History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 61

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

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Judge Broomall has been a busy man throughout his whole career. Far-sighted, and possessed of com- prehensive views and remarkable executive abilities, shortly after being called to the bar he became im- pressed with the belief that Chester was peculiarly advantageonsly located for a manufacturing centre, and with that purpose in view he and several others labored to give the ancient hamlet a direction to that end, and how well that object was obtained the thriv- ing city of Chester and its growing suburban districts fully attests. As an orator Judge Broomall will be recalled by his "Remarks on the Life and Character of Thaddeus Stevens," delivered in the House of Rep- resentatives, at Washington, Dec. 17, 1868, and his oration at the Bi-Centenary of the Landing of Wil- liam Penn at Chester, Oct. 23, 1882. Judge Broomall, notwithstanding his active, useful life, had kept abreast with modern thought in science and literature. As a writer he is vigorous and comprehensive, remem- bering Lord Coke's reference to "apt words." In 1876, on the appointment of the Delaware County Institute of Science, he wrote the "History of Dela- ware County for the Past Century," an admirable résumé of the happenings in this locality during the first hundred years of the nation's life, and in 1872 wrote a highly creditable "History of Chester" for Moran's "Delaware River and West Jersey Railroad Commercial Directory."

Judge Broomall was succeeded on the bench by the present incumbent, Judge Clayton, who, on Jan. 4, 1875, assumed the duties of the office. Thomas J. Clayton was also to the manor born, his ancestry having settled at Marcus Hook previous to the royal charter to Penn.

The future judge was born in Bethel township, Jan. 20, 1826, and in early life proposed studying medicine, but changing his intentions he read law in Wilming- ton, and was admitted to the bar of Delaware County, Nov. 24, 1851, this being the second time court was held at Media, and the last time Judge Chapman presided in the district. Mr. Clayton removed to Philadelphia in 1852, where he entered the ranks of the profession and rapidly acquired a large and re- munerative practice, in jury cases his forensic powers soon bringing him into prominence. In 1856, Gov-

ernor Pollock appointed him on his staff with the rank of colonel, the only office he ever held of a political character outside the line of his profession. In 1868 he made a tour of Europe, and while abroad contributed a series of letters to the Delaware County Republican descriptive of his travels, which were sub- sequently published in hook form. In 1873 he again passed the summer vacation in the Old World, and, as on his former visit, he furnished from time to time an account of his journeying to the county press. In the fall of 1874 he was nominated by the Independent Republicans for the office of president judge of this district, the Democrats making no nomination, and at the election on October 3d of the same year he was chosen to that office, the duties of which he is still discharging. Judge Clayton is social in his dispo- sition, an agreeable conversationalist, and speaks French with fluency. As a lawyer he stands well with the profession throughout the State, many of his opinions, as published in the Delaware County Re- porter, heing frequently cited in other districts with approval. In January, 1880, the bar of Chester County tendered a complimentary banquet to Judge Clayton at West Chester, he having been called to preside in the courts there in cases with which Judge Futhey had been connected as counsel previous to the latter's being raised to the bench. The printed bill of fare on that occasion was a rare specimen of legal wit, which the bar of Chester County may well recall as creditable to those who prepared it.

The act of Sept. 26, 1789, creating the county of Delaware provided that "the justices of the Courts of Quarter Session and Common Pleas now commis- sioned within the limits of the county of Delaware and those that may hereafter be commissioned or any three of them, shall and may hold courts," and the act conferred on those justices all the powers, rights, jurisdiction, and authorities of justices of the county courts of other counties.1 Some doubts having been suggested as to the validity of this clause in the act, the Supreme Executive Council on Oct. 9, 1789, de- termined to be advised on the constitutionality of that section, hence it was

" Resolved, That the opinion of the attorney-general be taken upon the following question, viz., ' Whether justices of the peace and pleas who have heen commissioned for a certain county, and a part of that county erected into a separate county, can continue to exercise the powers of the peace and pleas in that part erected into a uew county and separated from the old one ?' "

The same day Attorney-General Bradford wrote his opinion, which was submitted to Council the follow- ing morning. He states,-

" I have considered the clause in the act of Assembly for erecting Del- aware County. .. . As the Constitution vests the appointment of all judges in the Supreme Executive Council, aod a new court is here erected, I am of the opinion that no act of the Legislature can appoint the judges of that court, or give any persons authority to act as such with- out being commissioned for that purpose by the President and Council;

1 2 Smith's " Laws of Pennsylvania," p. 499; Bliss' " Delaware County Digest," pp. 2 and 39.

THE COURT, BENCH, AND BAR OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

239

that part of the act, therefore, must be merely void. As to justices of the peace, they having been already elected by the people and residing in their proper districts, I am of opinion that such anthority may be con- tinned by an act of the Legislature, and that such an act would not in- fringe upon the Constitution." 1

The Supreme Executive Council, acting on this opinion, appointed the judges of the courts two days thereafter, excepting in the case of William Richard- son Atlee, whose commission being subsequently to the act of Sept. 26, 1786; was valid. Following is a list of all the associate justices and judges of the courts of Delaware County from its erection until the Constitution of 1874 abolished the office :

Commissioned.

William Richardson Atlee.

Sept. 28, 1789

Richard Hill Morris ..

Oct. 12, 1789

Thomas Levis.

Oct. 12, 1789

John Pearson ..

Oct. 12, 1789

George Pearce ..

Oct. 12, 1789

Elisha Price.

March 16, 1790

Joel Willis

July

15, 1790

Under Constitution of 1790:

John Sellers,

Sept.

17, 1791

Richard Riley

.Sept.

17, 179]

Mark Willcox

.Sept. 17, 1791

Hugh Lloyd.

April

24,1792

Benjamin Brannon

June

5,1794

Jaha Crosby

Apral

26,1799

John Pierce ...

Jan.

5,1823

William Anderson

Jan.

5,1826

Joseph Engle2

Jau.

5, 1827

Henry Myer

Dec.

27,1833

George Smith.

Dec.

28,1836

Under Constitution of 1838:

Joseph Engle ..

Jan.

26, 1842

Joseph Engle.

March 11, 1847

George G. Leiper

Feb.

25,1843

George G. Leiper.

Feb.

16, 1848

James Andrews.

Nov.

10, 1851

Sketchley Morton

Nov.

10, 1851

Frederick J. Hinkson.

.. Nov.

12, 1856

James Andrews ..

Nov.

12, 1856

Charles R. Williamson.

Jan.

10, 1860

George Smith ..

Nov.

23, 18G]

James Andrews

Nov.

23,1861

Thomas Reese ..

Nov.

8,1866

Barline Smith

Nov.

8,1866

Thomas Reese.

Nov.

17, 1871

Bartine Smith

Nov.

17, 1871

William Richardson Atlee was commissioned one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas of Del- aware County Sept. 28, 1789, two days after the act erecting the county of Delaware became a law. The bounty of the Supreme Executive Council did not stop at this, but they showered on Atlee that day the offices of prothonotary, clerk of the Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Court. Under the resolution of Council, June 11, 1777, prothonotaries sat as judges of the Court of Common Pleas. In November, 1790, he was married to Margaret, only daughter of Gen. Wayne, settled at Chester,3 and on May 9, 1791, pur- chased a greater part of the triangular lot between Market Street and Edgmont Avenue, and from Fifth Street to the railroad. There he lived in a stone dwelling, which was torn down to make place for the house of the late Mrs. Gray. On Sept. 4, 1791, he was reappointed by Governor Mifflin to the offices of

prothonotary, etc., and again on March 16, 1792. At the next court following, April term, 1792, the grand jury made this presentment :

" To the Honorable Court of Quarter Sessions now sitting :- The Grand Inquest for the Court of Delaware, Present William Richardson Atlee, Prothonotary and Register for the Probate of Wills, &c., for said county for extortion in the following instances, viz. :

" For charging of his fees on the several writs of Partition hereinafter mentioned, three pounds, viz. : First, For issoing a writ for the division of the estate of Jacob Richards. Second, For issuing a writ for the di- vision of the estate of Margaret Smith and the heirs of Rebecca Garrett. Third, For issuing a writ for the division of the estate of Jolin McIlvain. Fourth, For issning a writ for the division of the estate of David Gibson. Fifth, For issuing a writ for the division of the estato of Willians and Reese Peters.

"For charging Jolin Travis his fees on an action brought against him and ended the first court, thirteen shillings and sixpence. For charg- ing Peter Defield, on an action brought against Charles Lindsay ended before the court, fourteen shillings and sixpence. For charging Jo- seph Lewis fourteen shillings and sixpence, ended in like manner.

" As Register for charging and receiving from the executors of the estate of John Hunt two pounds, eleven shillings and sixpence for pro- bate and granting Letters of Administration.

" Also for charging and receiving from the executors of the estate of Joseph Davis, two pounds, eleven shillings aod sixpenco for Probate and Granting Letters of Administration and also for charging and receiving a fee of one pound, two shillings and sixpence for answering the simple question whether a bond was real or personal estate, which we are of the opinion is illegal, he not been an attorney or counsellor of record in this county.

" Alan for charging and recoiving of Alice Spear, a poor woman, one pound, five shillings and sixpence for two guardianship orders, altho' she has paid Miles McCarty three shillings for drawing petitions to pre- sent to the Court to obtain the same.

" By order of the Grand Jury, " DAVID BEVAN, Foreman."

At the July session the grand jury found true bills of indictment against Atlee on all the charges ; the cases were called on trial at the October term, and on all the prosecutions the defendant was acquitted. At- lee understood the fee bill, and notwithstanding the assaults thus made upon him, held his office with a tenacious grasp, until, desiring to enter the list of at- torneys, he yielded the place to Davis Bevan April 6, 1796, and on the 26th of July following was admitted to practice in the courts of Delaware County, after which date he passed out of our annals so far as I have information.

On Oct. 12, 1789, Richard Hill Morris was com- missioned by President Mifflin justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was appointed a justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Chester County in 1786, but beyond that fact I have no knowledge of Judge Morris. The same day George Pearce, of Aston, was commissioned Justice of the Common Pleas. He was a justice of Chester County in 1784, and during the Revolutionary war was lieutenant-colonel of the Third Battalion of militia. Other than these facts, I know nothing of Judge Pearce's career. John Pearson was also commissioned the same day. He was a resident of Darby and a Revolutionary soldier. He was first lieutenant in the Eleventh Pennsylvania Line, and was promoted captain Sept. 7, 1777. The regiment suffered so severely at Brandywine that on July 1, 1778, it was consolidated with the Tenth Regiment, iu which organization Capt. Pearson was still retained

1 Colonial Records, vol. xvi. pp. 186-88.

2 Judge Engle was appointed in 1827, but the date of the commission I have not learned. Either it is not of record or I have overlooked it in my researches.

8 Martin'e " History of Chester," p. 252.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

in command of a company. On Jan. 17, 1781, he was transferred to the Second Pennsylvania, and on Jan. 1, 1783, held a commission on the 3d, but appears to have resigned about that time. In October, 1778, he was on recruiting service in Philadelphia, and on the 6th of that month addressed a letter to the Supreme Executive Council, complaining that Timothy Mat- lack, secretary of that body, had spoken discourag- ingly to him respecting the money required to pay re- cruits, and he had then on his personal credit bor- rowed one hundred pounds to pay "five fine fellows," and could not " get a farthing of it." At the January sessions, 1793, while he was on the bench, an indict- ment was sent before the grand jury, in which he was charged with having written a libelous article against Nathaniel Newlin, which appeared in Bradford's Pennsylvania Journal in October, 1792, but the bill was ignored. In the fall of 1793, Judge Pearson was active in soliciting funds in Delaware County, to be applied to the relief of the sufferers in Philadelphia during the yellow fever scourge in that city, after which date I have no further information respecting him.

On Oct. 12, 1789, Thomas Levis was appointed one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas of Dela- ware County. My impression is that he resided in Springfield. The first record I find of Judge Levis is in 1770, when he appears as one of the assessors of Chester County,-a board of six persons performed the duty at that time in the entire county,-and continued in the office until 1773, when he became one of the county commissioners. At the election held in Ches- ter County, July 8, 1776, to choose delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1776, he was one of the judges at Chester borough. During the war he was a captain of a militia company, and Oct. 1, 1777, was directed, with six other militia officers, to seize arms, blankets, shoes and stockings, etc., in that district for the use of the Continental army, the levy to be made on persons believed to entertain feelings not in accord with American independence. On May 6, 1778, he was appointed one of the commissioners of confiscated estates, and in a letter dated July 18th of that year, he complained that the printer had made a mistake by misplacing a letter so that a Whig was transposed by the proclamation into a Tory, and he was not pleased with the change. He was one of the sub-lieutenants of Chester County, and Sept. 24, 1784, was commis- sioned one of the justices of the Common Pleas for Ridley, Springfield, Marple, Upper and Nether Provi- dence, a position which was not new to him, for he was appointed to the like office in July 25, 1777. He was county treasurer in 1778, and probably in 1782- 84. No record appears at West Chester for those years, which is the only break for a number of years, and we learn from the minutes of the Supreme Execu- tive Council that on Feb. 21, 1788, a certificate was filed from Edward Burd, "that Thomas Levis, Es- quire, hath entered sufficient security to prosecute

with effect an appeal from the settlement of his ac- counts as late Treasurer of the county of Chester by the Comptroller General was read, and the said ap- peal allowed." He was appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1789. In 1799 he was lieutenant-colonel of the Sixty-fifth Regiment Penn- sylvania militia, after which date I lose all record of Col. Levis.

Elisha Price was commissioned justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, March 16, 1790, but as I have given the main particulars of his life in a note to the ballad " Lament over Chester's Mother," it is unnecessary to reproduce it here; and of Joel Willis, who was commissioned justice of the Common Pleas July 15, 1790, I know nothing other than that fact.

On Sept. 17, 1791, Governor Mifflin appointed John Sellers one of the associate judges of the courts of Delaware County. A sketch of Judge Sellers will be found in the history of the township of Darby.

Sept. 17, 1791, Governor Mifflin appointed Richard Riley an associate judge of Delaware County, in which office he continued to serve until 1808, sitting for the last time at the October court of that year. He was of English parentage, and was born at Marcus Hook, Dec. 14, 1735. At twenty-nine years of age, in 1764, he was one of the county assessors, and the same year he was appointed one of the justices of the county, whose commission then required that they should hold court. In 1770 he was one of the justices com- missioned to hold a special court in Chester County for the trial of negroes ; and on the 3d day of March, in that year, he, with William Parker, held such a court in Chester, at which was tried " Negro Martin," the slave of Thomas Smith, of Tinicum, on a charge of rape. Riley was an earnest Whig during the Rev- olution, and was one of the. thirteen members of the Committee of Correspondence of Chester County ap- pointed at the meeting held at Chester, July 13, 1774, and was one of the eight delegates to the Provincial Conference at Philadelphia, July 15th, of that year, which took decided action advocating resistance to the encroachments of Great Britain on the rights of the colony, and requesting the Assembly to appoint delegates to the Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia, September 3d following. He was one of the delegates to the second Provincial Convention, which met in Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 1775, when he advocated instructing the delegates from Pennsyl- vauia, appointed by that convention to Congress, which assembled May 10, 1775, to vote for inde- pendence. On June 30th of that year he was ap- pointed by the Assembly one of the Committee of Safety, representing Chester County; and on Jan. 17, 1776, was, with Cols. Wayne and Johnson and Mr. Bartholomew, appointed an inspector of arms provided by the Committee of Safety for Chester County. That he was earnest in his efforts to render an attack on Philadelphia almost impossible, by ex-

241

THE COURT, BENCH, AND BAR OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

tending the fortifications below Marcus Hook, is shown in his letter of Feb. 15, 1776, to the committee. In 1777, Riley was again commissioned a justice of the county. After the erection of Delaware County, he was elected a member of the Legislature for the year 1790-91, and, as before mentioned, in 1792 was com- missioned associate judge. It is related that he was a nervous man and easily irritated. One cold night, in the early part of this century, an Irishiman, know- ing this peculiarity, knocked at the door of his resi- dence in Marcus Hook, after the judge was in bed. His honor, putting his head out of the window, in- quired who it was, and what was wanted. The stranger replied that he had an important matter, re- specting which he wanted his opinion. The judge hastily dressed and came down. "What is it, my man, you want to see me about ?" "I was awanting to know, your honor, which side of the river this is." "This side, you infernal fool !" roared the judge, as he slammed the door to with a bang. Judge Riley died Aug. 27, 1820, in his eighty-fifth year.

On Sept. 17, 1791, Governor Mifflin commissioned Mark Wilcox one of the associate judges of Delaware County, an office he retained until about 1822. Mark Wilcox was the son of Thomas Wilcox, who settled in Concord in 1727, on the west branch of Chester Creek, where about that date he built the second paper-mill in the United States, now known as Ivy Mills. The settler died in 1779, leaving the business to his son, Mark, who was born on the estate in 1743. During the Revolutionary war much of the paper used in printing the Continental money, as well as the official blanks required by Congress and the State authorities, was made at the old mill on Chester Creek. He was judge of the election held to select delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1776. In 1777 the Executive Council impressed forty-eight reams of writing-paper at his mills for the use of that body, and it was not paid for until March 19, 1783, when an order for sixty-eight pounds in specie was given to Mark Wilcox in settlement of the claim. In 1777 he was one of the county assessors, and in 1780, under the law requiring registration of slaves, he reported six slaves for life as his property. On April 3, 1788, the Supreme Executive Council appointed five commis- sioners, under the act of March 28th, of that year, to open certain roads in the counties of Northampton aud Luzerne, in which commission Mark Wilcox was included. The work confided to the committee was performed satisfactorily, for on April 28th, of the same year, Council decided that one thousand pounds should be paid to the committee for their trouble. In 1788, Mark Wilcox was a member of the General As- sembly from Chester County, in 1799 he was lieuten- ant-colonel of the One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, and, after the erection of Delaware, was for nearly thirty years one of the associate judges. He died in 1827, aged eighty-four years.

Governor Mifflin, April 24, 1792, commissioned

Hugh Lloyd, of Darby, oue of the associate judges of the courts of Delaware County, and he continued on the bench a third of a century, the longest term in our judicial history. He was born in 1742, and when the difficulties preceding the Revolutionary war were dividing the populace, he took active sides with the colonists. He was one of the committee of thirteen appointed at the county convention, held at Chester, July 13, 1774, as delegates to the convention of similar committees from the other counties in the province, which assembled in Philadelphia July 15th, of that year, and from whose action the Continental Congress, which met in the same city on the 5th of September following, had its origin. He was one of the com- mittee appointed at the county convention, Dec. 20, 1774, to carry into execution the association of the late Continental Congress, and he was also one of the ten delegates from Chester County to the Provincial Con- vention which met in Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 1775. Just previous to the Declaration of Independence he was one of the thirteen delegates from the county to the Convention in Philadelphia on June 18, 1776, which declared that all authority of Great Britain should be suppressed in the province, and called a convention to meet on the 15th of July following to frame a con- stitutional government. Strange as it now seems, he was one of the judges of election in the borough of Chester on July 8th, when delegates to that conven- tion-he being a candidate-were voted for. Early in the war he was appointed colonel of the Third Bat- talion of Chester County militia, and his command was frequently called into service during the latter part of 1777 and the first six months of the year fol- lowing. After peace was declared Col. Lloyd pursued the even tenor of his way, but when Delaware County was erected, in 1789, he was one of the representatives in the General Assembly, and was re-elected to the same office in 1791. In 1792 he was appointed one of the associate judges of the county of Delaware in the place of Joel Willis, serving faithfully on the bench until finding the weight of years pressing upon him he tendered his resignation to Governor Shulze as follows :

" I, the within named Associate Judge of Delaware County, aged 83 years 10 months and 9 days, by attending every court for 33 years-one Orphans' Court only excepted-having performed the duties of the within commission to the best of my judgment and ability, do by these presents resign and surrender up my said commission to his Excellency, the Governor, with the hope that a successor may be appointed to the satisfaction of the majority of said county. In testimony whereof I have herenoto set my hand this 31st day of December, A.D. 1825. With sentiment of regard, &c.,

"HUGH LLOYD."

Tradition relates that Judge Lloyd, who, on one occasion, being asked if the duties devolving on an associate judge were not onerous, replied, “ Yes, very. I sat five years on the same bench in the old court-house at Chester without opening my mouth. One day, however, towards night, after listening to the details of a long and tedious trial, the president leaning over towards me and putting his arms across

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

my shoulders, asked me a question : 'Judge,' said he, ' don't you think this bench is infernally hard ?' To this important question I replied, 'I thought it were.' And that's the only opinion I ever gave during my long judicial career."1

At the advanced age of ninety-three, Judge Lloyd died of paralysis. "The old machine had broken down and can't be repaired," he remarked to those who, hearing him fall to the floor, ran to his assist- ance. Two days thereafter he died.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 61

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