Jeremiah Gridley

Jeremiah Gridley (or Jeremy Gridley; 1702–1767) was a lawyer, editor, colonial legislator, and attorney general in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the 18th century.

[3] Born in 1702 in Boston[4] to Richard Gridley (born 1684) and Rebecca Gridley, Jeremiah attended Harvard College (class of 1725); classmates included Mather Byles.

As a lawyer he trained John Adams, William Cushing, James Otis, Benjamin Pratt, and Oxenbridge Thacher.

[10] In 1761 "he defended the 'writs of assistance,' for which the custom house officers had applied to the superior court, and which authorized them to enter houses under suspicion of obtaining smuggled goods, at their own discretion.

Gridley had for an antagonist in this case the celebrated patriot, James Otis.

Gridley house (built 1740) in Brookline, Massachusetts, as it appeared in the 19th century
Weekly Rehearsal, edited by Gridley, printed by Thomas Fleet in Boston, 1731