Adams John

Future President John Adams Represents Client in Debt Case

JOHN ADAMS, Autograph Endorsement Signed, on Writ of Attachment, November 12, 1767, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1 p., 8.25" x 2". Expected folds.

Complete Transcript (text in bold in Adams's hand)

To the Damage of the said Abiathar as he saith the Sum of eight Pounds, which shall then and there be made to appear, with other due Damages: And have you there this Writ, with your Doings therein.

Witness Eliakim Hutchinson Esq; at Boston, this twelfth Day of November in the eighth Year of Our Reign. Annoque Domini, 1767.

Middlecott Cooke Cler

[Endorsement:]

"and the said John Bagley comes and defends and saith he never promised in manner & Form as the Plaintiff has above declared against him; and thereof puts

John Adams

[Endorsement:]

"Braintree Novr 18th 1767

By virtue of this writ I have [taken the] Boday of the defendent and have [taken a Bonds] for his appearance ? Jona [Howard Dep Sheriff]"

Historical Background

When Abiathar French (1732-1815) of Braintree, Massachusetts, sued John Bagley (1732-1786) for a debt, Justice Eliakim Hutchinson (1711-1775) of the Court of Common Pleas issued a writ of attachment to the sheriff of Suffolk County to seize a sufficient amount of Bagley's assets or to seize Bagley himself to appear before the court in January 1768 to answer the charges.

Stephen Greenleaf was the sheriff of Suffolk County from 1757 to 1775. On November 18, 1767, Deputy Sheriff Jonathan Howard arrested Bagley and obtained a bond from him to ensure his appearance at court in January.

Attorney and future President of the United States John Adams represented Bagley. To move the legal process forward, Adams took the liberty of writing out a demurrer, denying that his client's plea was sufficient. He then had opposing attorney Richard Dana (1700-1772), who represented French, sign it. Adams also wrote and signed a joinder declaring that his client's plea was sufficient. Only when one side affirmed and another side denied a fact could the court try the case.

John Adams (1735-1826) was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1755. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1759. He married Abigail Smith in 1764, and they had six children, including future president John Quincy Adams. John Adams rose to prominence in his 1765 opposition to the Stamp Act but risked his reputation five years later by defending the British soldiers on trial for their involvement in the Boston Massacre. Adams represented Massachusetts at the First and Second Continental Congresses, and during the Revolution, he served in a number of crucial posts, including the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, which he signed. He served in the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779-1780, and largely wrote the new Massachusetts Constitution. From 1780 to 1783, he was in Europe, negotiating with the French, securing recognition and loans from the Dutch, and negotiating a peace treaty with Great Britain. After the war, he served as America's first minister to the Court of St. James. From 1789 to 1797, Adams served as George Washington's vice-president, and was narrowly elected president over Thomas Jefferson in 1797. During his one-term administration, Adams appointed John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, strengthened the U.S. Navy, ended the Quasi-War with France, and signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts into law. Defeated for re-election in 1800 by Thomas Jefferson, Adams retired in March 1801 to his home in Massachusetts. In 1812, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush, a fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, encouraged John Adams and his old friend and rival Thomas Jefferson to reconcile. For the next fourteen years, they exchanged scores of letters. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Adams' son had become president sixteen months earlier.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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