“Ss” is a legal abbreviation for scilicet, a Latin adverb meaning “that is to say, to wit, viz.” (“Scilicet,” in Jones, Introduction to Legal Science, appendix, 28.)

Jones, Silas. An Introduction to Legal Science: Being a Concise and Familiar Treatise . . . to Which Is Appended a Concise Dictionary of Law Terms and Phrases. New York: John S. Voorhies, 1842.

All insertions in this document are in the handwriting of James Sloan.

Illinois law stipulated that prior to the commencement of a trial before a justice of the peace, a defendant could make an oath that he or she believed it impossible to “have an impartial trial” before that justice. At that point, the justice was to “transmit all the papers and documents belonging to the suit, to the nearest justice of peace, who shall proceed as if the said suit had been instituted before him.” (An Act concerning Justices of the Peace and Constables [3 Feb. 1827], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, p. 408, sec. 25.)

The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.

Signature of Amos Davis.

Certification by JS in the handwriting of James Sloan. Because of lack of space, Sloan inscribed the certification above Amos Davis’s signature, overlapping some of the letters.

Signature of JS.