Paine’s Minutes of the Argument: Barnstable Inferior Court, April 1767

Paine’s Minutes of the Argument1

Barnstable Inferior Court, April 1767

Defendant

It may be part of a great plan to get Representat[ion over?] that Paper.

It is true he made the Story for he drew it up.

Plaintiff put in memorial to cross Col. Cotton.2

The Committee had no business to sign said Certificate.

The design of the Paper was to fix a Lye upon Nye and was a parlimentary paper.

“A lying Paper,” no Slander.

This was not Forgery. 485 Bac. 4.3 HPC 1854

The House [of] Repres[entatives] would have votd he was crazy. Cotton’s Character is not so imaculate.

1. Paine Law Notes, Barnstable Inferior Court, April 1767. A portion of Paine’s minute has been omitted because of its similarity to JA’s (Doc. II). See note 3 above.

2. The sentence is clear in the MS, but makes no sense as it stands because Cotton was the plaintiff and had submitted the memorial.

3. See note 2 below.

4. See note 15 below.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: Paine’s Minutes of the Argument: Barnstable Inferior Court, April 1767
Author: Paine, Robert Treat
Date: April 1767

Reference

Cite as: “Paine’s Minutes of the Argument: Barnstable Inferior Court, April 1767,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/05-01-02-0003-0003-0004. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Legal Papers of John Adams, vol. 1, Cases 1–30, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965, pp. 144–145.]