In the Matter of the Application of David Hughes Alexander S Hughes, Joseph Brannan James Boyd and David Hart, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Against Lewis V. Wycoff, Sheriff of King County Washington Territory

May 14, 1875 - May 15, 1875

Petitioned on May 15, 1875

Filed before the Third Judicial District Court for the Territory of Washington (Seattle, Washington)

Case ID: hc.case.wa.0064

Case Summary

The justice of the peace, D. S. Smith, ordered Hughes and his fellow petitioners to pay a peace bond of $500 ($300 for the other petitioners) to maintain the peace with Josiah Gellerson and the community as a whole. The petitioners were jailed indefinitely until they paid the bond, so they filed for a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that they never threatened to destroy the property of Gellerson. The writ was issued by Judge Lewis.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

Peace bond

Sites of significance

King County Jail (Seattle, Washington)

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

State

Washington

People

Hughes, Alexander (petitioner)
Hughes, Alexander (bound party)
Hughes, David (petitioner)
Hughes, David (bound party)
Brannan, Joseph (petitioner)
Brannan, Joseph (bound party)
Boyd, James (petitioner)
Boyd, James (bound party)
Hart, David (petitioner)
Hart, David (bound party)
Wyckoff, Louis V. (respondent)
Wyckoff, Louis V. (holding party)
Lewis, Joseph R. (judge)
Additional parties

Gellerson, Josiah (Complainant)

White, W. H. (Notary Public)

Gellerson, George (Complainant)

Seavey, James (Clerk)

Brown, Beriah (Deputy Clerk)

Andrews, L. B. (Clerk)

Smith, D. S. (Justice of the Peace)

Source Materials

To acquire the complete case file, contact the repository via email and provide the case citation to request a print copy or digital scan of the original file. Reproduction service fees vary by repository. Tribal members, descendants of enslaved petitioners, and community constituents without professional or academic affiliation may contact Katrina Jagodinsky for assistance in securing case file scans.

Repository(s)

Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch (Bellevue, Washington)

Case citation

King County Government, Judicial Administration. Territorial District Court Case Files, 1867-1889, No. 330

If you are teaching, publishing, or presenting from this work, please cite this page.

Type of source(s)

Case File

Length of case file

Between 6 and 10 pages

Case document transcriptions

Cite this page

If you are teaching, publishing, or presenting from this work, please cite this page as:

Katrina Jagodinsky, Cory Young, Andrew Varsanyi, Laura Weakly, Karin Dalziel, William Dewey, Erin Chambers, Greg Tunink. “In the Matter of the Application of David Hughes Alexander S Hughes, Joseph Brannan James Boyd and David Hart, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Against Lewis V. Wycoff, Sheriff of King County Washington Territory.” Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Accessed April 4, 2025. https://petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu/cases/item/hc.case.wa.0064