Appeals to the Privy Council

Report No. 11_1758_00

Freebody v Brenton

Rhode island 

Case Name Short

Freebody v Brenton

Case Name Long

John Freebody (later Samuel, John and Thomas Freebody) v Jahleel Brenton, Benjamin Wickham and George Gardiner

 

Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series

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APC Citation 

v.4 [366] p.395–396 – 21 November 1758 – entry 1

 
PC Register Citation 

George II v.17 (1 January 1758 – 21 May 1759) p.284–285: PC 2/106/284–285

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APC Citation 

v.4 [366] p.396 – 1 May 1764 – entry 2

 
PC Register Citation 

George III v.3 (1 May 1763 – 30 September 1764) p.419–420: PC 2/110/419–420

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APC Citation 

v.4 [366] p.396 – 3 August 1764 – entry 3

 
PC Register Citation 

George III v.3 (1 May 1763 – 30 September 1764) p.562–568, 593–594: PC 2/110/562–568, 593–594

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Colonial Courts

Lower court unnamed

Superior Court – March 1757 (multiple judgments)

Participants

Brenton, Jahleel (commissioner for the distribution of the estate of Joseph Whipple)

Freebody, John (son of John Freebody)

Freebody, John, merchant, of Newport (now deceased father of John, Thomas, and Samuel Freebody)

Freebody, Samuel (son of John Freebody)

Freebody, Thomas (son of John Freebody)

Gardiner, George (commissioner for the distribution of the estate of Joseph Whipple)

Whipple, Joseph, an insolvent

Wickham, Benjamin (commissioner for the distribution of the estate of Joseph Whipple)

Description

Land (trespass and ejectment) re two properties, one of 520 acres and another of 287 acres in Middletown. The dispute is about the “depreciation of the old tenor bills of credit which were named in the condition of the mortgage,” according to the APC.

Disposition

Reversed but “on payment of certain sums defendants may have the mortgaged premises reconveyed to them”

Notes

Related to other Privy Council appeals:

    Brenton v Sylvester – Report No. 11_1756_00 (APC, v.4 [297] p.323)

    Freebody v Brenton – Report No. 11_1766_04 (APC, v.5 [14] p.24)

The only record in the APC in Brenton v Sylvester notes an appearance of counsel for Sylvester, respondent in an appeal brought by Brenton, Wickham, and Gardiner. Brenton, Wickham, and Gardiner, as we learn in Freebody v Brenton, were commissioners for the distribution of the estate of the insolvent Joseph Whipple. The two Freebody v Brenton cases are closely related. They involve mortgages, in which the elder Freebody seems to have been the mortgagee, and a dispute about whether the conditions of the mortgages had been fulfilled. The first of the two cases is an appeal by the elder Freebody. The second of the two cases is a revival of the first appeal brought by the elder Freebody’s sons as executors of his estate. The relationship of these cases to Brenton v Sylvester may simply be that the commissioners for the distribution of the estate of the insolvent Joseph Whipple were involved in both, or it may be closer. The records that we have examined do not allow us to tell which it is.

On the action of ‘trespass and ejectment’ involved here, see Additional Research.

References in Smith, Appeals to the Privy Council from the American Plantations

Table of Cases (Freebody v Brenton) (extensive discussion)


DOCUMENTATION

Printed Cases

Appellant’s
case

Case of the appellant in the first and second appeals (Freebody)

Counsel

[Signed] Tho. Sewell; Al. Forrester

 
Library

British Library: (Hardwicke Papers) Additional Manuscripts 36219 f.75–76 (first appeal) and f.77–78 (second appeal)

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Respondent’s
case

Case of the respondent in the first and second appeals (Brenton)

Counsel

[Signed] C. Ambler; C. Yorke

 
Library

British Library: (Hardwicke Papers) Additional Manuscripts 36219 f.79–81 (first appeal) and f.82–84 (second appeal) (First appeal includes manuscript notes. In second appeal, manuscript notes are limited to counsel names on the dorse.)

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Privy Council Documents in PC 1 at The National Archives at Kew

TNA Document
Notes about
Document
All PC 1 documents for this action are entered under Report No. 11_1766_04 (Freebody v Brenton).