One may wonder what Forgery was defined as in the 1800s. At the time, there were many types of forgery. The Penal Code of New York defined forgery as "Every person who, with intent to defraud, forges, counterfeits or falsely alters such documents as" wills, conveyances,  or certificate of acknowledgments. Other examples of documents that could be forged included United States stamps, passage tickets, public securities, records, official returns, corporate seals, and many others. For every specific type of forgery, there are guidelines found in The Penal Code of the State of New York.

According to the 1865 New York Penal Code, forgery was "punishable by imprisonment in a state prison" according to varying degrees. In New York in the mid-1800s, there were four degrees of forgery: Forgery 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. The punishment for first degree forgery was a minimum of ten years. Second degree forgery sentencing had a ten year maximum and five year minimum. For third degree forgery, the sentencing was five years or less. The requirements for fourth degree forgery is state prison with no more than two years and no more than one year in county prison.

Forgery was not a frequent crime in the Diary, appearing approximately thirty times out of approximately seven hundred sixty cases. An example of forgery in the Diary is Walter Chrystler. He is described in the Diary as,

“a native of this State about 25 years old was convicted of forgery in the 3rd degree and sent up for two years and six months, that term expired and he was discharged the 19th of August.”

Walter Chrystler's forgery conviction is only one of the approximately thirty cases in the Diary. 

Source:

Source:

The Penal Code of the State of New York. Reported complete by the commissioners of the code. Albany: Weed, Parsons, 1865. Accessed March 6, 2019. HathiTrust