Amanuensis Monday -- 1785 Bond and Guardianship Declaration for Moses Smith of Walpole, Massachusetts

 This week's document for transcription is the  1785 Bond and Guardianship Declaration for Moses Smith declaring Non-Compos in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

*  Probate and Family Court Department FILE PAPERS: Suffolk. Probate Records 1636–1894; image 1913 of 2312:

The transcription of this document is (based on the FamilySearch Full-Text Search, with corrections as required, including line breaks, and with handwritten text in italics):

Know all Men by these Presents , That we 

Timothy Hammond , of Medway ^yeoman^ Gent'n & Joseph Whiting 

Gent'n of Dedham , Moses Smith ^Jun'r^ of Walpole Yeoman , all 

in the County of Suffolk --- 

within the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts , are holden and stand 

firmly bound and obliged unto Oliver Wendell Esq ; 

Judge of the Probate of Wills , and granting Administrations within

the County of Suffolk in the full sum of Five Thousand 

Pounds Lawful Money of the said Commonwealth , to be paid unto the 

said Oliver Wendell Esq. by his Successors in the said Office 

or Assigns : To the true Payment whereof , we do bind ourselves and 

each of us , our , and each of our Heirs , Executors and Administrators , 

jointly and severally , for the whole and in the whole , firmly by these 

Presents . Sealed with our Seals . Dated the 26 Day of 

April in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred 

and Eighty five 

The Condition of the abovewritten Obligation is such , 

That if the above-bounden Timothy Hammond 

assign 'd and appointed to be Guardian of Moses Smith of Walpole 

aforesaid Yeoman - 

( who is adjudged by the Inquisition of the Select-men of the said Town to be 

a person Non - Compos ) shall and do well and faithfully take care as well of the 

Person as Estate both Real and personal of the said Non - Compos , and make or 

cause to be made a true and perfect Inventory of the said Estate , and the same 

do exhibit into the Register 's Office of Probate for the said County of Suffolk 

and well and truly perform and discharge the Trust and Office of Guardian unto 

the said Non- Compos , and that in and by all Things according to Law ; and shall 

render a just and true Account of his Guardianship , when and so often as 

he shall be thereunto required ; and shall pay and deliver or return what 

and so much of the aforesaid Estate as shall be found remaining upon his 

Account ( the same being examined and allowed of by the Judge or Judges of 

Probate of Wills for the County aforesaid ) unto the said Non - Compos , in Case 

he should be restored to his right mind , or otherwise as (agreeable to Law ) shall 

be limited and appointed : Then the foregoing Obligation to be void , otherwise 

to abide in full Force and Virtue . 

Signed , Sealed and Delivered 

in presence of                                           Tim'o Hamond

Jacob Cooper 

Sam'l Cooper 

                                                                  Joseph Whiting 

                                                                 Moses Smith Jun'r

The source citation for this bond and declaration is:

"Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States records," imaged, FamilySearch (https://
www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLK-L984-M?view=fullText : accessed June 26,
2025), Image Group Number: 104017943, "Probate and Family Court Department FILE PAPERS: Suffolk. Probate Records 1636–1894," image 1913 of 2312, Bond and Guardianship of Moses Smith as Non-Compos, 26 April 1785 ; original records in Massachusetts. Department of Archives.

This is an image of an Original Source record (because it is a court clerk's record of the bond and guardianship declaration with Primary Information and Direct Evidence of the names of the parties and witnesses, and the dates of the bond and guardianship declaration.  The signatures of the witnesses and the bondsmen are in their respective hands.  

Moses Smith (1732-1806) was born 2 April 1732 in Medfield, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, the son of Henry and Ruth (Barber) Smith.  He married Patience Hamant (1735-1780), the daughter of Timothy and Hephzibah (Clark) Hamant, on 23 September 1762 in Medfield.  They had five children, including Moses Smith Jr. (1764-1828), one of the bondsmen.  

The assigned Guardian of Moses Smith is Timothy Hamond (or Hamant, 1736-1813), also the son of Timothy and Hephzibah (Clark) Hamant and the brother of the second wife of Moses Smith.  Other probate papers provide the inventory of the estate of Moses Smith in 1785.

Note that Moses Smith Jr. turned 21 years of age in 1785 and became able to act as a bondsman  in this matter.  He likely became the head of the household that included his father, Moses Smith, and his four brothers, Aaron,  Luther, Calvin and Timothy.  Note also that Moses Smith and his sons had lost his wife and the mother of the sons, Patience (Hamant) Smith, in 1780.  

Moses and Patience (Hamant) Smith are my 5th great-grandparents, through their son Aaron Smith (1765-1841) who married Mercy Plimpton in 1795.

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Read other transcriptions of records of my relatives and ancestors at Amanuensis Monday Posts.

NOTE: Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday." John offers this definition for "amanuensis:"

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

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