Summons, 4 May 1844 [Phelps, Assignee of JS v. Wilson Law]
Source Note
on behalf of , Summons, to Sheriff [], for , , Hancock Co., IL, 4 May 1844, Phelps, Assignee of JS v. Wilson Law (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court 1843); printed form with manuscript additions in handwriting of ; docket printed with manuscript additions by , [, Hancock Co., IL, 4 May 1844]; notations printed with manuscript additions by , , IL, 6 May 1844; notation by , [, Hancock Co., IL], 7 May 1844; two pages; private possession; photocopy at Joseph Smith Papers. Includes seal.
This document was presumably filed in the Hancock County Circuit Court in , Illinois, in 1844. Sometime in the ensuing decades, it was removed from the custody of the court. In 2001, the Joseph Smith Papers Project obtained a photocopy of the original document when it was in the possession of George W. Givens, a document collector. The summons and other case documents for Phelps, Assignee of JS v. Wilson Law were sold in 2007 by Beehive Collector’s Gallery, a shop operated by Nyal Anderson in Salt Lake City. As of 2022, the document is presumably in private possession.
The People of the State of , TO THE OF SAID —GREETING:
WE COMMAND YOU TO SUMMON if to be found in your , to appear before the Circuit Court of said county of , on the first day of the next term thereof, to be holden at the Court House, in , on the third Monday in the month of May Inst— to answer the complaint of assignee of Joseph Smith of a plea of on promises, to his damage, the sum of— Three Hundred & fifty Dollars, as he says. And have you there this writ, and make return thereon in what manner you execute the same.
[seal]
WITNESS, Clerk of our said Circuit Court, at , this Fourth day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-four