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Warrant, 6 December 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles]
Source Note
Source Note
JS as mayor, Warrant, to Nauvoo City Marshal [], for , , Hancock Co., IL, 6 Dec. 1842, City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles (Nauvoo, IL, Mayor’s Court 1842); handwriting of ; certified by JS, 6 Dec. 1842; docket and notation by , [, Hancock Co., IL], [6 Dec. 1842]; docket by , [ca. 6 Dec. 1842]; two pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL. Includes seal, notation, and dockets.
Single leaf, measuring 6⅝ × 7¾ inches (17 × 20 cm) and ruled with about twenty horizontal lines printed in blue ink. The leaf is torn on the right side of the recto and was unevenly cut on the top and bottom. The document was trifolded and later refolded and docketed for filing.
The document includes a notation and docket by and a docket by , who served as city recorder and clerk of the Nauvoo Municipal Court from 1841 to 1843. After the warrant was served, it was returned and presumably kept among city records. In 1845 the city of Nauvoo was disincorporated. Many if not most of the city records were likely included in the various collections of city records listed in an inventory produced by the Church Historian’s Office (later Family and Church History Department) in 1846, when they were packed up along with church records and taken to the Salt Lake Valley. The city records are also listed in inventories of church records created in 1855, 1878, and circa 1904. The Nauvoo, Illinois, records collection was arranged and cataloged by the Family and Church History Department (now CHL) in 2006. The document’s likely inclusion with the city records listed in early church inventories and its inclusion in the Nauvoo, Illinois, records collection in 2006 indicate continuous church custody since 1845.
Footnotes
- [1]
“Officers of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638; “Municipal Court of the City of Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1843, 4:244.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
- [2]
“An Act to Repeal the Nauvoo Charter,” 14th General Assembly, 1844–1845, Senate Bill no. 35 (House Bill no. 42), Illinois General Assembly, Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–2012, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
Illinois General Assembly. Bills, Resolutions, and Related General Assembly Records, 1st–98th Bienniums, 1819–2015. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
- [3]
“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
- [4]
“Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]–[2]; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]; “Index to Papers in the Historians Office,” ca. 1904, 7, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
- [5]
See the full bibliographic entry for Nauvoo, IL, Records, 1841–1845, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
See Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles and Historical Introduction to Complaint, 6 Dec. 1842.
| State of Illinois) | S.s. |
| City of ) |
The People of the State of and Said Greeting— To the of Said Greeting—
Whereas Complaint has been made before me Joseph Smith Mayor for Said upon the oath of that of Said Did on or about the 3d Day of Dec A.D. 1842— at the aforesaid make use of indecent Language & Behavior towards & concerning the Said contrary to the ordinance of Said in Such cases made and Provided— These are therefore to Command you to take the Body Said if he be found in your and take and Safely keep the Said So that you have his Body forthwith before me to answer the Said Complaint and be further Dealt with according to Law—
Given under my hand and Seal this 6th Day of Dec. A.D. 1842
Joseph Smith Mayor LS [p. [1]]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [1]
“S.s.” is a legal abbreviation for scilicet, a Latin adverb meaning “that is to say, to wit, viz.” (“Scilicet,” in Jones, Introduction to Legal Science, appendix, 28.)
Jones, Silas. An Introduction to Legal Science: Being a Concise and Familiar Treatise . . . to Which Is Appended a Concise Dictionary of Law Terms and Phrases. New York: John S. Voorhies, 1842.
- [2]
This is presumably a reference to Nauvoo’s vagrancy ordinance, which forbade “profane or indecent language, or behaviour.” (Minutes, 13 Nov. 1841.)
Signature of JS.
- [3]
TEXT: “LS” (which stands for locus sigilli, Latin for “location of the seal”) is inscribed within a hand-drawn representation of a seal.