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Browsing: Legal Papers of John Adams, Volume 1
Adams' Minutes of the Review1
Essex Superior Court, Salem, November 1772
Docno: LJA01d044
Date: 1772-11
Porter vs. Steel.
Serjeant.
Mr. Webster. P[orter] said S[teel] owed him. Sued him for 100 dollars. S. paid ½ of it, and was sued again for the other 50. S. said he was never paid for Hoops. P. said he cheated me out of 6 dollars in the 1st settlement of the 50 dollars, if there was some Hoops. S. then sued Porter, for the Hoops.
Writ. S. vs. P. & C[rocker] for Hoops.4
Jona. Serjeant. 1600 Hoops. S. deliverd.
Amos Mullikin. C. received the 50 dollars. C. paid the 6 dollars for my fees,5 generously, and treated Us too, upon our representing Poverty. Rather than S. should have gone to Goal, Mr. Wallace would have paid the whole 100 dollars. Dont think that S. knew that Wallace had any more Money.
S. Harriman. P. came into my House, and call'd for Drink, and Sat by the fire. P. moved to S. to walk into another Room. Moved it twice. At last they went into a cold Room. Saw em at the Table with Pen and Ink. Porter took up the drink and drank but never asked S. to drink, and never bid him farewell.6
{p. 165}
Moses Cushing. They sat at Table settling as I thought. No freedom between em.
Nat. Walker. Jacob Rowell lodged his Note with me. The young Man said P. was to be along and pay it. P. came along and asked me, about the Note, twice. He said he was bound [on] his Journey and could not take up that Note. He after left a Letter at my House, for Rowell. I am not in a Capacity to take up that Note now, but I have left a Letter to let him know when and where to receive it. Rowell came, and opend the Letter. The day I remember by the difficulty of passing the River.
Jos. Dodge. The River froze over 28th. Novr. 1769.
James Walker. Rowell left the Note. P. came down and left a Letter and then went and led his Horse over the Ice. There had not been any Horse over before. S. at N[ewbury]port offered P. to pay the Money, if you will give your Oath, that you gave me that Money. P. said I have your Receipt and nothing to say to you.
Letter left at Walkers, 29 Novr. 1769. Dated a day before it was left.7
Jacob Rowell. P. down from Cohoss. 1st Novr. 1769. Told me to leave my Note at Mr. Walkers. And he would pay. I did. Some time after I call'd, but Note not paid. Some time after called again and found the Letter. Sometime the next June after Balch told me, that he had wrote that he had left the Money with a Man but never said who nor where. In March he wrote me that his Money holding out better than he expected he had left it upon the Road.
{p. 166}
P. when he took up the Note, he askd me if Steel had got the Letter he wrote to me.
S. Chadwick. P. left Money with me for Rowell, fore Part of Summer before the suit. P. said nothing to me about S's ill treating him. He asked what sort of a Man S. of Haveril was accounted. I said [little?]. Brother in Law. P. resumed. S.'s Character. Nothing. Heard Webster say, if he had opportunity to talk with Ingalls before he should have got better Evidence from him.
S. Whites Deposition.8
Number of Gentlemen to Character.
Mr. Balch. I told Mr. P. the Money was not indorsed. He said he was surprized. [ . . . ] Steel offerd P. to pay if he would swear, he was very much in a Rage with P. and abusive. Quite in a Passion, and much beside himself. P. said Yes you did pay me that Money. S. said if you'l swear it, I'le pay it.
[ . . . ]
Fitz. S. in a great Passion. Said the Receipt was forged. S. said he should prove he was used to doing such Things. His father had not brought him up to Colledge for Nothing.9 I told P. he would give S. an Advantage if he [went?] to Swear.
Moses Littles Deposition. Good Character.10
Jacob Chase Deposition. Went thro Chester.11
Susanna Hale and other.12
1. In JA's hand. Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 185.
2. The MS could be read “J.Q.” (Josiah Quincy), but the Minute Book lists only Lowell as counsel for Porter. Min. Bk. 93, SCJ Salem, Nov. 1772, C–12.
4. See writ dated 16 Sept. 1769 for the Essex Inferior Court, Dec. 1769 term, in an action of the case brought by Steel against Porter & Crocker, with counts on an account annexed and in quantum valebant for 1600 hoops sold to the defendants by Steel in Sept. 1767 to the value of £5 6s. 8d. SF 132246. No documentation on the other litigation referred to has been found.
5. Mullikin was a Deputy Sheriff in Essex County, who served the writ cited in note
10
4
above, and apparently also acted in Porter & Crocker's earlier action against Steel.
6. Harriman appeared in person on this occasion. In his deposition dated 7 July 1770, apparently taken at Steel's request, he had testified
“That some time within a year past Asa Porter of Coors [i.e. Coös] so called and Mr. James Steel of Haverhill was at my house in Plastow and it appeared to me that they had agreed to meet at my house at that time in order to settle sum Law Bisness which had hapned between them in times past. I took notice that their seemed to be sum dispute between them with sum disafection in Countinence &c. and after Mr. Porter departed my house I saw Mr. Steel have in his hands a quantity of money which said Steel told me he receiv'd of said Porter on account of a Law sute which had hap'ned between them or to that porpose. But I never heard neither of them say anything concerning any money said Porter delivered said Steel in Order to pay or deliver anybody else on said Porter's Accompt nor anything else to that effect. But I cannot say it was not so for Mr. Porter seemed to have a mind to be in Privet, and accordingly had a room to themselves almost the hole of the time they were at my house together and it did not appear to me at that time that either said Porter or Steel was in the least disguised with liquor.”
SF 132246.
7. See Porter to Rowell, Haverhill, 29 Nov. 1769, SF 132246: “I was not able to procure the Money for you as I expected but was oblig'd to sue a man's note in order to get you Money and supose the Money will be paid soon if you have opportunity to send your note to Mr. Benjamin Balch of Newburyport in about three weeks I expect he will be able to get the Money for you as the Court is near at hand.” The letter continues with mention of other commercial matters between Porter and Rowell.
8. Deposition of Samuel White, “Sworn in Court, Novr. Term 1772”: “That being in the Town of Newbury Port, some time between the Month of July and Month of November, in the Year 1770, where I saw James Steel and Asa Porter together, and heard Steel tell Porter, that if he would go before a Justice, and give Oath that he let him have that Money (which Money I understood said Porter had recover'd of Said Steel, at the then last July Court) that he the Said Steel would pay the Debt and Costs.” SF 132246.
9. Porter was Harvard 1762, A.M. 1765. See 12 Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates
166–168; MH-Ar. No record has been found of Steel's attendance at “Colledge.” He may thus mean that Porter learned to forge receipts at Harvard.
10. Deposition of Moses Little, 2 Nov. 1772, SF 132246: “that he has been acquainted with Asa Porter when he lived in Newburyport and since he has Lived at Haverhill in the Province of New Hampshire and has dealt confidently with Said Porter and allways found him Punctual and fair in his dealings.”
11. Deposition of Jacob Chase, Chester, N.H., 2 Nov. 1772, SF 132246:
“That Asa Porter Esqr. in Haverhill in New Hampshire Came to my house in the last of November or the first of December in the year 1769 to Enquire for one Daniel Wiot and one Purkins Coth of Campton which men the said Porter parted with in Newburyport and they told me that He the said Porter told them he was Going through Haverhill in the Massachusetts to Do Some Business he had there. He likewise told me he traveled through Haverhill and Came and Lodged at Capt. Hales tavern in Hampstead and the Next morning about Eleven o Clock the said Porter came to my house and after Dinner they all went on their journey Home which was Expedient for them on account of its being Remarkable Bad traveling.”
12. Deposition of Susanah Hale and John Emmory, 30 Oct. 1772, SF 132246: “That on or aboute the firste of December AD 1769 Asa Porter of Haverhill in the province of New Hampshire Esqr. on his jorney to Cooss (as he informd us) took a Lodging at the House of Capt. Ebenezer Hales Husband of the said Susanah who keeps a Publick House in Hampstead in said Province and after Breack faste the next morning Sat oute for his intended jorney as aforesaid.”
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/
http://www.masshist.org/ff/