Default Judgments by Moses Wingate as Justice of the Peace of Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1809-1810

Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1810. Softcover. Near Fine. Partially printed letterpress documents. 154 documents, p. [5], 28-177 (all but the first five documents are hand-numbered by Wingate). Each document is filled out in the hand of Moses Wingate in his capacity as Justice of the Peace of Haverhill. Formerly bound with sewing and glue marks along the spine, otherwise the documents themselves are mostly near fine or better with a few of them exhibiting small chips or tears. Each document contains the names of the adversaries and usually the decision by default which is filled out and Signed by Moses Wingate. A few have extensive notes on the verso, but most are straightforward defaults. We suspect most of the plaintiffs were businessmen or shopkeepers and most of the defendants were defaulters on small accounts.

Wingate, born in 1769 was a distinguished resident of Haverhill, in Essex County near the New Hampshire border, who lived to more than 100 (dying in 1870), and who cast a vote in every presidential election from Washington to Grant. He was at various times a member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and Senate, and Justice of the Peace of Haverhill for nearly half a century.

Among the plaintiffs here represented is publisher and printer Daniel Appleton, founder of the important publisher D. Appleton and Company; as well as members of the locally prominent Carlton, Minot, Emerson, Ingersoll, and Whittier families (John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill in 1807; at least three different Whittiers are named here, presumably relatives).

An interesting historical insight into business and justice in the early days of the Republic.