One of the first cases of counterfeiting in New England occurred in 1718 at the General Court of Trials in Newport. The defendants were father and son Edward Greenman and Edward Greenman, Jr. of Kingstown, and husband and wife Robert and Freelove (Lawton) Lippincott of Shrewsbury, NJ, Newport and Stonington, CT. Members of this criminal ring were first jailed in 1713 and tried in 1718 for passing bogus bills in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Numerous accomplices were granted immunity and the Greenmans pled guilty and were sentenced to the pillory, jail and ear-cropping (or a cash fine, which was paid). Freelove Lippincott pled no contest and disappeared in Stonington or Barbados.
Engraved copper plates were the main tool used by counterfeiters. A genuine £3 note was transported to England by Freelove as a template for an engraver. Local metal smiths and engravers such as Samuel Vernon were always suspected, and Samuel Casey, a Greenman cousin from South Kingstown, spent most of his life defending himself against counterfeiting charges.
Image: Counterfeit four shilling note of 1715. Photograph from the Society of Colonial Wars Publication #34.