USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 17
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Retiring from the bench in 1897, he resumed his private practice. On May 16, 1852, he married Virginia, daughter of Bishop Beverly Waugh. Four children blest the union, of
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whom Charles W. Cullen, his youngest son, is a leading lawyer of Georgetown, Delaware, and a successful practitioner. Judge Cullen was a Democrat, but did not actively participate in the political battles of the day.
DAVID T. MARVEL.
David Thomas Marvel, the son of Josiah P., and Harriet Ann (Pepper) Marvel was born in Georgetown, Delaware, November 2, 1851. Mr. Marvel's ancestors were English, and settled in Delaware in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, where for the most part they have since been engaged in farming; many of them have held public positions of trust in their adopted state during the past two hundred years. David T. Marvel spent his early years on a farm, which for about two hundred years has been the home possession of the family, and upon which they still reside. He got his early education in the public schools and at the academy of his native town. In 1873 he graduated from Princeton College, and in three years, thereafter, received from that institution his degree of M. A.
Soon after his graduation Mr. Marvel began the study of law with the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, also, at the same time, during that and the ensuing year, teaching mathematics in Prof. Reynolds' Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. In November of 1874 he went to Washington with Senator Bayard as his secretary, and remained there three years. Ile then entered the Harvard Law School, and after a two years' course was admitted to the bar at Georgetown, Delaware, in 1879, beginning his practice in that town. While at Harvard he took great interest in the athletic sports of the day and, thanks to his fine physique and gymnastic skill, became a member of the law school boat club, and was chosen captain of the law school foot-ball team. He was elected to member- ship in the "Pow-Wow Law Club," and made an honorary member of the " Hasty Pudding Club." For several years he owned an interest in the Sussex Journal, and edited it until
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February, 1883, when he disposed of his interest in that pub- lication to devote thereafter his whole time to the practice of his profession.
In 1881 he was chosen clerk of the House of Representatives of Delaware, and in 1882 was made county attorney for Sussex County, holding that office for six years and ably performing its duties. He was Inspector General with the rank of Briga- dier-General on the staff of Governor Stockley from 1882 to 1886. For two years he was secretary of the State Board of Education and president of the Georgetown school board for four years.
He was appointed Secretary of State in January, 1891, and held that office for two years, when upon his resignation, he was appointed Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware, the tenure of that office then being for life. But upon the adoption, June 4, 1897, of the new Constitution, the entire judiciary of the State was ipso facto displaced. Article IV., Section 3, provided, "That no more than three of the said five law judges, in office at the same time, shall have been appointed from the same political party " and Judge Marvel being the fourth Democratic judge and the junior appointee, his re-appointment under the new constitu- tion was impossible, and he thereupon resumed his private practice in Wilmington, where, in conjunction with his brother, Josiah Marvel, he has acquired a large and increasing clientele.
Judge Marvel gave the State and bar four years of creditable service upon the bench. Of pleasing manners, he was always approachable, and yet he was ever dignified in his bearing, and won the regard both of the bar and the suitors in Court. He was married February 17, 1885, to Mary Robinson Wootten, grand-daughter of the late Judge Edward Wootten, and has one daughter, Ann Burton, born February 3, 1886. Mr. Marvel is an Episcopalian, and has at various times served as vestryman in St. Paul's church at Georgetown, and in a sim- ilar capacity at Milford and at Dover.
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WILLIAM C, SPRUANCE.
William Corbit Spruance, the son of Presley and Sarah Corbit Spruance, was born in Smyrna, Delaware, April 2, 1831. His father was a merchant in Smyrna and a highly esteemed citizen, and was once chosen United States Senator from Delaware. Young Spruance, after preparing for college under the learned Rev. George Foot and at the Newark Academy, entered Princeton College in January, 1849, and graduated in 1852. He read a thorough course of law under Chief Justice Comegys and the Hon. George B. Rodney, and at the Harvard law school. In November, 1855, he was duly admitted to the bar at New Castle, where he remained in prac- tice until 1881, when, upon the removal of the Courts to the new Court House in Wilmington, he continued his practice in that city.
By reason of his eminent ability and energy, coupled with a robust personality, Mr. Spruance soon came to be regarded by his fellow practitioners and the laity in general, throughout the State, as one of the foremost lawyers in Delaware. Alike in the counsels of the party, and on the hustings, his judg- ment and force of character, and his eloquence as a speaker, made him a leader in the Republican party. To his high honor be it written that all his life he has been an uncompro- mising antagonist of human slavery, and in the early days, when the cruel injustice of that horrid practice was not, as now, conceded, and when it needed the sternest sort of moral fiber to proclaim oneself as a "Black Republican;" he had the cour- age to denounce its iniquity in no measured terms. .
He was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the State for three years, and City Solicitor of Wilmington for two years. In 1876 he was made United States District Attorney, but re- signed that office after four years' admirable administration of its duties. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1897, and as Chairman of the most important of all the committees, the Committee on the Judiciary, and as a member of the Committee on Elections, and on Executive
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Offices, his ample learning, his large legal and political expe- rience, added to great natural judgment, made him preëmi- nently useful in directing and shaping the radical changes which were introduced in that organic law, and which resulted in the formation of the present vastly improved State Consti- tution.
He joined the Republican party upon its formation, and from the outbreak of the Civil War, was an enthusiastic sup- porter of the Union. In June, 1897, the high honor of senior Associate Justice of Delaware was conferred upon him for the term of twelve years, the limit provided by the Constitution himself helped to frame. He continues to hold that office, and to display therein the same distinguished abilities which won for him so signal a success as a practicing lawyer.
On June 16, 1858, Mr. Spruance married, Maria Louisa Spottswood, oldest daughter of the Rev. John B. Spottswood, D. D. of New Castle, Delaware. Five children, four sons and one daughter, came to bless the home that was darkened by the loss, January 1, 1901, of the devoted wife and mother who for almost forty-three years had been its light and life.
WILLIAM H. BOYCE.
William Henry Boyce, the son of James H. and Sarah I. Otwell Boyce, was born at Bull's Mill in Broad Creek Hun- dred, Delaware, November 28, 1855. His father was for years engaged in the lumber and merchandise business, but later became a farmer. He held a number of responsible offices in the county and state, such as Treasurer for two years and State Auditor of Accounts for four years, etc. His son William H., is the oldest of four children. William H. Boyce had the good fortune to pass his boyhood life on his father's farm, attending, meanwhile, the country schools in the neighborhood. He finished his education at the Laurel Academy, and during his summer vacations returned to the farm to help his father, except during the seasons of 1873 and 1878 which he spent in the commission business in New York and Philadelphia.
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In 1875 he was chosen principal of the public schools in Laurel, and after retaining ibat position for five years, re- signed to accept the principalship of the Oxford schools. This last office he relinquished upon his appointment by Governor John W. Hall, to the responsible position of Recorder of Deeds for Sussex County, Delaware. During his five years incum- bency, he read law under Alfred P. Robinson, Esq., afterwards Chief Justice of the State. He was admitted to the bar in 1887, and began practice at Georgetown as a junior partner with his distinguished instructor. His legal abilities were not long in securing ample recognition, and in 1896 at their February term, the Levy Court Commissioners elected him their attorney in which capacity he acted until his appoint- ment, January 19, 1897, by Governor Ebe W. Tunnell, Secre- tary of State, which office, however, he surrendered on the following June 17th to accept the honorable station of Asso- ciate Justice of the State, whose responsible duties he is still in a very able manner administering.
Long prior to the Constitutional Convention of 1897 Mr. Boyce had been an earnest advocate of the revision of Dela- ware's organic law, having been prominently identified with a similar attempt made in 1887, and he continued warmly to promote that cause till its success in 1897. He also wisely used his influence to secure the election of non-partisan dela- gates, and with other equally liberal-minded citizens, was the means of effecting a fusion of parties in his own county which made that patriotic move a possibility. In politics the Judge has always been a Democrat, and, prior to his judicial office, had taken a prominent part in the various campaigns as chairman of the County Central Committte, and member of the State Central Committee. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1896, and voted for the late Robert E. Pattison of Pennsylvania for President.
He rendered the public schools at Georgetown a useful ser- vice in 1885 by championing the movement for their improve-
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ment, the present fine building in that town, together with its site, being the outcome of his efforts in that behalf. He was twice elected president of the Town Council of Georgetown. October 25, 1882, he married Emma E. Valliant, daughter of William and Mary Guest Valliant. Their first son, Valliant, died at the age of six years, and their second, James, is now a young man preparing for college. Judge Boyce and wife are members of St. Paul's P. E. Church at Georgetown, where, since 1882, he has been a member of the vestry, and, since 1887, junior warden of the congregation.
JAMES PENNEWILL.
James Pennewill, the son of Simeon and Annie E. Curry Pennewill, was born near Greenwood, Sussex County, Dela- ware, June 16, 1854. His father, like his grandfather before him, was a prosperous farmer in Sussex County. February 1, 1847, he married Annie E. Curry, daughter of Thomas and Nancy Curry, and James was the second of the four sons, who, together with a daughter, Mary, were born of this marriage. James Pennewill received his youthful education in the public schools of Greenwood and Bridgeville, and after spending three years at the academy of Professor William A. Reynolds in Wilmington, Delaware, he entered Princeton University, from which institution he graduated in 1875. He immedi- ately began reading law under the Hon. Nathaniel B. Smithers, and was duly admitted to the Delaware bar, October 28, 1878, and began the practice of his profession in Dover, where for twenty years he kept a station among the very foremost mem- bers of his craft, having for associates during that period, several of the most eminent practitioners in the State, among others, the Hon. James L. Wolcott, the late Chancellor.
On June 14, 1897, under the re-organization of the judiciary, pursuant to the new Constitution, he was made an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware. December 5, 1888, Mr. Pennewill was married, at Dover, to Alice, daughter of William G. and Temperance A. Hazel of that town. It is
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the judgment of the legal fraternity that Justice Pennewill, as a judge, has augmented the high reputation he won as a prac- ticing lawyer. Since the Fall Term of 1897 he has been the official reporter, and has produced five volumes of well-edited reports.
UNITED STATES JUDGES.
GUNNING BEDFORD, JR.
Gunning Bedford, Jr., bore the same name as his father and grandfather. The Bedfords came from England, the first set- tlers in America, forming part of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia in 1621. Gunning, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, in 1747, where his father served in the office of alderman for several years prior to his death in 1802. Graduating as vale- dictorian of his class at Princeton College in 1771, he began the study of law with Joseph Reed in Philadelphia, and after his admission to the bar in that city, moved, in 1779, to Dover, and began the practice of law in the Delaware Courts. A few years later he moved his residence to Wilmington.
In 1783 he was elected a member of the Continental Con- gress, and served for three years. In 1784 he was appointed Attorney General of the State. In 1786 he was elected with George Read, Jacob Broom, John Dickinson and Richard Bassett, a commissioner from Delaware to the Annapolis Convention, and a year later he served with the same eminent gentlemen as a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Bedford was a promi- nent figure in the constitutional convention, taking a leading part in the discussions of that body, and advocating with much force the principle that each of the states, regardless of size or population, should be accorded an equal representation in the United States Senate.
The Constitution having been promulgated by the conven- tion, Mr. Bedford exerted himself in having the State of Dela- ware lead the line in ratifying the constitution, thus making Delaware the first state in the Union. In 1788 he was elected
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GUNNING BEDFORD, JR. 1747-1812.
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a member of the State Council, in which place he served one year, and in 1789 he was appointed by President Washington the first Judge of the United States Court for the District of Delaware. He possessed every qualification for the place, and doubtless his ability and high standing had been impressed upon Washington by his eminent services in both military and professional life, with which service Washington himself was thoroughly familiar. Judge Bedford adorned the bench for a term of twenty-three years, until his death March 30, 1812. Gunning Bedford, Jr., the Judge, is frequently confused with his cousin, Gunning Bedford who was elected Governor of Delaware in 1796.
Judge Bedford married Jane Ballaroux, daughter of James Parker, the early New York printer and editor of the Post Boy. Mrs. Bedford was a lady of rare accomplishments and great intellect, and held a leading place in the most cultured circles of society of her day. Judge Bedford had a residence in Wilmington for some years, in the house known as No. 606 Market street, but for nearly twenty years prior to his death lived at "Lombardy" on the Concord turnpike in Brandywine Hundred, where he owned a large farm, part of which is occupied by the Lombardy cemetery.
Judge Bedford's remains were buried in the graveyard ad- joining the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.
JOHN FISHER.
John Fisher was born near Lewes, Sussex County, Dela- ware, May 22, 1771, being the second son of Jabez and Eliz- abeth Fisher. Left orphaned of his father at a very early age, he received a classical education through the help of his older brother, General Thomas Fisher, and was then placed by him under the instruction of their cousin Joshua Fisher, Esq., a member of the Dover bar, to which he was admitted in 1792 when barely twenty-one years of age.
Though lacking the advantages of a collegiate training, he was reputed by his legal brethren to be a remarkably fine Greek
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and Latin scholar ; his erudition, like Elihu Burritt's, being due, no doubt, not less to his fine native faculty than to a persistent habit of study. He also possessed poetical talent and was famous for his choice humor and keen wit, and the local literati, among whom, like another Dr. Johnson, he moved, in learning and sharp fence facile princeps, listened with delight to his famous verbal encounters with the village wits, and especially with a next-door neighbor of his, one Dr. Arthur Johns.
A bit of his sharp repartee is still current in Dover. Some one in his presence was lauding the marvelous wisdom of Solomon when Judge Fisher replied with a caustic wit, whose apt application to its subject, one Isaac Davis, well known for his business sharpness, was thoroughly appreciated by those who heard it; " Oh, yes; Solomon, no doubt, was a wonderfully wise man in his day and generation, but were he this day living in Kent County, Isaac Davis would hold his judgment bond for all he was worth and a little more before he'd been here a twelvemonth !"
Judge Fisher was twice married, his first wife, Lavinia Rodney, being a niece of Caesar Rodney, the Signer of the Declaration of Independence. To them were born three chil- dren, Rodney, Robert and Mary. His son Rodney was for a long time employed as a clerk in the old United States Bank. He afterwards went to China and engaged in the tea trade, but returning home he became a director in the Bank of Com- merce in Philadelphia, where he died in the year 1863. After the death of his first wife the Judge married Elizabeth Wilson, her cousin, by whom he had a large family of children.
Judge Fisher was an ardent Democrat of the old type, and in 1812 was appointed by President Madison Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, which office he filled with great ability and fidelity until his death, April 22, 1823. He died suddenly of gout, at Claremont farm, near Smyrna, Delaware, at the age of fifty-two years, and was buried in Christ Church graveyard at Dover.
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WILLARD HALL.
Willard Hall was born in Westford, Mass., December 24, 1780, and came of excellent English stock on both sides of his ancestral house. He owed much of his early training to his grandfather, the Rev. Willard Hall, whose namesake he was. After spending three years at the Westford, Mass., Academy, he entered Harvard at the early age of fifteen, graduating five years thereafter. In 1803 young Hall was admitted to the bar of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, but chancing to read a speech delivered by the Hon. James A. Bayard, he was so strongly impressed thereby that after some correspond- ence with Mr. Bayard he resolved to make his home in Dela- ware, and accordingly, April 7, 1803, left his father's house on horseback and arrived at Wilmington in nine days, where after examination by Messrs. Bayard and James P. Wilson he was admitted to the bar of New Castle County.
He soon distinguished himself by his legal acumen, learning and sound judgment, as well as by qualities of high personal honor and integrity, and rapidly rose from one station of honor to another in professional and public life. In 1812 he was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Haslet, and again by Governor Collins in 1821, and served three years in both cases. He was elected to the National House of Repre- sentatives in 1816 and in 1818, but declined further re- election. President Monroe in 1823 made him United States District Judge for the District of Delaware, which responsible position he held for nearly half a century, during which long incumbency but a single decision of this upright judge was ever called in question, and this was a case that peculiarly illustrated his possession of the highest qualities of an upright and fearless judge, viz., when in the face of an inflamed and prejudiced public sentiment he issued a writ of habeas corpus for the discharge of certain Southern civilians detained as prisoners in Fort Delaware in 1866 at the close of the Civil War. The Executive Department of the National Govern- ment conceded the justness and force of his acute and pro-
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found reasoning by acquiescing in his action, whose entire impartiality is further shown by the fact that personally the judge was himself a Union man.
He was a delegate from New Castle County to the Constitu- tional Convention of 1831, and one of the leading spirits in that body, together with such colleagues as John M. Clayton, James Rogers and George Read, Jr. He was always an active and earnest supporter of the public school system, and was the president of the Wilmington School Board from its organiza- tion in 1852 to 1870. The cause of temperance also had in him a warm advocate. For years he was president of the Colonization Society of Delaware, and later an active member of the Society for the Education of Colored Persons. He was president of the Wilmington Savings Fund Society from its inception till forced by the infirmities of old age to retire. He also rendered zealous service to the Delaware State Bible Society for nearly fifty years, serving as its president for thirty years and missing but a single meeting, and that from illness, during that period. Judge Hall joined the Historical Society of Delaware in his eighty-fourth year, and so long as he was able gave it the benefit of his influence and counsel.
He married the daughter of Chancellor Killen, and a num- ber of years after his first wife's death married again in 1826. For forty years he taught the Bible class in the Hanover Street Presbyterian Church, of which he was an active mem- ber and a ruling elder. At least once he was sent to repre- sent his church in the General Assembly.
The Judge wrote a pamphlet styled "A Plea for the Sabbath Addressed to the Legal Profession." His whole life and career form a noble living epistle which will indeed long be " known and read of all men." Not until his ninetieth year did this venerable jurist cease to take an active interest in the concerns of his supremely useful life. He found May 10, 1875, a peaceful and fitting close to his vigorous and public-spirited career.
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EDWARD G. BRADFORD.
One wonders less at the admitted fact that this little com- monwealth of Delaware, has produced such an unusual num- ber of men distinguished in State and national affairs for high qualifications and illustrious achievements ; second in this respect to no sister state, when one remembers that quite a number of those whose deeds have shed luster upon her escutcheon, like her Bayards, her Millers, her Saulsburys, were like the subject of this sketch, choice representatives from other states who years ago elected to ally their talents, their labors and their fortunes with Delaware's destiny and fame.
Judge Edward Green Bradford, is an instance in point, for not only was he born on Bohemia Manor, Maryland, but he came furthermore of old and highly renowned Puritan lineage, being no other than a lineal descendant in the seventh generation of William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth Colony, and a near relative on his mother's side of Dr. Ashbel Green, president of Princeton College. His father, a native of Massachusetts, came to Delaware from Maryland and settled in Wilmington in the early part of the nineteenth century, where he edited the Delaware Gazette, then the organ of the Federalists. He was a man of scholarly attainments and sterling character, and came on the side of his mother, Phoebe George, from a wealthy and influential Irish family which located on Bohemia Manor about 1720 and acquired large landed estates there.
Judge Bradford's parents removed to Wilmington soon after his birth and his life and career were thereafter identified with that place as his adopted City. His early schooling was gotten in the Wilmington schools and at Bristol College, Philadelphia, and December 38, 1839, he graduated from Delaware College.
The next year he began the study of law under Chief Justice Gilpin at that time in the full flush of his fame as a practicing lawyer. Upon the completion of his studies he was admitted to the bar at Georgetown, April 11, 1842, and
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such was the high estimate placed upon his personal and pro- fessional qualifications by his preceptor, Judge Gilpin, then Attorney-General for the State, that he forthwith made him his deputy, and shortly thereafter gave into his charge the conduct of almost the entire business of that responsible office, and kept him as his deputy until the close of his second term.
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