This is another case of debt founded on a promissory note involving some prominent Territorial citizens. The note in question was executed on October 18, 1825 by Stephen Rector, Ambrose H. Sevier and Thomas W. Johnston, who promised to pay Henry Armstrong $300 on the first day of December. The debt was to be discharged with Territorial scrip. (One of the chronic problems on the frontier was the lack of specie. At this time in U.S. history paper currency issued by the federal government did not exist, and so it was common for state and territorial governments to issue scrip.)

Also in the records of this case is a document indicating that an accounting took place, but the document is not dated or signed by any of the parties so it is unclear at what point the accounting occurred. In any event, Henry Armstrong was never paid on the note, and so he filed suit on the debt. His attorney, William H. Parrott, submitted a declaration to the Circuit Court of Pulaski County in April of 1827, alleging a trespass on the case in assumpsit for the failure to pay. The writ and declaration were served on the defendants in Pulaski County by Samuel M. Rutherford, the Sheriff of Pulaski County, on April 19, 1827, and the defendants acknowledged the execution of the documents. On April 20, 1827, the writ and declaration were filed in Circuit Court by the clerk, Thomas W. Newton.

The declaration named two of the three men who had signed the promissory note in 1825 – Stephen Rector had died the previous August in St. Louis and thus he was not named as a party. The case was styled as an action of trespass on the case in assumpsit claiming damages of $500; no bail was required of the defendants. The declaration alleged that the defendants had each signed the note in 1825, thereby promising to pay Henry Armstrong the amount stated, but that none of them had since paid though they had been requested to do so at the time payment was due. The summons issued from Newton on April 27, commanding the sheriff of Pulaski County to summon Sevier and Johnston to appear at the circuit court at the next May term to answer the plea of assumpsit.

On May 6, 1827, the circuit court judge heard pleas in Pulaski County, but no action was taken on the case. A week later, on May 12, 1827, the judge gave the parties leave to plead at the next term of the court when the case would be tried; the case was continued until then. When the proceedings resumed that fall, the plaintiff, Armstrong, had died, and on September 6, by consent, the case was revived in the name of George W. Scott and Samuel Rutherford, the administrators of his estate. The suit was continued over to the next term. On January 7, 1828, one of the defendants, Sevier, by his attorney Chester Ashley, craved oyer of promissory note–that is, he asked the court to order that the plaintiff enter into evidence the original or a copy of the writing obligatory that was the subject of the lawsuit. Newton filed the defendant's prayer for oyer, and on January 9, 1828, the plaintiffs granted the request for oyer by filing the original note.

In his defense, Sevier pleaded payment and the case was again continued. One of the judges of the Pulaski County Circuit Court was related to one of the defendants – the relation in question is not clear. Thus, on May 6, 1828, the defendants moved and the court ordered that the case be certified to the Superior Court. Later that summer, James H. Caldwell, the deputy clerk of the circuit court, certified the transcript and orders to the Superior Court. The declaration, writ, the prayer for oyer, and the rest of the case transcript were filed in the Superior Court on August 27, 1828 by Daniel Ringo, the deputy for D.E. McKinney the clerk of the Superior Court.

On October 17, 1828, the court ordered that the suit be revived in the name of Charles Caldwell. He had been appointed "administrator de bonis non" of the estate of Henry Armstrong. Apparently Scott and Rutherford were unable to serve as administrators. By consent the case was continued until the next Term of this court. After this date, the case is referred to under the caption of Caldwell v. Sevier & Johnston in the Supreme Court docket book. On April 16, 1829, because neither party required a jury, the case was submitted to the court. The court ruled that the plaintiff recover of the defendants the sum of $237.60 and also the costs in the case.

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