CLAUDIUS SMITH
- Program
- Subject
- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
-
Legends & Lore®
-
Legend
- 101 Main Street, Goshen, NY
- 41.402731, -74.321671
-
Orange County Government
CLAUDIUS SMITH
Inscription
CLAUDIUS SMITHREPUTED TORY MARAUDER
HANGED NEARBY IN 1779.
HIS SKULL BELIEVED EMBEDDED
IN MASONRY OVER FRONT DOOR
OF THIS 1841 COURTHOUSE.
NEW YORK FOLKLORE SOCIETY
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2016
Local legend suggests that the skull of Claudius Smith, a reputed Tory marauder and outlaw during the time of the American Revolution, was unearthed while doing excavation work for a new courthouse near a church in 1841. Smith was imprisoned and then hanged from a tree in 1779. Once the skull was found it was identified as belonging to Smith, claimed as a trophy and stored at the meat market of a Colonel Little until the courthouse neared completion. The skull was then supposedly embedded in the masonry of courthouse where it remains to this day.
