Paine, Robert Treat (1731-1814) [Legal document pertaining to the confiscation of William Walter's property]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00133 Author/Creator: Paine, Robert Treat (1731-1814) Place Written: Suffice, Massachusetts Type: Autograph document signed Date: 5 February 1780 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 32 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
On behalf of the states of Massachusetts, Treat, the state attorney general, writes to the Justices of the Superior Court to argue the case for confiscating a tory's property in Boston. Claims Walter "levied War and Conspired to levy War against the government and People of this Province Colony and State." Describes him as an absentee loyalists whose messuage and land in Boston were confiscated on 20 April 1775 according to "An Act for Confiscating the Estates of certain persons Commonly called absentees." Argues that the property should "accrue to the sole use and benefit of the Government & people." Asks the court's advice and for the "due process of Law in his behalf to be made."
Suffolk Co. To the honorable the Justices of the Superior Court of Common Pleas, holden at Boston and for the County of Suffolk in the first Tuesday of January Anno Domini Seventeen hundred and Eighty
Be it remembered that Robert Treat Paine [inserted: &] Attorney [inserted: General] for the Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay in New England and in their behalf Complains of William Walter late of Boston in the County of Suffolk, Clerk [inserted: and gives the Court hereto understand and be informed] that the said William Walter at Boston aforesaid since the nineteenth day of April Anno Domini Seventeen hundred & Seventy five visit on the twentieth day of the same April being an Inhabitant and Member of the then Province now State of Massachusetts Bay, levied War and Conspired to levy War against the Government and People of this Province Colony & State, and then & there adhered to the King of Great Britain his Fleets and Armies Enemies of the said Province Colony and State and then and there did give [inserted: to them] Aid and Comfort: And that the said William Walter since the said nineteenth day of April aforesaid vizt. on the thirtieth day of March Anno Domini one thousand Seven hundred & Seventy Six without the permission of the legislative or Executive Authority of this army of the United States of America did withdraw himself from this Province Colony and State into Parts and places under the acknowledged Authority & Dominion of the said King of Great Britain and into parts and places within the limits of some of the said Province Colonies, and United States being in the Actual Possession and under the Power of the fleets & Armies of the said King Vizt. to Halifax in the Province of Nova Scotia and to New York in the Province Colony and State of New York: And that the said William Walter hath not since returned into any of the said United States and been received as a Subject thereof: And that the said William Walter by means of [illegible strike out] [inserted: all and singular as the offenses aforesaid] hath freely renounced all civil and political relations to each and every of the said United States and hath become an Alien: And the said Attorney [inserted: General] further alledges that the said William Walter since the said nineteenth Day of April aforesaid Vizt. on the twentieth day of April Anno Domini One thousand seven hundred & seventy five was seized and possessed of & constituted to be seized & possessed [inserted: of] and to have and demands to his own use the following Messuage & Land thereto belonging [illegible] in Boston in the County of Suffolk [2] and bounded as follows Vizt. Westerly in South Street Seventy Seven feet nine inches, Southerly on Land of Samuel Quincy Esq. one hundred & fifty three feet six inches Easterly partly on land of Robert Robins & partly on land of the heirs of Benjamin Clarke deemed Fifty eight feet Northerly on Land of Samuel Conant forty one feet three inches thence Easterly on Land of said Conant Eighteen feet six Inches; thence Northerly again on Land of [struck: Walter] [inserted: Nathaniel] Taylor one hundred & twenty one feet nine Inches, and its Appurtenance to him the said William Walter and his heirs and the said Attorney General further alledges that by force of the Provinces and of the law of this State constituted an Act for Confiscating the Estates of certain persons commonly called absentees" the above described Messuage and Land and Appurtenances ought to eschew cause and accrue to the sole use and benefit of the Government & people aforesaid and that they ought accordingly to be in the possession thereof. Wherefore the said Attorney General in behalf of the Government and People aforesaid prays the advice of the Court herein the Premises and due process of Law in his behalf to be made.
R. T. Paine
[docket]
State vs William Walter
No. 32
Atty Ezekl Price Clev
Facs. habt. Possr.
Isse March 7, 1781
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