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Essex County Massachusetts Freedom Case Participants 1760 - 1783
William Pynchon Esq. (1723-1789)
Salem
Biography: WILLIAM PYNCHON (1723-1789). Harvard 1743. Studied law with Mitchell Sewall, Essex Co. Clerk of Courts and Register of Deeds. Admitted attorney, SCJ, June 1757; barrister, Aug. 1762.
Practiced in Essex Co. Had many students, including William Wetmore, q.v., later his son-in-law. Appointed Justice of the Peace, 1761. Addresser of Hutchinson, 1774, but recanted. Addresser of Gage, 1774. Although remaining firmly loyalist in sympathy, he braved out the Revolution in Salem, continuing to practice law in partnership with Wetmore, and finally being appointed a Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum in 1786.
Adams, John, L. Kinvin Wroth, and Hiller B. Zobel. Legal Papers of John Adams. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965.
Comments: Agreed to pay 10 pounds if Richard Greenleaf did not appeal Casar vs Greenleaf (1773) or make court ordered payment.
Lewis vs. Dodge (1769) Attorney for original Defendant on AppealBristol vs. John Osgood (1773) Attorney
Casar Hendrick vs. Richard Greenleaf (1773) Supported Bond for SCJ Appeal
Sampson vs. Caleb Dodge and Josiah Batchelder (1775) Attorney for Defendant
Timon vs. Peter Osgood (1777) Attorney for Defendant
Kimball vs. Kimball (1779) Attorney for Defendant
Sources
- Dated October 2, 1773. Recognizance of Greenleaf's debt to Casar of 18 pounds should Greenleaf not appeal.
Citation: Casear vs Greenleaf Esq, Essex County Court of Common Pleas, September 1773, 29.
- ECCP Record of December 1773, the final session that both parties in Bristol vs. Osgood failed to appear.
Citation: Bristol vs John Osgood (1773) Essex Court Common Pleas December 1773 Record, 7.
- Back of the writ for Timon vs. Osgood dated September 13, 1777
Citation: Timon vs Peter Osgood, Jr. (1777) Essex County Court of Common Pleas September 1777 Record.
- Writ dated September 13, 1777 in Timon vs Osgood.
Citation: Timon vs Peter Osgood, Jr. (1777) Essex County Court of Common Pleas September 1777 Record.
- Osgood's defense written by Pynchon dated October 3, 1777 saying that Timon is Osgood's "proper negro servant" but not making a plea of "not guilty."
Citation: Timon vs Peter Osgood, Jr. (1777) Essex County Court of Common Pleas September 1777 Record.
- Dated October 3, 1777 Indenture agreement between Peter Osgood Jr. nnd Timon "a free negro who hath no Master" to two years of obedient service in return for meat, drink, lodging, apparel, in sickness and health and for six pounds at the end a a good strong homemade suit of wearing apparels.
Citation: Timon vs Peter Osgood, Jr. (1777) Essex County Court of Common Pleas September 1777 Record.
- Dated October 3 1777 Timon's response (via Parsons) to Osgood's defense claiming it is insufficient. Osgood's reply to that via Pynchon is that his original reply was good and Timon;s action "may be barred."
Citation: Timon vs Peter Osgood, Jr. (1777) Essex County Court of Common Pleas September 1777 Record.