# Lancaster County, SC - Court of Common Pleas - Judgment Roll 1646 | | | |---|---| | **Case** | Robert Cunningham v. Eli (Ely) Clark | | **Dates** | 1829-1831 | | **Roll** | Box 36, Roll 1646 | | **Pages in source images** | 7 | ## Source Lancaster County (formerly Lancaster District), South Carolina, Court of Common Pleas, Judgment Roll 1646 (Box 36). Original records held by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, SC. Transcribed from photographs of the original judgment roll (image files: folder [1646](1646/), 7 photographs). ## Disclaimer This transcription was made using AI (Claude, by Anthropic) from photographs of the original court papers. It is an attempted transcription, not a certified copy. Faded ink, difficult handwriting, torn folds and damaged pages make some readings uncertain, and errors are possible. Check the original images before relying on any reading. ## Transcription conventions - Original spelling, capitalization and abbreviations are kept as written. - `[?]` = uncertain reading; `[illegible]` = could not be read; `[blank]` = a space left empty on the original. - `[struck: ...]` = printed or written text that is lined through on the original. - `[...]` and *[italic bracketed notes]* = editorial explanations added by the transcriber; `[letters]` inside a word = letters supplied to expand an abbreviation. - On printed forms, handwritten fill-ins are shown in ***bold italics*** where it helps to tell them apart from the printed text. - "Img." numbers refer to the photographs in the roll's image folder, in file-name order, which is not always the order the papers were written in. **Notes on these images:** - Imgs. 1, 3 and 4 were photographed sideways and were rotated for reading. - The writ (Img. 6) is on a printed form for an action on the case; the clerk wrote the debt wording across the printed lines, so the handwritten text runs through the printed text. It is transcribed in reading order. ## Transcription **Img. 1 - Docket cover of the declaration, with confession of judgment** > [Right panel:] > Lancaster > B36 R 1646 > > R. Cunningham > vs } Decl[aratio]n in Debt > Eli Clark > > Clinton Pltffs Atty > > I confess Judgment in the above case for three hundred and fifty dollars & 75 cts. with interest from the first Jany 1830 with leave to enter up Judgt & lodge an Execution immediately. Nov^r 7. 1831 > Witness Ely Clark > [illegible, probably the attorney] > > Ex[ecutio]n 7 Nov^r 1831 > > Recorded in Book F page 323 > Jn^o O. Adams > Clerk > > [Left panel:] > Con[fession] $350.75 > Int from 1 Jan^y 1830 > > Atty 11 > Ck 4.75 15.75 > 366.50 --- **Img. 2 - Declaration** > State of South Carolina } > Lancaster District } > > Eli Clark was attached to answer to Rob^t Cunningham of a plea of debt &c. Whereupon the said Robert by Clinton his attorney complains for that the said Eli on the twenty fifth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine at Lancaster Court House in the State and District aforesaid & within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, made his certain writing obligatory of that date, sealed with his seal & here in court to be produced, & bound & acknowledged himself to be indebted to the said Robert in the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars 75/100 payable by the first day of January then next ensuing the date of the said writing obligatory. Yet although the said first day of January as aforesaid hath long since elapsed, the said Eli the said sum of money hath not rendered to the said Robert, but to render the same he hath utterly refused & still continues to refuse to his damage five hundred dollars, wherefore he brings suit &c. > > Clinton Pltff Atty **Img. 3 - The original sealed note** > By the first day of Jany 1830 I promise to pay Robt Cunningham or order the just & full sum of three hundred & fifty dollars & 75 Cts for value Rec'd this 25 day of December 1829 witness my hand and Seal > Ely Clark (Seal) --- **Img. 6 - Original writ (printed form: "Original Writ - Camden Press")** > State of South-Carolina. > TO ALL AND SINGULAR THE SHERIFFS OF THE SAID STATE - GREETING: > > YOU, and each of you, are hereby commanded, without delay to ***attach the body of*** [the name is not written in] wheresoever ***he*** may be found within your and each of your respective districts, so that you compel ***him*** to be and appear before the Associate Judges of the said State, at the Court of Common Pleas, to be holden at ***Lancaster*** Court-House in and for the district of ***Lancaster*** on the ***[struck: illegible] fourth*** Monday after the fourth Monday in ***March instant*** [struck: next], to answer to ***Rob^t Cunningham of a plea of debt that he render to him three hundred and fifty dollars 75/100 which to him he owes & from him unjustly detains, to his damage five hundred dollars*** > > AND have you there this WRIT, before the Clerk of the said Court, fifteen days next before the sitting of the said Court. > > WITNESS ***John Adams*** Esquire, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, for ***Lancaster*** District, the ***10th*** day of ***March*** in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ***thirty one*** and in the ***fifty fifth*** year of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States of America. > > ***Clinton*** Plaintiff's Attorney. *[The defendant's name is not written in after "attach the body of"; it appears on the back.]* **Img. 7 - Back of the writ (acceptance of service)** > Lancaster > > R. Cunningham > v } Writ in Debt > Eli Clark > > $500. > > Clinton Pltff Atty > > Original > > I accept the legal service of this writ to Spring term 1831. > L. Clinton [?] Ely Clark --- **Img. 5 - Judgment by confession** > Spring Term 1831 > > And now at this day, to wit, the fourth Monday after the fourth in March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty one comes the said Robert Cunningham by Clinton his attorney aforesaid and the said Eli Clark comes in his proper person and says that he [struck: the said] cannot deny the action of the said Robert, nor but that he the said Eli Clark is indebted in manner & form [struck: did undertake and promise, in manner and form] as the said Robert hath above thereof complained against him, nor but that the said Robert has sustained damages on occasion of the detention of a certain debt which to him he owed [struck: non performing of the said promises and] undertaking in the said declaration mentioned to three hundred and fifty dollars & seventy five cents, with interest from the first Jany 1830 as by the said declaration is above supposed: And thereupon the said Robert prays Judgment, and his damages so acknowledged together with his costs and charges by him expended about his suit in this behalf. Therefore it is considered that the said Robert do recover against the said Eli his damages aforesaid to three hundred & fifty dollars & seventy five cents & interest on the same from the time aforesaid in form aforesaid acknowledged and also fifteen 75/100 dollars for his said costs and charges by the said Court now here to the said Robert with his assent adjudged which said damages, costs and charges in the whole to amount to Three Hundred & sixty six Dollars & fifty Cents [struck: dollars and] cents: And be the said Eli Clark in mercy, and so forth. > > Clinton Pltffs atty > > [Left margin, written vertically:] Jud^t Ent^d up & Signed 7 Nov 1831 > Jn^o O. Adams > Clk *["is indebted in manner & form" and "detention of a certain debt which to him he owed" are written above the line over struck-out wording for an action on a promise.]* **Img. 4 - Back of the judgment (docket and attorney's bill)** > Lancaster > > R. Cunningham > v } Judg^t by Confes[sion] > Eli Clark > > Clinton Pltffs Atty > > Bill > Writ 4 > Dec[laratio]n 5 [?] > J[udgment] & E[xecution] 3 $11 [?]