The Official Story
Chapter 7
Foster's creditors line up to collect
The court records suggest that Foster's creditors attempted to retrieve what he owed them.
In the Lincoln County Court records for 1788, there are records of a Boston merchant attempting to collect a sizeable debt from Foster. Henry Sewall kept tabs on the case in his diary. He records his correspondence with the Boston merchant's attorney, his attendance at the trial in Pownalborough, and his attendance at the appeal, which Foster lost. (Notice that Henry Sewall was in Pownalborough for other reasons, too. His defamation case with Foster was still brewing.)
Looking through the town's property deeds, we find records showing Isaac Foster sold some unimproved property in 1790 for 60 pounds. He'd acquired the same property a couple of years earlier for 200 pounds, but the town treasurer held a mortgage on the property. It seems Foster was being forced to hand over the land because he was unable to raise the funds required to pay off a 30 pound debt.
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June 6, 1788 Page 220 (back)
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recognizance with Sureties as the Law directs, for prosecuting his appeal
with Effect.
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Heywood
vs
Inhabitants
of
Winslow |
Zimvi Heywood of Winslow in the County
of Lincoln, Gentleman plt. vs. the Inhabitants of said Winslow (of whom
Solomon Parker a Deputy Sheriff for said County is one) Defts. in a process
of Confession, in a plea of the case; for that the said Inhabitants at said
Winslow, on the last day of December last. Being indebted to the said Zimvi
in the sum of twenty six pounds fourteen shillings and ten pence, according
to the account annexed to the Writ. then and there promised the said Zimvi
to pay him the same sum on demand; for that also the said Inhabitants there
afterwards to wit, on the same last day of December last, in Consideration
that the said Zimvi, had there before that time at the special instance
and request of the said Inhabitants, done and performed for the said Inhabitants,
the like work, labour and services mentioned in the account annexed to the
Writ. promised the said Zimvi. |
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