The Daily Dispatch

Unlawful Assembly.—On Sunday evening last officers Tyler and Seal, hearing a great noise on Baker street, in a house occupied by a free woman named Martha Ann Trent, surrounded it as the Irishman did the Indian camp, and finding that the disturbance was caused by the shouting, singing and stamping of Edward Bozeman, Hannah Campbell, Martha Ann Trent, and Milly Harris, free people of color, and Joe, Dick, and William Christian, slaves to William Barret, who were holding a sort of religious meeting, contrary to law, entered the premises and took the whole tribe into custody. The officers described the conduct of the parties as being extremely ludicrous, and informed His Honor that the house in which they were found had been frequently complained of. The Mayor informed the parties that under the law they had no right to hold meetings, unless in the presence of a white minister: and that the gathering together of more than five of them, constituted an unlawful assembly. This being their first offence he discharged them with a caution to avoid such meetings in future.