05/27/2026
Official documents such as deed books and court records give us great insight into the activities and associations of many of the people buried in Locust Grove Cemetery. Other than the faith they shared, these Catholics were not an insular group. They were spread far and wide across Wilkes and Warren Counties, and by 1800, they were well integrated into society. They were active citizens and highly regarded by their neighbors, even if their religion was not. One example of this is the appointment of John Cratin as a Wilkes County jurist, an appointment that would see him seated in the courtroom for one of the most sensational trials in the history of the county. A trial which ended with a public hanging. The scandalous story and murder mystery captivated the population of Wilkes County in 1806, and newspapers as far away as Charleston covered the trial. The locals hung on every bit of gossip surrounding the case. In the courtroom, a jury of men, including John Cratin, would hear the case of the beautiful Mrs. Polly Barclay who was charged as a co-conspirator in the murder of her husband.
On May 9th, 1806, John Cratin and his wife, Marcia Ann, were living on their large plantation on Fishing Creek northeast of Washington in Wilkes County. In the early morning hours of May 9th, John left his home and rode the 12 or so miles to Washington. The roads around the courthouse were packed with curious onlookers as John and the other jurors made their way into the courthouse. In 1806, the Wilkes County Courthouse was a small clapboard-sided structure at the center of town, near where the current courthouse now stands. It was not large enough to hold the throngs of people that had come to witness the trial of a woman accused of orchestrating a murder, so they gathered outside the open windows to listen to the lurid details of the case.
Only the day before on May 8th, John Cratin had gone to the same courthouse in Washington to sit on the jury of one of the men accused in the case. The man was William Noland, Polly’s half-brother. He along with a man believed to be Polly’s lover, a Mr. Mark Mitchum, were the only two on the scene when Mr. Barclay was shot and killed. Polly was accused of arranging the circumstances that would lead to one of those two men pulling the trigger. Mitchum fled the county, leaving William and Polly to face the consequences of the murderous deed.
At first, Polly was not a suspect in the case, but suspicion was aroused when money from a cotton sale went missing and people talked. A Wilkes County youth came forward to report that he had overhead a conversation between Polly and her brother in which Polly offered $200 to William to kill her husband. Eventually, enough circumstantial evidence was collected when put together led to Polly’s arrest.
Since her half-brother, William, had been found not guilty the day before, Polly entered the courtroom firmly believing that she would also be acquitted. What she did not know is that William would now be a witness for the state. (Had a sort of “plea deal” been offered to William? We do not know.). Opening statements, witness testimonies, closing arguments, jury deliberation, and the verdict all came in one day. The jurors (and those listening outside the windows) heard the shocking details of the demise of Mr. Barclay who didn’t die right away. He lingered for a few hours unable to speak the name of his murderer because the ball from the smoothbore pistol had severed his tongue. The jury members, all men, clearly struggled with convicting a woman knowing that a death sentence could be imposed. Their verdict is preserved in the Wilkes County Judicial Record:
"We the jury find the prisoner at the bar guilty but recommend her to mercy."
But there would be no mercy granted by Judge (future U.S. Senator) Charles Tait. The transcription of his brutal ruling handed down in court that day is preserved:
“That you Polly Barclay be taken from this bar to the place from whence you came, there to remain until Friday the 30th, day of this present month of May, and that on the aforesaid 30th, day of May you are to be taken by a proper officer to a gallows previously to be erected in or near the town of Washington, and then and there on the day aforesaid, between the hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and two o'clock in the afternoon, you are to be hung by the neck until you are dead and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Punishment was swift in those days. Twenty days after the trial, Polly Barclay was hung from a large white oak tree on the north side of Main Street (now Robert Toombs Ave) a block from the courthouse. The jury recommendation of mercy along with letters from some Wilkes County citizens asking for a reprieve of her sentence were forwarded to the governor of the State of Georgia. Of the three conspirators in the case, she was the only one proven to not have fired the shot that killed John Barclay. But the reprieve was not granted; “his excellency thinking it necessary that justice and the law should be respected."
Mary “Polly” Jenkins Barclay (1775-1806) was the first woman to be legally hung in the State of Georgia.*(see note) She is buried along with other family members on land that once belonged to her father, Starling Jenkins, in Wilkes County.
John Barclay (1767-1805) was buried where he fell on that fateful day in 1805. His grave was marked with two unhewn stones that could for years be seen alongside the road north of Washington, interestingly, not far from the plantation of John Cratin.
John Cratin, jurist, is buried in Locust Grove Cemetery, Taliaferro County.
*In 1735, when Georgia was still a colony, an Irish Catholic girl named Alice Riley was hung in Savannah. She was accused of murdering her master, William Wise, who was said to be a lecherous and cruel man.
Below is a picture of Charles Tait, the judge who could find no mercy in his heart for Polly Barclay.
