Henry Montfort | newsobserver.com projects

McCullock and Montfort, defrauders

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on December 21, 2007 - 3:51pm.

Benjamin McCullock also appears to have been caught up in a scandal over military pay.

The state senator from Halifax County was expelled on Dec. 11, 1786, for taking as much as a third of a cut from military paychecks that were sent through an office in New Bern.

The account of the scandal in "The Colonial Records of North Carolina," Vol. XVIII, (p. 305) is a little hard to follow, but it appears that McCullock and state Rep. Henry Montfort falsified receipts and allowed military pay to be taken fraudulently.

Montfort, of Warren County, was expelled from the House on Dec. 15. He later testified in the case of John Bonds, who was expelled in 1787.

Who has been expelled from the legislature?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on December 17, 2007 - 4:05pm.

Answer:

At least 13 people were kicked out of the legislature between 1757 and 1880.

Below, the year of their expulsion, their names, districts and alleged crimes.

1757: Rep. James Carter, of Rowan County, for embezzlement.

1758: Rep. Francis Brown, of Currituck County, for perjury.

1770: Rep. Herman Husband, of Orange County, for libel.

1779: Rep. William Gilbert, of Tryon County, for fraud.

1784: Rep. Edward Clay, of Caswell County, for theft.

1786: Sen. Benjamin McCullock, of Halifax County, for a military pay scandal.

1786: Rep. Henry Montfort, of Warren County, for a military pay scandal.

1787: Rep. John Bonds, of Nash County, for a military pay scandal.

1809: Rep. John Clary, of Perquimans County, for fornication with his stepdaughter.

1816: Sen. John Roberts, of Carteret County, for fraud.

1835: Rep. Robert Potter, of Granville County, for brandishing a gun during a fight.

1875: Rep. J. Williams Thorne, of Warren County, for publishing a "blasphemous" pamphlet.

1880: Rep. Josiah Turner Jr., of Orange County, for calling other legislators names.

In 2007, two House committees decided to consider expelling Rep. Thomas Wright of Wilmington.