A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.

Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4

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Resolve Directing the Attorney-General to Nol Pros the Charge against Aaron Lopez of Leicester, Merchant, for Vending £12,000 Worth of Goods in Boston in Violation of “An Act Against Monopoly and Oppression”
Massachusetts General Court RTP
Passed December 23, 1779

On the Petition of Aaron Lopez,1 of Leicester, in the county of Worcester, merchant, setting forth, that he was apprehended as a transgressor of an act, intituled “An act against monopoly and oppression,” for vending in the town of Boston goods to the amount of Twelve Thousand Pounds, which he had before purchased there, that not being the place of his residence, and farther setting forth his entire ignorance of the aforesaid act, and the peculiar hardship of his case in being subject to the penalties of the aforesaid act, as is fully set forth in said petition:

Resolved, That the prayer of said petition be granted, and that the said Lopez be discharged from being further prosecuted, by reason of the abovementioned breach of the aforesaid act, and that Robert Treat Paine Esq., 2 the Attorney-General be directed to enter his noli prosequi 3 accordingly; the said Aaron Lopez paying the prosecutor the costs and charges of prosecution.4

Printed as Chapter 666 [1779–1780] in The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 (Boston, 1922), 310.

1.

Aaron Lopez (1731–1782), a Jewish merchant from Lisbon, Portugal, arrived in 1749 at Newport, R.I., a town known for its religious tolerance. He established himself as one of the town’s leading merchants and in 1775 was its leading taxpayer. In 1762 he became a naturalized citizen. During the British occupation of Newport from 1776 to 1779, Lopez lived mainly at Leicester, Mass. He did not return to Newport until 1782 and died shortly thereafter as the result of an accidental drowning (American National Biography).

2.

Brackets retained from the printed source.

3.

Nolle prosequi. A formal statement that a case will not be prosecuted further.

4.

“The Government & People upon an Indictment found last Term against Aaron Lopez of Leicester in the County of Worcester, merchant, for a misdemeanor who then said he was not guilty thereof—And now Feby. Term 1780 The Government & People will prosecute no further upon this Indictment, entered by special Direction of the general Court. R. T. Paine atty: pr. Stat.” (Superiour Court of Judicature Minute Books, Suffolk County, Feb. 1780. Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Boston, Mass.).