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

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, 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 The Boston Bar Association (BBA) is a volunteer non-governmental organization in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. With headquarters located at 16 Beacon Street in the historic Chester Harding House, across from the Massachusetts State House ...

Biography

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

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

(class of 1725); classmates included

Mather Byles Mather Byles (born 26 March 1706, Boston, Massachusetts – 5 July 1788), was an American clergyman active in British North America. Byles was descended, on his mother's side, from John Cotton and Richard Mather and was a grandson of ...

. 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 an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

William Cushing William Cushing (March 1, 1732 – September 13, 1810) 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 his death. His Supreme Court ...

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

writs of assistance In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...

,' 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 c ...

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 Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri * Brookline, New Hampshire * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookline, Vermont See ...

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 The Boston Marine Society (established 1742) is a charitable organization in Boston, Massachusetts, formed "to 'make navigation more safe' and to relieve members and their families in poverty or other 'adverse accidents in life.'" Membership general ...

.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 The Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660 and located on Tremont Street. It is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, the ...

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 American politicians

Biography

References

Further reading

Works by Gridley

Works about Gridley