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Browsing: Legal Papers of John Adams, Volume 1

Adams' Notes of Authorities -

[1767-05]
4. Bac. 485. “All Words are ...

Adams' Minutes of the Evidence -

[1767-05]
Certificate ...

Adams' Minutes of the Argument1

Barnstable Superior Court, May 1767

Docno: LJA01d033

Author: JA
Date: 1767-05
Otis.2 Certificate of General Assembly.
Law very much altered of late Times.
To prevent Gothic Contentions and single Combats.
High Proceedings.
Strange 747.3 Order for Allom. Forgery at common Law.
Protection from a Member.
Possibility of Damage.
Reason of the Thing. Injury.
Paper indictable.
Public Record.
Q. If Cotton had forgd this Paper, whether he would have been liable to an Indictment for a Misdemeanor?4
4. Bac. 506.5
Made a false Record. Forgery of a Writ.
Great Slander and Defamation.
Court unanimous Nyes Words actionable.
 
1. In JA's hand. Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 185.
 
2. James Otis, counsel for Cotton.
 
3. Rex v. Ward, 2 Str. 747, 93 Eng. Rep. 824 (K.B. 1727): Trial for forging an order for a quantity of alum. Held: a criminal forgery even though it did not appear that defendant had actually obtained any alum as a result of the forgery.
 
4. This is apparently JA's query.
 
5. 4 Bacon, Abridgment 506. The treatise at this point catalogues the actionability of various words, but does not mention forgery; see note 21 9 above.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/