History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 36

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Publisher: W. Taylor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 36
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 36

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Besides the ordinary actions of trespass, debt, slander, assault and battery and the like. there were actions in the early courts against persons for settling on land unpurchased from the Indians. and quite a number " for selling liquor to the Indians without license." For the lighter offenses there were fines and imprisonments, and for the felonies the iguominious punishment of the whip- ping post and pillory.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

This was then the ordinary method of punishment and the form of the sentence was, to take one of many instances, "that he [the culprit] receive twenty-one lashes well laid on his bare back, at the public whipping-post in Carlisle, to-morrow morning, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, that he make restitution to Wm. Anderson in the sum of £18, 14 shillings and 6 pence. That he make fine to the Governor in the like sum, and stand committed until fine and fees be paid."-[January term, 1751. ] "Twenty-one lashes " was the usual number, although in some few cases they were less. The whipping-post seems to have been abandoned during the Revolution, as we find the last mention of it in the records of our court in April, 1779. These records also show that the justices of the courts, who seem to have been ex officio justices of the peace, superintended the laying out of roads, granted licences, took acknowledgments of deeds and registered the private marks or brands of cattle. They exercised a paternal supervision over bond servants, regulated the length of their terms of service, and sometimes, at the request probably of the prisoners, sold them out of goal as servants for a term of years, in order that they might be able to pay the fines imposed. In short the cases in these early courts, which had distinct equity powers, seem to have been determined according to the suggestions of right reason, as well as by the fixed principles of law.

FOUNDATION OF THE COURTS.

In order that we may get some idea of the foundation of the courts in Cum- berland County-of the authority, in the days of kings, from which their power was derived-it may be interesting to turn to the old commissions, in which the power of the early justices was more or less defined.

A commission issued in October, 1755, appointing Edward Shippen, Sr., George Stevenson and John Armstrong, justices, is as follows:

George II, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, Jo, to Edward Ship. fon, Jena, of the Country of Lancaster, George Hlevenson of the County of Mark, and John Armstrong of the County of Cumberland, in our said Province of Pennsylvaniay Esges:

GREETING: Know ye that reposing special Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Integrity, Prudence and Ability, We have assigned you or any two of you our Justices to En- quire by The Oaths or affirmation of honest and Lawful men of the said Counties of York and Cumberland * of all Treasons, Murders and such other Crimes as are by the Laws of our said Province made Capital or felonies of death * * * to have and determine the said Treasons, Murders, etc., according to Law, and upon Conviction of any person or persons, Judgment or sentence to pronounce and execution thereupon to award as The Law doth or shall direct. And we have also appointed you, the said Edward Shippen, George Stevenson and John Armstrong, or any two of you, our justices, to de- liver the Goals of York and Cumberland aforesaid of the prisoners in the same being for any crime or crimes, Capital or Felonies aforesaid, and therefore we command you that at certaint imes, which you or any two of you shall consider of, you meet together at the Court Houses of the said Counties of York and Cumberland, to deliver the said goals and Make diligent inquiry of and upon the premises, and hear and Determine all and singular the said premises, and do and accomplish these things in the form aforesaid, acting always therein as to Justice according to Law shall appertain. Saving to us the Amerceiments and other things to us thereof Belonging, for we have commanded the Sheriffs of the said Counties of York and Cumberland that at certain days, which you shall make known to them, to canse to come before you all of the prisoners of the Goals and their attachments. and also so many and such honest and Lawful men of their several Bailiwicks as may be necessary by whom the truth of the matters concearning may be the better known and en- quired. In testimony whereof we have caused the Great Seal of our Province to be here-

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

unto affixed. Witness, Robert Turner Morris, Esq. (by virtue of a commission from Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Esqs., true and absolute proprietaries of this Province), with our Royal approbation, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province aforesaid and counties of New Castel, Thrent and Sussex-on-Delaware. At Philadelphia. the ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred and fifty- five and in the twenty-uinth year of our reign. Signed, ROBERT T. MORRIS.

Another commission was issned April 5, 1757, to John Armstrong, appoint- ing him a justice of the court of common pleas for the county of Cumberland. The powers of these provincial justices were much more extensive then than those which belong to the office of a justice now, and for some time the coun- ty of Cumberland. over which their jurisdiction extended. included nearly all of Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.

Many of the justices who were appointed never appear upon the bench. Not less than three presided at each term of court, one as the presiding justice und the others as associates. Sometimes only the name of the presiding jus- tice is given: sometimes all are mentioned. They seem to have held various terms, and to have rotated without any discoverable rule of regularity. The justices who, with their associates, presided during the provincial period, until the breaking out of the revolution, were as follows:

JUSTICES DURING THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.

Samuel Smith, from July, 1750, to October, 1757; Francis West. from Oc- tober, 1757. to 1759; John Armstrong, Francis West and Hermanus Alricks, January, 1760; Francis West, July, 1760; John McKnight. October, 1760; John Armstrong, April, 1761; James Galbreath, October, 1761; John Arm- strong. January, 1762; James Galbreath, April, 1762; John Armstrong, July, 1762; Thomas Wilson, April, 1763; John Armstrong, from October, 1763, to April, 1776.

The above embraces the names of all the justices who presided prior to the Revolution, with the exception possibly of a few, who held but a single term of court. It will be seen that from October, 1757, the judges rotated irregularly at brief intervals until October, 1763, when John Armstrong occupied the bench for a period of nearly thirteen years.

Of these justices John MeKnight was afterward a captain in the Revolution; Francis West was an Englishman who went to Ireland and then immigrated to America and settled in Carlisle in or before 1753. He was an educated man and a loyalist. His sister Ann became the wife of his friend and co-justice, Hermanus Alricks, and his daughter, of the same name, married Col. George Gibson. the father of John Bannister Gibson, who was afterward to become the chief justice of Pennsylvania. Francis West some time prior to the Revo- lution moved to Sherman's Valley, where he died in 1783.

Thomas Wilson lived near Carlisle.

James Galbreath, another of these justices, was born in 1703, in the north of Ireland. He was a man of note on the frontier, and the carly provincial records of Pennsylvania contain frequent reference to him. He had been sher- iff of Lancaster in 1742, and for many years a justice of that county. He had served in the Indian wars of 1755-63, and some timo previous to 1762 had removed to Cumberland County. He died June 11, 1756. in what was then East Pennsborough Township.

Hermanus Alrieks was the first clerk of the courts. from 1750 to 1770, and the first representative of Cumberland County in the Provincial Assembly. He was born about 1730 in Philadelphia. He settled in Carlisle about 1749 or 1750, and brought with him his bride, a young lady lately from Ireland, with her brother, Francis West, then about to settle in the same place. He

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was a man of mark and influence in the valley west of the Susquehanna. He died in Carlisle December 14, 1772.

But the greatest of these, and "the noblest Roman of them all," was Col. John Armstrong. He first appears as a surveyor under the proprietary gov- ernment, and made the second survey of Carlisle in 1761. In 1755 we find him commissioned a justice of the courts by George II, and from 1763 until his duties as a major-general in the Revolution called him from the bench, we find him, for a period of nearly thirteen years, presiding over our courts. He was at this time already a colonel, and had already distinguished himself in the Indian war. In 1755 he had cleaned out the nest of savages at Kittan- ning, and had received a medal from the corporation of Philadelphia. When, later the Revolution broke out, we find him, in 1776, a brigadier-general of the Continental Army (commissioned March 1, 1776), and in the succeeding year a major-general in command of the Pennsylvania troops. He was a warm, personal friend of Washington. He was a member of Congress in 1778-80, and 1787-SS. It was, probably, owing to his influence, in a great measure, that the earliest voice of indignant protest was raised in Carlisle against the action of Great Britain against the colonies. " He was a man of intelligence, integrity, resolute and brave, and, though living habitually in the fear of the Lord, he feared not the face of man."* He died March 9, 1795, aged seventy- five years. He was buried in the old grave-yard at Carlisle.

PROSECUTORS FOR THE CROWN.

In this provincial period these were our judges: George Ross, afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the public prosecutor for the Crown from 1751 to 1764; Robert Magaw follows in 1765-66, and Jasper Yeates in 1770; Benjamin Chew, who was a member of the Provincial Coun- cil, and afterward, during the Revolution, a Loyalist, was, at this time, 1759- 68, attorney-general, and prosecuted many of the criminal cases, from 1759 to 1769, in our courts. He was, in 1777, with some others, received by the sheriff of this county, and held at Staunton, Va., till the conclusion of the war.

PRACTITIONERS.

The earliest practitioners at our bar, from 1759 to 1764, were George Ross, James Smith (afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence), James Campbell, Samnel Johnston, Jasper Yeates and Robert Magaw.

From 1764 to 1770, George Stevenson, James Wilson (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence), James Hamilton (afterward judge), David Sample, David Grier, Wetzel, Morris, and Samuel Johnston, were the leading attorneys. Up to this time Magaw, Stevenson and Wilson had the largest practice. During this period, in 1770, Col. Tnrbutt Francis becomes clerk of the court, as successor of Hermanus Alricks; and from 1771 to 1774, Ephraim Blaine, afterward commissary in the Revolution, and the grandfather of the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, was sheriff of the county.

THE BAR IN 1776.

During this first year of our independence the practitioners at the bar were John Steel (already in large practice), James Campbell, George Stevenson, James Wilson, Samnel Johnston. David Grier, Col. Thomas Hartley (of York), Jasper Yeates, James Smith, Edward Burd and Robert Galbreath. It is a noteworthy fact that two of the men who practiced in our courts in this mem- orable year were signers of the Declaration of Independence.

*Chamber's tribute to the Scotch-Irish settlers, p. 88.

R. Y. Thomas

1.15

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Hon. George Ross, who, at the age of twenty-two, was the first public prosecutor for the Crown in our courts in Cumberland County, was the son of George Ross, nn Episcopal minister, and was born in New Castle, Del .. in 1730. He began the practice of law in Lancaster in 1751. Ho acted as proso- cuting attorney for the Crown in our county from 1751 to 1764, and practiced in our courts until October, 1772. Ho was a member of the Colonial Assem- bly of Pennsylvania from 1768 to 1776, and when this body ceased, or was continued in the Legislature, he was a member of that body also. In 1771 he was one of the committee of seven who represented Pennsylvania in the Con- tinental Congress, and remained a member until January, 1777. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He died at Lancaster in July, 1779. In appearance George Ross was a very handsome man, with a high forehead, regular features, oval face, long hair, worn in the fashion of the day, and pleasing countenance.

Col. James Smith is one of the earliest names found as a practicioner, in this provincial period. at the bar of Cumberland County. There is a brief notice of him in Day's Historical Collections. He was an Irishman by birth, but came to this country when quito young. In Graydon's Memoirs it is stated that he was educated at the college in Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar, and afterward removed to the vicinity of Shippensburg, and there established himself as a lawyer. From there he removed to York, where he continued to reside until his death, July H. 1806. at the age of about ninety-three years. He was a member of Congress in 1775-75. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. For a period of sixty years he had a large and In- crative practice in the eastern counties, from which he withdrew in about 1800. During the Revolution he commanded. as colonel, a regiment in the Penn- sylvania line. A more extended notice of him can be found in Saunderson's or Lossings' Lives of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

James Wilson LL. D. is another of these earliest practitioners at the bar. His name occurs on the records as early as 1763. He was a Scotchman by birth, born in 1742, and had received a finished education at St. Andrews. Edin- burgh and Glasgow, under Dr. Blair in rhetoric, and Dr. Watts in logic. In 1766 he had come to reside in Philadelphia, where he studied law with John Dickinson, the colonial governor, and founder of Dickinson College. When? admitted to practice he took up his residence in Carlisle, and at once forged to the foremost of our bar. At the meeting at Carlisle, in July, 1774, which protested against the action of Great Britain against the colonies, he, with Irvine and Magaw, was appointed a delegate to meet those of other counties of the State, as the initiatory step to a general convention of delegates from the different colonies. He was subsequently a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and when the motion for independence was finally acted upon in Congress, the vote of Pennsylvania was carried in its favor by the casting vote of James Wilson, of Cumberland County. " He had." says Ban- croft, in his History of the United States, " at an early day foreseen independ- ence as the probable, though not the intended result of the contest." and al though he was not. at first, avowedly in favor of a severance from the mother country. he desired it when he had received definite instructions from his con- stituents, and when he saw that nearly the whole mass of the people were in favor of it. In 1776 he was a colonel in the Revolution. From 1779 to 1753 he held the position of advocate general for the French nation, whose business it was to draw up plans for regulating the intercourse of that country with the United States, for which services he received a reward, from the French King. of 1,000 livres. He was at this time director of the Bank of North America.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

He was one of the most prominent members in the convention of 1787 which formed the constitution of the United States. "Of the fifty-five dele- gates," says McMaster, in his History of the People of the United States, "he was undoubtedly the best prepared by deep and systematic study of the his- tory and science of government, for the work that lay before him. The Mar- quis de Chastellux, himself a no mean student, had been struck with the wide range of his erudition, and had spoken in high terms of his library. 'There,' said he, 'are all our best writers on law and jurisprudence. The works of President Montesquieu and of Chancellor D'Aguesseau hold the first rank among them, and he makes them his daily study.' (Travels of Marquis de Chastellux in North America p. 109. ) This learning Wilson had in times past turned to excellent use, and he now became one of the most active members of the convention. None, with the exception of Gouverneur Morris, was so often on his feet during the debates or spoke more to the purpose."* [McMaster's History Vol. I, p. 421. ] By this time Wilson had removed from Carlisle and lived in Philadelphia. He was appointed, under the Federal Constitution, one of the first judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, by President Washington, in which office he continued until his death. In 1790 he was appointed professor of law in the legal college at Philadelphia, which, during his incumbency, was united with the university. He received the degree of LL. D., and delivered a course of lectures on jurisprudence which were published. He died August 26, 1798, aged fifty-six.

Col. Robert Magaw, was another practitioner at this early period. He was an Irishman by birth, and resided in Cumberland County, prior to the Revolu- tion, in which war he served as colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion. In 1774 he was one of the delegates from this county to a convention at Phila- delphia for the purpose of concerting measures to call a general congress of delegates from all the colonies. He was a prominent member of the bar, a brave officer, and a trustee of Dickinson College from 1783 until his death. He had a very large practice prior to the Revolution. He died January 7, 1790.

The name of Jasper Yeates appears upon our records as early as 1763, and for a period of twenty-one years (1784) his name appears as a practitioner at our bar. He resided in Lancaster. He was an excellent lawyer and practiced over a large territory in the eastern counties of the State. On March 21, 1791, he was appointed by Gov. Mifflin one of the associate justices of the su- preme court, which position he filled until the time of his death in 1817. In appearance he was tall, portly, with handsome countenance, florid complexion and blue eyes. He was the compiler of the early Pennsylvania reports which bear his name.

George Stevenson, LL.D., was a prominent member of the bar in 1776. His name appears upon the records as early as 1770. He was born in Dublin in 1718, educated at Trinity College, and emigrated to America about the middle of the century. He was appointed deputy surveyor-general under Nicholas Scull for the three lower counties on the Delaware, known as the "territories of Pennsylvania," which William Penn obtained from the Duke of York in 1682. He afterward removed to York and was appointed a justice under George II in 1755. [See commission, page 7.] In 1769 he moved to Carlisle and became a leading member of the bar. He died at this place in 1783. Some of his correspondence may be seen in the Colonial Records, and the Pennsylvania Archives. He married the widow of Thomas Cookson, a distinguished lawyer of Lancaster, who was instructed, in connection with Nicholas Scull, to lay out the town of Carlisle in 1751.

*As a matter of curiosity we may mention: number of speeches were Morris, 173; Wilson, 168; Madison, 161; Sherman, 138; Mason, 136; Elbridge Gerry, 119.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Capt. John Steel was n prominent member of our bar in 1776. He had been admitted, on motion of Col. Magaw, only three years previously, April terni, 1773, and seems immediately to have come into a large practice. Wo find him having a large practice again from 1752 to 1755, shortly after which date his name disappears from the records. Capt. John Steel was the son of Rev. John Steel. known as the " fighting parson," and was born at Carlisle, July 15, 1744. Parson Steel led a company of men from Carlisle and acted as a chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, while his son, John Steel, the subject of our sketch, led, as a captain, a company of men from the same place, and joined the army of Washington after he had crossed the Delaware. He was the father of Amelia Steel. the mother of the late Robert Given, of Carlisle. Ho married Agnes Moore, a sister of Mrs. Jane Thompson, who was the mother of Eliza- beth Bennett. the maternal grandmother of the writer. He died about 1812.

Col. Thomas Hartley, who appeared as a practitioner at our bar in 1776, was born in Berks County in 1748. He received the rudiments of a classical education at Reading, when he went to York at the age of eighteen, and stnd- ied law under Samuel Johnston. He commenced practice in 1769. He ap- pears as a practitioner at our bar from April, 1771, to 1797. Col. Hartley be- came distinguished, both in the cabinet and the field. In 1774 he was elected member of the Provincial Meeting of deputies, which met in Philadelphia in July of that year. In the succeeding year he was a member of the Provincial Convention. In the beginning of the war he became a colonel in the Revolution. He served in 1775 in the Indian war on the west branch of the Susquehanna, and in the same year was elected a member of the Legislature from York County. In 1733 he was a member of the council of censors. In 1787 he was a member of the State Convention, which adopted the Federal Constitution. In 1758 he was elected to Congress and served for a period of twelve years. In IS00 he was commissioned by Gov. Mckean major- general of the Fifth Division of Pennsylvania Militia. He was an ex- cellent lawyer, a pleasant speaker, and had a large practice. He died in York December 21, 1800, aged fifty-two years. *

These were some of the men who practiced at our bar in the memorable year 1776. men who by their services in the forum and the field helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of the government which we enjoy.

II.

FROM THE REVOLUTION UNTIL THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790.

From the period of the Revolution, until the adoption of the constitution of 1790, the courts were presided over by the following justices:

John Rannalls and associates, from 1776 to January, 1785; Samuel Laird and associates, from January, 1755, to Jannary, 1750: Thomas Beals and associates, April, 1756; John Jordan and associates, from July, 1786, till October, 1791.

Owing to the adoption of the Declaration, and the necessity of taking anew the oath. most of the attorneys were re-admitted in 1775. Among these were Jasper Yeates. James Smith, James Wilson, Edward Burd and David Grier. Thomas Hartley was re-admitted in July of the succeeding year.

James Hamilton, who afterward became the fourth judge under the Consti-

·Brief sketches of him will be found in Day's llistorical Collections, and in " Otzinachson, " p. 335-6. Also In the Archives and Records.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

tution was admitted to practice upon the motion of Col. Thomas Hartly in April, 1781.

Among the names of those who practiced during this period between the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution of 1790, are the following:

Hon. Edward Shippen was admitted to our bar in October, 1778. He was the son of Edward Shippen, Sr., the founder of Shippensburg, and was born February 16, 1729. In 1748 he was sent to England to be educated at the Inns of Court. In 1771 he was a member of the " Proprietary and Governors' Council." He afterward rose rapidly and became chief justice of Pennsyl- vania. He was the father of the wife of Gen. Benedict Arnold. During the Revolution his sympathies were with England, but owing to the purity of his character and the impartiality with which he discharged his official duties, the new government restored him to the bench. His name appears upon our records as late as 1800.

James Hamilton was admitted in April, 1781. He afterward became the fourth president judge of our judicial district. He was an Irishman by birth, and was admitted to the bar in his native country, but immigrated to America before the Revolution, and first settled for a short time in Pittsburgh, then a small frontier settlement, but soon afterward removed to Carlisle, where he acquired a large practice.

Hon. Thomas Duncan's name is found as a practitioner as early as 1781 ;* The date of his admission to the bar is not known to us. He was of Scotch ancestry, and a native of Carlisle. He was educated, it is said, under Dr. Ramsey, the historian, and studied law in Lancaster, under Hon. Jasper Yeates, then one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. On his admission to the bar he returned to his native place and began the practice of law; his rise was rapid, and in less than ten years from his admission he was the acknowledged leader of his profession in the midland counties of the State, and for nearly thirty years he continued to hold this eminent position. He had, during this period, perhaps, the largest practice of any lawyer in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280