1Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In England the probate of wills of personalty was within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, although many related questions, both of administration and distribution, had to be tried at law or in equity. The ecclesiastical courts had no power over wills of realty, because the common law claimed exclusive jurisdiction of title questions. Such wills were proved only if an action at...
2Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
This case throws some light on the conduct of business in Boston in the middle 1760’s, but it is primarily of interest for the pleading problem which it presents. James Apthorp, younger son of a leading Boston mercantile family, and William Gardiner, in the course of breaking up their business partnership in 1763, had made an agreement under seal which provided among other things that Apthorp...
3Record: Suffolk Court of General Sessions, Boston, November 1768 (Adams Papers)
The Petition of the Selectmen of the Town of Brookline in the county of Suffolk, setting forth that on the thirtieth day of January 1767 the worshipful Joseph Williams Eqr. issued a warrant in these words, vizt., Suffolk Ss. Complaint being made to me the Subscriber, one of his Majestys Justices of the peace for said county, by Mesrs. John Child, Aaron Davis, and Eleazer Weld, Gentlemen and...
4Adams’ Commonplace Book: Ca. 1759 (Adams Papers)
Assumpsit. Sometimes signifies not only a Promise but an Actual Undertaking of the Business, an Actual Entry, upon the Execution of the Promise. Ass umpsit Ind ebitatus will lie against A.B. upon such a Promise as this viz. “my Brother will give you an handsome gratuity, for the Trouble you shall be at in that affair which I promise you shall not be less than £300.” Assumpsit. In Assumpsit we...
5Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
As in England, the Massachusetts justices of the peace, singly and in their joint capacity as the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for each county, formed a kind of all-purpose administrative tribunal with jurisdiction in a wide variety of local government questions. Matters within their power included tavern licensing; the construction, repair, and use of highways; militia service;...
6Plea: Suffolk Inferior Court, Boston, July 1767 (Adams Papers)
And the said James comes and defends &c., and saith that the said William hath not been damnified by any demand made upon him by Messrs. Trecothick & Thomlinson or in any manner as the said William in his Declaration hath alledged and supposed and thereof the said James puts himself on the countrey. SF 101250. On the same page with the return ( Doc. I ). Dated from the Inferior Court judgment,...
7Writ of Certiorari: Suffolk Superior Court, Boston, July 1769 (Adams Papers)
To our trusty and well beloved Samuel Welles Esqr. first Justice of our Court of General Sessions of the peace for the said county, Greeting. Willing for certain causes to be certified of the Record of the process Order and Sentence of a Court of general Sessions of the peace held at Boston in and for said county by adjournment on the seventh day of November last, upon a petition of the...
8King’s Petition to the General Court: 4 January 1768 (Adams Papers)
Province of the Massachusetts Bay To His Excellency the Governor The Hon orab le His Majestys Council and the Honle. House of Reprisentitives in General Court Assembled Humbly Shews Richard King of Scarborough in the County of Cumberland in Said Province Gentleman That in the Night of the 19th of March AD 1766. a Number of Persons in Disguise with axes Clubbs &c. Broak the windows of the...
Covenant Broken. Plea. Special Demurrer. 1. 2. 3. 4. Joinder in Demurrer. Auchmuty. 2 Breaches assigned in Declaration by Plaintiff. 1. 2. not indemnifying. Plea is that Plaintiff was not damnifyd by any Demand from Trecothick & Thomlinson. The 3 first Reasons in the Special Demurrer, are to the same Point. —Tro. Holts Reports. Page 206. Annersley vs. Cutter. 2nd. Exception is that he did fit...
10Jane Dotey’s Examination: Plymouth, 6 July 1769 (Adams Papers)
Plymouth Ss. The Information of Jane Doty now Residing in Duxborough single woman taken before me Gamaliel Bradford Esqr. one of his Majestys Justices of the Peace for the said County this Eighth Sixth Day of July 1767. Q. Are you now with Child. A. Yes. Q. Who is the father of the Child you are now Big with. A. Mannuel Essane of Marshfield servant to Rouse Bourne Between on the Seventeenth...
Humbly petitioning showeth Timothy Prout of Scarborough in the county of Cumberland Esqr. 1. That well and true it is that the said Timothy on the said tenth of December A.D. 1753 became bound unto the said Christopher Minot in the sum of two hundred pounds lawfull money of this province conditioned to pay the sum of one hundred pounds like money with lawfull interest on or before the tenth of...
12Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
This was an action brought by John Gray for injuries inflicted upon him by Lendall (or Lindall) Pitts in a scuffle outside Dehon’s barber shop in Boston. Adams’ minutes indicate that the underlying cause was an earlier incident in which Pitts had “gallanted” what he assumed to be an attractive young lady, only to learn that feminine clothes covered a masculine form—either Gray himself or...
13Writ of Review—Stewart et al. v. King: Cumberland Superior Court, Falmouth, June 1774 (Adams Papers)
To the Sheriff of our county of Cumberland his under-Sheriff or Deputy, Greeting. We command You that You summon Richard King of Scarborough in our County of Cumberland Esqr. (if he may be found in your precinct) to appear before our Justices of our Superior Court of Judicature Court of Assize and general Goal delivery to be holden at Falmouth within said county of Cumberland and for the...
14Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In August 1770, with Adams and Jonathan Sewall as his counsel, John Whiting had prevailed in an action of trespass which he had brought against his neighbor Ichabod Ware for a tract of land near Smoking Hill in Wrentham. Referees, under a rule of the Superior Court directing them to fix a boundary between the litigants, had reported that no line could be drawn, because Ware had no claim to any...
15Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
On 22 November 1762, Jeremiah Lee, prominent Marblehead ship owner and merchant, obtained a policy of marine insurance upon one half the cargo of the schooner Merrill for a voyage “from Marblehead to any and all the Islands in the West Indies to Windward of St. Croix, St. Thomas, Havannah and Jamaica until the cargo is sold and delivered.” The Merrill was then 79 days out of Marblehead. The...
In the Case of Jane Dotey vs. Manuel Essane heard and adjudged at the Court of General Sessions of the Peace held at Plymouth within and for the County of Plymouth on the first second Tuesday of December being the Eighth day of said Month in the Year of our Lord 1767, the Errors assigned by said Manual, on the Certiorari are as follow viz. 1st. It does not appear by the Record of the Judgment...
17Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
This action was the climax of a series of clashes between James Steel of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and Asa Porter, a merchant and trader from the upper Connecticut Valley Coös region of New Hampshire. In September 1767 Steel had sold Porter and his partner Andrew Savage Crocker a consignment of 1600 barrel hoops. After Porter accepted settlement against him in another matter, Steel sued out a...
J. Quincy . We had done nothing but what was justifiable by the Laws of our Country. J. Whitworth . Pitt said in the forenoon, that Gray had used him very ill, and he would beat him whenever he met him. About 11/2 Hour before, he did Very ill in Speaking Reports of him. Mr. Hutchinson . Pitts told me he had sent a Lad to the Custom house to call Gray out to demand Satisfaction of him. And I...
19Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Josiah Marshall had lived in Plympton from 1747 until 1753, and had then spent five years at Middleboro as master of the grammar school. In 1758 he returned to Plympton, but in either 1760 or 1762 moved again, to teach school at Pembroke. According to his own testimony, he remained in the latter town for two years and two months. His next stop cannot be determined with certainty, but at some...
20King to Silas Burbank, 31 May 1773 (Adams Papers)
I receved Yours of the 17th. Current, and a Second that appears to have ben wrote Since. In your first You point out the Horrows of a Goal, and Compair Your present state of Confinement, To that which Succeeds a wicked life in this world unregreted, and unrepented of, with a verry Just Exception. If taken in a spiritul Sense that You are a Prisoner of Hope, Your Pathatic Complaint of being...
21Deposition of Jonathan Wingate: 16 June 1773 (Adams Papers)
I Jonathan Wingate of lawful age testify and say that about eight or ten days before Mr. Richard Kings house and shop were broken open in March 1766 I was in a Shoemaker’s shop belonging to one Hodgdon not thirty rods from my own house when Amos Andrews came into said shop and soon of his own motion began to discourse about the mobbing and riots that had lately happened in several parts of the...
In the Case of Hill Agt. Whiteing in Ejectment, Whether Hills Father died on the 21st or 30th day of October 1732, He i.e. she is alike intitled to recover the 21 acres and 31 Rods of Land, and to recover the same by an Action of Ejectment; therefore on which of those Days he died seised, is an Immaterial Circumstance and not Traversable. Holbeck vs. Bennet, 2 Lev. 11, 2 Saunders 317....
Lowell. Cun. 173. Concealment of Intelligence, a Fraud. Each Party ought to know all the Circumstances. 178.–179. 184. 79 days from G ordon’s sailing to the Insurance, which was a good Chance to have heard of her Arrival at any Part of the W. Indies. J. Pedricks Deposition. Gordons Protest. Jab. Harlow’s Deposition. Captn. Jos. Howard. Arrived from M artinique 7th. Novr. Saild, 7. Octr....
Porter and Steel. Case for money received and promise to pay it. Plea no promise. Proof. Produced a Receipt and the signing was denied. The Clerk of Inf erior Court produced the original receipt. Sarge ant for Steel. The Qu. is (as this is a review) whether the former Judgment be wrong. Adams. The principal query is whether the Receipt was sign’d. Oliver J. Steele owns his subscribing the paper...
Warninig. Shurtleffe. J. Mar shall went from Plym pton to Mid dleborough 21. Dec. 1753. Mr. Josiah Marshal. Came to Plymp ton Augt. 1747 till 20th Novr. 1753. Then to Midd leborough , returned to Ply mpton 7th July 1758. Was Grammar School Master at Midd leborough . I went to Pembroke 4 yr. ago and kept school there 2 yr. and 2 months.
26Deposition of Silas Burbank: 28 June 1773 (Adams Papers)
I Silas Burbanks of lawful age testify and say, that in the spring of the Year 1766, a few days before the riot at Mr. Richard Kings dwelling house, I was at the house of Mr. John Stewart, and he was talking to me about said King; he asked me if he was not a bad man, and had not done as much hurt to the people here, as Bute had done to the people at home; and afterwards, the day before the...
27King’s Offer of Settlement: 27 May 1774 (Adams Papers)
Richard King To those Imediately Consirned in his action of review against them Depending &c. and any others that the matter of that action may Consern I am Sensable that when a man has Entered the field in order to do him Selfe Justice against those from whom he has receved an Injury then To offer Terms to his adversary is often Constered a weakness of mind, or want of abillity, notwithstand...
28Adams’ Diary: 4 April 1767 (Adams Papers)
Poor Nye of Sandwich, seems dejected. I should suspect by his Concern that Cotton gained Ground vs. him. He seems to be hipp’d. It fretts and worries and mortifies him. He cant sleep a Nights. His Health is infirm. Cotton is insane, wild. His Proposal of giving his House and Farm at Sandwich to the Province is a Proof of Insanity.... His sitting down at the Council Table with his Hat on and...
29The Pleadings Book: 1771–1773 (Adams Papers)
Case on a Bill of Lading vs. Master for not delivering the Plaintiff’s Goods freighted on Board the Defendant’s Vessell. For that the said Charles on &c.—received on board his said Ship called the X X and whereof the said Charles was Master (H ogshea ds, Casks &c.) containing the Goods in the schedule annexed—And on the &c.—at —— signed a certain Note in Writing called a Bill of Lading and...
Lowell. 25 days a Chance. Judge Hutchinson. The Underwriters charged Lee with concealing some Circumstances—the Arrival of a Vessell—but I cant recollect all the Particulars. The Arbitrators agreed. An Account of a Vessell and I think it was Howard, and Col. Lee told ’em it was possible she might be gone to some other Island. The main dispute whether she was gone to Martinico or some other...