Jeremiah Gridley (or Jeremy Gridley; 1702–1767) was a lawyer, editor, colonial legislator, and

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

, in the 18th century. He served as "Grand Master of the Masons in North America" around the 1760s, and was associated with the founding of the Boston Bar Association.

Biography

Born in 1702 in Boston to Richard Gridley (born 1684) and Rebecca Gridley, Jeremiah attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

(class of 1725); classmates included Mather Byles. Gridley married Abigail Lewis around 1730. In the 1730s he edited '' The Weekly Rehearsal,'' a literary magazine. He practiced law in Boston. As a lawyer he trained

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

William Cushing William Cushing (March 1, 1732 – September 13, 1810) was an American lawyer who was one of the original five associate justices of the United States Supreme Court; confirmed by the United States Senate on September 26, 1789, he served until ...

, James Otis, Benjamin Pratt, and Oxenbridge Thacher. In 1761 "he defended the '

writs of assistance In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...

,' for which the

custom house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

officers had applied to the superior court, and which authorized them to enter houses under suspicion of obtaining smuggled goods, at their own discretion. Gridley had for an antagonist in this case the celebrated patriot, James Otis." "He was moderator of the town of Brookline 1759, 1760, and 1761, ... representative to the General Court for 1755, 1756, and 1757, and Attorney General in 1767." He also belonged to the Boston Marine Society.Nathaniel Spooner. Gleanings from the records of the Boston Marine Society: through its first century, 1742 to 1842. The Society, 1879 Gridley died in 1767, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.

References

Encyclopædia Americana
A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new edition. 1845. * R.G.F. Candage. Jeremy Gridley
Publications of the Brookline Historical Society
1903. * Lyon N. Richardson. A History of Early American Magazines, 1741–1789 (New York, 1931
Google books
* John K. Reeves. Jeremy Gridley, Editor. New England Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Jun., 1944), pp. 265–281. * Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. A Majestick Shape: 1745. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1949), pp. 74–80. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gridley, Jeremiah 1702 births 1767 deaths Harvard College alumni Lawyers from Boston Politicians from Brookline, Massachusetts 18th century in Boston Massachusetts attorneys general Members of the colonial Massachusetts House of Representatives Burials at Granary Burying Ground People from colonial Boston 18th-century Massachusetts politicians

Biography

References

Further reading

Works by Gridley

Works about Gridley