WILLIAM BOLLAN SIGNED 1734 MASSACHUSETTS BAY WRIT — EARLY COLONIAL LAWYER AND FUTURE AGENT IN LONDON
An original Massachusetts Bay legal writ dated April 9, 1734, bearing an apparent early legal endorsement by William Bollan, the prominent colonial attorney who later represented Massachusetts before the British government in London.
Printed and manuscript document issued in the name of King George II, directing the sheriff of Essex County to attach the estate of Isaac Follett of Salem, identified as a weaver or yeoman, and, if insufficient property could be found, to take him into custody. Follett was ordered to appear before the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas in Boston to answer a claim brought by David Dolbear of Boston, cordwainer.
According to the writ, Follett had executed a note dated December 3, 1733, promising payment of £50 by January 10, but had failed to satisfy the debt. The sheriff was consequently authorized to attach property valued at £100.
The reverse contains the contemporary return of Thomas Chute, Deputy Sheriff, dated April 10, recording that he had attached Follett’s “house and land belonging thereto” in Salem and left a summons at the defendant’s usual residence.
At lower left appears the endorsement:
“William Bollan Att[orney] Pl[aintiff]”
Bollan was then practicing law in Massachusetts. In 1745 Governor William Shirley selected him as Massachusetts’s agent in England, initially to recover the province’s substantial expenses incurred during the capture of Louisbourg. He became an important advocate for Massachusetts and later wrote extensively on colonial rights, constitutional government, and freedom of speech and the press.
The writ is additionally signed by John Ballantine, longtime clerk of the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas, beneath the printed authority of Justice Thomas Palmer.
A rare surviving example of Bollan’s early Massachusetts legal career, created more than a decade before his appointment as colonial agent.
Date: April 9, 1734
Place: Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Signatures: William Bollan; John Ballantine; Thomas Chute, Deputy Sheriff
Condition: Substantial paper losses through the central vertical fold, smaller punctures, fold separations, edge wear, toning and staining. Manuscript remains substantially legible. Please examine photographs carefully.
WILLIAM BOLLAN SIGNED 1734 MASSACHUSETTS BAY WRIT — EARLY COLONIAL LAWYER AND FUTURE AGENT IN LONDON
An original Massachusetts Bay legal writ dated April 9, 1734, bearing an apparent early legal endorsement by William Bollan, the prominent colonial attorney who later represented Massachusetts before the British government in London.
Printed and manuscript document issued in the name of King George II, directing the sheriff of Essex County to attach the estate of Isaac Follett of Salem, identified as a weaver or yeoman, and, if insufficient property could be found, to take him into custody. Follett was ordered to appear before the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas in Boston to answer a claim brought by David Dolbear of Boston, cordwainer.
According to the writ, Follett had executed a note dated December 3, 1733, promising payment of £50 by January 10, but had failed to satisfy the debt. The sheriff was consequently authorized to attach property valued at £100.
The reverse contains the contemporary return of Thomas Chute, Deputy Sheriff, dated April 10, recording that he had attached Follett’s “house and land belonging thereto” in Salem and left a summons at the defendant’s usual residence.
At lower left appears the endorsement:
“William Bollan Att[orney] Pl[aintiff]”
Bollan was then practicing law in Massachusetts. In 1745 Governor William Shirley selected him as Massachusetts’s agent in England, initially to recover the province’s substantial expenses incurred during the capture of Louisbourg. He became an important advocate for Massachusetts and later wrote extensively on colonial rights, constitutional government, and freedom of speech and the press.
The writ is additionally signed by John Ballantine, longtime clerk of the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas, beneath the printed authority of Justice Thomas Palmer.
A rare surviving example of Bollan’s early Massachusetts legal career, created more than a decade before his appointment as colonial agent.
Date: April 9, 1734
Place: Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Signatures: William Bollan; John Ballantine; Thomas Chute, Deputy Sheriff
Condition: Substantial paper losses through the central vertical fold, smaller punctures, fold separations, edge wear, toning and staining. Manuscript remains substantially legible. Please examine photographs carefully.
