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Peter Alston (after 1765 – February 8, 1804) was an American counterfeiter, horse thief, highwayman, and river pirate of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is believed to have been an associate of serial-killer Harpe brothers, and a member of the notorious Samuel Mason.
The Alston family had its origins in the British Royal colony of the Province of South Carolina, where the Alston surname was very common. There is scant information on his childhood and pre-criminal activities. His possible birthplaces include South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Natchez, West Florida (now Natchez, Mississippi), Fort Nashborough, Virginia (now Nashville, Tennessee), or Russellville, Virginia (now Russellville, Kentucky). The family probably moved frequently to avoid pursuit from the law.
The earliest recorded use of the James May alias dates back to around 1797 or 1798 in Red Banks, Kentucky (now Henderson, Kentucky) where Alston appeared with a woman who claimed to be his sister and was ostensibly lame. This woman could have been one of his two sisters, Francis or Elizabeth Elise. While in Red Banks, Alston stole horses, but he was caught in Vincennes, Northwest Territory (now Vincennes, Indiana), and brought back for trial. He broke out of jail the first night he was incarcerated and was never tried.Otto A. Rothert. 1922, reprint 1996. The Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University. pp171.
In the summer of 1799 regulators cleaned the frontier criminal element out of western Kentucky and Cave-in-Rock, Northwest Territory (now Cave-in-Rock, Illinois). Alston, gang leader Samuel Mason and Peter's father Philip all moved to Stack Island on the lower Mississippi River. Alston cast counterfeit silver coins there, as well as taking part in river piracy operations.T. Marshall Smith. 1855. Legends of the War of Independence, and of the Earlier Settlements in the West. Louisville, Ky.: J. F. Brennan, Publisher. pp343. Online at www.archive.org. pp343.
Although Mason claimed he was simply a farmer who had been maligned by his enemies, the presence of $7,000 in currency and twenty human scalping found in his baggage convinced the Spanish he indeed was a river pirate. Mason and his family were taken under armed guard to New Orleans, where the Spanish colonial governor ordered them handed over to the American authorities in the Mississippi Territory, as all crimes they had been convicted of appeared to have taken place in American territory or against American river boats.
While being transported up the Mississippi River, Samuel Mason and gang members Harpe brothers and Alston overpowered their guards and escaped, with Mason being shot in the head during the escape. One of the 1803 accounts {Rothert. p. 247} claimed Captain Robert McCoy, the commandant of New Madrid, was killed by Mason during their escape. McCoy actually died in 1840, and was neither crippled nor killed by Mason.Houck's "History of Missouri from the Earliest explorations..." 1908 Volume 2. p. 140. According to Conrad's "Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri" 1901. p. 557 a Creek named Tewanaye who killed a David Trotter in New Madrid in 1802 had been found guilty of murder in New Orleans and in a return trip near Natchez in a galley Tewanaye had tried to escape and crippled McCoy; Tewanaye was executed in New Madrid January 3, 1803.
American territorial governor William C. C. Claiborne immediately issued a reward for their recapture, prompting Harpe and Alston to bring Mason's head in an attempt to claim the reward money. Whether they killed Mason or whether he died from his wound suffered in the escape attempt has never been established. Setton and May were recognized and identified as wanted criminals, Harpe and Alston were arrested, tried in U.S. federal court, found guilty of piracy, and hanged in Old Greenville, Jefferson County, Mississippi Territory in early 1804.Wagner, Mark and Mary R. McCorvie, "Going to See the Varmint: Piracy in Myth and Reality on the Ohio River, 1785–1830", In X Marks The Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy, edited by Russell K. Skowronek and Charles R. Ewen, pp. 219–247. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
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