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Introduction to Joseph Smith’s New York and Pennsylvania Legal Cases

Introduction to Joseph Smith’s New York and Pennsylvania Legal Cases

Between 1817 and 1831, JS lived primarily in , with periodic residences in northeastern . During those years, he was involved in at least four legal cases in New York and one in Pennsylvania.

In New York, he appeared as a witness in 1819 in a civil suit brought against a neighbor by his father, , and older brother . In 1826 and twice in 1830, JS was charged with violating the state’s disorderly persons statute based on allegations stemming from his use of . Later in 1830, JS was a voluntary party in an “amicable action” in Pennsylvania brought to ensure his payment of a loan.

Relevant New York Courts

JS’s cases took place in justice of the peace and county-level courts, the lowest levels of ’s complex tiered court system. Although justices of the peace rarely obtained formal legal education during the nineteenth century, they were required to be “fit and discreet men” who were well-respected in their communities. Before 1826, county officials appointed justices of the peace to serve four-year terms; after that year, citizens in each town elected justices. They were authorized to hear minor civil disputes involving claims up to $50. They were conservators of the peace in their counties, possessing authority to prosecute disorderly persons and to hold preliminary examinations to determine whether there was sufficient evidence that a crime had been committed to send the case to trial at a county-level court.

Parties that lost a civil suit before a justice of the peace were permitted to appeal the judgment to the court of common pleas, which also had authority to try all civil disputes. ’s governor, with the consent of the state senate, appointed a professional judge to serve a five-year term in each county’s court of common pleas, along with two assistant justices.

To try criminal cases “under the degree of grand larceny,” New York law permitted three justices of the peace within a county to form an ad hoc court of special sessions.

JS’s New York Cases

In February 1819, JS was asked to testify in Joseph Smith Sr. v. J. Hurlbut, a civil suit brought by and against a local farmer, . The Smiths alleged that Hurlbut had provided them unsound horses under an agreement in which they would harvest crops on his behalf. , New York, justice of the peace Abraham Spear presided at the jury trial. After hearing testimony from witnesses, including thirteen-year-old JS, the jury awarded the Smiths $40.78 in damages and $4.76 in costs. Hurlbut appealed the decision to the Ontario County court of common pleas, which heard the appeal in August 1819. When the Smiths did not appear, the court issued a judgment against them.

In winter 1825–1826, JS resided with in , New York, in the southern part of the state. He was employed by Stowell and possibly other county residents performing various tasks, including using seer stones to locate valuable items that were believed to be buried in the ground. JS also purportedly engaged in these activities in neighboring during those months. In March 1826, JS was arrested and tried by Chenango County justice of the peace on the charge of being a disorderly person in State of New York v. JS–A. Extant contemporaneous sources are silent on the outcome, and later reminiscences are contradictory.

Following the organization of the church on 6 April 1830, JS returned to the area to visit recent converts. Protestant ministers and other antagonists revived the disorderly person charge, evidently based on JS’s earlier seer stone activities. JS was first tried on 29 June 1830 in State of New York v. JS–B, before justice of the peace Joseph Chamberlin, who after hearing testimony discharged him from custody. JS was immediately arrested and brought before justice of the peace Joel Noble, along with unidentified additional justices who likely formed a court of special sessions, in State of New York v. JS–C. Noble similarly discharged JS after hearing testimony on 30 June. JS was evidently discharged in both instances because the statute of limitations stipulated that prosecution for an alleged crime had to occur within two years of the initial offense.

JS’s Case in Pennsylvania Courts

As in , justices of the peace formed the lowest level of ’s court system. In August 1830, JS borrowed money from George H. Noble & Co., a local merchant, in order to complete a purchase of real property from his father-in-law, . Noble and JS commenced an “amicable action” before , a Susquehanna County justice of the peace, to ensure that JS would repay the loan. Lane filed his docket entry with the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas, the next level of the state’s court system. In early 1831, JS relocated with his family to , and by that June he satisfied the debt to Noble.

1
JS History, vol. A-1, 7–9, 13; Porter, “Study of the Origins,” 50, 61, 63; “Harmony, Pennsylvania,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:573–574; Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 April 1829. Joseph Smith Sr. left Vermont in late summer or early fall 1816. The rest of the Smith family joined him in Palmyra, New York, in early 1817. (Palmyra, NY, Record of Highway Taxes, 1817, Copies of Old Village Records, 1793–1867, microfilm 812,869, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 3, [3]–[6]; JS History, vol. A-1, 131–132.)
Porter, Larry C. “A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816–1831.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1971. Also available as A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816–1831, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. 5 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
2
For more information on the evolution of New York’s court system, see Scott, Courts of the State of New York, 203–481.
Scott, Henry W. The Courts of the State of New York: Their History, Development, and Jurisdiction. New York: Wilson Publishing Co., 1909.
3
An Act Declaring the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace [13 Apr. 1813], Laws of the State of New-York [1813], vol. 2, pp. 506–507, secs. 1–2; New York Constitution of 1821, art. 4, sec. 7; Amendments [6–8 Nov. 1826], Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, vol. 1, p. 58; An Act for Apprehending and Punishing Disorderly Persons [9 Feb. 1788], Laws of the State of New-York [1813], vol. 1, p. 114; An Act to Extend the Jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace [10 Apr. 1818], Laws of the State of New-York [1818], pp. 79, 82, secs. 1, 17.
Laws of the State of New-York, Revised and Passed at the Thirty-Sixth Session of the Legislature, With Marginal Notes and References. 2 Vols. Albany: H. C. Southwick and Company, 1813.
New York State Secretary of State. Second Constitution of the State of New York, 1821. New York State Archives, Albany.
The Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, Passed During the Years One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Seven, and One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Eight: To Which Are Added, Certain Former Acts Which Have Not Been Revised. 3 Vols. Albany: Packard and Van Benthuysen, 1829.
Laws of the State of New-York, Passed at the Fifty-First Session of the Legislature, Begun and Held at the City of Albany, the Twenty-Seventh Day of January, 1818. Albany: J. Buel, 1818.
4
New York Constitution of 1821, art. 4, sec. 7; art. 5, sec. 6; An Act concerning the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace in the Several Counties of this State [5 Apr. 1813], Laws of the State of New-York [1813], vol. 2, pp. 141–142, secs. 1, 3; An Act to Extend the Jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace [10 Apr. 1818], Laws of the State of New-York [1818], p. 82, sec. 17.
New York State Secretary of State. Second Constitution of the State of New York, 1821. New York State Archives, Albany.
Laws of the State of New-York, Revised and Passed at the Thirty-Sixth Session of the Legislature, With Marginal Notes and References. 2 Vols. Albany: H. C. Southwick and Company, 1813.
Laws of the State of New-York, Passed at the Fifty-First Session of the Legislature, Begun and Held at the City of Albany, the Twenty-Seventh Day of January, 1818. Albany: J. Buel, 1818.
5
An Act Declaring the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace [13 Apr. 1813], Laws of the State of New-York [1813], vol. 2, p. 507, sec. 4; An Act concerning Courts and Ministers of Justice, and Proceedings in Civil Cases [10 Dec. 1828], Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, vol. 2, p. 224, sec. 3.
Laws of the State of New-York, Revised and Passed at the Thirty-Sixth Session of the Legislature, With Marginal Notes and References. 2 Vols. Albany: H. C. Southwick and Company, 1813.
The Revised Statutes of the State of New-York, Passed During the Years One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Seven, and One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Eight: To Which Are Added, Certain Former Acts Which Have Not Been Revised. 3 Vols. Albany: Packard and Van Benthuysen, 1829.
6
Introduction to Joseph Smith Sr. v. J. Hurlbut.
7
Introduction to State of New York v. JS–A.
8
Introduction to State of New York v. JS–B and State of New York v. JS–C.
9
An Act to Amend and Consolidate with Its Supplements the Act Entitled “An Act for the Recovery of Debts and Demands . . .” (20 Mar. 1810), Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, vol. 5, chap. 3,249, pp. 161–179.
Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from the Fourteenth Day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred. Republished, under the Authority of the Legislature. With Notes and References. Vol. 5. Philadelphia: John Bioren, 1812.
10
See An Act to Organize for Judicial Purposes, the Counties of Bradford, Tioga, and Susquehanna, and for Other Purposes (24 Mar. 1812), Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, vol. 5, chap. 3,513, p. 354–356.
Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from the Fourteenth Day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred. Republished, under the Authority of the Legislature. With Notes and References. Vol. 5. Philadelphia: John Bioren, 1812.
11
Introduction to George H. Noble & Co. v. JS; Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3 Mar. 1831.

Introduction to Joseph Smith’s New York and Pennsylvania Legal Cases

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