Washington County

In the year of our lord one eight hundred and forty-one

The grand jurors for the state of Tennessee being duly summoned elected impaneled sworn and charged to enquirer for the body of the county of Washington aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid present that Joseph H Bell late of said county laborer not having the fear of god before his eye but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil on the seventh day of December in the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and forty with force and arms in the county aforesaid in and upon one Joel D. Clark in the peace of God and the state then and there being feloniously, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, premeditatedly, and of his malice aforethought did make an assault and that the said Joseph H Bell a certain musket of the value of ten dollars then and there loaded and charged with gunpowder one leaden bullet and one leaden slug which musket he the said Joseph H Bell in both his hands then and there had and held to against and upon the said Joel D Clark then and there feloniously, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, premeditatedly, and of his malice aforethought did shoot and discharged and that the said Joseph H Bell with the leaden bullet and leaden slug aforesaid out of the musket aforesaid then and there by force of the gun powder and show sent forth as aforesaid, the said Joel D. Clark in and upon the left breast of him the said Joel D Clark a little below the left half of him the said Joel D Clark and a little below the left clavicle of him the said Joel D Clark and a little above the left half of him the said Joel D Clark then and there feloniously, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and premeditatedly and of his malice aforethought did strike penetrate and wound the said Joel D Clark

Witness for the states     

February term 1841

This day came the grand jury into court in a body headed by Mathes their foreman and presented a bill of indictment against Joseph H Bell for murder in the first degree endorsed on the back there of a true bill and signed by their foreman and then retired to consider of their further presentments

Indictment for murder in the first degree

This cause an affidavit of defendant of continued until the next term of this court and the defendant is before court remanded to jail but in assembled as this county is without a jail

… is therefore considered by the court that the defendant be sent to the fortified convoy him to said jail and that the sheriff or jailer of the said carter county received the said defendant into said jail and him safely keep until the furthered order of this court or discharged by a due course of law