History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 45

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140

USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 45
USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 45

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"I mention this last matter in no invidious spirit. It was the custom in those days for judges to imbibe strong drink; and the records of our county show frequent instances wherein the court adjourned to meet at the tavern for no other purpose than to moisten their judicial clay with milk-punch or rum- toddy. Excess, however, appears to have been re- garded as disgraceful, especially by men in au- thority."

The lawyers mentioned above were probably all who practiced in the county till after the Revolution. During the early part of that period Chief Justice Morris held a term of Oyer and Terminer at Newton, and had occasion to write Governor Livingston the following letter :

" NEWTON, June 14, 1777.

"SIR,-Enclosed Your Excellency has a list of the convictions and the judgments thereon at this very tedious, and I would have said prema- ture, court, if the council had not thought expedient on maturo deliber- ation to have appointed it. I had the pleasure to find Mr. Justice

Symmes here at iny arrival, and coofess, if I had supposed the council would have spared him for the business, I would not have traveled post over the mountains, through the rain and late into the night, on so very short notice.

"Judges yonng in office, and not appointed for their legal erudition; associates but reputable farmers, doctors, or shopkeepers; young officers, no counsel cor clerk, for want of timely notice, which was not even given to the sheriff; and this in a disaffected country, both witnesses and criminals to be collected from all parts of the State. Thue circumstanced was a court of the highest expectation ever held in New Jersey ; a court for the trial of a number of state criminals, some for high treason, a crime so little known to New Jersey that perhaps the first lawyer in it would not koow how to enter a judgment uoder our Constitution. It would make an excellent paragraph in Gaine's ' Veritable Mercury;' no other printer conld veature to publish it. In England, where treasons and rebellions are from immemorial nsage become familiar terms, twelve learned judges from the first courte in the world, the members of privy council, and the first gentlemen in the kingdom would have been sent on such an errand, and attended by old and experienced officers and the ablest counsel at the bar, witnesses prepared, criminals to try, and season- able notice given. But there the law is systematically administered, and the ministere of it have settled forms of practice under an old constitu- tion well understood. And here we have a new-modeled government, incomplete in all parts, young in practice, and contingencies unprovided for.

"Seriously, sir, with due submission to the council, I should have thought that for a court of such consequence, the members of the council and some of the bar ought to have been joined io the commission and requested to attend. We have sat with great patience, and have now closed the third week. Had it not been for the negligence or villainy of a rascally jailer, in suffering John Eddy, the only person indicted for high treason, to escape yesterday morning, I flutter myself we should have acquitted ourselves with tolerable success, and I hope have given satie- faction to the good people. This escape hae given me much uneasiness, as I fear it will be undeservedly attributed to the inattention of the court. If the jailer was not privy to the escape, which did not appear, he is per- haps too severely punished. The court, in fixing his punishment, had a retrospective eye to past abuses of this sort, and thought an early ex- ample of severity would be likely to prevent them in the future. He appears to be a young, simple fellow, unacquainted with the duties of his office, and not fully instructed by the sheriff, who has been almost daily cautioned on the subject. This jailer's case is recommended to the mercy of Your Excellency and Council, at such season as you shall judge ex- pedient to examine it. Mr. Attorney-General will inform you of the particular demerits of the other convicts ; some of them may hereafter be entitled to partial pardons; I wish I could say they were at this time. The little time the members of the court had for considering the com- mission after my arrival hurried us into a matter which, on further con- sideration, I confess I am not satisfied with ; I mean the short time be- tween the teste and return of the precipe for the grand jury. In Eng- laod, I observe, fifteen days wae ordered, on mature deliberation of all the judges acting under the special commission of 1746. What the prac- tice has been in New Jersey we do not know, as the clerk has none of the former circuit papers. If we have erred, it is partly chargeable to the council for appointing the court so shortly after issning the commis- sion, and they are bound to get the Legislature to cnre it. Had I half an hour's time for thinking of the matter it should have been otherwise.

" In your letter notifying me of thie court, you observe that my not attending the court at Burlington had given uneasiness. Whatever pri- vate individuals might have thought, I am persuaded no member of the Legislature had the least right to expect my attendance. Two hnadred miles a day is rather hard traveling ; and even that would not have done, unless they supposed me possessed of the spirit of divination. I accepted my presont office te manifest my resolution to serve my country. I mean to do the duty of it while I hold it, according to my best judgment. Whenever the Legislature think they can fill it more advantageously, the tenure of my commission shall not disappoint thiem.

" The court rose withont adjournment, as it was not supposed they would have occasion to sit again, unless Eddy should be taken. If this should be the case, I hopo one of the other justices will be able to attend ; I fear I shall not. I wish the Legislature, before another court sits, would take under consideration the judgment in high tronson, old indict- ments at the snit of the king, and some other difficulties in former prac- tice, which the attorney-general will mention to you.

"I have the honor, etc.,

" GOVERNOR LIVINGNTON."

" non'T MORRIS.

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BENCH AND BAR OF SUSSEX COUNTY.

To understand some of the difficulties referred to in this letter, it must be remembered that at this time, and for many years after, grand and petit jurors were summoned by virtue of venires directed to the sheriff' for that purpose. Courts of Oyer and Terminer were held by virtue of special commissions issued by the Governor and Council, in pursuance of the authority contained in the commission from the king. The constitution of 1776 gave no such express power, and doubts were entertained whether the new Governor and Council could exercise it. They did do it, how- ever, holding it to be justified by the act passed soon after the meeting of the first Legislature, which pro- vided that the several courts of the State shoukl be confirmed, established, and continued with the like powers under the present government as before the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence.

Charles Pettit, who was a lawyer and had been the deputy clerk of the old Council and of the Supreme Court, writes to Governor Livingston, June 15, 1777 : " You will receive herewith a draught of a commis- sion of Oyer and Terminer, which I have made from one of the old forms; it is a translation as literal as the change of style will admit. I send also, by way of cover, the draught of the late commission for Sus- sex ; so that you may have an opportunity of com- paring them. On further consideration (although I have had no opportunity of examining books), I am better satisfied that the Courts of Oyer and Terminer may be legally held under such commission, if it were only by virtue of the act for reviving and estab- lishing the courts of justice. The only doubt that remains is the appointment of assistant justices to those of the Supreme Court, as it may be said they ought to be elected by the Council and Assembly ; if so, it might be well at their next meeting to elect a set of associates for each county."

In September, 1777, an act was passed making the punishment for treason the same as that for murder,- that is, hanging instead of quartering,-and that all persons who had committed the crime before July 2, 1776, might be proceeded against and punished as if the crime were committed against the State; and that all indietments found in the name of the king shouk! be prosecuted as if in the name of the State. Another act was passed specially authorizing the Governor and Council to constitute and appoint by commission Courts of Oyer and Terminer, under which com- missious for that purpose continued to be issued until 1794, when an act was passed constituting these courts substantially as they are now helt.

From this period jurisprudences, courts, and trials assumed a more systematic and settled form, and the profession of the law became fixed and orderly. We give below a list of those who have participated in this honorable profession in Sussex County, from the advent of the first lawyer to the present time, incluid- ing the dates of their admission, both as attorneys and as counselors.

II .- LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE SUSSEX BAR.

Thomas Anderson," date of admission not knowo.

Robert Ogden, Jr., called to sergeant-nt-law May, 1780.

Job S. Ilalsted,ª April term, 1795; September term, 1799.

Willianı T. Anderson, September term, 1801 ; September term, 1843.

Thomas C. Ryerson," February term, 1814; May term, 1817. Alphens Gustin, November term, 1820; September term, 1824. Daniel Heines,4 November term, 1823; November torm, 1826. Whitfield S. Johnson," May term, 1828; May term, 1832.

David Thompson, t November term, 1833; November term, 1836.

Robert Hamilton," February term, 1836; February term, 1839.

Martin Ryerson,* November torm, 1836; November term, 1839.

Cyrus S. Leport,^ September term, 1838. Levi Shepherd,* May term, 1838; September term, 1842.

Daniel S. Anderson,t September term, 1841.

Sumuel Fowler, Jr., February term, 1842.

Ilenry O. Fowler,* September term, 1843.

George 3I, Ryerson,t Septomber term, 1834; not in practice.

John Linn,$ November term, 1844; October term, 1848,

Benjamin Hamilton, Jr., February term, 1845.

Robert T. Shiner," February term, 1845,

Thomas N. MeCarter,f October term, 1845; January term, 1849.

Manning M. Knapp,; July terin, 1846; January term, 1850.

llenry O. Ryerson,* April term, 1847; February term, 1856. Samuel Il. Potter," January termi, 1849; November term, 1854.

Michael R Kemble,t January term, 1949.

Andrew J. Rogers,t June torm, 1852.

Thomas Anderson,t February term, 1856.

Jacob L. Swayze,t February term, 1858; not in practice.

William E. Skinner,# November term, 1860; November term, 1864.

Joseph Coult,f February term, 1861.

AHred Ackermon,; June term, 1861. Themas Kays,t February term, 1863; February term, 1872.

Elias M. White,f June term, 1804.

Lewis Von Blarcom,+ June terin, 1865; June term, 1868.

William H. Morrow,t November term, 1865; February term, 1869.

Dawson Woodruff,t June term, 1966.

Lewis J. Martin,t February term, 1867.

James E. Howell.t

William S. Leport,; February term, 1867; Jnoe term, 1870.

William 31. Perrine,t November term, 1867.

Lewis Cochran,t November term, 1868; February torin, 1872.

Martin Rosenkrans, t June term, 1870; June term, 1873.

Walter I. lloss,t June term, 1870.

Robert T. Johnson, t September term, 1870.

Charles J. Roe, June terin, 1873; June term, 1876.

Thomas M. Knys,t June term, 1873.

Charles 31. Woodruff,t November term, 1873.

Winfield 11. Coursen,t November torm, 1876.

Theodore Simonson,t February term, 1876.

Robert 1 .. Lawrence,; November term, 1876.

Theodore E. Dennis,t November term, 1876.

Allon R. Shay, } February term, 1877; June term, 1880.

Charles D. Thompson,t June torm, 1877 ; June term, 1880.

Henry Husten,t June term, 1877; June term, 1850.

A. Watson Stock bower,t November term, 1877.

David B. Hetzel,t February termi, 1880.

William M. Smith,t June torm, 1878.

A. Lewis Murrow,t Novembor term, 1878.

Frank Shepherd,t June term, 18>0.

Two in the above list-viz., Robert Ogden, Jr., and Hon. Daniel Haines-were called to the degree of sergeant-at-law, the former in May, 1780, and the latter in September, 1837.

III .- BIOGRAPHIES AND BRIEF NOTICES OF LAW- YERS AND JUDGES.

ROBERT OGDEN, JR., whose name appears second in the list of the Sussex bar, was a great-grandson of Jonathan Ogden, one of the original associates of the

* Decrased. t Present members. ¿ Removed.

178

SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Elizabethtown purchase, who died in 1732, at the age of eighty-six. He had a son named Robert Ogden, and his son Robert, the father of Robert Ogden, Jr., and of Col. Aaron Ogden, the Governor of New Jer- sey in 1812, resided at the old borough of Elizabeth- town, where he filled several offices of honor and trust, among others that of surrogate for the county of Essex. He was a member of the Council, and several years Speaker of the House of Assembly. Being appointed one of the delegates from the Legis- lature of New Jersey to the convention which met in New York in 1765 to protest against the Stamp Act, he, with the chairman of the convention, refused to sign the protest and petition to the king and Parlia- ment, upon the ground that it ought to be transmitted to the Provincial Assembly, and be presented to the government of Great Britain through them. This so displeased his constituents that he resigned his seat in the Assembly, saying, in his address delivered on that occasion, "I trust Providence will in due time make the rectitude of my heart and my inviolable affection for my country appear in a fair light to the world, and that my sole aim was the happiness of New Jersey."

When the war of the Revolution commenced he took a firm part on the side of freedom, and was one of the committee of vigilance for his town. His sons were all ardent Whigs. Matthias was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment in the New Jersey Line in December, 1775, was wounded in storming the Heights of Quebec, and was distin- guished throughout the war as colonel of the regi- ment and brigadier-general by brevet. His son Aaron, born at Elizabethtown in 1756, graduated at Princeton in 1773, before he had attained the age of seventeen, and became an assistant to Mr. Francis Barber, who was teacher of a celebrated grammar school at which Judge Brockholts and Alexander Hamilton were pupils. In the spring of 1777 both pupils and teacher entered the army. Aaron Ogden was appointed lientenant and paymaster in the First New Jersey Regiment, and continued in the service till the close of the war, as aide-de-camp, captain, and brigade major and inspector. This last-named officer (now abolished) was during the Revolutionary war, and long afterwards, the most important of the staff-officers of the brigade.

"In the winter of 1776-77, while Maj. Ogden was sleeping in the same room with Gen. Maxwell at Elizabethtown, they were informed that one of the pickets had heard the rowing of the boats of the British, who were coming over from Staten Island to surprise them in the night. Ogden volunteered to reconnoitre, and, approaching a house near the mead- ows, he observed a light. Slackening his pace, the night being very dark, he found himself all at once surrounded by British soldiers and within reach of a sentinel, who ordered him to dismount. Determined at all hazards to alarm his troops, he immediately

wheeled and put spurs to his horse, expecting a shot; he received from another sentinel a thrust of a bayo- net into his chest. He had strength, however, to reach the garrison, about two miles distant, and give the alarm. Gen. Maxwell's remark was, ' The pitcher that goes oftenest down the well will come up broken at last.' By proper attention and care at his home he recovered from this wound, which was a very danger- ous one. His timely alarm prevented the enemy from doing any mischief."

A complete account of the brilliant services of Col. Ogden in the Revolution would require more space than we have at command. "When the war ended he was among those who, after they had borne the toils, the perils, and the sacrifices of a long and at times apparently a desperate conflict, laid down their arms and retired, most of them to private life and to poverty."

" Towards the close of the Revolution, Robert Og- den, Sr., removed to Sparta, in the county of Sussex, where he owned large tracts of land, and where he continued a life of usefulness to both Church and State until the year 1787, when he died at the full age of threescore and ten."* Mr. Edsall, in his " Centennial Address," makes the date of the arrival of Mr. Ogden at Sparta "abont 1765," and that of his son, Robert Ogden, Jr., at the Sussex bar, "some time subsequently" to the first occupation of the court-house, which was during the May term, 1765. As to the senior Robert Ogden the date of settlement given by Mr. Edsall is nndonbtedly too early by at least ten or a dozen years. The precise date at which Robert Ogden, Jr., began to practice in the Sussex courts is not known; it was probably about the time his father settled in Sparta. Elmer, in his " Reminis- cences of the Bench and Bar of New Jersey," speaks of him as follows : "Robert Ogden, Jr., was a lawyer and had a large practice, and was called 'the honest lawyer.' He was disabled by a fall in childhood, which prevented him from active service in the field ; bnt he was a quartermaster and commissioner of stores, in which capacities he rendered good service, giving his time, talents, money, and credit freely to supply the army." This relates to his career at Elizabeth- town during part at least of the Revolution ; and, as no mention is made of him at an earlier date in any of the proceedings of the courts of Sussex, we con- clude that he did not settle in this county until towards the close of the Revolution. He first appears as a member of the State Council from this county in 1778 and 1779; in 1790 he was a member of the Assembly, with Aaron Hankinson and John Rutherford, after which his name does not appear in the legislative

* Elmer's "Reminiscences," p. 139. We find in a sketch of the early history of Morrie County an allusion to the attempts to destroy the fur- naces which wero of anch gront service to the Americans during the Revolution. The author says, "Some of the attempts were by Tories, led by Clanding Smith, who once threatened Mount Hope, and who actu- ally robbed Robert Ogden between Sparta and Humburg, Charles Hoff at Hi- bernin, and Robert Erskine at Ringwood."

179

BENCH AND BAR OF SUSSEX COUNTY.

archives. It appears from the records of the Sussex County Bible Society that he was president of that organization in 1825. He died in 1826.

HON. JOHN CLEVES SYMMES .- The subject of this notice never practiced law in Sussex County, but was one of the judges of the County Courts before the Revolution down to the year 1777. He was a son of Rev. Timothy Symmes, of Scituate, Mass., who grad- uated at Harvard College in the year 1733, and in 1742 settled at River Head, L. I. Rev. Timothy

V.a

John Cleves Games

Symmes had one other son, Timothy, who was judge of the Common Pleas of Sussex from 1777 to 1791, having been appointed in the place of his brother, John Cleves Symmes, who resigned the position to aceept an appointment on the bench of the Supreme Court.

John Cleves Symmes was a delegate from this county to the Provincial Congress, and took an active part in framing the State constitution of 1776. He was ap- pointed one of the justices of the Supreme Court in February, 1777. In 1784 and 1785 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, still re- taining his position as justice of the Supreme Court.

One of his letters to Governor Livingston, detailing his proceedings in the Courts of Oyer and Terminer of Hunterdon and Cumberland in 1778, will be found in " The New Jersey Revolutionary Correspondence," p. 135. Several persons were convicted of treason and sentenced to death, but whether any of them were ex- ecuted is now unknown. He presided in 1782 at the

court held in Westfield, Essex Co., for the trial of James Morgan, arraigned for the murder of Rev. James Caldwell. The shooting of this gentleman was one of those tragic events of the Revolution which excited the deepest sympathy of the commu- nity. He was the Presbyterian minister at Elizabeth- town, a zealous Whig, and was chaplain of the North- ern army in the fall of 1776. He returned to the State and was incessantly engaged in his parochial and publie duties, and was perhaps the most popular man with the army and the people generally in his neighborhood. In 1780 his wife was shot in her house by British soldiers. On the 24th of November, 1781, he was shot through the heart, and immediately killed, at Elizabethtown Point, by Morgan, who was then in service as a militiaman, and who claimed to have been on duty as a sentinel and to have shot him because he persisted in passing him when required to stop. Mor- gan was an Irishman and a Catholic, and in the excite- ment which prevailed at the time he was tried-about six weeks after the aet was committed-he had but little elianee for his life, whether guilty or not. He was defended by Col. De Hart, but after a full and fair trial, said by those present to have been remark- ably solemn, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and he was sentenced to be hung. This sentence was car- ried into execution on the 29th of January, after he had been conducted to the church, where a sermon was preached by Rev. Jonathan Elmer, according to a custom then prevailing.

In 1788, Judge Symmes was chosen by Congress one of the judges of the Northwest Territory, and shortly afterwards removed to Ohio. In connection with Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, Dr. Clark- son, and other New Jerseymen, he purchased of Con- gress a large tract of land between the two Miami Rivers, containing nearly two hundred and fifty thou- sand acres," and comprising the sites of the present cities of Cincinnati and Dayton. He established his own residence at the North Bend of the Ohio and laid out a city there, but Cincinnati, becoming a military post soon after, took the precedence in growth and became the great city. North Bend is chiefly noted as the place of residence of William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, who mar- ried Judge Symmes' daughter. Judge Symmes died in 181-4, at the age of seventy-two.

Judge Symmes was born at River Head, L. I., July 21, 1712. Hle married, for his first wife, Anna Tut- hill, daughter of Henry Tuthill, of Southold, L. I. From this marriage there were two daughters, Maria and Anna, the former of whom married Peyton Short. of Kentucky, and the latter William Henry Harrison. After the death of his first wife Judge Symmes mar- ried the "widow Halsey," who lived only a few years. His third wife was Susanna, daughter of Hon. Wil-

· Soo Book A, 5450, Secretary of State's office, Trenton, pp. 474-80, for full account. Deed 1784.

180

SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

liam Livingston, Governor of New Jersey, and sister to the wife of the celebrated John Jay .*

JUDGE TIMOTHY SYMMES, of Walpack, is thus spoken of by Mr. Edsall: 'Timothy Symmes, a brother of John C., was an active man in the Revo- lution, and a judge of our courts. He was the father of John Cleve Symmes, Jr., whose novel theory that the earth, like an eviscerated pumpkin, was hollow- that its interior was habitable, and that an orifice to enter this terrestrial ball would undoubtedly be found at the north pole-attracted great attention through- out the United States some thirty years ago, more especially as a very eloquent lawyer named Reynolds became a convert to Symmes' views and made ad- dresses in support of their soundness in all our princi- pal cities. Poor Symmes wearied out his existence in a vain effort to procure means for fitting an expedi- tion to explore the inner portion of the shell of the earth ; he gained, however, more kicks than coppers, and succeeded only in furnishing a theme for the wits of the land to exercise their waggery upon. 'Symmes' Hole' not only figured in newspapers, but grog-shops bore it upon their signs with various devices to illus- trate it. One I recollect was the representation of a hollow watermelon, with a tiny mouse peeping out of the orifice at its polar extremity to see if Symmes' expedition had yet 'hove in view.'"

This noted theorist was born in Walpack, Sussex Co., and was named after his uncle, John Cleves Symmes, who adopted and educated him. His father kept one of the earliest hotels near the Delaware in Walpack. After he was appointed judge he came to Newton, and lived two doors above the court-house, in what was recently known as the "Drake house," burned in the summer of 1880.

JOB S. HALSTED .- The family of Halsted is sup- posed to be of German-Austrian descent, as the name was originally spelled "Halstadt." However this may be, the distinguished ancestor of the family in New Jersey was Sir William Halsted, of England, who was an admiral in the British navy and knighted for some valuable service. The crest is still in the possession of the family.

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History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 45

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1140

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140