Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
At the desire of Mr. Blanchard, and Mr. Peabody our Committee1 to procure Council, & Collect Witnesses for the State on the Trial of the Persons committed for Counterfeiting the Currency &c. our Superior Court at Exeter will be adjourned to Tuesday the Eleventh day of November next, and at Dover till the Tuesday next following 403that, at which times, and places we must Rely on your assistance in behalf of the State.2
Probably a joint committee of the Council and the House of Representatives composed of Jonathan Blanchard of Dunstable and Nathaniel Peabody representing Plaistow and Atkinson (Laws of New Hampshire, 4:65–66).
See State of New Hampshire versus Stephen Holland on the charge of counterfeiting, below (November 1777).
Meshech Weare (1713/4–1786) graduated from Harvard in 1735 and returned to his home in Hampton Falls, N.H., where he eventually succeeded his father as representative to the General Court, judge, and militia colonel. Weare played a major role in all five provincial congresses (1774–1776) and was president pro tempore of two of them. He was chief justice of New Hampshire (1776–1782) (
ANB
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The owners of the privateer Dolphin, of this place, desire me to ask your assistance in a marite. cause, wch. will be tried on appeal at the next Supr. Court for the Middle District, wherein Saml. Williams1 as Agent is libellant & E.H. Derby,2 Claimnt. of the Schooner polly &c. If you are not already engaged, and it will consist with your business and inclination, I shall feel my self not a little strengthened, by your undertaking for my Clients. I hope to see you at Boston this week, when I can be more particular.3 In the mean time I am Sir, your Obt. & most H. Servt.
Capt. Samuel Williams was agent for the Salem-owned privateer schooner Dolphin, Capt. John Leach (Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 77:116–117).
Elias Hasket Derby (1739–1799) of the Salem merchant family developed one of the most successful privateering businesses. By the end of the Revolution he owned a quarter of all Salem’s shipping tonnage and was one of the richest men in the country (Richard H. McKey, Jr., “Elias Haskett Derby and the American Revolution,” Essex Institute Historical Collections 97[1961]:166–196).
RTP and John Lowell (1743–1802) represented Derby while Theophilus Parsons (1750–1813) and Perez Morton (1751–1837) represented Williams et al. in the case when it went before the Superior Court of Judicature at Boston in August 1777. The jury found that the evidence did not support the causes of forfeiture set forth in the libel and ordered that the vessel “with her appurtenances & Cargo” be restored to Derby as claimant. Williams et al. claimed an appeal to Congress on the decision, but the court did not allow it to progress any further (SCJ Minute Book).