John Dooly - Legislative Nightmares

Legislative Nightmares

As a merchant, land speculator, and surveyor, however, Dooly benefited in many ways from the success of the Regulators, as did the millers and blacksmiths who also would assume leadership roles in the backcountry. Further progress on the frontier, for him and other ambitious men of the new and growing middle class in the region, required meaningful civil government. Previously Dooly had to travel the hundreds of miles to Charleston to file or answer court suits. In 1771, for example, he had to go to the provincial capital to defend himself in a case over a debt based on a document to which his name had been crudely forged two years earlier. In another instance, Dooly took William Thomson to court over debts due for a long list of trade goods. The latter apparently finally settled the dispute with land. Soon after, however, Thomson filed a civil suit for damages against Dooly for having "beat bruise wound & evilly entreat him so that his life was greatly despaired" with "swords & staves." Dooly countered that Thomson had repeatedly threatened his life.(n14)