October 3, 2016 / Joanne Yeck

The Famous Forbes Case of Buckingham County: Part XL

Buckingham County Jail, Courtesy Historic Buckingham

Summer in Jail

On August 5, 1904, Richmond’s The Times-Dispatch announced that the Buckingham jail now contained four important prisoners. The article noted:

The jail here, usually so quiet and uninhabited, has four occupants who are likely to spend at least the rest of the summer in “durance vile.” The Negros, Banks and James (one under a death sentence and the other awaiting trial for shooting his companion), and the two now noted prisoners, Forbes and Wooldridge.

It should be remembered, that Judge Hundley denied bail for Wooldridge until September.

The correspondent, based in Buckingham Court House, continued:

I learn that the expenses of the trial, or rather mistrial, in the E. C. Wooldridge case footed up in costs the neat sum of $1,014, and the end is not in sight.

I hear that the three lawyers who are to appear for Charlie Forbes will get $1,250 as their fee.

On the same day, The Highlander, in its column, “The Old Dominion,” printed a slightly different interpretation of Wooldridge’s ongoing incarceration:

There is unabated interest and intense feeling in Buckingham over the failure to find a verdict against E. C. Wooldridge for the burning of J. H. Forbes (sic) house. It is the general belief that the life of Wooldridge would be in danger if he returned to his home in the neighborhood of the burning. For this reason his counsel kept him in jail previous to the trial, although bail had been granted, and it is likely he will pursue a similar course now.

Coming next: Charlie Forbes Dangerously Ill

Need to catch up? Click here for The Famous Forbes Case of Buckingham County: Part I