Inhabitants of Dighton v. Inhabitants of Freetown
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This writ of error was brought to reverse a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas for this county, rendered in December last, by which the settlement of Dinah Walker, a pauper, was determined to be in Dighton. *The facts on which the Court below certify that the [ * 540 ] judgment was founded, were, that the said Dinah was, more than twenty years since, lawfully married to one Pomp Walker, a black man, who had formerly been a servant to Colonel Elnathan Walker, deceased, and…
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This writ of error was brought to reverse a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas for this county, rendered in December last, by which the settlement of Dinah Walker, a pauper, was determined to be in Dighton. *The facts on which the Court below certify that the [ * 540 ] judgment was founded, were, that the said Dinah was, more than twenty years since, lawfully married to one Pomp Walker, a black man, who had formerly been a servant to Colonel Elnathan Walker, deceased, and was appraised at fifty dollars, as part of the personal estate of said Elnathan ; that the said Pomp lived with the…
1Opinion of the CourtParsons, C. J.
The Common Pleas have sent up a statement of facts on which the judgment was given, that we may revise, and, if necessary, correct their proceedings. The statement is not very accurately drawn up. It does not appear in what town Pomp’s former master had his settlement, nor whether Dinah was, in fact, free, or a reputed slave. She must, therefore, be considered by us as free, when married ; but as enough appears in the case to decide wheth er or not Dinah’s settlement was in Dighton, we do not send the case back for a restatement.
Pomp being and continuing to be a reputed slave until 1779, he…
2Cited by4 opinions
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- Inhabitants of Edgartown v. Inhabitants of TisburyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1852
- Inhabitants of Lanesborough v. Inhabitants of WestfieldMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1819
- Town of East-Hartford v. PitkinSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1831