There are different versions of the legend, but it usually goes something like this:  In the year 1817, Abner’s daughter Betty ran off with Lewis Horton.  In September, Horton brought her home and dropped her off in the yard with some rude comments.  Abner demanded that Horton marry the girl, but Horton refused. So Abner grabbed his gun in a rage, and shot Horton in the back as he tried to flee across a creek on horseback. Abner fled into the wilderness, where he remained in hiding for two years, and somehow managed to claim thousands of acres of land for his descendants while hiding from the law. But he got tired of living alone and turned himself in, thinking that he would get off easy because the judge owed him a favor.  But he was mistaken, and was sentenced to death. Just before the hanging, he made an hour and a half long speech in front of the crowd, and sang a song that he had written in jail.  A pardon arrived an hour after the hanging, too late to do any good. Abner’s daughter Betty gave birth to Horton’s posthumous child, a daughter named Nancy who married Ephraim Hatfield and was the mother of Devil Anse Hatfield.

The available records tell a different story.  The surviving documents suggest that the real cause of the murder was a legal dispute; that the killing was premeditated; that Abner really wanted to shoot Lewis’s brother Daniel, but shot Lewis instead because Lewis was physically present and Daniel wasn’t. Abner didn’t flee into the wilderness; he was arrested immediately, and remained in jail until his execution. His efforts to “play” the legal system were worthy of a modern-day lawyer. He did give a long speech in front of the crowd that had gathered to watch him hang, but apparently did not sing the song he had written.  Some paperwork did arrive after the hanging, but it wasn’t a pardon or anything else that would have delayed the execution. There’s no indication that Horton was involved with Abner’s daughter Betty, whose reputation was a moot point because she already had two out-of-wedlock children at the time of the shooting. Betty did have a daughter Nancy who was the mother of Devil Anse Hatfield, but DNA evidence reportedly indicates that most or all of Betty’s children were fathered by John Ferrell, who was married to someone else.

Abner is commonly said to have been a preacher, a Revolutionary war veteran, and an Indian scout.  There’s no evidence for any of that; the court records repeatedly described him as a laborer.

Our best source of information about the testimony at Abner’s trial is a letter written by Judge Peter Johnston. It was submitted to the Virginia House of Delegates in December 1818 as part of a request for a change in trial law because of the difficulties caused by the Vance trial. Excerpts from this letter are reprinted below.  

Judge Johnston describes the impediments that existed to a proper trial, then says:

“For the purpose of exhibiting the character of the offense committed by Vance, give me leave to state in substance, but with precision, the testimony of the witnesses examined in his trial.

“The prisoner lived near Clinch river and walked down to a ford at no great distance from his dwelling on the morning of September 26, 1817, carrying his rifle, and declaring he had loaded it for the special purpose of shooting Daniel Horton, the brother of the young man afterwards slain; and, that he would not only kill him, but three others whom he named.

“Lewis Horton soon appeared in view, riding along the road which leads across the river near the place where Vance was waiting, as he said, to shoot Daniel Horton. As soon as the young man came within such a distance that his person was identified, Vance said ‘yonder comes Lewis Horton, and I have a mind to kill him.’

“He [Horton] approached Vance and saluted him with civility. Vance charged him with having sworn his life away; language, which had reference to a deposition given a few days before by Lewis Horton, in a suit in Chancery depending before Chancellor Brown. Horton expressed his astonishment at this charge and inquired what Vance had understood to be the purport of his deposition. Upon hearing Vance’s reply, Horton assured him he was mistaken or misinformed, and proceeded to repeat what he really had stated in the before mentioned deposition. [Chancery court was for settling non-criminal cases such as land disputes. No record of this Chancery case has been found.]

“Vance then expressed himself fully satisfied, declared to Lewis Horton he had nothing against him, and asked, ‘Have you anything against me’…’Nothing,’ said the young man, in a mild language and manner, ‘except that I do not like to see you have drawn your gun upon me’. ‘Help yourself as you can, I believe I will shoot you now,’ said Vance.

“Horton and a certain Joseph Fowlkes who was present, observing from the tone and countenance of Vance, the horrid purpose which he meditated, began to implore his mercy; but he raised his gun, leveled it at Horton, while he was endeavoring to make good his flight across the river, and tried when he was not a greater distance than thirty paces, shooting the ball through the body of this victim, near the back bone, and a little below the shoulder blade.

“As he [Horton] fell from his horse into the water, Vance poured forth execrations too bitter and horrible for repetition, and threatened with death an old man from the opposite shore, who advanced into the river, hoping that Horton’s life might yet be saved. But in this, he was mistaken. Although the young man was rescued from immediate death by drowning, he survived his wound but a short time expiring on the sixth day after its infliction.

“It is not only probable, but certain, that other instances will arise under the present judiciary system of this State, requiring the special interference of the Legislature, unless some general law should be enacted, the provisions of which may be adequate to the prevention, of remedy of evils and difficulties, such as have occurred in the case of Abner Vance.”

Russell County Common Law Order Book 1 1809-1824 (this is the General Court aka the Superior Court)

December 2, 1818 Peter Johnston, the presiding judge in the first trial, writes a letter to the legislature complaining that the case's notoriety made it hard to find impartial jurors, and Vance was using the peremptory challenge to exclude the qualified jurors who could be found. Johnston asks the legislature to pass a law to prevent similar problems in the future. Parts of this letter were cited in the first part of the article; it can be read in its entirety on page 68 of this Barbara Cherep article and also on page 60-61 of the Journal of the House of Delegates. One of Abner's many complaints was that Judge Johnston was biased against him, but the judges in Washington County did not consider this to be an issue.

December 10, 1818 Daniel Horton petitions the legislature to move the trial to another county, saying that "it is believed to be impossible to try the said Vance, unless he can be removed to, or jurors from some other county can be impanelled to try him... in this case, so far from a speedy trial, it is believed no trial is practicable... [it is hoped that the legislature will provide a way] in which the justice and laws of the Country can operate upon a crime unparalleled in attrocity." At this time there was no legal principle or precedent allowing a change of venue, and the Vance case was the first time it was done.  Horton's petition was rejected. It is available at the Library of Virginia and in Russell County Legislative Petitions 1792-1820 FamilySearch Img 131-133

Date uncertain, between December 1818 and April 1819: The Legislature passes a law allowing a change of venue in cases of treason or felony.

• December 2, 1818 Jailer Andrew Cowan is ordered to show cause why he should not be charged with a misdemeanor for failing to provide Abner Vance with a wholesome diet in jail, and for giving him unwholesome food unfit to be eaten on several occasions. FamilySearch Img 47
• March 4, 1819 The food complaint against Andrew Cowan is dismissed. FamilySearch Img 58

This is the end of the original court records that are available.  But fortunately, General Court Judge William Brockenbrough published a book that summarized many of the cases heard by the court, including Abner's trial in both Russell and Washington counties. The book can be viewed in its entirety on HathiTrust.  The section about the June 1818 portion of Abner's trial in Russell County begins on page 132; it goes into more detail about the reasons that the verdict in this trial was overturned. The first complaint was that juror John Chandler admitted to having a wishy-washy sort of opinion before the trial that he was quite willing to change once he'd heard the evidence; it doesn't say whether this opinion was in Abner's favor or not. Abner chose not to use his peremptory challenge to get rid of this juror which seems rather strange - was Abner deliberately creating a flaw that he could use later to challenge the outcome? The second reason was that Abner's daughter wasn't allowed to testify that he was insane because she hadn't seen him for days before the shooting and didn't know his state of mind. There was a third complaint but it is not described. Abner's first conviction was nullified based on the second complaint.

The book's section on the June 1819 trial in Washington County begins on page 162. Some of the more interesting tidbits:

• Abner's request for a continuance to the next term in September 1818 was turned down because “the Court, considering the prisoner as a man of considerable sagacity and artifice… is of the opinion that the motion is made to gain time”.
• "on the first day of the ensuing Term of the Superior Court of Washington, on the 31st May, 1819, the prisoner was set to the bar, and appearing in an emaciated state, his Counsel moved the Court that a physician be appointed to examine whether the state of the prisoner's health be such as to enable him to undergo the fatigue of a trial." Abner was examined by three physicians who found that he had some fever but was healthy enough to stand trial. If Abner was intentionally trying to look sick, it didn't work.
• After the doctor's examination, Abner asked to have the court record read to him, and have the trial postponed until the next day. The next day he moved to have the case dismissed based on petty complaints about the court record. This was overruled.
• Abner's next complaint was that the Court of Washington county had no jurisdiction over the case because the crime was committed in Russell county. Overruled. Followed by a complaint that the jury was illegal because the jurors were from Washington county and Abner was a resident of Russell County.  Overruled.
• The trial then commenced, but it ran so long that it could not be finished on the same day. The jurors were sequestered with each other overnight, and the next day they found Abner guilty of murder in the first degree.
• On a subsequent day, Abner moved for a new trial because a newspaper article that was published in Washington County in June 1818 called Abner an "unfeeling savage". Overruled.  It appeared that no one on the jury had even seen this article. The article was written by Judge Peter Johnston from the Russell County trial, but this was not disclosed in the article.
• Abner's lawyer abandoned the insanity defense during the Washington County trial, even though Abner's first conviction was overturned because they didn't let Abner's daughter testify that he was insane. Apparently they didn't think the jury would buy an insanity defense if the claims were actually made in court.
• Abner then moved to arrest the judgment based on a list of petty technicalities. He was overruled and a sentence of death was passed on him.
• His final move was to apply for a Writ of Error which was unanimously rejected by the judges. This was his last known legal move in the case.

Abner Vance was hanged for murder in Washington County, Virginia on July 16, 1819, almost exactly one year after his originally scheduled execution date and nearly two years after the murder of Lewis Horton.

Other family history articles:
   The Trents:
     1. The Trent Y-DNA project
     2. Trent family tree
     3. Trent landholdings
     4. Frederick Trent of Tazewell/Logan county: how many Fredericks?
     5. The Lincoln connection
     6. Original documents
   The Jarrells:
     1. Jarrell family tree
     2. Jarrell landholdings
     3. Who were William Jarrell's parents?
     4. Who were Mary Sharpe's parents?
     5. Was Susannah Parks a Cherokee?
   Other branches of the Jarrell/Herbert family:
     The Pocahontas problem
     The Canterbury family of Virginia
     The New Sweden line
   The Beach line:
     Richard Beach 1825-1900
     The ancestors of Donkin Dover
     Tribute to Edwin Thomas Beach
  On the paternal side:
     The Armingeon family