Peter Townsend Barlow
| Peter Townsend Barlow | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 21, 1857 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | May 9, 1921 (aged 63) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Occupation | Lawyer and New York City Magistrate |
Peter Townsend Barlow (July 21, 1857 – May 9, 1921) was an American jurist who served as a New York City Magistrate for nearly two decades.
Peter T. Barlow was born at New York City to Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow and the former Alice Cornell Townsend. His father was a prominent New York Wall Street attorney who frequently represented the interest of the American railroad industry. Barlow’s grandfather was Samuel Bancroft Barlow, a noted American physician. Barlow attended Harvard College and graduated with the Class of 1879; receiving his law degree two years later from Columbia Law School. After his admittance to the New York Bar, Barlow became managing clerk for his father's law firm, Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & Choate. Barlow left the firm not long after the death of his father in 1889.
In 1895 Barlow was elected to the Board of Directors of the Sterling Mountain Railway Co. and in 1902 was chosen by New York Mayor Seth Low to fill out the term of City Magistrate Willard H. Olmstead after the latter’s appointed to the Court of Special Sessions. Though he still had some years left on his appointment, the following year, Mayor Low named Barlow to a full ten-year term as magistrate. Barlow went on to be reappointed to a second ten-year term by Mayor William Jay Gaynor and serve as president of the Board of City Magistrates for three terms. For a number of years Barlow presided over the Women’s Night Court located in Lower Manhattan, and as president of the Florence Crittenton League, a reformatory primarily for prostitutes and unwed mothers. Peter T. Barlow often chose to sentence women convicted of prostitution or petty thefts to workhouses or reformatories in the belief that it would weaken their ties with the men who controlled them.
Katherine and Charlotte Poillon were sisters from Troy, New York who over several decades made headlines with their frequent lawsuits against wealthy men or fending off charges of failing to pay their debts. In 1902 Katherine Poillon filled a $250,000 breach of promise lawsuit against wealthy sportsman William Gould Brokaw, a cousin of Irving Brokaw and later settled out of court for $17,500. Peter Barlow fell into their web in 1908 when the sisters were arrested for failing to pay several New York City hotels bills amounting to over $500. During the trial Katherine made the claim that Judge Barlow borrowed $25,000 from her and had promised to pay her hotel bills as partial payment. Later Barlow took the stand and denied her allegations, but did admit that some years earlier he had been introduced to the sisters. In an outburst during court Katherine declared their relationship had been personal and ongoing for a number of years. The Poillon sisters were eventually found guilty by the court and sent to a jail on Blackwell Island for three months.
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