The Petition of the Selectmen of the Town of Brookline in the county of Suffolk, setting forth2 that on the thirtieth day of January 1767 the worshipful Joseph Williams Eqr. issued a warrant in these words, vizt., Suffolk Ss.3 Complaint being made to me the Subscriber, one of his Majestys Justices of the peace for said county, by Mesrs. John Child, Aaron Davis, and Eleazer Weld, Gentlemen and Selectmen of Roxbury and overseers of the poor in said Town, that one John Chaddock alias Chadwick alias dictus Chattuck or Shattuck late of Brookline with his family, vizt. a wife and four Children, all4 in distressed circumstances, the said John being delirious so as to become chargeable to the Town of Roxbury where they have resided and5 under warning between six and seven years, praying that a Warrant may issue forthwith to remove the said John and family back to Brookline from whence they came. These are therefore in his Majesty’s name to will and require you and either of you to apprehend the Body and Bodies of the said John Chattuck and family with their effects and them safely remove and convey by the best way and means you can to the constable of the Town of Brookline who is alike required to receive them and take all due care to notify the Selectmen of Brook­line or overseers of the poor of said Town to which he properly belongs or had his last residence, that such care may be taken and provision made for their support as may be needful. And you are to remove the said Chattuck and family &c. at his own charge if able to pay the same, otherwise at the charge of the Town of Roxbury, for all which this shall be a Sufficient warrant. Fail not and make due return of this warrant and your Doings thereon to the Clerk of the Court of General Sessions of the peace for said county of Suffolk as soon as may be. Given under my hand and Seal at Roxbury this thirtieth day of January A.D. 1767 and seventh year of King Georges reign. Joseph Williams. Which was afterward delivered to John Wood a constable of the said Town of Roxbury to be executed who returned his doings thereon in these words, viz. Suffolk Ss. Roxbury January 30 1767. By virtue of this warrant I have taken the Body of the within written John Shattuck and his wife and a Bed and beding and delivered them to William Davis constable of Brooklyn. February the 3 & 4th, I have further taken three children of the said John, viz. Martha and John and Mary and two beds and beding, a Pork tub, pots and kettles, brass and pewter knives and forks, corn and meal tubs, Chairs, Cyder, Cyder-barrels &c. being all the Indoor moveables of the aforesaid John Chattuck alias John Shattuck and conveyed them to the Town of Brooklyn and delivered them to the wife of the said John Shattuck at Brooklyn aforesaid. John Wood constable. And the said William Davis constable of the Town of Brooklyn made his Indorsement on said warrant in these words: Suffolk Ss. Brooklyn, January the 30. 1767. By virtue of this warrant I have received the within written John Shattuck and his wife and bed and beding and delivered them [to] Isaac Gardner Esqr. one of the Selectmen of Brooklyn aforesaid. William Davis constable.6 And the said John Shattuck his wife and three children are now in consequence of said warrant resident in said Brooklyn at the expence of the same Town for their maintenance which ought not to be for that it is acknowledged in said warrant that the said poor had lived above six years at said Roxbury and by Law therefore were their poor and ought not to have [been] removed then7 unless lawfully warned from the same Town. Tis true there was a warning in the year 1760 hinted in the said warrant which the said Town of Roxbury relies upon for good and sufficient warning in this case, the warrant for which and the Return of it are in these words, viz. Suffolk Ss.8 In his Majestys name you are hereby required forthwith to warn John Chaddock and family at Mr. Bourroughs, Jonathan Smith at Mr. Ebenezer Whitings, Jonathan Smith junr. at Thomas Lyons, and Mr[s?]. Campbel at Mr. Whitings, also all9 and every one of the abovesaid Persons to depart the Town of Roxbury in fourteen days or give Security to the Selectmen to Indemnify the Town from all charge that may arise by means of any or either of the said persons, and you are to make Return hereof10 to the Clerk of the General Sessions of the peace in said county together with a certificate of the place of their last abode and the time [of their] residence here as the Law directs. By order of the Selectmen of Roxbury aforesaid, Samuel Gridley Town Clerk, Augt. 1st, 1760. Suffolk Ss. August the 1st. 1760. By virtue of the within I have warn’d the11 John Chadwick and family, viz. his wife and four children, to depart this Town who came from Brooklyn and had resided in Roxbury about two months, Jonathan Smith and Jonathan Smith junr. who had resided in Town three or four months and came last from Woodstock, and Mrs. Mary Campbel who had resided in Town two months and came from Boston. All and every of the above I have warned to depart the Town in fourteen days or give bond to Indemnify the Town. Attest, per Nathaniel Davis constable.12 Whereupon the complainants say that one John Chadwick was the Person warned to depart the said Town of Roxbury by force of the first of said warrants and John Shattuck was the Person removed by force of the second of said warrants which are two different names and denote two different familys. The first of said warrants requires John Chaddock and his family to be warned to depart said Roxbury or give Security but does not mention the Persons of his family ordered to be so warned by name as it ought to have done, and the constable in his return to it says that he has warned the [said] John Chattuck and family, viz. his wife and four children, to depart said Town but has not returned their names as he ought to have done. The constable of the said Town of Roxbury is required by the first of said warrants to warn diverse persons and John Chattuck among the rest, as therein is set forth, all and every one of them to depart the said town of Roxbury in fourteen days or give security to the Selectmen to indemnify the Town from all charge that may arise by means of any or either of the said persons. The constable of the Town of Brookline is required by the second of said warrants to receive the persons so removed and to notify the Selectmen of said Brooklyn, and yet the warrant which requires it is not directed to him as it ought to have been. The same warrant does not mention either of the three children thereby required to be removed by name as it ought to have done. The same warrant admits that John Chattuck required13 to be removed has resided in said Roxbury more than six years last past and alledges it to be under warning but does not set forth of what nature this warning was. The same warrant as the Gist of it sets forth disjunctively that the said John Chattuck properly belongs to the said Town of Brookline or had his last residence there but does not set forth either of them in certain as it ought to have done and is not traversable. The constable of said Roxbury is by the same warrant ordered to take the effects and deliver them with the Body of the owner of them which is against Law.14 The said Joseph Williams who subscribed and issued the same Warrant as a Justice of the peace was then, had been many years before and is now an Inhabitant of the said Town of Roxbury and rated for the taxes set for the poor there. The said warrant issued by Joseph Williams Esqr. is therein made returnable to the Clerk of the Court of the General Sessions of the peace and it ought to have been made returnable to the said Joseph Williams Esqr. the Justice of the peace who issued it. Wherefore the Selectmen of the said Town of Brooklyn, inasmuch as its confessd above that the said John Shattuck had lived more than six years last past before said removal in the said Town of Roxbury, for want of any sufficient warrant for warning him to depart said Town of Roxbury or giving security to the Selectmen of it, and for want of any sufficient warrant to remove him to the said Town of Brooklyn, and for the illegality of said warrant and the return thereupon, prays judgment that the said John Shattuck, his wife, and children, Martha, John, and Mary, so removed, may be returned to the said Town of Roxbury, and for the said Town of Brooklyn’s expences for his wifes and three children, maintenance and other incidental necessary expences for them since their said removal, and for the costs.15 This Petition was pre­ferred to the Court at its Sessions by adjournment on the fifth day of May A.D. 1767 when it was read and then ordered that the Selectmen of the Town of Roxbury should be served with a copy thereof, that they appear on Wednesday the tenth day of June following to shew cause if any they had why the prayer thereof should not be granted. And they being served with a copy appeared and by Robert Auchmuty Esqr. their Council said first that this honorable Court ought not to take cognizance of the matters and things shewn forth herein by the said Selectmen of the Town of Brooklyn because the same are only such matters as are properly enquirable into as error and not appertaining to the merits of the cause, and secondly that the matters and things offered and objected by the said Selectmen of Brooklyn aforsaid are not sufficient for this Court to grant the prayer of said Selectmen of Brooklyn on. Wherefore the Selectmen of said Roxbury pray the Court to dismiss this petition and for their reasonable costs. And then the same was continued to the next sessions in July following and from thence to the next Court and so from Court to Court until this time by order of Court and with the consent of parties. And they being now heard upon said pleas,16 the Council for the Town of Roxbury moved that the opinion of the Court may be taken whether there is Sufficient matter alledged in the petition of the Town of Brooklyn for the Court to proceed to the tryal of the merits, and thereupon the Court deliver it as their opinion that there is not matter sufficient in said petition whereby the Court may proceed to an hearing of the merits so far as to determine whether said Shattuck and family are the proper poor of Roxbury or Brookline. Then it was moved that said petition be dismiss’d, but the Court are of opinion that it be not dismiss’d and upon a further hearing of the parties it is Considered by the Court that the prayer of said petition be and hereby is granted and ordered that the Inhabitants of the Town of Roxbury pay and refund unto the Selectmen of the Town of Brooklyn all such charge and expence as has arisen to them for the support and Maintenance17 of said John Chadock alias Chadwick alias Chattuck or Shattuck and his said wife and children untill this time and that they be returned to the said Town of Roxbury and also pay to said Selectmen of Brookline all the Costs that have been occasioned on their application to this Court in this matter.