USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people; Volume II > Part 12
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Philip Carteret, of New Jersey, on the right of Mr. Samuel Edsall ; Mr. Thom- as Wandall, Mr. Joseph Smith, Mr. John Jackson, Mr. William Osborne." The jury, as provided by the Duke of York's laws, which had not yet, how- ever, been extended to the Delaware river settlement, consisted of seven free- men. The verdict of the jury: "They find the prisoner not to be Guilty. Hee is ordered to be cleared by Proclamation."
On September 22, 1676, Governor Andross promulgated an ordinance in- troducing the Duke of York's laws and establishing courts of justice on the Delaware in conformity therewith. One of the tribunals was located at Up- land, and was to consist of justices of the peace, three of whom would consti- tute a quorum, the oldest justice presiding, having the powers of a court of sessions, with jurisdiction over all matters under twenty pounds in civil cases, and in criminal cases, excepting where the punishment extended to life impris- onment or banishment, when appeals were to be allowed to the court assizes. The sessions were to be held quarterly, beginning on the second Tuesday of the month, and rules governing practice, unless repugnant to the laws of the government, could be made by the court and were to continue for one year. A record of all proceedings was to be kept in the English language, to which every person should have free access "at due or seasonable times," and for that purpose a clerk was appointed hy the governor on the recommendation of the court. In pursuance of the ordinance, on November 14. 1676, the first court under the code of laws was convened at Upland, where Captain John Collier and Captain Edmund Cantwell, specially authorized by Governor Andross, ad- ministered the oath of office to the newly commissioned justices-Peter Cock, Peter Rambo, Israel Helme, Lace Andriesen, Wole Sweinsen and Otto Ernest Cook. Ephraim Herman was appointed clerk. (From this date to the second Tuesday of September the original records of the Upland court are in posses- sion of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and in 1860 were published by the Society with copious notes and an introduction by Edward Armstrong.)
One act of that court was the appointment of Jan Jansen and Morton Mortensen as guardians for the heirs of Hendrick Johnson, deceased, it being represented to the court that the estate of the ininors was being wasted. This is the first instance of record in this state of such appointment, and, while the guardians were instructed to prepare an inventory of the estate, they do not seem to have been required to give bond for the faithful performance of the trust.
At a court of quarter sessions held June 13, 1677, the most important case was one of assault and battery committed on Justice Helme by Oele Oel- sen. The dignity of the court was upheld, and Justice Helme secured the verdict, which he afterward remitted as the "saide Oele was a poore man." The court established by Governor Lovelace and administering the Duke of York's laws continued with little change until the coming of William Penn, and even then there was little attempt made at change for several years. Trial by jury was uncommon, there being but two instances of a jury being impaneled in the en-
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tire period covered by the record of the Upland court. The first case above cited was tried on November 12, 1678; the second, October 13, 1680.
Although after Penn came he advocated radical change in the criminal and civil code, removing much of the severity of the former, he continued the courts already established and did not confuse the people with new judicial procedure. The changes that were made were authorized by legislative bod- ies, and, by enlarging the responsibilities of the individual, increased the in- telligence of the masses. The law enacted December 7. 1682, requiring all per- sons who were not by birth subjects of Great Britain, to declare within three months their intentions to become "freemen," resulted in retiring for the time being all the Swedish judges. At the February session of the court, held 1682-1683. John Simcock, a newly appointed justice, presided, but at the June term of 1683, when Penn personally presided, the familiar figure of Justice Cock again was seen on the bench.
To this court, held June 27. 1683. the first grand jury of record in the civil court of Pennsylvania was summoned, the grand inquest consisting of seventeen persons. While the powers of the court at this period covered many points and details not now considered judicial subjects, their jurisdiction was restricted so far as the higher grade of crimes were concerned, until the consti- tution of 1790 gave the judges of the court of common pleas, in each county the right to act as justice of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery for the trial of capital and other offences.
A feature of the act of March 10, 1683, now unknown, were the "peace- makers,"-three persons in every precinct, chosen yearly, to whom dispute could be referred in writing, and the decision of these "peacemakers" was as conclusive as that of the court. The act of March 10, 1683. also directed the justices of each county to sit twice a year "to inspect and take care of estates. usage and employment of orphans," this constituting the first orphans' court in the province. The first court under this title was held at Chester on the "3rd day in ye Ist week of ye 8th month, 1687."
Previous to the act of May 10, 1684. there was no high appellant court in the province other than the governor and council, but on that date a provincial court was created, consisting of five judges, which was ordered to sit twice a year at Philadelphia, (and two members of the court, at least every fall and spring, were directed to "goe their circuit into everie respective county in the province) to hold a court of appeals, as well as to try all criminal cases of a high grade, questions of title and all other causes over which the county court had no jurisdiction. The following year the assembly took away their right to try cases which involved title to real estate and reduced the number of judges to three, but later the original number was restored.
A little over a year after Penn first came to the province, no provincial court having then been established, he was called to preside over a witchcraft case, eight years before the cruel craze attacked North Carolina. The verdict was "guilty of having the common fame of a witch. but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted." Some of the acts of Penn, and those of Colonel
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Benjamin, who was appointed governor of Pennsylvania by the King, October 20, 1093, aroused the wrath of David Lloyd, the first lawyer of whom there is record in the county. He was the leader of the battle for popular liberty, and dared to oppose Penn when his plans were thought to be in opposition to the general welfare. He was a member of the assembly from Chester county in 1693, and as speaker of the house the following year bore the full brunt of the anger of Governor Fletcher. This brave Quaker lawyer was the father of the bar of Pennsylvania, and that bar to-day is benefitted by his battle for the rights of the people waged over two centuries ago.
By the act of October 27, 1701, county courts were required to be held in Chester on the third day of the last week in February, May, August and No- vember, their .practice to conform as nearly as possible to that of the common pleas of England, "all fictions and color in pleadings to be avoided." They had equity powers, and all matters of maritime disputes not cognizable in the court of admiralty were to be heard.
The judges of the supreme provincial court were to go on circuit twice in each year, the acts requiring such court to be held in Chester on the "2nd day of eighth month," "and on the 18th day of second month," for the trials of all felonies, and to have appeals in civil cases, but, by the act of February 10, 1710, the supreme court justices were not required to go on semi-annual cir- cuits to counties outside Philadelphia unless cases were pending there for trial, and commissions of oyer and terminer were issued by the governor.
The act of 1710 was repealed in 1713 by Queen Anne, and on July 20, 1714, Lieutenant Governor Gookins, following the precedent of Governor Evans, published an ordinance of like tenor establishing the several courts in the province. The courts of common pleas in the several counties continued to exercise in the main the jurisdiction conferred by the act of 1701, but all through the colonial period all the courts were subject to legislative enactments. and prolonged controversy arose between the assembly and the governors rep- resenting the crown. The courts of quarter sessions, as distinctive from the county courts, created by Governor Evans' ordinance, in 1707 were directed to be held in Chester on the last Tuesdays of February, May, August and No- vember, and their powers defined. By an act of September 29, 1759, the jus- tices of the court of quarter sessions were forbidden from being commissioned justices of the common pleas. The last court held at Chester before the erec- tion of Delaware county was on August 29, 1786, and continued by adjourn- ment until August 31, when the session ended.
The first court held after the erection of Delaware county was on Novem- ber 9, 1789, Justice John Pearson presiding. There being no bar, William Tilghman, afterward chief justice of Pennsylvania, addressed the court and moved his own admission. After he had been sworn in, Mr. Tilghman moved the admission of William L. Blair and others, eight lawyers qualifying that day as members of the Delaware county bar. Under the judicial redistricting caused by the adoption of the constitution of 1790, Delaware county, together with the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery, formed the first ju-
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dicial district. James Biddle was commissioned president judge of the district, continuing until June 19, 1797, when he was succeeded by John D. Coxe, he being succeeded in 1805 by William Tilghman.
The first president judge, and the only one prior to the constitution, was Henry Hale Graham, who died January 23, 1790, while attending the constitu- tional convention as a delegate. John Pearson, who presided over the first court for one day, was appointed president judge to fill out Judge Graham's term, serving until the appointment of Judge Biddle under the constitution of 1790.
On February 24, 1806, the State was redistricted, Delaware county with Chester, Montgomery and Bucks, forming the seventh judicial district. In April, 1806, Governor Mckean appointed Bird Wilson president judge, he serving until 1817, when he resigned.
On January 28, 1818, Governor Findlay appointed John Ross, of Easton, president judge of the seventh judicial district, he then being a member of congress. By the act of March 12, 1812, the fifteenth judicial district was cre- ated, comprising the counties of Delaware and Chester, and on May 22, 1821, Governor Heister appointed Isaac Darlington president judge of the new dis- trict. Judge Darlington held his first court under this appointment in the old court house at Chester, October 23, 1821, being then forty years of age, and served until his death in April, 1839.
On May 16, 1839, Governor Porter appointed Thomas S. Bell to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Darlington, who served until his pro- motion to the supreme bench, December 18. 18446. Governor Shunk appointed John M. Forster, of Harrisburg, to succeed Judge Bell, but he failed of a confirmation by the senate. The governor then appointed James Nill, of Chant- bersburg, who also was rejected. The March term was presided over by As- sociate Judges Engle and Leiper, but by the next term the governor had ap- pointed his son-in-law, Harry Chapman of Middletown, who was confirmed and served with great acceptance until November 26, 1851, when an amend- ment to the constitution changed the office of president judge from an ap- pointive to an elective one. During Judge Chapman's incumbency the county seat was moved to Media, the last court being held in the old court house in Chester, May 26, 1851, adjourning Friday, May 30, following. Judge Chap- man declining the nomination, Townsend Haines, of West Chester, was elected the first president judge of the courts under the new law, retiring on the last day of the November term, 1861. Judge Haines was succeeded by Wil- liam Butler, elected October, 1861, presiding until 1874, when a vacancy was caused by the erection of the thirty-second judicial district. This vacancy was filled in April, 1874, by Governor Hartranft appointing as president judge John M. Broomall, whose family had been prominent in Delaware and Chester counties for two hundred years. Judge Broomall was succeeded by Judge Thomas J. Clayton, as the first elective president judge under the constitution of 1873. His ancestry also traces to the earliest days, his ancestor settling at Marcus Hook prior to the granting of the royal charter to Penn.
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DELAWARE COUNTY
The following is a list of all associate justices and judges of the courts of Delaware county from its erection until the constitution of 1874 (which abolished the office) with date of commission :
William R. Atlee
September 28, 1789
George Smith
December 28, 1836
Richard Hill Morris
October 12, 1789
Joseph Engle
Thomas Lewis
12, 1789
Joseph Engle
January 26, 1842 March 11, 1847
John Pearson
..
12, 1780
George C. Leiper
February 25. 1843 Admitted February 16, 1848
Joel Willis
July 15. 1790
George G. Leiper James Andrews
November 10, 1851
John Sellers
September 17, 1791
Sketchley Morton
IO. 1851
Richard Riley
17. 1791
Frederick J. Hinkson
12, 1856
Mark Wilcox
17, 1791
James Andrews
.. 12, 1856
Hugh Lloyd
April 24, 1792
Chas. R. Williamson
January 10. 1860
Benjamin Brannon
June 5. 1794
George Smith
November 23. 1861
John Crosby
April 26, 1799
James Andrews
23, 1861
John Pierce
January 5. 1823
Thomas Reese
..
8, 1866
William Anderson
5, 1826
Bartine Smith
.. 8, 1866
Joseph Engle
5, 1827
Thomas Reese
17, 1871
Henry Meyer
December 27, 1833
Bartine Smith
: 17, 1871
CHARACTER SKETCHES OF PRESIDENT JUDGES AND OTHERS.
Henry Hall Graham, the first president judge, was born in London. Eng- land, July 1, 1731, son of William Graham, who came to Pennsylvania in 1733. settling finally in Chester. Judge Graham studied law under Joseph Parker. then deputy register of Pennsylvania for the county of Chester, and on his death in 1766. Mr. Graham was appointed to the vacant position, then includ- ing the duties of prothonotary, register and recorder. He had been commis- sioned one of the justices of the county in 1761. and again was honored in 1765. He was neutral during the Revolution, his leanings being toward the mother country. For this reason he was not reappointed in 1777. After the Revolution he was practicing attorney in the Chester courts. On November 7. 1789, he was appointed president judge of Delaware county, but, not being at the time a justice of the peace, could not act as president of the court of quar- ter sessions and orphans' court, hence the court of common pleas was opened and presided over the first day by justice William Richardson Atlee, holder of the oldest commission among the justices constituting the bench. On Novem- ber 9, 1789, Governor Mifflin commissioned him justice of the peace, and the next day. November to, appointed him president judge, he at once assuming the duties of that office. He was elected a member of the constitutional con- vention of 1789-90, and died in Philadelphia. January 23. 1790, while attend- ing the meetings of that body.
James Biddle was the second president judge of Delaware county, and the first under the constitution of 1790 that placed Delaware county in the first dis- trict with Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery counties. He served until July 19, 1797. He was succeeded on that date by John S. Coxe, who on April 6 of that year had been appointed one of the judges of the high court of errors
George Pearce
..
12, 1789
Elisha Price
March 16, 1790
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and appeals, but resigned that office to accept the office of president judge of Philadelphia and the courts of the first judicial district. Both Judges Biddle and Coxe were learned in the law, and jurists of a high order.
When Delaware county was created under the act of September 26th. 1789, naturally there was no bar, and, through an error, no president judge of common pleas, quarter sessions or orphans' court. The latter difficulty was overcome, and then William Tilghman arose and addressed the bench setting forth the peculiar circumstances and moving his own admission. The court saw in this the best solution of the difficulty, and William Tilghiman was sworn. becoming the first member of the Delaware county bar. Fifteen years later. on July 31, 1805, he was appointed by Governor MeKean president judge of Delaware county courts. Judge Tilghman, one of the most conspicuous figures of his time, was a native of Talbot county. Maryland, and began reading law in 1772, when sixteen years of age, under the preceptorship of Benjamin Chew, of Philadelphia. In 1783, after eleven years of study, he was admitted to the Maryland bar. In 1789 he moved to Philadelphia, where he rapidly rose to the front rank in his profession. In 1801 he was appointed chief judge of the circuit court of the United States, but the act under which this court was con- stituted was repealed the next year and the judge returned to private practice. He only held the office of president judge of Delaware county seven months, when he was appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Chief Justice Shippen. Judge Tilghman died in 1827.
When the act of February 24, 1806, creating the seventh judicial district, became operative, the government in April of that year appointed Bird Wilson president judge of the new district. He was a son of James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and for eleven years presided over the courts of Delaware county, sitting for the last time at the October term of 1817. He then resigned and became a minister of the Episcopal church, for which he had prepared while still a judge, studying under Bishop William White, whose biography he wrote. Judge Wilson also edited Bacon's "Abridge- ment of the Law," first published in seven volumes.
The next president judge of the seventh district, John Ross, of Easton, was appointed by Governor Findlay, January 28, 1818. He had served in the eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth congresses, resigning office to accept the ap- pointment as judge. He presided for the first time over Delaware county courts April 13. 1818, and at this session the first conviction for murder was secured since the erection of the county twenty-nine years earlier. When the act of 1821 divided the seventh judicial district Judge Ross continued to pre- side over the counties of Bucks and Montgomery until April, 1830, when he was appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania.
By the act of May 21. 1821. Chester and Delaware counties became the fifteenth judicial district, and on May 22, 1830. Governor Heister appointed Isaac Darlington to be president judge of the new district. He first presided at the old Chester court house. October 23, 1821. Judge Darlington had pre- viously served two terms in the Pennsylvania legislature and one term in con-
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gress, declining a renomination. He made an excellent judge, serving until his death, April 27, 1839. At the suggestion of the bars of Delaware and Chester counties in December, 1838, Judge Darlington resigned before the constitution of 1838 went into effect, although having two more years to serve. He was reappointed by Governor Ritner for another full term of ten years, but Gover- nor Porter, who was inaugurated in January, 1839, regarded this as a trick to deprive him of the appointment. He directed . Attorney General Douglass to sue out a writ of quo warranto to test the validity of Judge Darlington's com- mission, but, two days before the case was to be argued before the supreme court, the judge had passed away from all scenes of contention and strife. When his death was announced to the supreme court. Chief Justice Gibson dis- missed the proceedings, at the same time eulogizing the character and learning of the dead jurist.
Thomas S. Bell, appointed May 16, 1839, by Governor Porter to fill out the unexpired term of Isaac Darlington. was president judge from May, 1839, until August, 1846. He was a scholarly gentleman, refined in manner, and a brilliant lawyer of the Chester county bar. He had been a member of the constitutional convention of 1837, and in 1838 was state senator. but in Janu- ary following was unseated. He was highly esteemed in Delaware county, and was raised to a seat on the supreme court bench by Governor Shunk in De- cember, 1846, his term not having expired. He was an able jurist ; his opin- ions were clear and learned, and were confidently relied on by the best lawyers of the country.
.After two appointments to fill the office of president judge made vacant by the appointment of Judge Bell to the supreme bench, and the holding of the March term of 1848 by Associate Judges Engle and Leiper, Governor Shunk appointed Henry Chapman, of Doylestown, as president judge. He presided over the last court held in the court house at Chester, May 26, 1851. and over the first court held in Media, November 24, 1851, and, although of- fered an unopposed nomination by the unanimous bar of both counties, refused an election for the term, only serving until his successor was commissioned in the same year.
The act of assembly which took effect in 1852 made the office of president judge elective, and, at the preceding October election, Townsend Haines, of West Chester, was chosen as the first elected judge of the Chester, Delaware district, known as the fifteenth judicial district. He had been a member of the Pennsylvania House of Assembly and secretary of the commonwealth. serving until February, 1850, when he was appointed by President Taylor treasurer of the United States, an office he resigned when elected judge of the fifteenth dis- trict. He first presided in Delaware county at the February term in 1852, the county seat then being located at Media. Judge Haines had a well trained mind, and in the writing of a charge was a paragon of caution and care, few of his decisions ever being reversed. As a lawyer and advocate he was most eloquent, giving to his speeches a depth of feeling most effective on jury and
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audience. He presided over the courts of Delaware county until the Novem- ber sessions of 1861, and then declined re-election on account of his years.
At the October election of 1861, William Butler, of West Chester, was elected president judge of the district embracing Chester and Delaware coun- ties. He had been a successful lawyer of Chester county for sixteen years, and in 1856 had been elected district attorney, holding that office until 1859. He was commissioned judge November 30, 1861, presiding in Delaware county for the first time at the February term in 1862. He was an able, upright and learned judge, and attained high rank as a jurist. He presided at the Udder- zook trial, which was one of the first cases in the United States where murder was committed to secure large life insurance. Judge Butler's charge to the jury in that case is still cited as a model of a clear comprehensive charge to a jury. He was elected president judge in 1871, but. Delaware county being set off in 1874 as a separate judicial district. Judge Butler presided from that date over the Chester county courts only. On February 12, 1879, he was appointed by President Hayes judge of the United States district court for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania, which vacancy was caused by the death of Judge John Cadwallader. Judge Butler held his honorable position with dignity and great credit for twenty-five years, resigning in 1904, at the age of eighty-two years. He died in West Chester in 1908. His son, William Butler, junior, is now a judge in Chester county.
Delaware county is now the thirty-second judicial district. The vacancy which that change made on the bench was filled in April, 1874, by Governor Hartranft appointing John M. Broomall president judge to serve until the fol- lowing election and qualification of the judge. then elected.
John M. Broomall was born in Upper Chichester, Delaware county. Janu- ary 19, 1816. He was a highly educated man, learned in the law. of pro- nounced literary and scientific tastes, and a strong well balanced lawyer. He was admitted August 24. 1840. and in 1848 was appointed deputy attorney general for Delaware county by Attorney General Cooper, but resigned, prose- cuting all state cases before the courts at the November term of that year. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1851 arid 1852, being appointed in 1854 a member of the State Revenue Board. He was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1860, and. when Maryland was invaded in 1862. was captain of Company C. 16th Regiment State Militia. In the elections of 1862 he was chosen to represent his district in congress, and while in office took the field in 1863 as captain of Company C, 29th Regiment Emergency Men, serving in the Gettysburg campaign. He followed his service in the Thirty-eighth Con- gress by returning to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. In 1872 he was presidential elector, and in 1873 was a member of the constitutional con- vention. He served under appointment as president judge of the newly cre- ated Thirty-second judicial district ; and was nominated by the Republican party to succeed himself, but was defeated by Thomas Clayton, running as an independent Republican with a Democratic endorsement. Judge Broomall died June 3. 1894.
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