Jeremiah Gridley or Jeremy Gridley (1702-1767) was a lawyer, editor, state legislator

Massachusetts General Court

The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...

, and attorney general

Massachusetts Attorney General

The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The office of Attorney-General was abolished in 1843 and re-established in 1849. The current Attorney General is Martha Coakley....

 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, in the 18th century. He served as "Grand Master of the Masons

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 in North America" around the 1760s, and was associated with the founding of the Boston Bar Association

Boston Bar Association

The Boston Bar Association, which also goes by the acronym BBA, is a volunteer non-governmental organization in Boston, Massachusetts, United States...

.

Biography

Born in 1702 to Richard Gridley (b.1684) and Rebecca Gridley, Jeremiah attended Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 (class of 1725); classmates included Mather Byles

Mather Byles

Mather Byles , was a clergyman active in British North America.He was descended, on his mother's side, from John Cotton and Richard Mather. He graduated at Harvard University in 1725, and in 1733 became pastor of the Hollis Street Church , Boston...

. Gridley married Abigail Lewis around 1730. In the 1730s he edited The Weekly Rehearsal, a literary magazine.
He practiced law in Boston. As a lawyer he trained John Adams

John Adams

John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

, William Cushing

William Cushing

William Cushing was an early Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, from its inception to his death. He was the longest-serving of the Court's original members, sitting on the bench for 21 years...

, James Otis

James Otis, Jr.

James Otis, Jr. was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts provincial assembly, and an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to him...

, Benjamin Pratt, and Oxenbridge Thacher. In 1761 "he defended the 'writs of assistance

Writ of Assistance

A writ of assistance is a written order issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff, to perform a certain task. Historically, several types of writs have been called "writs of assistance". Most often, a writ of assistance is "used to enforce an order for the...

,' for which the custom house

Boston Custom House

The Custom House in Boston, Massachusetts, was established in the 17th century and stood near the waterfront in several successive locations through the years. In 1849 the U.S. federal government constructed a neoclassical building on State Street; it remains the "Custom House" known to Bostonians...

 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."

"He was moderator of the town of Brookline

Brookline, Massachusetts

Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...

 1759, 1760, and 1761, ... representative to the General Court for 1755, 1756, and 1757, and Attorney General in 1767." He also belonged to the Boston Marine Society

Boston Marine Society

The Boston Marine Society is a charitable organization in Boston, Massachusetts, formed "to 'make navigation more safe' and to relieve members and their families in poverty or other 'adverse accidents in life.'" Membership generally consists of current and former ship captains...

.

Gridley died in 1767, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground

Granary Burying Ground

Founded in 1660, the Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery. Located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere and the five...

.

Works by Gridley

• The Weekly Rehearsal. 1731-1735. (Edited/published by Gridley).
• American Magazine and Historical Chronicle
  American Magazine and Historical Chronicle
  The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle was a periodical in Boston, Massachusetts, printed by Rogers & Fowle , and published by Samuel Eliot and Joshua Blanchard. Scholars suggest that Jeremiah Gridley served as editor.-Further reading:* Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. A Majestick Shape: 1745...
  
  . 1743-1746. (May have been edited by Gridley).

Works about Gridley

• Encyclopædia Americana: A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new edition. 1845.
• R.G.F. Candage. Jeremy Gridley. Publications of the Brookline Historical Society. 1903.
• Lyon N. Richardson. A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789 (New York, 1931. Google books.
• John K. Reeves. Jeremy Gridley, Editor. New England Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Jun., 1944), pp. 265-281.
• Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. A Majestick Shape: 1745. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1949), pp.74-80.