The hanging judge

There is, in our genealogy, a judge who sentence someone to death. This happened around the turn of the century, and was a well-publicized trial. When my cousin mentioned to me "pictures of the hanging judge" I was curious, but I figured, I should learn more about this. He is the topic of my present inquiry.

His name was William Davies Wallace, and he's a problem in our genealogy for this reason. Apparently he had only a daughter, Beatrice. But his brother, John Crawford Wallace the druggist, had four children, and my grandfather was the third of them. The fourth was a guy named William D. Wallace, and this William D. Wallace apparently had a son who would have been William D. Wallace Jr. or William D. Wallace II.

Now the name William Davies Wallace has been given to these two, or written into genealogies, but I'm not sure J.C.'s son was William Davies. Perhaps he was just William D. something else and people assumed that D. was for Davies (it could have been). But my confusion was, I thought that if there was a William Davies Wallace II that they would have to be the son of the hanging judge. And they're not. It's possible that the name Davies has been added on in this situation, or it's possible that J.C. named his kid William Davies Wallace in spite of having a brother by the same name. I find that second possibility a slim chance, but I'm still looking.

The hanging judge, by virtue of his prominence, is one of the more famous Wallaces of Wallace Run, New Castle, and Beaver Falls. He was involved in some kind of scrape when he became a judge, and being a judge got him out of it. I'm not sure of the whole story, but I'll find out.