Allegiance in the Gap

A man born and raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, left home on December 26, 1776 and joined the British forces. Pennsylvania's revolutionary government later named him in a proclamation requiring him to surrender or be attainted of high treason; he did not surrender in time, and the Attorney General moved to have him attainted. The jury had to decide whether he had been a subject owing allegiance to Pennsylvania on the day he left. The prosecution's position was that allegiance began once the new legislature met and a council was appointed in late November 1776. The defence argued that no settled government yet existed to protect him, so he owed it no allegiance and was free to choose his side, and that the treason statute passed in February 1777 could not reach back to his departure.