Letitia Davis v. Rebecca Forrest. Circuit Court Report Jennifer Guiliano Trevor Muñoz William G. Thomas III transcription and encoding Elizabeth Askren Kaci L. Nash Laura K. Weakly University of Nebraska-Lincoln University of Maryland National Endowment for the Humanities 2014 O Say Can You See University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
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 Reports of Cases Civil and Criminal in the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, from 1801 to 1841 William Cranch Little, Brown and Company Volume II 1852 Boston Supplementary Documents Court Report Civil Petition for Freedom June 1811 Bentley, Rosamond Cranch, William, 1769-1855 Davis, Mary Davis, Susan Davis, Henry Davis, Letitia Davis, Rachel Forrest, Rebecca Lee, Edmund J. United States. Circuit Court (District of Columbia) Washington (D.C.) added xml:ids; transcription added case outcome updated case number encoded

Davis v. Forrest.

A record of a recovery of freedom by the female ancestor of the petitioner, on the ground of her having been born free, may be given in evidence to support the petitioner's title, although the present defendant was not a party to that record; and the depositions of deceased witnesses, contained in that record, may be read as hearsay, to prove pedigree.

A party producing a record in evidence is not obliged to read the whole of it; but the opposite party may read it.

Particular acts of turpitude cannot be given in evidence to discredit a witness. The question is only as to his general character for veracity. But see Wood v. Davis, 7 Cranch, 271; Henry v. Ball, 1 Wheat. 1; Davis v. Wood, 1 Wheat. 6; and Mima Queen v. Hepburn, 7 Cranch, 290.

Petition for freedom.

Mr. E. J. Lee, for the petitioner, offered the record of a recovery in a suit for freedom by Rosamond Bentley v. A. Addison, which the Court (Cranch, C. J., absent,) admitted as evidence, to prove the freedom of Mary Davis, the ancestor of the present petitioner, and of the said Rosamond Bentley, who was the petitioner's aunt.

Mr. Lee, in support of his motion, contended that hearsay evidence would be admissible, and, if so, à fortiori a record which, although between other parties, goes to the same facts. Peake, L. E. 8, 9; Taylor v. Cole, cited in 7 T. R. note (a); and Pegram v. Isabell, 2 Hen. & Munf. 193.

The Court also suffered the depositions of witnesses, now dead, which had been taken in that suit and made part of that record, to be read in evidence as hearsay. The Court also suffered the defendant to read such parts only of a record which he produced as he thought proper, and said it was competent for the counsel of the petitioner to read the residue. The Court also admitted in evidence the record of a recovery by the petitioner's sister, Susan Davis, of her freedom, on the ground of having been freeborn.

Verdict for the defendant.