Dear Col.

Your telegram has just a^{d 1}. I cannot get through my circuit² to meet you on Thursday. Did you not promise to go bass fishing with me & the govt engineers the middle of next week. I can meet you then. Let me hear from you. In suit sent you we gobbled³ the deft⁴ last night. Why the deuce did you not endorse writs? The pltff⁵ routed me out at 1 o'clock this morning to do it. I suppose it is all O.K. to send deft to jail this Co. although the Ca Sa⁶ says produce him at Simcoe. I am not much of a Ca Saist⁷ & if you are going to get ½ fees⁸ you must work for them.

Yours truly

D. Freeman

Explanatory Notes:

1. "arrived", I have taken some liberty with this as the word might well be recd^d (but "received" doesn't fit the context).
2. he must have a series of places to be and will not be in Port Burwell on Thursday. Probably "my circuit" has a more exact meaning, and what he is saying is that he will be "on circuit", that is, he will be travelling between various court hearings.
3. "gobbled" - my guess - we got (had him arrested)(no doubt after the papers next referred to were signed) him last night.
4. "defendant", then he goes on to say why didn't you sign the writs(s), i.e. documents(s) [on my behalf] - it appears the plaintiff, the client, came to Port Burwell from Simcoe to get Freeman's signature and got it at one o'clock in the morning.
5. plaintiff
6. abbreviation for capias ad satisfaciendum, a writ (order) for the apprehension of a defendant in a civil action when judgment has been recovered against him for a sum of money and has not been satisfied.
7. I am not a great believer in the use of or perhaps the general propriety (in the philosophical sense) of this procedure and, in any event, it's "your" call, your choice of process and yours to do.
8. It seems the Colonel is acting as agent for Freeman, i.e. Freeman has engaged the Colonel to prosecute a proceeding, either fully, or, more likely, that portion of it which for whatever reason has to be done in Simcoe, for which one-half of the legal fees will go the Col and Freeman will get the other one-half, i.e., Freeman is still practicing law [notice as well the letterhead]. The plaintiff is Freeman's client. Freeman is the solicitor of record - Tisdale is just "speaking" for him in Simcoe. [The col. may have decided not to sign the writs preferring to leave it to Freeman whether the particular process be followed. It also seems likely that the plaintiff, being Freeman's client, came from the Port Burwell area and if so, why not use him to return the documents?]

Letter transcription and explanatory notes © J.E. Tisdale, May 2005.