ABSTRACT
Theodore, a mulatto boy, the son of a Frenchman, was placed as an apprentice to Stephen Burroughs, of Philadelphia, saddle and harness maker. His father was white, and his mother colored. After he had lived with Burroughs two or three years, his master discovered in the boy’s trunk about one thousand dollars, in doubloons. He took possession of the money, and had Theodore committed to prison, on charge of having robbed him. After he had been in prison about twenty-four hours, being at the prison, in the discharge of my duty as an inspector, my attention was directed to him by one of the keepers. I had the lad called, and inquired into the cause of his confinement; when he gave me the following history of himself. He said he came from the West Indies, with his father, who died in Trenton, N.J. a few months after their arrival. That a few days previous to his death, he called Theodore to his bedside, and informed him that a trunk in the room, which he showed him, contained a sum of money in gold; that here was a false bottom in it, where the money was deposited; and after his death, he wished him to take the trunk, but not to let any person, not even his best friend know of his having the money, till after he should be twenty-one years old. He also told the boy that he had bequeathed some property in the West Indies to him, and had appointed his friend ____, a Frenchman, residing in Trenton, his guardian. He could not bequeath the money to the lad, as the laws of France did not permit more than a certain proportion of his estate to be given to an illegitimate child, and this money, in addition to that given him in the will, would amount to more than that proportion.
