The Year He Published His Book Attacking the Stamp Act, and at the Height of His Legal Career, John Adams Represents a Noted Boston Client Trying to Collect a Debt

John Adams launched his legal career in Boston in 1758, and faced several years of struggle in establishing his practice. He had only one client his first year and did not win his initial case before a jury until almost three years after opening his office. Thereafter, his practice grew. Once his practice started to flourish, he began to court Abigail Smith, the daughter of a Congregational minister in nearby Weymouth. They were married in 1764. The non- political Adams was too distracted by his new marriage and his own practice to pay much attention to British Colonial taxation that was agitating so many. However, Adams wrote in his diary that James Otis’ writings and actions had profoundly influenced his thinking at the time.

In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed, its purpose being to raise revenue by making consumers pay for a stamp that would be affixed to legal documents, any printed material, newspaper, pamphlets, posters and even playing cards and dice. The reaction in America was immediate and violent in many cases, it became so intense that the act that was due to take effect on November 1st, 1765, never materialized. Adams deplored the mob’s violence, however he was an intellectual instigator, writing articles on British Constitution and American rights known as the Clarendon Letters. By now he was a member of the Sons of Liberty.

By 1767 Adams was an accomplished lawyer and his practice absorbed most of his time. He spent long periods separated from his family commuting from Boston, where most of his cases were, to Braintree, his place of residence. In April 1768 he moved the family to Boston. They moved to a white house in Brattle Street. His business was booming and his reputation uncompromised. At this time he was offered the lucrative position of Advocate General in the Court of Admiralty at the request of Governor Bernard, but he refused this offer. His cousin Samuel Adams, leader of the Sons of Liberty, wrote the Massachusetts Circular Letter which was passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in February 1768 to call for repeal of the Townsend Acts, which were aimed at again taxing the Americans. Shorty after Lord Hillsborough, British Secretary of State for American Affairs, issued his own circular letter threatening to dissolve any provincial assembly that called for the repeal. He also ordered General Gage to send troops to Boston to restore civil order and protect officials. That same year, Adams published his articles to the Gazette in the form of his first book, rather euphemistically called “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law”, which justified opposition to the Stamp Act. In 1770, though known to be in the Sons of Liberty, Adams was a highly successful lawyer with perhaps the largest caseload of any attorney in Boston, which is why he was chosen to defend the British soldiers who were charged in the Boston Massacre in March 1770.

This is a document from Adams legal practice in 1768, when he moved to Boston and British troops showed up there as well. It is a pre-printed form with extensive holograph of Adams throughout. Adams represented David Bicknell, a major fish merchant and member of Boston’s fish commission. The defendant was William Todd, one of a family of house builders whose son took an active part in the coming Revolution. The document instructed the Sheriff of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, to seize the good of “William Todd of Boston in said county, housewright to the value of ten pounds”, and assure that he appears in court the “First of October next”. It continues, “Then and there…to answer unto David Bicknell of Weymouth in said county Yoeman in the plea of the case for that the said William at Boston the 23rd day of June anno domini 1767 by his note under his hand for value received promised the said David to pay him or his order six pounds six shillings, lawful money on demand with lawful interest therefor till paid. Yet the said William though requested hath never paid the sum but neglected and refused so to do.” Todd claimed and reserved, “the liberty of pleading anew on the appeal that the writing declared on is not his deed.” But Bicknell, through Adams, “says the said Todd’s plea is not a sufficient answer to the within declaration and before prays judgment.” John Adams signs, and below this writes “and the said Todd says his plea is sufficient.” The Sheriff has made a notation of seeing Todd as well.