USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 6
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Judges and Personnel -- And now to go back a little way with regard to the personnel. We have already spoken of some of the early judges. William Jay, who was the son of John Jay, filled the intervening term between Judge Tompkins' two terms, that is from 1820 to 1823. His early education, which was conducted under the care of his father, was finished at Yale College, where he graduated in 1808. Adopting the profession of the law, he speedily became prominent in its practice, and in 1818 was appointed by Governor Tompkins judge of the County Court of Westchester. This office he held with honor to himself and to the credit of the community of which he formed a part, until 1842, when he was relieved from the position by Governor Bouck, in com- pliance with the demand of that portion of the Democratic Party whose symathies were with the South and slavery, and on account of his plainly expressed views in favor of Abolition.
Judge Jay was an able writer. He published forty-three works, all directed at various evils of society. He died on October 14, 1858. The various societies of which he was a member paid tributes to his memory.
George Case, a side judge of the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of General Sessions of Westchester County during the last two years of Judge Tompkins' life, often presided as first judge in his absence. He came to Manhattan and began to practice north of the Harlem in 1834. He had the reputation of being somewhat arbi- trary in his actions while judge, and was not regarded as an eminently learned judge, but was respected as a man of entire integrity. Robert S. Hart was in 1846 appointed to succeed Judge Tompkins. He was nominated by Governor Silas Wright and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, practicing for several decades and becoming the senior member of the Westchester bar. He was the last of the judges ap- pointed. His successor, Albert Lockwood, was elected under the Con- stitution of 1846 as county judge, and those who have occupied the. position since have been elected. John W. Mills succeeded Justice
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Lockwood on the bench in 1851. He had studied law under J. Warren Tompkins and before being admitted to the bar became deputy county- clerk on December 30, 1836. He was admitted to practice in 1837, was appointed master in Chancery in 1844, and an examiner in Chancery in 1846. He was county judge from 1851 to 1855, surrogate from 1862 to 1870, and was supervisor of White Plains several times. He was at one time associated in the practice of his profession with J. Warren Tompkins, subsequently with John J. Clapp, and afterwards with Robert Cochran. Later still he was the senior member of the law-firm of Mills, Cochran & Verplanck. After the dissolution of the firm he attended to private business only. He died in 1882, having the largest practice of the members of the Westchester bar. Judge William H. Robertson, who succeeded Judge Mills in 1855, was the son of Henry Robertson. He read law in the office of Judge Robert S. Hart, was admitted to the bar in 1847, and in 1854 formed a partnership with Odle Close for the practice of the law in White Plains, under the firm-name of Close & Robertson. He became supervisor four times and twice chairman of the Board of Supervisors. His legislative career began in 1848, when he was elected to the Assembly and he was reelected in the following year. In 1853 he was chosen to the State Senate, in- troducing, among other public acts, a bill for establishing the Depart- ment of Public Instruction, an important step in the educational history of the State. In the Assembly of 1849, and in the Senate of 1855, he sup- ported the Hon. W. H. Seward for United States Senator. In 1855 he was elected county judge of Westchester County, and was twice re- ëlected, holding the office for twelve years, and winning much com- mendation from the members of the bar. He served six years as inspector of the Seventh Brigade, New York State Militia, was chairman of the military committee appointed by Governor Morgan in 1862 to raise and organize State troops in the Eighth Senate District and was commissioned to superintend the draft in Westchester County. In 1860 he was a member of the Electoral College and voted for Abraham Lincoln. He supported him again in the National Convention of 1864, and during his whole administration was one of his most faithful ad- herents. In 1866 he was elected a representative in the Fortieth Con- gress by a majority of two thousand two hundred over William Rad- ford, who had represented the district for the two terms immediately preceding. While member of Congress he voted for the impeachment of President Johnson, took an active part in the legislation which led to the restoration of the Southern States to the Union, and throughout his term devoted himself to the interests of his district and his con- stituents. Judge Robertson's second term of service in the State Senate began in 1872 and continued without interruption for ten years during the last eight of which he was president pro tem. of that body.
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Robert Cochran who succeeded Judge Robertson in 1867 became associated in the practice of the law with George T. Strong, with whom he remained for several years. Subsequently he went into partnership with General Munson I. Lockwood and afterwards with Samuel E. Lyons. Later he became a law partner of Judge John W. Mills. In 1854 he was elected supervisor of White Plains, and at the annual ses- sion of the board took a prominent part in procuring the passage of the resolutions to change the location of the courthouse from the old site on Broadway and to erect the new buildings where they later stood. He was elected on the Democratic ticket as a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention in 1867, and at the annual election in that year was elected county judge of Westchester County for the term of four years. In 1874 he was elected to the office of district attorney, and in 1875 was elected supervisor of White Plains, over Elisha Horton, Jr., the then Republican incumbent. About 1877 Judge Cochran retired from the active practice of his profession and died on December 14, 1880, in Brooklyn.
Silas D. Gifford, of Morrisania, was chosen in 1871 to succeed Judge Cochran. He was for a year a school teacher at Sleepy Hollow, near Tarrytown, where he was a successor to the immortal "Ichabod Crane," though his career as an instructor of youth did not terminate as disas- trously as did that of his "illustrious predecessor." He was afterwards in the law office of Robert S. Hart and after being admitted to the bar in 1852 established an office of his own in Morrisania. Becoming prom- inent he was appointed to the office of town superintendent of common schools, elected justice of the peace in 1856, and reëlected at the close of his term. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Morgan surrogate of Westchester County to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Robert H. Coles. He was elected supervisor of Morrisania in 1870. His election to the office of county judge of Westchester County occurred in 1871, and he held the office continuously till the close of 1883. On his retirement he was presented by the officers of the court with a beautiful gavel. He was appointed a member of the Recruiting Com- mittee during the war; was instrumental in organizing several com- panies of volunteers, and by his energy the quota of troops required from his town at that time was supplied without the necessity of a draft. During long years of prominence in political affairs he was al- ways recognized as among the leaders of his party.
Isaac N. Mills, of Eastchester, was chosen at the election of 1883 to succeed Judge Gifford. The Mount Vernon "Chronicle" at that date wrote concerning him: "He is a descendant, on his father's side, from a family of farmers, of moderate means, who have resided on and tilled farms in the town of Thompson, Windham County, Connecticut, prior to the Revolutionary War. On his mother's side he is descended from a
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family of Rhode Island Quakers, residents of that State for many generations, to a branch of which family General Greene, of Revolution- ary fame, belongs. Mr. Mills was born in the town of Thompson, Connecticut, September 10, 1851, and is therefore seventy-six years of age. At the age of seventeen he decided to become a lawyer and entered the Province Conference Seminary, at Greenwich, Rhode Island, to pre- pare for college. In the winter of 1869 and 1870 he taught at a district school for a term, near Newport, at the same time working evenings, in order to keep up his studies in his class at the seminary. In the summer of 1870 Mr. Mills graduated from the seminary with the highest rank in his class. That same fall he entered Amherst College, where, during the four years' course, several prizes for excellence in Latin, Greek, philosophy, physiology, debate and extemporaneous speaking were awarded to him. In 1874 he graduated as the valedictorian of his class -a class numbering in all ninety-five members, out of which seventy- five graduated. Of that class, two of the graduates are now professors in Columbia College, one is a professor of Williams College and several others are prominent in other professions. Mills then entered Columbia Law College, of New York City, from which he graduated in 1876. In the same year he came to Mount Vernon and became a member of the law-firm of Mills & Wood. He continued as such in the active practice of the law until May, 1882, when that firm was dissolved by mutual consent. Since then he has been actively engaged in legal practice in this county and in New York City. While a resident here he has been a close student of the law and has devoted himself exclusively to its practice. It is conceded by all who know him that he is honest, up- right and able."
Judge Dykman of the Supreme Court, studied the law in the office of William Nelson. In the spring of 1866 he moved to White Plains where he continued to practice, and where, in 1868, he was elected by a very handsome majority district attorney of Westchester County. He particularly distinguished himself by the energy with which he pros- ecuted the Buckhout murder trial, one of the celebrated cases in the history of the Westchester region. In the fall of 1875 he was elected to the office of justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the Second Judicial District by the union of both political parties. He was nominated and supported as the regular candidate of the Republican Party and elected by the people by a majority exceeding ten thousand. That nomination, made by a party with which he had never acted, was a splendid tribute to his ability, and the results showed the confidence of the people was not misplaced. In the performance of his judicial duties Judge Dykman showed himself particularly oblig- ing to the younger lawyers. He was a member of the general term of the Supreme Court for many years and his opinions in that court, in
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the numerous cases on appeal, were held to evince laborious research and painstaking impartiality. At the circuit for the trial of cases he was a favorite with both lawyers and suitors. He showed himself em- phatically a man of the people. He listened with willingness to peti- tions, "In many ways," wrote one observer, Judge Dykman "is an illustration of what may be accomplished under our republican institu- tions, where all positions are within the grasp of those who desire to attain them. By energy and perseverance he has risen to a high position without the aid of wealth or influence. The people have found him a man on whom they could rely, and have accordingly bestowed on him their confidence and raised him to eminence, and it is not too much to say that he has fulfilled all their expectations. There never was a stain on his private character nor on his public record, and the breath of suspicion has never assailed him."
Surrogates-The surrogates before the incorporation of the Bronx territory with New York City were :
1730 Gilbert Willet
1815 Henry White
1754 John Bartow
1819 Samuel Youngs
1761 Caleb Fowler
1821 Ebenezer White
1766 David Dayton 1828 Jonathan Ward
1778 Richard Hatfield
1840 Alexander H. Wells
1787 Philip Pell
1844 Lewis C. Platt
1796 Elias Newman
1856 Robert H. Coles
1800 Samuel Youngs
1862 Silas D. Gifford
1802 Edward Thomas
1863 John W. Mills
1807 Samuel Youngs
1871 Owen T. Coffin
1811 Ezra Lockwood
1895 Theodore H. Silkman
1813 Samuel Youngs
Noted Early Lawyers-The first lawyer to practice in the region north of the Harlem appears to have been Samuel Clowes, a Queens County man, who filled the office of clerk of that county from 1701 to 1710. Having moved to Westchester County he became prominent there and was one of the two leading attorneys of the Westchester bar from 1717 to 1744, and was doubtless the first prosecuting attorney in the county. On December 9, 1722, occurs the following entry in the court records of White Plains: "The Court of Gen'l Sessions ap- points Mr. Samuel Clowes counsel for the King in all cases where he is not already concerned for the subject." After 1744, owing to his advanced age, he gave up active practice of a profession in which he had arisen to eminence, commanding the respect of his brother lawyers and the people. He died at Jamaica, Long Island, in 1760. In his will, which bears date of July 24, 1759, but which was not offered for probate until August 28, 1760, he put down his age at eighty-five years and five months. He was therefore over eighty-six years of age at
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the time of his death. Another lawyer, whose name appears simul- taneously with that of Samuel Clowes, in 1717, in connection with a number of proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas bore the name of Vernon. His first name is omitted in the court records and little is known of him beyond the fact that he practiced law until 1728. A lawyer named Murray and a lawyer named Jamison are next mentioned, with their first names omitted, likewise. They were practicing from 1719 to 1737. The former would appear to be Joseph Murray, of Manhattan, member of the Colonial Council of New York from 1744 to 1758. He died in 1758. There would appear to be little doubt likewise that "Mr. Jamison" was David Jamison, one of the patentees of Harrison's Purchase, the town of Harrison, at one time chief justice of New Jersey and attorney-general of New York. Mr. Wileman, appar- ently Henry Wileman, practiced occasionally in the Westchester courts from 1720 to 1725. John Chambers of Manhattan practiced in the West- chester courts from 1724 to 1751. He was an able and successful law- yer, he and Mr. Clowes doing almost all the legal business until Mr. Clowes retired in 1744, when Mr. Chambers retained the lion's share. Other lawyers, hailing in the main from Manhattan or Queen's County, appeared infrequently in the courts north of the Harlem in those early years. They included Whitehead, 1721; Costifin, 1728; Price, 1728; T. Smith, possibly Thomas Smith of Manhattan, member of the Com- mittee of One Hundred in 1775, whose name is frequently mentioned; Edward Blagge, 1728-32; Seymour, 1729; Lodge, 1731-56; Kelley, 1732- 51; Warrol, 1732; White, 1740-41; Crannel, 1744; Green, 1744-47.
John Bartow, of Westchester town, was a lawyer of some repute from 1742 until 1772. From 1760 to 1764 he held the office of county clerk. He died in 1802 at eighty-seven years of age. Bartow would appear to have been the first attorney resident in the Westchester region. John Alsop, of Manhattan, practiced law in the West- chester region with considerable success between 1744 and 1759. Benjamin Nicoll, lawyer of Manhattan, was clerk in 1745. He died about 1759-60 as there is an entry in the record of the proceedings of the Court of Common Pleas, May, 1760, of an order appointing Thomas Jones attorney as a certain cause "in the room of Benjamin Nicolls, deceased." Nicoll appears to have been a lawyer of considerable ability. Timothy Wetmore was one of the leading attorneys of the Westchester bar prior to the Revolution. He was the son of the Rev. James Wet- more, of Rye, and a man of influence in the community. He was graduated from King's College in 1758, and was admitted to practice April 26, 1760. He was a pronounced Tory, and signed the protest at White Plains, on April 11, 1775, against Congress and the committees and pledged his life and property to support the king. He afterwards removed to the province of New Brunswick where he practiced his
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profession many years and held important positions. In 1800 he re- turned to New York, and died there in March, 1820, aged eighty-three or eighty-five years.
The court records furnish us with the names of a number of lawyers who practiced for one or more years in the region north of the Harlem. Among them were Samuel Clowes, Jr .; Parkers, McEvers, Bennett, John Cortlandt, Scott, Moore, Augustine Van Cortlandt, Woods, Lud- low, Kent, Ryker, Helme, Vincent, Matthews, Benson, Antill, Townsend, John Mckesson, Wickman, De Peyster, Murray, and Bogart. Richard Morris, of Morrisania, practiced in the Westchester region from 1752 to 1776. He with Thomas Hicks, who practiced from 1752 to 1764, Benjamin Kissam, who practiced from 1756 to 1775, and Timothy Wet- more, afterwards attorney-general of the province of New Brunswick, became the leading lawyers after Alsop and Nicolls had ceased to figure. Thomas Joyce (1760-1771) and Samuel Jones (1764-1776) also did a good deal of legal business. Gouverneur Morris, son of Lewis Morris, fourth proprietor and second lord of the manor of Morrisania, practiced law in the Westchester region about the year 1772. He had graduated at King's College in 1768. Entering upon the practice of the law he soon built for himself a considerable reputation.
John Jay, noted in national annals, first Chief Justice of the United States under the Constitution of 1789, practiced in the Westchester courts from 1769 to 1776. He took his degree of Bachelor of Arts at King's College in 1764 and decided on the law as a profession, being admitted to the bar in 1768. From the day on which he was appointed to the First American Congress in 1774 to the year 1801, when he retired from public life, his career was one of patriotic devotion. Chief Justice of New York from 1777 to 1779, President of Congress, minister plenipotentiary to Spain in 1779, a signer of the definite treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, Chief Justice of the United States in 1789 and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britian in 1794, he rendered the most eminent services to the government he had helped to form. He closed his public career as Governor of the State of New York from 1795 to 1801. He died full of years and honors, on May 17, 1829. The following entry appears in the record of the Court of Common Pleas of Westchester County under date of May 25, 1829: "The court and members of this bar, entertaining the highest respect for the pure and exalted character of the late venerable John Jay, do resolve that we will wear crape upon the left arm for thirty days in token of our respect." Ability, patriotism, and integrity-the prime qualities that make a man great-Judge Jay possessed in an eminent degree. The last lines of his epitaph describe him as "in his life and in his death, an example of the virtues, the faith and the hopes of a Christian."
John Jay, grandson of the famous jurist, began the study of the
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law in the office of Daniel Lord, having as a fellow-student William M. Evarts. During his college days the anti-Slavery movement began to be the all-absorbing topic of the hour and young Jay allied himself with it. In 1834 he became a manager of the New York Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society: In July of that year an anti-slavery meeting in New York was dispersed by a mob, and the city was the scene of riot, against which the authorities afforded no protection. From that time until the day when slavery came to an ignominious end he was in full accord with the leaders of emancipation, and in 1839 he took an active part in preparing the way by which the Abolitionists became a distinct political party, with platforms and a candidate of their own. In that year he presented to the Whig National Convention an elaborate report as to the powers and duty of Congress under the Constitution to ex- clude slavery from the Territories, and in a speech on the "Dignity of the Abolition Cause" he urged political action and the use of the ballot, calling upon the friends of the cause to no longer confine themselves to appeals to the conscience and understanding.
Noted lawyers of the region who carry us into the nineteenth century included Philip Pell, "judge advocate of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War and a member of the Cincinnati Society"; Nathaniel Lawrence, district attorney in 1796; Cutting, 1785-88; Skinner, 1787- 1805; Robert Troup, 1787-95 ; Pierre Van Cortlandt; Frederick Prevost ; John Johnston; Augustus James; Ogilvie, 1787-93; Lewis, 1787; Wat- kins, 1788; Brookholst Livingston (afterwards judge of the Supreme Court), 1788; Adrian Kissam; Aaron J. Lawrence; Oliver L. Ker; Read, 1790-94; Thomas Cooper; Josiah Ogden Hoffman; Francis Lynch; James Morris; William Wyche; George D. Cooper, 1793-1812; Cadwallader D. Colden; James Woods, who had a good practice from 1794 to 1811; Charles Thompson, who did a fair legal business from 1794 to 1816; Joseph Constant; and Benjamin Ferrio, 1795-1805. At this period Aaron Burr frequently had access in the courts north of the Harlem. Alexander Hamilton had also a few cases in the region. Peter J. Munro was the leading lawyer in the district from 1789 to 1821. Edward Thomas, surrogate of Westchester County, was a leading lawyer in the district also. Samuel Youngs did a thriving business from 1793 to 1822. He was not considered a great advocate but was very successful in his office business. Martin S. Wilkins, a member of the New York bar, had a successful practice north of the Harlem from 1793 to 1830. Daniel D. Tompkins, who practiced in Manhattan and north of the Harlem, became judge of the Supreme Court and Governor of the State. His firmness during the war with England is said to have saved the State of New York from being overrun by the foe. Other noted lawyers of the time were Jacob Bartow of Pel- ham; John Curry, 1844; D. C. Briggs, 1845; Odell Close, 1845. Minot
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Mitchell, for a period during the first half of the last century, was a conspicuous leader of the bar north of the Harlem. He drew of Charles O'Connor the compliment that "there was no better special pleader in the State of New York." John McDonald, born in White Plains, practiced in Manhattan and north of the Harlem. He became a master of Chancery in New York. He spent the latter part of his life in gather- ing materials for a history of Westchester County. The result of his labors is a manuscript which is deposited in the Lennox Library, New York.
First Judges of Common Pleas-In the last two decades of the eighteenth century there arose the practice of having a principal, or "first," judge of the Court of Common Pleas and a number of associate judges. At times the number of associate judges was as many as five. The first to fill the office of "first" judge was Robert Graham, of White Plains. Stephen Ward of Eastchester, appointed in 1784, was for many years "first" judge of the County Court of Common Pleas. Other "first" judges that graced the county bench were: Ebenezer Lockwood, Jona- than G. Tompkins, John Watts, Caleb Tompkins, and George Case, who filled in as first judge at intervals. Judge Robert S. Hart was the last judge that occupied the bench in the old Court of Common Pleas, which was abolished by the Constitution of 1846. Noted West- chester men who were members of the Supreme Court of New York State as at present constituted included: William W. Scrugham, of Yonkers; Abraham B. Tappan, of Fordham; and Jackson O. Dykman, of White Plains. Under the new constitution of the State the office of Justice of Sessions was abolished and the County Court and the County Court of Sessions were consolidated as the County Court. The final sitting of the Westchester County Court of Sessions was held on December 31, 1895. Four courts, three Supreme and a County Court, were set going in almost constant session in the county.
Surrogate's Court-The Surrogate's Court at White Plains was dated to be held on Thursdays and Fridays, excepting the months of July, August, and September. On the third and fourth Tuesday of Sep- tember motions and uncontested matters only were to be heard. Jury terms of the Surrogate's Court were to held on the first Monday of February and May and on the second Monday of November. Notice of trial had to be served by each party and a note of issue filed in the office of the clerk of the Surrogate's Court for all matters to be heard at the jury terms in the same manner as in the Supreme Court. Like other officers prior to 1846 surrogates were appointed. A special act of the Legislature, passed April 10, 1833, provided for the establishment of the office and court of the surrogate in the county building at White Plains. The term of office was fixed at six years and the salary at
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