“Good News from America,” Millennial Star, July 1840, 1:63.  

Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

See Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–A; and Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 13 Nov. 1841, 31.  

JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1842.  

See Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B and City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C; Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Ardent Spirits; Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Assault; and Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles.  

Affidavit, 6 Dec. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles].  

Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois, 938, 950.  

Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois, Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1880.

Petition, 23 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus].  

Mittimus, 23 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch].  

Petition, 23 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus].  

Habeas Corpus, 23 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus].  

See “The Nauvoo Municipal Court and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.”  

Docket Entry, 23–ca. 24 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus]. This ruling was likely based on the city’s 8 August 1842 ordinance regulating habeas corpus proceedings. This ordinance stipulated that if a court discovered that an arrest warrant had been issued “either through private pique, malicious intent, religious or other persecution, falsehood, or misrepresentation, contrary to the constitution of this State, or the constitution of the United States,” the court was authorized to quash the warrant. Finch explicitly pointed to this statute in his petition to the municipal court for a writ of habeas corpus. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 8 Aug. 1842, 98; Petition, 23 Nov. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus].)  

Execution, 15 Dec. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus].  

Execution, 15 Dec. 1843 [State of Illinois v. Finch on Habeas Corpus]; see also Book of the Law of the Lord, 109.  

“Trespass,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:579–580.  

Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Philadelphia: T. and J. W. Johnson, 1843.

Praecipe, 23 Feb. 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.]; Notice, 9 Apr. 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.].  

According to Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, as long as defendants “acted under regular process of a court of competent jurisdiction,” they could not be sued for trespass. However, if “the court has no jurisdiction and the process is wholly void,” then the defendant was open to a suit of trespass. (“Trespass,” in Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:580.)  

Bouvier, John. A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America, and of the Several States of the American Union; With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Philadelphia: T. and J. W. Johnson, 1843.

Summons, 24 Feb. 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.].  

Pleas, ca. 22 May 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.].  

Docket Entry, Motion and Change of Venue, 23 May 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.].  

Docket Entry, Notification of Death and Dismissal, 21 Oct. 1844 [Davis v. JS et al.].