Future Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Seeks A Debt Owned To His Client In An Autograph Legal Document Signed

ROGER B. TANEY (1777-1864). Taney was the Fifth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ADS. 1pg. N.d. [c. 1804] N.p. [Frederick County, Maryland]. An autograph legal document twice signed “R. B. Taney”. The legal document pertains to a debt owed by a Henry Leatherman to one of Taney’s clients in the private Maryland law practice he ran early in his career: “Frederick County to wit Henry Leatherman late of Frederick County yeoman was attached to answer unto George Schnertyell in a plea of Trespass on the case and soforth and where upon the said George by Roger Brooke Taney his attorney complains that whereas on the twentieth day of December in the year eighteen hundred and three and Frederick County aforesaid the said Henry was indebted unto the said George in the sum of fifty four pounds eight shillings and five pence current money for sundry matters and articles properly changeable in account as by a particular account thereof herewith into court exhibited may appear and bring so thereof indebted the said Henry in consideration thereof afterwards that is to say on the same day and year aforesaid at the county aforesaid upon himself assumed and to the said George then and there faithfully promised to pay him the said sum of current money where afterwards he should be thereunto required – never thereas the said Henry tho after thereunto required afterwards that is to say on the same day and year aforesaid and often afterwards at the country aforesaid, hath not yet paid to the said George the said sum of current money or any part thereof but to pay the same on any part thereof to the said George he the said Henry hath hitherto wholly required and still doth refuse. To the damage of the said George in the sum of one hundred pounds current money and therefore he brings suit and so forth. R. B. Taney”. There is an additional autograph on the verso. The document is in fine condition with folds and dark ink.