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Bond from Smith Tuttle and John Gillet, 7 July 1843

Source Note

and , Bond for property in , Hancock Co., IL, to JS as trustee-in-trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 July 1843; signed by and ; witnessed by , , and ; certified by . Featured version copied 8 July 1844 in Hancock Co., IL, Clerk and Recorder, “Hancock County Illinois 1840 Record Book of Mortgages, Title Bonds, Leases Deeds of Trust and Sales of Personal Property,” Bonds and Mortgages, vol. 1, 27 Apr. 1840–16 Oct. 1844, pp. 500–501; unidentified handwriting; Hancock County Courthouse, Carthage, IL.
This bond is found in a bound volume measuring 17½ × 11¾ × 3 inches (44 × 30 × 8 cm) and containing 282 leaves measuring 17 × 10¼ inches (43 × 26 cm). A large, commercially produced book with brown leather binding, the volume is made of either heavy wood or pressed boards, with ledger binding. Each of the inside covers contains two leaves of heavy yellow endpaper that serve as a pastedown and a flyleaf. The first recorded transactions in the book are dated 15 April 1840, and the last are dated 12 March 1844. By 1974, the original brown leather binding was covered with white canvas and red leather corners. The spine of the canvas was stamped with black ink: “BONDS & MORTGAGES | 1 | HANCOCK COUNTY”.
The volume has been in the continuous custody of the Hancock County Clerk and Recorder since its creation.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Historical Introduction

On 7 July 1843, JS entered into a land agreement in , Illinois, with land speculators and , for which they gave him a bond. This was the second land transaction of the day between these parties. The first canceled an 1839 transaction that gave , JS, and rights to approximately four hundred acres of land in the northeastern section of the peninsula, which soon became a part of Nauvoo. That 1839 agreement with Tuttle, Gillet, and their partner specified that Rigdon, JS, and Hyrum Smith would receive a warranty deed for the land once they completed payments totaling $110,000, including interest.
This debt weighed heavily on JS for the next few years as he struggled to make the scheduled payments. An 1841 report by unidentified noted that “$3000 are now due to ” and identified this amount as the first interest payment. An 1841 letter written by the and printed in the church newspaper reported that the church owed $53,500 for its 1839 land transactions with Hotchkiss and his partners; the letter also noted that interest was accumulating on other promissory notes. After making the agreement to purchase land from , , and in August 1839, JS subdivided and sold this land to residents, providing them with bonds that promised a deed once JS and his partners had paid for the land and received the title from Hotchkiss and his associates.
By 1842, the debt was owed by JS alone. After the church was incorporated in and JS became its sole trustee, and transferred the 1839 bond from , , and to JS as trustee-in-trust for the church. In an effort to pay these debts, JS called for church members in the eastern intent on immigrating to to exchange deeds to their eastern land for land in Nauvoo; the deeds to those eastern lands were then to be given to Hotchkiss and his partners as payment toward the debt owed to them. After that plan largely failed to relieve the debt, JS filed for bankruptcy in April 1842, much to the chagrin of Hotchkiss. JS also stopped paying taxes on these properties, which created a larger financial burden for Hotchkiss and his partners.
Early in 1843, recorder wrote a letter to JS questioning the validity of the original 1839 transaction, for which and his partners had not yet been paid. At the same time, , the assignee appointed for bankruptcy proceedings in Hancock County, seized JS’s assets and prepared to sell them to pay JS’s creditors. JS had listed the Hotchkiss lands among his assets on the bankruptcy application, even though he did not yet own them. These mounting concerns, coupled with JS’s inability to make the yearly interest payments, necessitated a renegotiation of the original contract. On 14 June 1843, and visited and conversed with about “the City plot on .” While historical documents are silent about the proceedings, by 7 July, JS and the Hotchkiss partnership agreed to cancel the 1839 transaction with a deed. Nevertheless, Hotchkiss kept a previous promise to allow the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo to remain in their homes and work the land as tenants.
As part of the renegotiation, , , and JS reached a new agreement on 7 July to grant JS title to fifty specific lots in —mostly west of the unfinished —in exchange for the original bonds and all promissory notes JS held from members who had purchased those lots from him. An addendum to this new agreement was made the same day and included the titles to three lots recently purchased by . , who served as one of the witnesses to the agreement, summarized the transactions of 7 July as a satisfactory settlement “with Tuttle and Gillett for the tract by giving back the land into their hands & they giving J. a Bond for a Deed for 50 lots.”
Two weeks later, JS completed his part of the agreement. As noted, “Prest. J’s Gave Bonds & notes of tract to .” Under the terms of the bond featured here, Gillet and were to be assessed a $20,000 penalty if they did not deliver the deed by 7 July 1844. As of 7 July, the deed had not been delivered. The next day, 8 July 1844, someone acting on behalf of the church had the bond recorded in the Bonds and Mortgages ledger. On 12 July, four days later, Gillet visited to make out a deed for the land. Upon delivery of the deed, the church likely returned the original bond to Gillet, as was customary.
The original bond is apparently not extant. The recorded version remains among records and is the version featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; and Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12G, p. 299, 7 July 1843, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. In addition to signing the bond with Tuttle, Gillet, and Horace Hotchkiss for approximately 400 acres of land, the First Presidency signed a bond with Hotchkiss on 12 August 1839 for 89½ acres that had belonged to William White. White received payment for this land by April 1840 and provided JS, Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith with a deed. The debt owed to Hotchkiss for the 89½ acres was renegotiated in October 1840, and Hotchkiss was given a new promissory note for $2,500 that was due eight months later. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–B; Promissory Note to Horace Hotchkiss, 23 Oct. 1840; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. H, pp. 510–511, 20 July 1840, microfilm 954,598, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)

  2. [2]

    Half the amount was to be paid to Hotchkiss in twenty interest payments of $1,500 each, due annually for the next twenty years, with a final principal payment of $25,000 due in 1859. The other half was to be paid to Tuttle and Gillet jointly in the same manner. JS, Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith made out forty-two promissory notes for these payments. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A; Promissory Note to John Gillet and Smith Tuttle, 12 Aug. 1839.)

  3. [3]

    Report of Agents, ca. 30 Jan. 1841.

  4. [4]

    Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:568.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  5. [5]

    See, for example, Bond to Elijah Able, 8 Dec. 1839.

  6. [6]

    See Bill to Incorporate the Church, 14 Dec. 1840; Appointment as Trustee, 2 Feb. 1841; and Hancock Co., IL, Bonds and Mortgages, 1840–1904, vol. 1, pp. 223–224, 31 Jan. 1842, microfilm 954,776, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

  7. [7]

    See Authorization for Hyrum Smith and Isaac Galland, 15 Feb. 1841; Letter from William Smith, 5 Aug. 1841; and Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 25 Aug. 1841.

  8. [8]

    See Application for Bankruptcy, ca. 14–16 Apr. 1842; “Joseph Smith Documents from May through August 1842”; Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 27 May 1842; and Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 7 Apr. 1843.

  9. [9]

    Horace Hotchkiss, Fair Haven, CT, to Sidney Rigdon, Nauvoo, IL, 8 Nov. 1842, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU; JS, Journal, 23 Feb. 1843.

    Whitney, Newel K. Papers, 1825–1906. BYU.

  10. [10]

    See Letter from Chauncey Robison, 8 Mar. 1843.

  11. [11]

    See Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 7 Apr. 1843; and Application for Bankruptcy, ca. 14–16 Apr. 1842.

  12. [12]

    Clayton, Journal, 14 June 1843. JS left Nauvoo for Dixon, Illinois, on 13 June. Clayton presumably informed JS about the business with Tuttle and Gillet upon JS’s return to Nauvoo. (JS, Journal, 13 June 1843.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  13. [13]

    Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. 12G, p. 299, 7 July 1843, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

  14. [14]

    See Letter from Horace Hotchkiss, 7 Apr. 1843.

  15. [15]

    Clayton, Journal, 7 July 1843.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  16. [16]

    Clayton, Journal, 20 July 1843.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  17. [17]

    Clayton, Journal, 12 July 1844; see also Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. N, pp. 366–368, 28 Oct. 1844, microfilm 954,195, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Page 501

cancel all interest accruing thereon, and also to give up all other obligations articles of agreement or papers of every description heretofore made by the aforesaid parties pertaining to any contract or contracts which may have heretofore been made between the aforesaid parties when the said Joseph Smith shall have complied with the requisitions of the above bond, and the said Joseph Smith agree to give up all the notes and bonds in his hands which relate to sales made by him pertaining to the Hotchkiss tract.
LS
LS
Witness} )
)
)
State of Illinois) SS.
Hancock County)
City of )
I a Notary Public in and for said City of in said and do Certify that , and whose signatures appear to the foregoing Bond and who is personally known to me to be the Persons described in, and who executed the same, did acknowledge that they had executed the said Bond for the uses and purposes therein mentioned. Given under my hand and seal of my office of notary public as above mentioned, at the City of , Illinois this seventh day of July A.D. 1843.
Notary public in and for the City of Illinois
Seal
We do also further mutually agree to include in the aforesaid Warrantee Deed Lots number one and three and fractional Lot number two in Block 23 being the Lots purchased and lately owned by and hereby obligate ourselves our heirs executors administrators & assigns to give a Warrantee Deed for these three Lots as aforesaid. Witness our hands and seals at the seventh day of July A.D. 1843.
LS
LS
Witness }
Bond for Sundry Lots in
$4.37½ [p. 501]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 501

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Bond from Smith Tuttle and John Gillet, 7 July 1843
ID #
4127
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:446–453
Handwriting on This Page
  • Unidentified

Footnotes

  1. [5]

    The terms of the original 1839 agreement required Rigdon, JS, and Hyrum Smith to pay Hotchkiss annual interest payments of $1,500 for twenty years and a final principal payment of $25,000. Gillet and Tuttle were likewise to be paid annual interest at $1,500 for twenty years with a final principal payment of $25,000. The entire agreement amounted to $110,000. (Bond from Horace Hotchkiss, 12 Aug. 1839–A.)

  2. [6]

    TEXT: Both instances of “LS” (which stands for locus sigilli, Latin for “location of the seal”) are inscribed within hand-drawn representations of seals.

  3. [7]

    An abbreviation for the Latin scilicet, meaning “namely” or “to wit.” (“Scilicet,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:379.)

    Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Deacon and Peterson, 1854.

  4. [8]

    Sloan was elected a notary public in September 1842. (Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 26 Sept. 1842, 41.)

  5. [9]

    TEXT: “Seal” enclosed in a hand-drawn representation of a seal.

  6. [10]

    TEXT: Both instances of “LS” (which stands for locus sigilli, Latin for “location of the seal”) are inscribed within hand-drawn representations of seals.

  7. [11]

    TEXT: The recorder added this text in the left margin of page 500 when copying the bond into the bonds and mortgages book.

  8. [12]

    TEXT: The recorder added this text in the left margin of page 501 when copying the bond into the bonds and mortgages book. This figure probably represents the fee assessed for recording the document.

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