USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 15
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Prior to January, 1639, when the fundamental articles of govern- ment of the colony were formed, Thomas Welles, John Haynes, John Plumb, Matthew Mitchell, and Samuel Smith had been added to the list of members of the upper section, called magistrates, which had powers over life, liberty, and property, such as no body of officers since their day has been intrusted with. And of all these men who exercised the double function of makers and expounders of the law, it is not cer- tain that one had been trained to the legal profession, though probably Ludlow had been. He it was, who, in 1646-1650, prepared that body
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of laws known as the Code of 1650, which was distributed in manu- seript to the several towns, and remained, until 1673, the only book of laws of the colony.
In 1638 an inferior court, without legislative power, was consti- tuted, the members whereof consisted of a majority of the magistrates of the General Court. It was known as the Particular Court. From 1639 until the union of Hartford and New Haven colonies, under the Charter, in 1665, the General Court consisted of two branches. They occupied the same chamber, and were presided over by the governor or the deputy-governor. The upper branch was composed of magistrates elected by the " freemen " at large, and the lower branch consisted of deputies sent by the several towns. The General Court exercised gen- eral legislative and judicial powers. In the Particular Court the juris- diction was over misdemeanors, small civil causes, and the probate of wills.
It cannot be said that at this time there were any members of the Bar, as we now understand the term. The occupants of the Bench were not learned in the law, and justice was administered in a crude, though effectual way, often adopting the principles of the Mosaic code. Many were convicted and punished under evidence which would not now be admitted in any court ; and it is probable that in the name of justice much injustice was done. The meagre abstracts of trials of criminal causes in those days are curious and interesting.
In May, 1671, Governor Winthrop and Deputy-Governor Leete, with the Assistants, were directed to procure a revision of the laws. This, the first printed edition of our statutes, was completed in 1672, and published at Cambridge in 1673.
During the Andros usurpation, 1687-1689, the great legal question of the right of Great Britain to take away our charter was uppermost in importance and attention. It was freely and hotly discussed, and by none more so than by the Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, of Wethersfield. This gen- tleman had exchanged the pulpit for the forum, where he became one of the leading advocates of his day. He espoused the Tory side of the main question, and was probably the most ardent supporter of Andros in the colony. Bulkeley had lost his voice before he left the pulpit ; but he was a skilful legal draughtsman and special pleader. He was not, however, engaged exclusively in the practice of the law, for he had, at the same time, a large medical practice.
In January, 1698, the office of justice of the peace was provided for by law. In 1699 the General Assembly became, for the first time, divided into an upper and a lower house, each having its own presiding officer. Thereafter legislation became more methodical, and the legis- lature more strictly a law-making body.
In 1696 Secretary Eleazer Kimberly, of Glastonbury, and Colonel John Allyn, of Hartford, and Major James Fitch, of Plainfield (then in Hartford County), Assistants, were appointed a committee to revise the laws of the colony. They completed their work in 1700, and printed it in Boston in 1702.
At this time the field of legislation was broadening. It included the laying out of plantations, townships, parishes, military and school " precincts," highways and admiralty matters, the inspection of provi- sions and manufactured goods, educational and ecclesiastical matters,
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and sumptuary laws. Military affairs and special matters, as divorces, engaged much of the attention of the General Assembly.
In 1709 the practice of printing the session-laws annually was be- gun. The edition of 1715, including session-laws to that date, was prepared by William Pitkin, Joseph Talcott, and Roger Wolcott, Sr.
The law empowering the parishes (or societies) to regulate the ministry and " the school," within their respective limits, was enacted in 1717. In 1726 grand-jurors were recognized as informing officers, even when acting singly. In 1750 a revision of the Statutes of Con- necticut was published ; it had been begun in 1742. An " Act for securing the general Privileges of the Inhabitants"- being the initial statute in the edition of 1715- was changed in its title by substituting " His Majesty's subjects in this colony " in place of "the inhabitants." The statute was enlarged in its scope, and it reads much like parts of Magna Charta. Much of the legislation included in the edition of 1750 relates to matters ecclesiastical. "The people called Baptists," for instance, are given the " same privilege" as the " Sober Dissenters commonly called Quakers." Imposts, marine and admiralty matters, are largely the subject of statutory provisions. But there is nothing indicating the right of any private corporation to exist in Connecticut ; and indeed the General Assembly had declared, in 1733, that -
" Inasmuch as all companies of merchants are made at home, by letters- patent from the King, and we know not of one single instance of any govern- ment in the plantations doing such a thing, it is, at least, very doubtful whether we have authority to make such a society ; and hazardous, therefore, for this government to presume upon it."
A sixth county, Litchfield, was formed in 1751, by subdivision of Hartford County. Windham County had been formed in the same way in 1726. Important legislation was that of 1766, which authorized the formation of school-districts within townships and parishes (societies) ; whereas theretofore the care and control of schools had been vested in the towns, and, in special cases, in the parishes.
In June, 1776, the statutes purported to be passed by the " General Court or Assembly of the English Colony of Connecticut in New Eng- land." In October of the same year they were said to be by the " State of Connecticut, in New England." But the charter of Charles II. was declared to remain in full force so far as the same was consistent with the absolute independence of this State, etc.
The subjects of first importance in the General Assembly during the Revolutionary period were, naturally, embargoes, the militia, bills of credit, imposts, etc. But as early as 1739 the colony had, for the first time, authorized the formation of regimental organizations, and had constituted thirteen regiments of militia.
A new revision of the statutes appeared in 1784. They began with an ample Bill of Rights of the people, quite in accordance with the Declaration of Independence. The status of courts and attorneys will appear in other parts of this article. Societies were still quasi municipal corporations, having distinctly defined territorial limits.
A revision of the laws appeared in 1795. It contains a declaration by Matthew Griswold, president, that the National Constitution had been ratified by the Connecticut Convention, Jan. 9, 1788, by the affirm-
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ative votes of one hundred and twenty-eight delegates, against forty negative votes.
Another edition of the statutes was prepared in 1808, the most complete we have ever had, -thanks to the labors of Mr. Day, the most competent man in the State for such work. Many acts of a pri- vate nature were contained in this edition, for in those days there was no separate publication of special enactments. But, excepting seven banks, five insurance companies, five aqueduct companies, two fishing companies, two literary societies, and a few turnpike companies, there were no private corporations, nor any general laws authorizing the for- mation of such. And under the National Constitution the State had parted with its right to legislate on the subjects of coinage and cur- rency, foreign duties, imposts, naval and marine matters on public waters, and post-offices ; so that the body of laws was quite different in many departments from that of earlier editions.
In 1789 was published the first printed collection of reports of cases adjudicated in our courts of last resort, or, indeed, in the United States. They were compiled by Ephraim Kirby, and published at Litchfield, and comprised cases decided in the years 1785-1788. Judge Jesse Root continued the series, beginning in 1789 and ending in 1797. He included some cases decided much earlier ; one as early as 1764. The publication of these cases was not resumed until 1806, when Thomas Day began a series of Reports, running back to 1802; leaving a space of four years, for which the decisions were, and re- main, unreported. Since Mr. Day began, the Reports have been con- tinued to the present time.
The Constitution of 1818 effected, practically, a divorce of Church from State interests. In the mean time slavery was becoming extinct, through the operations of enactments begun in 1784. A revision of the laws, made necessary by the adoption of this Constitution, appeared in 1821. In 1828 an amendment of the Constitution required that State senators be thereafter elected by districts, instead of at large, as had been the mode of election. In 1837 the same change was begun as to the mode of election of representatives to Congress. United States senators, of course, were first elected in 1789.
Revisions, or compilations of the statutes, have followed, in the years 1824, 1835, 1838, 1849, 1854, 1866, and 1875. In 1837 appeared the first compilation of Private Laws of the State ; but it included no enactments passed prior to 1789. The next compilation was published in 1857, since which time several others have been made, always includ- ing those acts only, passed since the next preceding edition.
In the same year, 1837, was begun the practice of publishing in a separate pamphlet, annually, the private acts and resolves of each year or session. In 1837, also, was begun the annual publication of the Journal of the House, and in 1840, that of the Senate.
The statute authorizing and regulating the formation of joint-stock companies was passed in 1837. Since that date private corporations have become almost innumerable, and they have been one of the chief sources of litigation and causes of legislation.
The publication of the Records of Connecticut Colony was begun in 1850 by the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, and they were continued by him until they included the Records down to 1689. From that date
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to 1772 they have been published in volumes prepared by Charles J. Hoadly, Esq.
The publication of the various legislative documents of the State has been continued from different dates, which it is difficult to establish. The number of these documents, of which no catalogue has ever been made, is increasing annually, owing to the formation of new depart- ments from time to time.
COURTS. - The Particular Court, the highest strictly judicial body in the colony, existed from 1638 until 1665,-twenty-six years. Excepting one session each (?) at New London and Wethersfield, it was holden at Hartford only. Of the thirty-five men who at one period or another oc- cupied its bench, twelve were from Hartford, seven from Windsor, and three from Wethersfield. It was presided over by the governor, or his deputy for the time being, and with him were associated two or three of the magistrates, or members of the upper section of the General Court. Thus it happened that six governors - Haynes, Webster, Hopkins, and Wyllys, of Hartford ; Welles, of Wethersfield ; and Winthrop, of New London and Hartford - were its presiding officers. Majors William Whiting and John Talcott, Jr., of Hartford, and John Mason, at first of Windsor, occupied its bench ; as did Lieutenant-Colonel John Allvn, of Hartford, Roger Ludlow, Secretary Daniel Clarke, and Henry Wol- cott, all of Windsor. William Phelps, of Windsor, sat with the court much of the time, as did Secretary John Cullick and Samuel Wyllys, of Hartford.
At the last session of the General Court prior to the union, the number of magistrates present (April 20, 1665) was six; the number of deputies was twenty-five. Under the Charter the General Court became the General Assembly. The members of the upper branch, called Assistants, were twelve in number, and elected at large. The lower branch was composed of deputies, who sat with the assist- ants ; the whole being presided over by the governor or the deputy- governor.
In 1665 the Court of Assistants was established ; the members whereof were at least seven in number, and were chosen from the Assistants in the General Court. The Court of Assistants existed until 1711, when it was succeeded by the Superior Court of the Colony. Most of its sessions were holden at Hartford; a few at New Haven and New London. Its jurisdiction extended to matters of a higher nature than those tried in the Particular Court, to which it was the successor. Fifty persons, usually from seven to ten at a time, became acting members of this court. Of these, eleven were from Hartford, five from Windsor, four each from Wethersfield and Farmington, one from Middletown, and the rest from New Haven, New London, and Fairfield counties. Prominent members were : Matthew Allyn, Colonel John Allyn, Sam- uel Wyllys, Major John Talcott, Jr., James Richards (Commissioner of the United Colonies of New England), Nathaniel Stanley, Sr., Cap- tain Caleb Stanley, Sr., Treasurer William Pitkin, Sr., and William Pitkin, Jr., all of Hartford ; Secretary Daniel Clarke and Henry Wol- cott, Jr., of Windsor ; Major John Chester, Sr., and Captain Samuel Talcott, of Wethersfield ; John Wadsworth, of Farmington ; John Ham- lin, of Middletown. Others, equally prominent, but holding shorter
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terms, were Governor Thomas Welles and Richard Treat, Sr., of Weth- ersfield ; Governor Joseph Talcott, of Hartford ; Major Benjamin New- berry, Sr., of Windsor ; Governor Robert Treat, of Wethersfield and Milford.
In 1666, counties, for the first time, were organized. They were Hartford, New Haven, New London, and Fairfield ; Hartford County at this time including about one half of the area of the colony. Then, also, the several County Courts were established. The County Courts, from 1666 to 1698, consisted of one assistant, or, as we would now say, senator, and three or four commissioners ; the latter corresponding to the justices of the peace of to-day. From 1698 to 1821 the incum- bents were one judge, and from two to five "Justices of the Peace and Quorum ;" all specially commissioned by the General Assembly. Ordinarily the Bench consisted of five members ; and the court, which had both civil and criminal jurisdiction, was as important as is the present Superior Court. Nearly all those whom we have mentioned as members of the Court of Assistants sat in the County Court. The num- ber of judges of this court, for Hartford County, including assistants and justices of the quorum, prior to 1821, was eighty-six ; too many to be named here. About twenty-five of these were chief judges. The very foremost citizens, lawyers and laymen, occupied this Bench. Among them, not heretofore mentioned, were: Major John Chester, Jr., of Wethersfield : Colonel Matthew Allyn, of Windsor ; Henry Wolcott, Jr., Governor Roger Wolcott, and Roger Wolcott, Jr. ; Gov- ernor William Pitkin, 3d, of Hartford ; Colonels David Goodrich and John Chester, 3d, of Wethersfield ; Colonel Thomas Welles, of Glas- tonbury ; Colonel Jabez Hamlin, of Middletown (forty years on the bench) ; General Erastus Wolcott, of East Windsor; Colonel John Chester, 4th, of Wethersfield; General Roger Newberry, of Windsor ; Governor John Treadwell and Colonel John Mix, of Farmington ; Colonel Thomas Seymour, 4th, of Hartford ; General Dyer Throop, of East Haddam ; Stephen Mix Mitchell, United States Senator and Chief Justice of the State, Wethersfield ; Jonathan Brace, of Glastonbury and Hartford. Governor Joseph Talcott, of Hartford, born in 1669, was so much of the time chief judge of the County Court and judge of the Probate Court for Hartford County, that his name should be specially mentioned. Major John Chester, of Wethersfield, who in 1711 took Pitkin's place as judge of the County and Probate Court, died the same year, and so the Bench was early deprived of one of its brightest luminaries. Most of the judicial officers, from this time down to a date subsequent to the Revolution, were military officers also ; and the clerks of courts usually prefixed their military rather than their civil titles in the public records.
From 1821 to 1839, the County Court consisted of three judges, two forming a quorum. Justices of the Peace and Quorum no longer existed after 1821. From 1839 to 1856, when this court was abolished, the triers were one judge and two or three county commissioners. During this last period of about seventeen years the court had ceased to have anything like the importance which it formerly possessed.
It will be seen that the office of judge, eo nomine, was unknown in the colony prior to 1698. The first legally to hold this title was Nathaniel Stanley, Sr., of Hartford, Judge of the County Court.
BURN / CROSS
COUNTY COURT-HOUSE, CORNER OF TRUMBULL AND ALLYN STREETS.
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In 1711 the Court of Assistants was abolished, and in its place was established the Superior court of the colony. It was a circuit court, having one chief judge and four associate judges ; its sessions being two in each county annually ; its jurisdiction, like that of the County Courts, extending to both civil and criminal causes. Governor Gurdon Saltonstall was its first chief judge; his bench-fellows being William Pitkin (son of William, hereinbefore mentioned); Richard Christo- phers, of New London ; Peter Burr, of Fairfield ; and Samuel Eells, of Milford, all members of the upper branch of the General Assembly. Pitkin became chief judge in 1713. His son, Governor William, be- came chief judge in 1754; his son, General William, became judge in 1789; and thus four successive generations of William Pitkins filled most important judicial positions in the colony.
A "Superior " Court has existed from 1711 until the present day. It was colonial until 1776, and a State court from the latter date to 1798. Since then it has been a county court. Chief judges were pro- vided until 1855; and its bench, until 1819, was occupied by from three to five judges at a time ; three being a quorum. Since 1819 one judge only has regularly occupied it. Before 1819 fifty-eight judges had filled the judicial office. Of these, nineteen were chief judges of the Superior Court and seventeen were ex-officio judges of the Supreme Court ; that is, from 1807 to 1819. Seventeen judges were from Hartford County, of whom three - namely, Stephen Mix Mitchell, of Wethersfield ; John Trumbull, of Hartford ; and John Thompson Peters, of Hebron and Hartford - were Supreme Court judges prior to 1819. Of the nine- teen chief judges of the Superior Court, four - namely, Judge Mitchell, William Pitkin, Jr., of Hartford ; Governor Roger Wolcott, Sr., of Windsor ; and Governor William Pitkin, 3d, of Hartford - were from Hartford County.
Since it became a single-judge court (June, 1819) thirty-eight per- sons have been judges of the Superior Court. From 1807 its judges were, when sitting in banc, the judges of the Supreme Court. Since 1855 the two classes of judges have been entirely distinct. Five of the thirty-eight judges since 1819 came from Hartford County ; namely : John Thompson Peters, mentioned above ; Thomas Scott Williams, of Wethersfield and Hartford; Governor William Wolcott Ellsworth, of Windsor and Hartford; Thomas Belden Butler, of Wethersfield and Norwalk ; Dwight W. Pardee, of Bristol and Hartford. All these were promoted to the Bench of the Supreme Court. So also was Elisha Carpenter, a native of Ashford, but now of Hartford. W may also include Chief Justice William Lucius Storrs, who, coming from Middletown .about 1840, resided thereafter in Hartford.
The Supreme Court of Errors was constituted in 1784. From that date to 1806 its members were the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor (after 1793), and the Assistants of the General Assembly, then twelve in number. Seven (cight after 1793) formed a quorum. The court took cognizance of such cases as had theretofore gone to the General Assem- bly by writ of error. The Governor or Lieutenant-Governor presided, and the Secretary of State was the clerk. Two sessions were held an- nually, one each at Hartford and New Haven respectively. The sessions were holden in the week next preceding the opening of the General Assembly.
VOL. I .- 8.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
There were thirty-nine of this class of ex-officio judges in this period of twenty-two years. Of these, eleven were from Hartford County. They were General William Pitkin, 4th, East Hartford ; Governor Oliver Wolcott, Sr., East Windsor and Litchfield ; Governor Oliver Ellsworth, Sr., Windsor ; General Erastus Wolcott, East Windsor ; Governor John Treadwell, Farmington ; Colonel John Chester, 4th, Wethersfield ; General Roger Newberry, Windsor; Colonel Thomas Seymour, 4th, Hartford ; Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, Hartford ; Jonathan Brace, Glastonbury and Hartford ; Lieutenant-Governor Chauncey Goodrich, Durham and Hartford.
Governor Wolcott was chief judge during the years 1787-1796. He was the son of Governor Roger Wolcott, and father of the second Gor- ernor Oliver Wolcott. He was not a member of the Bar, having been first a soldier, then a physician. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the Continental Congress ; and his son was Secretary of the Treasury. Ellsworth, one of the most distin- guished men of his time, was a lawyer, and, by common consent, the head of the Bar of the State. He sat in the Continental Congress and assisted in framing the National Constitution ; then he became a mem- ber of the United States Senate, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Minister to France, successively.
Governor Treadwell was a noted lawyer, and the most useful mem- ber of the committee for revising the Statutes of 1795. Chauncey Goodrich was one of the most distinguished members of a family re- markable for civil and military honors and literary attainments. He ranked with the highest in his chosen profession, the law. Both he and Treadwell were members of the famous Hartford Convention. He was a leader in the United States Senate, and a speech of his, in that body, is said to have been the occasion of De Tocqueville's memorable remark about the important position occupied by the State represented by " that little yellow spot on the map."
General Erastus Wolcott was a brother of Chief Judge Oliver Wol- cott, and had been a brigadier-general in the War of the Revolution. He aided in the formation of the National Constitution. Chester, Newberry, Pitkin, and Wadsworth had been officers in the same war. Nearly all in the foregoing list of Hartford County members were lawyers.
Another class of ex-officio members of the Supreme Court were those who held the office of Superior Court Judge between the years 1807 and 1855, when sitting in banc. Of these there were twenty-four. Four only were from Hartford County ; namely : Stephen Mix Mitchell, Weth- ersfield ; John Trumbull, Jr., Watertown and Hartford ; John Thompson Peters, Hebron and Hartford ; and Thomas Scott Williams, Wethers- field and Hartford. Mitchell and Williams became chief judges. All were noted lawyers and jurists, and Mitchell and Williams were states- men. The former was a member of the Continental Congress and of the United States Senate; the latter served in the lower house of Con- gress. Some of the most valuable opinions of our Supreme Court were written by Williams, who was one of the most distinguished members of the celebrated family of that name.
Since 1855 judges of the Supreme Court have been elected and commissioned as such. Of these there have been fifteen, of whom three
Ih J. Williams
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were contributed by Hartford County. These were : Governor William Wolcott Ellsworth, of Windsor and Hartford ; Thomas Belden Butler, Wethersfield and Norwalk ; and Dwight Whitefield Pardee, Bristol and Hartford. Butler was chief judge. He was bred first to the medical, then to the legal profession. He wrote many valuable opinions and acquired some fame as an author. He was particularly interested in meteorology, and wrote an ingenious volume upon the subject. Ells- worth, while much less distinguished than his father, achieved an honorable record on the Bench and in the lower house of Congress. Pardee is still upon the Bench. Ellsworth was a brother-in-law of Chief Judge Williams, and a son-in-law of Noah Webster. It will be seen that there have been, from the beginning, seventy-nine judges of the Supreme Court, and that nineteen of these were from Hartford County. There have been seventeen chief judges, of whom seven were from this county.
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