History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 60

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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corder. He had been commissioned one of the jus- tices of the county in 1761, and again in 1775. When the Revolutionary struggle was at hand Graham's feelings leaned toward the support of the mother- country, his wife teaching him to yield obedience to constituted authorities. Hence, in March, 1777, Thomas Taylor was appointed to succeed liim, and seems to have entered into the discharge of the duties of the office, for Taylor's name appears on some of the documents on file in the Orphans' Court at West Chester. For some reason now unknown, on April of the same year Benjamin Jacobs was ap- pointed, but refused to serve, when Caleb Davis was appointed in his place. The latter accepted, but it appears from the proceedings of the Supreme Execu- tive Council, under date of July 28, 1777, "that Henry Hale Graham, Esq., late Prothonotary, had, under divers pretences, neglected to deliver up to him, the said Davis, the Books, Records, Papers & Seals belonging to the said office," whereupon Coun- cil issued a warrant directing Davis "to enter in the day time, with proper assistants, the dwelling House & Out Houses of the said Henry Hale Graham, Esq., & search for and take possession of & secure in some safe place the Books, Records, Papers & Seals belong- ing to the said Office." 1

After the Revolution, November, 1783, Henry Hale Graham was a practicing attorney in the courts of Chester County. On Nov. 7, 1789, he was appointed by Governor Mifflin president judge of the courts of Delaware County ; but it appearing that, not being a justice of the peace at the time, he could not act as president of the Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Court, on Nov. 9, 1789, Governor Mifflin requested the re- turn of the former commission, and the same day Graham was commissioned a justice of the peace.2 On the next day, November 10th, he was appointed president judge of the court. At the fall election in that year Henry Hale Graham was chosen one of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90, and while attending the meeting of that body iu Phil- adelphia he died, Jan. 23, 1790. John Pearson, the first named in the commission to the associate justice, became the president judge of the courts, ad interim.

Under the judicial districting, on the adoption of the Constitution of 1790, the First Judicial District comprised the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Mont- gomery, and Delaware, and in pursuauce of that divis- ion James Biddle, who was commissioned by Governor Mifflin, Sept. 13, 1791, president judge of the Com- mon Pleas of Philadelphia, became president judge of the First Judicial District, and continued in the discharge of that office until June 19, 1797, when John D. Coxe was commissioned president judge. I have little or no information respecting either of these judges, but on July 31, 1805, Governor Mckean

appointed William Tilghman president justice. The latter, a conspicuous figure in a line of distinguished jurists, was a native of Talbot County, Md., and early in 1772, when sixteen years of age, began reading law under the direction of Benjamin Chew, of Phil- adelphia. In 1783, after eleven years' study of law, Tilghman was admitted to the har of his native State. Before 1789 he removed to Philadelphia, where he rose rapidly to the front rank of the profession. In 1801 he was appointed chief judge of the Circuit Court of the United States. The organization of this court was stoutly opposed, and from the fact that the appointments were made on March 3, 1801, and that night sent to the Senate and confirmed before Presi- dent Adams vacated to make room for Thomas Jef- ferson, the judges were facetiously termed " the mid- night judges." The act creating this court was re- pealed at the next session of Congress, April 29, 1802, and Tilghman resumed the practice of the profession. However, as previously stated, he was appointed president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the First District in 1805, a position he held less than seven months, for the death of Chief Justice Shippen making a vacancy, on Feb. 25, 1806, Tilghman was appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania. He died in 1827.

On Feb. 24, 1806, the State was redistricted, the counties of Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks becoming the Seventh District, and in April, 1806, Governor Mckean appointed Bird Wilson pres- ident judge. The new judge was then in his thirtieth year, having been born early in 1777. He was the son of Hon. James Wilson, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, who, it will be remembered, successfully defended some Tories charged with trea- son in Philadelphia, which so enraged the populace of that city, that a riot resulted on the 4th of Octo- ber, 1779.3 Bird Wilson, at fifteen years of age, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, whereupon he hegan reading law with Joseph Thomas, of Philadelphia, and after being admitted was employed in the office of the commissioner of bankruptcy. For eleven years he presided over the courts of this county, sitting for the last time at the October sessions, 1817, when he resigned to become a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. In 1821 he was appointed a professor in the Theological Semi- nary of that denomination in New York, retaining the chair for almost three decades. Out of respect to his distinguished worth, he was appointed, June 25, 1850, emeritus professor in his department. Judge Wilson edited an edition of Bacon's " Abridgment of the Law," in seven volumes, afterwards enlarged by Bouvier to ten. Bird Wilson died April 14, 1859,

1 Colonial Records, vol. xi. p. 254.

2 Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. xi. p. 638.

3 Ia Frederick D. Stone's " Philadelphia Society One Hundred Years Ago," Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. iii. pp. 389-392, will be fouod & graphic account of this riot. Col. Thomas Leiper, of Ridley, was among the number of prominent men who voluntarily entered Wilson's house and defended it and him from the fury of the mob,

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at New York. He reached the advanced age of eighty-two.

Governor Findlay, on Jan. 28, 1818, appointed John Ross, of Easton, to the vacant judgeship of tlie Seventh District. At the time of his appointment Mr. Ross was a member of Congress from the district comprising Northampton, Bucks, Lehigh, Wayne, and Pike Counties, having served in that body in the Eleventh, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Congresses, re- signing during the latter term to accept the appoint- ment of judge. He presided in our courts for the first time on April 13, 1818, at which term Craig was tried and convicted of murder. By the act of March 12, 1821, the Fifteenth Judicial District was erected, com- prising the counties of Delaware and Chester, and Ross remained judge of the Seventh District,-Bucks and Montgomery. Hon. John Ross, in April, 1830, was appointed an associate judge of the Supreme Court, to the seat made vacant by the death of Judge Todd. Ou May 22, 1821, Governor Heister appointed Isaac Darlington, of the borough of West Chester, president judge of the Fifteenth District, and the lat- ter sat as such for the first time at the old court-house in Chester, Oct. 23, 1821.

Isaac Darlington was in his fortieth year when ap- pointed to the bench, his birth having occurred Dec. 13, 1781. He was by trade a blacksmith, having worked at the forge with his father, but disliking that occupation, he taught school a short time, and finally, when in his eighteenth year, entered the office of Joseph Hemphill, at West Chester. At the Novem- ber term, 1801, he was admitted to the bar, although lacking two or three weeks being of age, his exam- iners remarking that a few days more or less was of little consequence when the student had passed an examination so creditable to him. He rose rapidly at the bar, and having served a term in the Legislature in 1807-8, declined further election, believing that it was a hindrance in his profession. During the latter part of the war of 1812 he served with the militia of Pennsylvania, encamped at Marcus Hook for the de- fense of Philadelphia. In 1816 he was elected a mem- ber of the Fifteenth Congress, again declining renomi- nation. At the time of his appointment as judge he was deputy attorney-general of Chester County. By the Constitution of 1838, his term of office would have expired on Feb. 27, 1839, and to avoid the operation of that clause the bar suggested that the judge should resign before the provisions of the Constitution went into effect, it being the unanimous desire of the pro- fession that he should continue on the bench. In ac- cordance with this request he tendered his resignation, it was accepted, and shortly thereafter he was reap- pointed judge of the district by Governor Ritner. On Jan. 15, 1839, Governor Porter was inaugurated, and, he knowing that the object was to give Judge Dar- lington a further term of ten years, instructed Attor- ney-General Douglass to sue out a quo warranto. On Monday, April 29, 1839, the matter was to have been

heard by the Supreme Court, but the Saturday pre- vious Judge Isaac Darlington died at his home in West Chester of gout, to which he had been subject for years. When his death was announced in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Gibson dismissed the proceedings, at the same time paying a high tribute to the character and learning of the dead justice.

The judges of the Supreme Court in their circuits occasionally held sessions in the old court-room at Chester. On Thursday, Aug. 1, 1828, Chief Justice Gibson presided at the trial of a feigned issue upon an appeal from the Orphans' Court, in a suit by the executor of the estate of John Crosby, the late judge, against John F. Hill. The case occupied three days, and was ably tried, Benjamin Tilghman and Samuel Edwards representing the plaintiff, and Joseph R. Ingersoll and Archibald T. Dick the defendant. The jury retired on Saturday evening, and returned a ver- dict for the plaintiff on Monday morning. The Weekly Visitor, published at Chester, for Aug. 8, 1828, stated :

" To show the unwearied industry and perseverance of Judge Gibson in his official duties, it is worthy of remark that, on Monday morning at six o'clock, he left Philadelphia for this place, where he arrived at about eight, received the verdict of the jury, and at nine was on board the boat returning to the city."

On May 16, 1839, Governor Porter appointed Thomas S. Bell to the judgeship made vacant by Darlington's death. He was a Philadelphian by birth, and, like his predecessor, was admitted to the bar six months before he attained his majority. In May, 1821, he located at West Chester, and in two years thereafter was deputy attorney-general of Ches- ter County, continuing in that office for six years. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837, and was returned as elected to the State Senate in 1838, and took a prominent part in the difficulties characterizing the beginning of the legislative pro- ceedings in January following, known as the " Buck- shot War." His seat in that body was contested by and awarded to his competitor. Judge Bell was in his fortieth year when he was appointed to the bench, which he certainly adorned by his learning and his courteous bearing to the bar and public alike, al- though, on one occasion, in Delaware County, he aroused considerable feeling in sentencing a child ten years of age to a protracted term of imprisonment for stealing a small sum of money.

On Dec. 18, 1846, Governor Shunk appointed him one of the puisne judges of the Supreme Court, a po- sition he filled until Dec. 1, 1851, when the office be- came elective. Judge Bell died June 6, 1861, in his sixty-first year, a cancer with which he had long been troubled finally terminating his life.

The vacancy occasioned in this district by the re- moval of Judge Bell to the Supreme bench was at- tempted to be filled by Governor Shunk, who, in 1 December, 1846, appointed John M. Forster, of Har-

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

risburg, to the office. His bearing on the bench was excessively polite, but he did not create a favorable impression ; and, although his appointment, when first presented in the Senate, had been confirmed, the ob- jection from the district was so unanimous that it was reconsidered and finally rejected. Governor Shunk thereupon appointed James Nill, of Chambersburg, early in February, 1847, to the vacant seat on the bench. Judge Nill had a fair knowledge of law, but the feeling that the appointment was not one which should have been made was strong enough to secure Judge Nill's rejection by a tie vote in the Senate when the name was presented to that body for confirnia- tion.

The courts of Delaware County being without a president at the March term, 1848, the session was held by Associate Judges Engle and Leiper, the former charging the grand jury. Although the crim- inal side of the court had been conducted as well as usual, the civil cases (many of them involving ques- tions of nice distinctions of law) were continued, and the bar of Delaware as well as Chester County was anxious that the vacant place on the bench should be filled. To that end the lawyers in the district united in the request to Governor Shunk that he would appoint his son-in-law, Henry Chapman, of Doyles- town, president judge. The Governor assented to the petition, but he was named too late to take part at the March term in Delaware County, as just stated. Per- haps a more acceptable selection could not have been made, for in all respects Judge Chapman filled the measure demanded by the bar and people.

It was during his incumbency that the county-seat was removed to Media, the last court being held in the old building at Chester May 26, 1851, and when it adjourned, on Friday, the 30th, the ancient structure was dismantled of its furniture.

Under the provisions of the amendments to the Constitution changing the judicial office from an ap- pointive to an elective one, the term of Judge Chap- man, as also those of the associate judges (Leiper and Engle), expired by limitation at the close of the year 1851. So acceptably had the former presided in the district that both parties signalized their willingness to continue him on the bench if he would allow his name to he presented to the people, but as the Con- stitution positively required the judges should be resi- dents of the district during the period in which they served, which he could not do without serious incon- venience, he was compelled to decline the nomination. On Monday, Nov. 24, 1851, for the last time Judges Chapman, Leiper, and Engle held court, the session continuing until Wednesday, the 26th of that month. All business having been disposed of, the court was about to adjourn, when Hon. Edward Darlington rose and with a brief and appropriate address presented the following resolutions :

ward Darlington, Esq., was appointed chairman, and Joseph R. Morris, secretary.

"The object of the meeting was stated by the chair, whereupon John M. Broomall, Esq., offered the following resolutions, which being sec- onded by Robert McCay, Jr., Esq., were unanimously adopted :

" Resolved, That we look with profound regret upon the approaching period which will terminate the judicial career of the Hon. Henry Chapman as president judge of the court of this county.

" Resolved, That his well-tried legal abilities and his strict integrity and impartiality have entitled bim to the respect and confidence, 16 well of ourselves as of the people of the county, who have not willingly parted with his services.

" Resolved, That the judges of the court carry with them in their vol- untary retirement from the bench our best wishes for their future hap- piness and prosperity, and we tender to them our sincere thanks for the uniform kindness aod courtesy which has always characterized their intercourse with the bar.

"On motion of Charles D. Manly, Esq., the chair was instructed to present a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the bench in open court."

The judges were entirely unprepared for this testi- monial of good feeling from the bar, but Judge Chap- man rose, thanked the bar and the people of the county for the forbearance they had ever shown toward his failings, and the uniform kindness and respect which had been extended him while on the bench. Remarks of a similar tenor then followed from Judges Leiper and Engle. The proceeding was not an empty form or ceremony, but was prompted on the part of the bar and responded to by the bench by the mutual esteem entertained by the one for the other.

Judge Chapman having declined nomination, at the election held in October, 1851, Townsend Haines, of West Chester, was chosen president judge of the courts. Judge Haines, when elevated to the bench, was sixty years of age, his birth occurring Jan. 7, 1792. His early life was passed on his father's farm, but during the intervals of labor he applied himself diligently in acquiring information which was useful to him in after-years. In 1815, in his twenty-third year,-previous to which time he had taught school,- he entered the office of Isaac Darlington (afterwards judge), and was called to the bar in 1818. His prac- tice the first year was very meagre; indeed, it never was extensive, although he was very able in criminal cases, but in heavy civil litigation he was rarely en- gaged. His brilliant powers of advocacy were recog- nized, and when a jury was the tribunal to decide a controversy, Mr. Haines was often employed to make the address to that body ; but when questions involv- ing great principles of law were being discussed he never appeared to advantage. He was an adroit cross-examiner, but he relied on his natural talent in debate, and was averse to the laborious study which always characterizes a great lawyer. Mr. Haines drifted naturally into politics. In 1826-27 he was a member of the Legislature, and the following year was nominated for Congress, but was unexpectedly defeated, the popularity of Andrew Jackson carrying the Democratic ticket in a strong Federal district onward to victory. On the resignation and death of Governor Shunk, William F. Johnson, the Whig

" At a meeting of the bar of Delaware County, held at the Charter House, in the borough of Media, Monday, Nov. 24, 1851, oa motion, Ed- ; Speaker of the Senate, by virtue of that office, as-

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THE COURT, BENCH, AND BAR OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

sumed the gubernatorial office under the Constitu- tion, and in July, 1848, he appointed Mr. Haines Secretary of the Commonwealth, which position he retained under Johnson, who was re-elected in the fall of the year 1848. After serving the full term as secretary, in February, 1850, Mr. Haines was ap- pointed treasurer of the United States by President Taylor. While discharging the duties of that office he was nominated to the judgeship of the Fifteenth Judicial District, to which position he was elected, defeating Judge Thomas S. Bell, whose term on the Supreme bench under the Constitution ended in De- cember of that year. Haines thereupon resigned the treasurership of the United States and returned to West Chester. He was commissioned by Governor Johnson Nov. 6, 1881.

On the bench he was respected as a lawyer, and his social qualities ever rendered him a favorite with the bar and public. He was a noted conversationalist, and it is said no man could relate an anecdote hetter than he. While holding court at Media the judge, on one occasion, desired to consult the Digest, and asked Renben Litzenberg, then a newly-appointed tipstaff, to bring "Purdon" to him. The name was new to Litzenberg, hut off he started to hunt the man, whom he supposed he was directed to straight- way carry before the court. He searched through the building without success, and at length returning, he went to the judge at side bar, and stated in a low voice, "Judge, I guess the man's gone; I can't find him anywhere." "Man! man !" wrathfully exclaimed the judge, "you're a stupid ass. I don't want any man. I sent yon for a book." It is also told of the judge that on one occasion, as he was entering the court-honse, a hardened offender, who at almost every Quarter Session was present, charged with selling liquor without license, and who had recently under- gone a sentence for that misdemeanor, accosted him. " Well, judge," he said, "I'm out now." "Yes, yes, I see," was the reply, "but it's no fault of mine. I gave you all I had in my pocket that I could give you."

Judge Haines presided for the last term at Novem- ber court, 1861, and on the 28th of that month the bar of Delaware County presented resolutions of es- teem to him on retiring from the bench.

At the expiration of his term of office Judge Haines declined to be a candidate for re-election, hut returned to practice in West Chester, continuing therein until his death, in October, 1865, in his seventy-fourth year. He possessed rare talent for versification, his ballad of " Bob Fletcher" being a rustic picture which still deservedly maintains its popularity.

At the October election, in 1861, Hon. William But- ler was chosen to succeed to the judicial office vacated by Judge Haines. Mr. Butler had at the time of his election heen sixteen years in practice at the Chester County bar, having been admitted in 1843. In the fall of 1856 he was elected district attorney of Chester

County, continuing in that office until the fall of 1859. Judge Butler was commissioned by Governor Curtin Nov. 20, 1861, entering upon the duties of the office in the following December, presiding for the first time in Delaware County at the February court, 1862. He soon rose to high rank among the judges of the State. His mind was analytical, and with such rapidity in the trial of a case he grasped and understood the point at issue, that the lawyers engaged often stood amazed in finding how soon the case, under his judi- cial sifting, was divested of all redundant circum- stances or immaterial pleading. As a nisi prius judge he had few equals and never a superior. He presided at the trial of Udderzook for the murder of Gross at the Oyer and Terminer of Chester County, October, 1873. The case was one which attracted much atten- tion throughout the country, and the charge of Judge Butler was a model for its clearness and comprehen- siveness. On Feb. 12, 1879, he was appointed to the United States district judgeship made vacant by the death of Judge Cadwalader, an office which he still fills.

The vacancy on the bench occasioned by the erec- tion of the Thirty-second Judicial District was filled in April, 1874, by Governor Hartranft, who appointed Hon. Jolın M. Broomall president judge. The latter was born in Upper Chichester township, and his family had taken a prominent part in the history of Delaware County for nearly two centuries. In early life, while still a student at Friends' Academy, at Wilmington, he taught in that institution with much success. In 1837 he began reading law under Judge Bouvier, of Phila- delphia, and on Aug. 24, 1840, was admitted to the bar of Delaware County. At first he was inclined to de- vote himself to agricultural pursuits on the homestead farm in Chichester, but by degrees, and apparently without effort on his part, it began to be noised about that he was a bright, smart fellow, and knew as much law as any of the attorneys. So, imperceptibly, he drifted into practice, and soon found pleasure in the clash of argument and excitement of a sharply-con- tested trial. Politics and law usually go hand-in- hand; hence in 1851 and 1852, very naturally, Mr. Broomall was a representative of Delaware County in the Legislature, and in 1854 a member of the State Revenue Board. He was a member of the Thirty- eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses, being first elected thereto in 1862.

In the fall of 1862, when Washington City was threatened, as also the invasion of Pennsylvania, by Lee's army, John M. Broomall commanded Company C, Sixteenth Regiment Pennsylvania militia. In the summer of 1863, previous to the battle of Gettysburg, Mr. Broomall was mustered in as captain of Company C, Twenty-ninth Regiment, emergency men, being in service from June 19th to August Ist of that year.

Twice Mr. Broomall has been a member of the Electoral College of Pennsylvania, first, in 1860, at Abraham Lincoln's first election, and in 1872, when

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Gen. Grant was chosen President for the second term. In 1873 he was a delegate to the Constitutional Con- vention, and on the floor of that assemblage his remarks were always listened to with attention and consideration, and he was recognized as among the leaders in thought in that body. When that Constitn- tion was adopted, under its provisions the county of Delaware became the Thirty-second Judicial District, and as before stated, in April, 1874, Mr. Broomall was appointed the first president judge, and was qualified on May 2d. At the Republican County Convention of the same year Judge Broomall was nominated for the office for the term of ten years, but at the ensuing election he was not successful.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 60

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150