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Table of Contents
  • Audiet Pugnas vitio Parentum / Rara Juventus. Hor: Young men—the few who are left after the crimes of their fathers—will hear of battles. [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Bonae leges ex malis moribus proveniunt: Good laws spring from bad habits [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Malos tueri haud tutum: Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll cut your throat [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas?: For who embraces virtue herself, if you take away the reward? [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae: Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Mea nec Falernae Temperant Vites, neque Formiani Pocula Colles: Neither Falernian vines nor Formian hills mellow my cups [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School
  • Advertisement for the School at Edial
  • Observations on Common Sense
  • Preface to the 1738 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
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  • Appeal to the Publick
  • To the Reader. [Gentleman’s Magazine]
  • Considerations on the case of Dr T.—s Sermons abridg’d by Mr Cave
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  • Preface to the 1742 Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine
  • Dedication for Robert James's Medicinal Dictionary
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  • Preface to Richard Rolt, A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce
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  • 19 Dec. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 3 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 23 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 13 March 1769 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 1 October 1774 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 5 Sept. 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • Dedication for George Adams, A Treatise Describing and Explaining the Construction and Use of New Celestial and Terrestrial Globes
  • Dedication to John Gwynn, London and Westminster Improved
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  • Meditation on a Pudding
  • Hereford Infirmary Appeal
  • Dedication for A General History of Music (1776)
  • From A General History of Music, Vol. II (1782)
  • Dedication to An Account of the Musical Performance . . . in Commemoration of Handel (1785)
  • Advertisement for the Spectator
  • Dedication to Zachary Pearce, A Commentary, with Notes, on the Four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles
  • Letter of 16 May 1777
  • The Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council Assembled, Friday 6 June 1777
  • Letter to Lord Bathurst, the Lord Chancellor, 8 June 1777
  • Letter to William Murray, First Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, Wednesday, 11 June 1777
  • Petition of Mrs. Mary Dodd to the Queen
  • Dodd’s Letter to the King, Sunday, 22 June 1777
  • Petition of William Dodd to the King, Monday, 23 June 1777
  • Dodd’s Last Solemn Declaration, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Johnson’s Observations on the Propriety of Pardoning William Dodd, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Introduction and Conclusion to Occasional Papers (1777)
  • Proposal for Printing William Shaw, An Analysis of the Scotch Celtic Language
  • Dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Seven Discourses
  • Preface to Thomas Maurice, Oedipus Tyrannus
  • The Case of Collier v. Flint
  • Translation of Sallust, De Bello Catilinario
  • General Rules of the Essex Head Club
  • On the Character and Duty of an Academick
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© 2023
The Case of Collier v. Flint
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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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THE CASE OF COLLIER V. FLINT (C. 1782–83)
[Editorial Introduction]
In 1782, between bouts of illness, Johnson interested himself in a legal dispute involving some people with Lichfield ties, including a woman born Mary Dunn, whom he called a “cousin.”1 She first married Thomas Collier and had with him six children, only two of whom—Mary and Sophia— survived childhood. After her husband’s death, she married Thomas Flint, who served as a secretary and handyman for John Taylor, the minister from Ashbourne for whom Johnson wrote the majority of his extant sermons. Mary Flint had two children with her second husband before she died in 1776. He remarried in 1783. As that marriage was impending, his step-daughters attempted legally to claim money left to their parents in their grandfather’s will, and in this attempt they sought Johnson’s help. Johnson’s involvement in the case is mainly witnessed in his letters,2 but he also drew up a general statement of the case in late 1782 or early 1783. The statement asks questions about the will but also indicates that a version of the will and an abstract had been enclosed. It may be, as Reade suggests, that Johnson never saw a proper copy of the will, but only a superseded version and an abstract supplied by the daughters. Despite A. L. Reade’s exhaustive research, the outcome of the case is unknown, as is the exact relationship between Johnson and his so-called cousin. We present herewith a transcript of the manuscript, which is now in the Hyde Collection (MS Hyde 50 [12]).


Page 583

CASE
John Dunn, whose will is inclosed, had a daughter Mary.
Mary Dunn, daughter of the testator, married Collier by whom, when the will was made, she had two sons and two daughters.1
The two sons died infants. And Collier died
Mary Dunn (now Collier) afterwards married Flint. The two daughters of Collier the former husband, imagine that they may claim some part of the estate of their grandfather John Dunne, from the disposal made in the inclosed will.
Does the will give them any such claim.?
2 When Mary Dunn (Collier) married Flint, a settlement was made of which here is an abstract. In this settlement some copyholds2 were reserved as a provision for Collier’s children.
These copyholds not having been surrendred to the usesa of the settlement, have been since sold, not being in the hands of the trustees to the settlement, and no provision is made out of the price for the girls.
Have they in this case any remedy?
The Mother Mary Dunn, (Collier, Flint) is dead, and her estate wholly in the hands of Flint.


Page 584

Editorial Notes
1 A. L. Reade discusses SJ’s involvement in the case and all its participants in Gleanings, IX.25–41; see also Life, V.580–81; Letters, IV.16, n. 1; and Herman W. Liebert’s privately printed pamphlet, “Dr. Johnson and the Misses Collier” (1949), which includes a facsimile and transcription of the manuscript.
2 See Letters, IV.16, 53–54, 74–75, 75–77, and 94.
1 There were three sons and three daughters. Only Mary and Sophia survived.
2 Copyhold: “A tenure, for which the tenant hath nothing to shew but the copy of the rolls made by the steward of his lord’s court” (Dictionary, citing John Cowell’s Law Dictionary).
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Document Details
Document TitleThe Case of Collier v. Flint
AuthorJohnson, Samuel
Creation DateN/A
Publ. DateN/A
Alt. TitleN/A
Contrib. AuthorLiebert, Herman W.
ClassificationSubject: Law; Subject: Legal brief; Subject: Probate; Genre: Legal brief
PrinterN/A
PublisherN/A
Publ. PlaceN/A
VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand
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