William Hooper
Salisbury District, NC, March 5, 1768
William Hooper Boldest Signature on Nice Document: "Damage...against...our Lord the King"
MDS

William Hooper (1742-1790). Scarce manuscript document signed, "Will Hooper Atty DR," 1p, 7.25" x 10.5", Salisbury District, North Carolina, March 5, 1768. Docketed at verso. Previous separation and loss at folds have been professionally restored. A former collector's faint pencil notations at recto and verso. Minor age toning and scattered light foxing. Very good plus.

Our document regards legal action against Rowan County, North Carolina planter Henry Hunter (1749-1810), who at the age of 19 was alleged to have assaulted North Carolina resident Isaac McDaniel, "so that his life was greatly despaired of..."

In full:

"North Carolina / Salisbury District
At a Superior Court of Justice begun and held at the Court House in the town of Salisbury within and for the District of Salisbury on the fifth day of March in the eighth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third of Great Britain, France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth before the Honorable Maurice Moon Esquire and the Honorable Richard Henderson Esquire his Majesty's Associate Justices of the Superior Court of Justice in the province of North Carolina.

The Jurors for our sovereign Lord and King upon their Oath present that, Henry Hunter late of the County of Rowan Planter on the fourteenth day of March in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty eight with force and arms at the County aforesaid upon one Isaac McDaniel in the peace of God and our said Lord the King then and there being did make an assault on him the said Isaac then and there did beat wound and ill treat so that his life was greatly despaired of and other wrongs to the said Isaac then & there did greatly to his Damage and against the peace of our Lord the King his Crown & Dignity."

A Harvard educated attorney who relocated to North Carolina in 1764, Hooper developed a legal reputation that led to his 1766 election as recorder of the borough of Cape Fear. From 1767 to 1768, Hooper was Attorney for the King, or Crown Attorney, at which time he traveled hundreds of miles on horseback to remote locations in North Carolina's backcountry and filed numerous indictments charging residents of Rowan County and the Salisbury District with assault. In 1769, he rose to the position of deputy attorney general of the Salisbury District, in which capacity he was involved in trying to put down the insurrection by North Carolina's Regulators which flourished in Rowan and surrounding counties. This resulted in an angry mob dragging him through the streets of Hillsborough in 1770, after which he advised Governor Tryon to use as much force as necessary at the Battle of Alamance the following year. However, Britain's attempts to regulate provincial courts weakened Hooper's Loyalist leanings and, after he helped found North Carolina's Committee of Correspondence, he predicted that, "the Colonies are striding fast to independence, and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain; will adopt its Constitution, purged of its impurities, and from an experience of its defects, will guard against those evils which have wasted its vigor." In 1774, he served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and signed the Declaration of Independence and, later, campaigned for North Carolina to ratify the Constitution.

An attorney in North Carolina and superior court judge from 1768 to 1773, Richard Henderson (1735-1785) quit the law to become a land speculator and politician, best known for establishing, in 1775, the short-lived Transylvania Colony in western Kentucky located on Cherokee lands that were also claimed by Virginia and North Carolina. As part of his undertaking, Henderson hired frontiersman Daniel Boone to chart a route west through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, dubbed the Wilderness Road. Kentucky's Henderson County and its county seat Henderson are named in his honor.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.25" x 10.5"
  • Medium: MDS

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