The name of Nathan Pegg has been a terror to evil-doers in Norfolk for over half a century. As early as 1840 he was appointed Constable by the old Quarter Sessions, and was reappointed from year to year, as was the custom at that time. Forty years ago he was appointed High Constable for Norfolk, holding the position down to the time of his death, which occurred since this sketch was first written. He reached his 87th year, but for several years previous to his death he had been unable to cope with the muscular doers of evil. He spent his life in his county’s service—a service that is underpaid and fraught with constant danger of receiving personal injury or of losing life itself—and it would have been a simple act of justice had the old high constable been granted a reasonable allowance during the declining years he spent in the old arm-chair.

Many of our higher public officials are permitted to retire from service while comparatively wealthy and not impaired by old age, and draw upon the Public treasury during the remainder of their lives. This may be all right; and if so, how much more righteous must be the claim of that official who has served the public at the peril of his own life in the suppression of vice, and in upholding the dignity of the law, until the burden of accumulated years has broken the strong man down and incapacitated him for further service, leaving him without that ample provision for old age which men engaged in the activities of private life are permitted to make? The emoluments of the office of high constable are not sufficiently lucrative to enable the incumbent to “feather his nest”—as is the case with many of the higher offices—and when the infirmities of old age make it no longer possible to attend to the duties of the office, he is justly entitled to, and should receive, a grateful recognition for his past services in some substantial way.

Mr. Pegg had a wide experience in attending to the duties of his office. He passed through many trying ordeals—tests that prove the kind of stuff a man is made of—and it is a matter of record that Nathan Pegg was a man eminently fitted by nature for the position he filled for so many years.

On one occasion Mr. Pegg went over to Waterford to arrest a man named Gleason. It was a cold day and he wore a heavy overcoat and long woollen muffler. When he came in sight of the house he saw his man enter, but when he reached the door the man’s wife said her husband was not at home. Mr. Pegg knew better and at once entered the house. In the kitchen he found his man armed with a heavy bar of iron, and as the constable advanced, Gleason threatened to knock his brains out if he attempted to lay hands on him. The man then threw the bar of iron at Mr. Pegg without serious effect, and the next instant the constable seized him. Gleason was a powerful man, and Mr. Pegg, encumbered with superfluous clothing, had his hands full. To add to the difficulty the man’s wife came to the rescue, and, during the tussle, the two came near choking him to death by means of the woollen muffler wound around his neck. On a table in the corner of the room lay an ugly-looking butcher knife, which Gleason finally succeeded in reaching. With this weapon he kept Mr. Pegg at bay and finally escaped from the house. During the struggle Mr. Pegg received several bad cuts on his wrists. The warrant having been destroyed a new one was issued on the following day. The man was arrested and tried, and the only punishment he received was six months in jail.

The High Constable assisted Constable Freeman Rose the night the latter received the terrible knife wound that ruined him for life. The prisoner was a colored tough, named Graves, who lived in the old “Negro Quarter” of Simcoe. It was a dark night, and when the constables reached Graves’ house he was standing on the sidewalk. Rose stepped up and arrested him in the “Queen’s name,” and as he did so Graves knocked him down with a piece of chain and sprang towards the fence. He was armed with a heavy club; and, as he scaled the fence, Mr. Pegg wrenched the club from his hands. The constables pursued and caught him, and as Rose was about to handcuff him the negro plunged a knife into Rose’s abdomen, and, braking loose from Pegg, made good his escape in the darkness. He succeeded in getting out of the country; and, years afterwards, was seen by Hon. M. Foley at a hotel in Alabama. The wound received by Mr. Rose was a serious one and nearly proved fatal. For a whole year he lay on his back and suffered great pain, and was never again able to perform any kind of manual labor.

Before Mr. Pegg was appointed high constable he was sent to Lynnville to assist High Constable Dredge and Constable Tate in the arrest of one John Shaw, who had whipped a pound-keeper and taken out some impounded stock by force. They found their man at home, and stayed with him till noon, and then went away without arresting him. Shaw was armed with a brass candlestick, which he adroitly concealed in such a way—snapping the slide whenever one of them made a move towards him—that they thought he had a pistol, and were thus scared away. Subsequently Mr. Pegg secured a warrant for him, but the high constable wanted a hand in it, and so he went a second time, taking Fisher, Walker, Murch and Pegg with him. Shaw was not at home this time, but after searching every house in the neighborhood they found him armed with a bowie-knife. Fisher wanted to knock him down, but this he was not warranted in doing. While moving about watching for a chance, Pegg suddenly seized him by the arms from behind and he was handcuffed. Shaw was tried and convicted, but escaped from jail by crawling through an eight-inch space under the stove, and succeeded in getting out of the country.

In speaking of his life’s work Mr. Pegg said: “I think a constable should be given the same powers and allowed the same means of defence that policemen in our cities have. The policeman carries his baton, and if his prisoner shows fight he is armed with the means of overcoming his resistance. When a constable steps up to arrest a tough he does so at his peril every time. When he lays his hand upon a man’s shoulder he incurs a certain risk. The man may be armed with revolver or knife, and he may be in a proper mood to make instant use of it. It may be a test of physical strength, and in such case the officer, although he may be equal to his antagonist, is placed by the law at a very great disadvantage, as the law assumes that every man is innocent until he is proved guilty, and the constable is held strictly accountable for any injury he may do the prisoner in the act of overcoming his resistance, although such injury may be essential to the capture. At first I carried a revolver, but after a while I made up my mind that the risk of receiving a personal injury, through lack of the means of self-defence, was less to be feared than the risk I would incur by shooting a man in a moment of undue haste, and so I placed my revolver in a drawer and kept it there. I have spent my life in the business, and my experience teaches me that all constables should not be permitted to carry revolvers. Some may be entrusted with firearms on all occasions, but they do not constitute the majority. A county constable who devotes his time to his business deserves more pay. His clothes are frequently torn off him; he is exposed to dangers, and, if not endowed with a cast-iron constitution, will break down under it; and though he be spared for a long life of service, as exemplified in my own case, he will be unable to lay aside a sufficient sum from the profits of the office to keep him during the few last years he spends in the arm-chair.”

The Pegg family of Norfolk, are descended from an American family of New Jersey. John Pegg of that colony had two sons, Nathan and John.[1] The former died young in New Jersey, and the latter went down to Philadelphia while yet a mere lad, and engaged at such work as he could find to do. One day a caravan of North Carolina and Maryland U.E. Loyalists passed through the city en route for Upper Canada. Young Pegg fell in with the party and engaged with them as driver and caretaker of the cows and other stock the party were driving with them. This was the Solomon Austin party, consisting of twelve families, which arrived on the Niagara frontier in the month of June, 1793.[2] Young Pegg came to Lynn Valley with the Austins, and subsequently married Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Solomon Austin, and settled near his father-in-law’s home, on land drawn by his wife, as the daughter of a U.E. Loyalist. He died in 1850, at about the age of seventy-five, and his wife died in 1854.[3] John Pegg had four sons—Philip, Nathan, Joseph and James; and four daughters—Joanna, Esther, Mary and Elizabeth.[4]

Philip Pegg, eldest son of John, married Rebecca Ann Lemon, and settled finally on the Round Plains. He had one son, Jacob; and two daughters—Mary and Melinda.[5] Subsequently he married Mary Morgan, but there were no children by this second marriage.

Nathan Pegg, second son of John, married Julia Ann, daughter of Solomon Austin, son of Solomon, and settled in Simcoe. He was the old high constable and the last male survivor of his generation. He had three sons—Wesley, Austin and Robert; and two daughters—Sarah and Julia. Wesley Pegg is one of Norfolk’s veteran school teachers; in fact, his name is as suggestive of the school room, as his father’s name is of the court-room.

Joseph Pegg, the third son, died single, as did also his sister Joanna.

James Pegg, fourth son of John, married Drusilla Rockafeller, and settled in Lucerne County, Pennsylvania, where he raised a family.

Esther Pegg, eldest daughter of John, married William Murray, and settled on the Round Plains. She had three sons—Charles, Wesley and Wallace.

Mary Pegg, the second daughter, married John Richmond, and settled in Simcoe. She had three daughters—Drusilla, Eliza, and one who settled in Kansas.[6]

Elizabeth Pegg, youngest daughter of the old pioneer, married William Williams, and settled in Norfolk. She had four daughters—Caroline, Annie, Julia and Minnie.[7]

[1] An ancestral genealogy of the Pegg family is included in Sources in Austin Genealogy by William R. Yeager, citing a genealogy by William Wilson Pegg. John Pegg, born in New Jersey on November 15, 1775 was a son of Joseph and Nancy (Parks) Pegg. Joseph was a son of Nathan Pegg, born at Peggs Run, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1708.

[2] The Austin migration occurred in 1794. Solomon Austin sold his land in Orange County, North Carolina on March 8, 1794, the deed registered in the Orange County Deed Book 5, page 98. On July 16, 1794, Solomon filed a Land petition to the Executive Council of Upper Canada announcing his arrival in the province and requesting a grant of land.

[3] The William Wilson Pegg genealogy gives Elizabeth (Austin) Pegg’s date of death as July 23, 1851. Owen stated the year 1854, but Elizabeth was not recorded in the 1852 Census of Woodhouse Twp.

[4] The William Wilson Pegg genealogy does not include a “Joseph” in the John Pegg family. He gives following additional children: Solomon, born August 8, 1813, died 3 Feb 1814; John, born January 16, 1815, died November 18, 1818; Rebecca, born March 9, 1826, married Hiram Lefler. Rebecca was older than Esther who was born on April 11, 1828.

[5] Philip Pegg married twice, the first occasion recorded in the London District Marriage Register and the second in the Talbot District Register. He married first on October 2, 1833, Rebecca Ann Lemon. He married second on September 28, 1852, Mary (Hampton) Morgan. By his first wife, Philip had the following children, recorded in the William Wilson Pegg genealogy: Isaac, born May 15, 1834; Jane Miriam, born July 6, 1836; Eliza Ann, born March 11, 1838; Elizabeth Helen, born September 9, 1840; Jacob, born July 6, 1842; Mary Catherine born October 16, 1848. Of these, Isaac, Jane, Eliza and Elizabeth died in young adulthood. Of them, only Eliza married, her husband being John Richmond. By his second wife, John had Philip Landon Pegg, born December 3, 1853 who died in childhood on April 14, 1860 and Melinda, born on October 4, 1857.

[6] The unnamed daughter was Martha Richmond, born on August 30, 1861 according to the Pegg genealogy.

[7] “Caroline” might be an error for Elizabeth (Pegg) Williams’ son Edward Corodyne Williams, born on 9 Nov 1854.