Every document, apparently ancient, coming from the proper repository or custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of forger, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise.

There Simon was educated at the Latin school and studied the Greco-Roman classics. Simon Greenleaf (December 5 1783 – October 6 1853) American lawyer and jurist was born at Newburyport Massachusetts. In 1801 he joined the law office of Ezekiel Whitman (the later Chief Justice of Maine) and in 1806 was admitted to the Cumberland County bar as a legal practitioner.