Illustrations

    1. Frontispiece. An Engraving of Justice from Murphy v. Pinchbeck, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1805 JAN c. 392. Courtesy, Social Law Library.

    2. Title Page. Figure of Justice with Scales. From the Title Page of Ioanne Imberto, Enchiridion Juris Scripti Galliae (Utrecht, 1647). Courtesy, Collection of Daniel R. Coquillette.

    3. John Noble (1829–1900), Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, 1875–1908. A leading member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts during its early days. A pioneer in the conservation and understanding of early court records. Photograph, courtesy Social Law Library.

    4. John Winthrop (1587/88–1649), Governor, Chief Magistrate, Member of the Court of Assistants. Member, Gray’s Inn and Inner Temple. Admitted, Court of Wards and Liveries. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society, from a copy of a portrait painted in England before 1630.

    5. Passport for the Sparrow, 20 December 1638, from Thomas Lechford’s Scrivener’s Book, page 29. Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society.

    6. John Endicott (1589–1665), Governor, Magistrate, Member of the Court of Assistants. From a portrait by an unknown artist. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society.

    7. Simon Bradstreet (1603–1697), Governor, Member of the Court of Assistants, Member of the Council for the Safety of the People and the Conservation of the Peace. From a portrait by an unknown artist. Courtesy, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

    8. Nathaniel Byfield (1653–1733) by John Smibert (circa 1729). Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Bristol; Judge of the Probate Court, Bristol; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk; Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court; Justice of the Peace, Suffolk. Courtesy, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. Vagnino. Information and photographs courtesy of Vose Galleries of Boston and R. H. Love Galleries, Inc., Chicago.

    9. Byfield Coat of Arms. Taken from “A Roll of Arms,” Part II, a pamphlet published by the New England Historic-Genealogical Society (1932), Plate 137.

    10. Title Page, Book of Records belonging to John Clark (1667–1728), Justice of the Peace, Suffolk. Courtesy, Collection of James A. Henderson, Jr.

    11. Entries, 7 May to 14 May 1711, Book of Records belonging to John Clark, Justice of the Peace, Suffolk. Courtesy, Collection of James A. Henderson, Jr.

    12. Boston Selectmen to Constable, “Warning Out” dated 1 June 1765, Court of General Sessions of the Peace, Suffolk, 1765 JUL 245. Courtesy, Supreme Judicial Court.

    13. Return dated 3 June 1765, on “Warning Out” dated 1 June 1765, Court of General Sessions of the Peace, Suffolk, 1765 JUL 245. Courtesy, Supreme Judicial Court.

    14. Broadside depicting the confinement in the pillory, the whipping, and public confessional of a “rogue,” Seth Hudson, in Boston, 1762. Courtesy, Boston Public Library.

    15. Paul Dudley (1675–1751) by an unknown artist (circa 1720). Chief Justice, Superior Court of Judicature; Attorney General. Courtesy, Supreme Judicial Court.

    16. Ezekiel Goldthwait (1710–1782) by John Singleton Copley (1771). Registrar of Deeds, Suffolk; Clerk, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk; Clerk, City of Boston. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    17. Samuel Sewall (1652–1730) by John Smibert (1729). Chief Justice, Superior Court of Judicature; Judge of the Probate Court, Suffolk. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    18. Reconstruction of the content and typography of the first printing (1639) of the Glover-Day Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Oath of a Free-Man, as appearing in Lawrence C. Wroth, Oath of a Free-Man (New York, Woolly Whale Press, 1939). Courtesy of The Press of the Woolly Whale Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

    19. Title Page of Matthew Day’s printing of The Book of the General Lawes and Libertyes (Cambridge, 1648), now at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Courtesy, Huntington Library.

    20. Title Page of Henry Care, English Liberties, from its first American edition, printed in Boston by James Franklin, 1712. Courtesy, Yale Law School.

    21. Portion of “An Exact Mapp of New England and New York” showing the “Pascatoway River” [Piscataqua] from Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702).

    22. Gravestone portrait of Colonel John Wheelwright of Wells (1745).

    23. A deposition of 2 July 1725, York County Court Records. The body of the deposition is in the hand of William Pepperrell, Jr. The signature of the deponent, Samuel Hill, is attested by both William Pepperrell, Jr. and his father, Colonel William Pepperrell, Sr. Courtesy, York County Court Records.

    24. Entries in the York County Court Records demonstrating the change of clerks. The top entry is in the hand of Joseph Hammond, Jr., Clerk, 1700–1720, and the lower entry is in the hand of William Pepperrell, Jr., Clerk, 1720–1725. Courtesy, York County Court Records.

    25. James Otis, Jr. (1725–1783) by Joseph Blackburn (1755), from a photographic copy, courtesy of the Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    26. Stephen Sewall (1702–1760) by Benjamin Feke (circa 1755). Chief Justice, Superior Court of Judicature. Courtesy, Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    27. Theodore Sedgwick (1746–1813) by an unknown artist. Justice, Supreme Judicial Court. Courtesy, Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    28. John Adams (1735–1826) by Benjamin Blyth (circa 1766). The earliest portrait of Adams, painted after he had started his career as a lawyer. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society.

    29. Purported to be Jeremiah Gridley (1701/1702–1767), Attorney General, Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum. Courtesy, Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    30. The Gridley-Adams copy of Johannis Van Muyden’s Compendiosa Institutionum Justiniani Tractatio (Utrecht, 1707). This book was loaned by Jeremiah Gridley to John Adams in 1758 and bought by Adams from Gridley’s estate after 1767. Courtesy, Boston Public Library.

    31. Robert Treat Paine (1731–1814) by Edward Savage and John Coles (circa 1796–1801). Justice, Supreme Judicial Court; Attorney General. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society.

    32. Benjamin Prat (1711–1763) attributed to John Smibert. Chief Justice, Province of New York; Moderator, Boston Town Meeting. Courtesy, Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    33. First page of the Bar Book, Suffolk County (1770), in the hand of John Adams, its first Secretary. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society.

    34. Old State House, Boston, by James B. Marston (1801). Built 1713, burned 1748, and rebuilt within the original walls. For many years it served as the seat of the Superior Court of Judicature, and was the heart of the “legal district.” John Adams and other lawyers lived near by. Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society.

    35. Fourth Court House, Harvard Square, Cambridge, 1758. Served as Courthouse until 1816. Moved 1841. Demolished 1930. Courtesy, Cambridge Historical Commission.

    36. Council Chamber, Old State House, Boston. The Superior Court of Judicature met in this room on frequent occasions in the eighteenth century. Courtesy, Bostonian Society.

    37. Inscription on 1749 October Docket Book. Although the page is entitled “Superior Court,” it was used for the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    38. Colonial Court records of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk. Illustrated are a minute book, a record book, and file papers. In other counties, colonial file papers are still in their original case rolls. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    39. Docket Book, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1758 October, showing the admission of John Adams and Samuel Quincy as attorneys on 6 November 1758. Note the signature of Ezekiel Goldthwait, Clerk, and the names of Jeremiah Gridley, Foster Hutchinson, and Robert Treat Paine. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    40. Watermark, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1790 OCT c. 288. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    41. Watermark, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1797 OCT 88. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    42. Embossed four-penny filing stamp, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1771 OCT c. 49. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    43. Embossed tuppence filing stamp, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1761 JAN 128. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    44. Heraldic embossed seal of Richard Jenneys “Notary & Tabellion Publick by Royal Authority . . . in Boston,” Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1760 OCT 134. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    45. Embossed three-penny filing stamp, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1755 OCT 173. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    46. Billhead, engraved by Paul Revere, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1772 JUL Misc. Joy v. Brackett. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    47. Engraved billhead illustrating the basic steps in making wallpaper. It encourages customers to buy American goods. See above, 490. The Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1801 APR c. 380. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    48. Wax Seal from His Majesty’s Superior Court of Judicature for the Province of New Brunswick, found on documents delivered to the Massachusetts Courts in October 1758. Suffolk Files, Cabinet Collection No. 143101. Kathryn M. Carey, Chief Conservator, Supreme Judicial Court, restored this seal. Courtesy, Supreme Judicial Court.

    49. Case files of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, showing the tins in which many colonial court records are still stored. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    50. Section of Writ of Attachment, 25 June 1776, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk. It shows George III’s title crossed out and replaced with “The Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.” This, and similar writs, were issued before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. See above, 487. Courtesy, Social Law Library, Boston.

    51. Samuel Quincy (1734–1789) by John Singleton Copley (circa 1767). Solicitor General, Justice of the Peace. Proscribed in 1778, Quincy became a tory refugee. His brother was Josiah Quincy, Jr. (1744–1775). Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    52. William Cushing (1732–1810) by Max Rosenthal (1889) from a portrait by James Sharpies. Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States; Chief Justice, Supreme Judicial Court. Cushing was appointed Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, but could not serve for health reasons. Courtesy, Harvard Law School Art Collection.

    53. Attorney’s Bill, 1760. When this volume was in page proof, the editors discovered that there was no illustration to indicate that colonial lawyers ever got paid. To remedy this oversight we close the volume with an attorney’s bill. The litigious Samuel Phillips, who owed this substantial sum for legal expenses, was “Esquire” Phillips, the father of the founder of Phillips Academy, Andover, and one of the wealthiest men in the Province. Inferior Court of Common Pleas, Suffolk, 1760 APR 166. Courtesy, Social Law Library.