harbour more directly. During construction of this road, which was very near where Joseph Rendall’s camp once stood, two bodies and an axe were found. It’s said that these were the murdered bodies of Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross, and the axe was the murder weapon used by John Pelley. The axe is still on display at the Dr. Henry Payne Community Museum in Cow Head.

So, 210 years ago, John Pelley took an axe. The rest, as they say, is history.

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EDIT – I mistakenly referred to this area of Newfoundland as the French Shore, when it is actually the Northern Peninsula. I’ve corrected this accordingly.

Sources:

1809 Murder – Rootsweb – NFLD-ROOTS
1809 Murder con’t – Rootsweb – NFLD-ROOTS
John Pelley’s Axe – Artefacts Canada