Jeremiah Gridley
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Jeremiah Gridley by John Smibert Harvard (1731).jpg
| name = Jeremiah Gridley
| caption = Portrait of Jeremiah Gridley by John Smibert, 1731 (Harvard University)
| order =
| title = Massachusetts Attorney General
| term_start =
| term_end =
| appointed =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| title2 = Member of the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
| term_start2 = 1755
| term_end2 = 1757
| predecessor2 =
| successor2 =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1702|3|10}}
| birth_place = Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
| death_date = {{death date and age|1767|9|10|1702|3|10}}
| death_place = Massachusetts, U.S.
| resting_place = Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| party =
| spouse =
| alma_mater = Harvard College (class of 1725)
| profession =
| religion =
| signature =
}}
Jeremiah Gridley (or Jeremy Gridley; 1702–1767) was a lawyer, editor, colonial legislator, and attorney general in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the 18th century. He served as "Grand Master of the Masons in North America" around the 1760s,History of Saint John's Lodge, of Boston, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as shown in the records of the First Lodge, the Second Lodge, the Third Lodge, the Rising Sun Lodge, the Masters' Lodge, Saint John's Lodge, the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge. Boston, Privately printed, 1917; p.19-20. [https://books.google.com/books?id=y2L4G2ip1LYC Google books].Boston Post Boy.; Date: 06-24-1765 and was associated with the founding of the Boston Bar Association.Candage. 1903
Biography
Born in 1702 in Boston{{cite book|title=The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine|date=1907|volume=39|publisher=Granite Monthly Co.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYIbAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=2015-03-08}} to Richard Gridley (born 1684) and Rebecca Gridley, Jeremiah attended Harvard College (class of 1725); classmates included Mather Byles.[https://archive.org/details/quinquennialcat00univgoog Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University], 1636–1915. 1915 Gridley married Abigail Lewis around 1730. In the 1730s he edited The Weekly Rehearsal, a literary magazine.The Rehearsal was published by John Draper (1731) and Thomas Fleet (c. 1733). https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/18th/204.htmlIsaiah Thomas, Benjamin Franklin Thomas. [https://archive.org/details/historyprinting01socigoog The history of printing in America]: with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers, Volume 1. J. Munsell, printer, 1874Albert Matthews. [https://books.google.com/books?id=excQAAAAYAAJ Check-list of Boston newspapers, 1704-1780]. Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1907.Charles E. Clark. Boston and the Nurturing of Newspapers: Dimensions of the Cradle, 1690–1741. New England Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Jun., 1991), pp. 243-271
Image:JeremyGridley house Brookline Massachusetts.png
He practiced law in Boston. As a lawyer he trained John Adams, William Cushing, James Otis, Benjamin Pratt, and Oxenbridge Thacher.Charles Warren. A History of the American Bar. Little, Brown, and Co., 1911; p.81 In 1761 "he defended the 'writs of assistance,' for which the custom house 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."[https://books.google.com/books?id=luA-AAAAYAAJ National cyclopedia of American biography]. 1896
"He was moderator of the town of Brookline 1759, 1760, and 1761, ... representative to the General Court for 1755, 1756, and 1757, and Attorney General in 1767."History of Saint John's Lodge, of Boston. 1917; p.19Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal; Date: 06-02-1755Boston Weekly News-Letter; Date: 06-10-1756 He also belonged to the Boston Marine Society.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.{{cite book|title=Bibliographical notes in Boston newspapers, 1704-1780|date=1907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlavAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=2015-03-08 |last1=Matthews |first1=Albert }}
References
Image:1731 WeeklyRehearsal Boston Sept27.png in Boston, 1731]]
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
{{Commons category|Jeremiah Gridley}}
=Works by Gridley=
- The Weekly Rehearsal. 1731–1735. (Edited/published by Gridley).
- American Magazine and Historical Chronicle. 1743–1746. (May have been edited by Gridley).
=Works about Gridley=
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=16Q_AAAAYAAJ Encyclopædia Americana]: A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new edition. 1845.
- R.G.F. Candage. Jeremy Gridley. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WucBAAAAMAAJ Publications of the Brookline Historical Society]. 1903.
- Lyon N. Richardson. A History of Early American Magazines, 1741–1789 (New York, 1931. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ws4jLp8rVTUC 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.
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{{succession box | title=Attorney General of Massachusetts | before=Edmund Trowbridge | after=Vacant| years= 1767 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gridley, Jeremiah}}
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Politicians from Brookline, Massachusetts
Category:18th century in Boston
Category:Massachusetts attorneys general
Category:Members of the colonial Massachusetts House of Representatives
Category:Burials at Granary Burying Ground