The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 2

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1102

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A careful examination of the eourt records of this early period shows that for some years Robert Magaw transacted nearly two-thirds of the legal business of the county. The appearance docket entries from July term, 1765, to January term, 1767, indieate that of 827 appearances by attorneys during that period, no less than 510 were by him.

Jasper Yeates, whose name appears upon our records as early as . 1763, was for a period of twenty-one years (to 1784) a practitioner at our bar. He resided in Lan- caster and was graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1761. On Mareh 21, 1791, he was appointed by Governor Mifflin a justice of the Supreme Court, which position he continued to fill until the time of his death in 1817. He was a mem- ber of the Pennsylvania ratification conven- tion of 1788. He had a high reputation for knowledge in legal lore and classical litera- ture, and, like all the lawyers of this period, he traveled upon the eircuit and praetieed over a large territory in the eastern counties of the state. Although he lived at Lan- caster, he appeared at our bar in the begin- ning of his eareer, praetieed at it, as ocea- sion required, for a long period, and was the legal preceptor of Thomas Dunean. "In appearanee he was tall and portly, with handsome florid eountenanee and blue eyes." He was the compiler of the early Pennsylvania reports which bear his name. He died at Laneaster, Mareh 14, 1817, at the age of seventy-two.

James Wilson, LL. D., is another and by far the most prominent of all of these early practitioners at the bar. His name appears

very frequently upon the records of our courts from or prior to 1768 until after the beginning of the Revolution. He was a Seotehman by birth, born in 1742, and had received a finished education at St. An- drews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, under Dr. Blair, in rhetorie, and Dr. Watts in logie. He came to Philadelphia in 1766, and after reading law with John Dickinson, took up his residenee in Carlisle. He removed to Philadelphia in 1778, and became "the acknowledged head of the Philadelphia bar." At a meeting in Carlisle in July, 1774, which adopted resolutions protesting against the aetion of Great Britain towards the eolonies, he, with Irvine (afterwards General Irvine) and Robert Magaw, was ap- pointed a delegate to meet those of other eountics of the state as the initiatory step to a general convention of delegates from the different eolonies. He was subsequently a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and when the motion for independenee was finally aeted upon in that body, the vote of Pennsylvania was carried in its favor by the easting vote of James Wilson of Car- lisle. "He had," says Baneroft in his "His- tory of the United States," "at an early day foreseen independenee as the probable though not intended result of the contest," and although he was not at first avowedly in favor of a severanee from the mother country, he desired it, when he had received definite instructions from his constituents. In 1766 he was a colonel in the Revolution. From 1779 to 1783 he held the position of advoeate general for the French nation, whose business it was to draw up plans for regulating the intereourse of that country with the United States, for which serviees he received a reward from the French king of 1,000 livres. He was, at this time, director of the Bank of North America. He was one of the most prominent members of the eon- vention of 1787 which formed the Federal

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constitution. "Of the fifty-five delegates," says Professor McMaster, in his "History of the People of the United States," "he was undoubtedly the best prepared by deep and systematie study of the history and seience of government, for the work that lay before him. The Marquis de Chastellux, himself 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 jurisprudenec. The works of President Montesquien 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 Ameriea, 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 con- vention. None, with the exception of Gouverneur Morris, was so often on his feet during the debates or spoke more to the purpose." (MeMaster's History, &c., Vol. I, p. 421.) Later he was appointed by President Washington, under the Federal constitution, one of the first judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which position he continued until his death. In 1790 he was appointed professor of law in the legal eollege at Philadelphia, which, during his ineumbency, was united with the university. He received the degree of LL. D. and delivered a course of leetures on juris- prudence, which were published. He died August 26, 1798, aged fifty-six.

Mueh of the above is general history, but we eannot refrain from adding the follow- ing, which is less known:

We have seen it stated that at an early period of his professional eareer, an ineident occurred which gave him great prominenee in the eyes of the first gentlemen of the pro- vincial bar. There came on for trial in the County Court a eause of great expectation

between the proprietaries of Pennsylvania and Mr. Samuel Wallaee, a well known dealer in lands. Mr. Wilson was one of the counsel to the latter, and Mr. Chew, then attorney general, appeared for the proprie- taries. It drew the attention of all present that Mr. Wilson had not spoken long before Mr. Chew fixed his eyes on him with intense interest and continued to do so until the end of the argument. When he had eon- eluded the counsel on the same side of the question went aside and deliberated whether it would be expedient to add to what had already been submitted by their colleague who had spoken first. This was determined in the negative. One of the gentlemen was Joseph Reed, Esq. Before the elose of the session of the court, Mr. Wilson was retained in another proprietary cause, and his stand- ing at the bar was heneeforth lofty, firm and unalterable.

George Stevenson, LL. D., was a promi- nent member of the bar in 1776. His name appears upon the records as early as 1770. IIe was born in Dublin (1718), edueated 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 eountics on the Delaware, known as the "Territories of Pennsylvania," which William Penn ob- tained from the Duke of York in 1682. He afterwards removed to York and was ap- pointed a justice under George II in 1755. In 1769 he moved to Carlisle and beeame a leading member of the bar. He died in this place in 1783. Some of his eorrespond- ence may be seen in the colonial reeords and the Pennsylvania archives. He married the widow of Thomas Cookson, a distin- guished lawyer of Laneaster, who was in- strueted, in eonnection with the surveyor general, Nicholas Scull, Esq., to lay out the town of Carlisle in 1751.

Col. Thomas Hartley was another promi- nent practitioner at our bar before and after

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the Revolution. He was born in Berks county (1748) and received the rudiments of a classical education at Reading, when he went to York at the age of eighteen and studied law under Samuch Johnston. Im- mediately upon his admission he was ad- mitted here (October 25, 1769), and appears as a frequent practitioner at our bar until 1797. (See York county.)

Capt. John Steel was a prominent member of the bar in 1776. He had been admitted upon the motion of Colonel Magaw only three years previously (April, 1873), and seems immediately to have come into a large practice, which was broken by his entering into the Revolutionary war. We find him having a large practice again from 1782 to 1785, shortly after which date he evidently retired from practice, as his name disap- pears from the records. Capt. John Steel was the son of Reverend John Steel, known as the "fighting parson," and was born in Carlisle, July 15, 1744. He led a company from Carlisle and joined Washington after he had erossed the Delaware. He married Agnes Moore, a sister of Jean (Moore) Thompson, the mother of Elizabeth (Thomp- son) Bennett, the maternal grandmother of the writer.

James Armstrong Wilson was admitted on motion of James Wilson, April term, 1774. Ile was the son of Thomas Wilson, who re- sided near Carlisie, whom we have men- tioned as a provincial justice. James A. Wilson was educated at Princeton; read law with Richard Stockton, and when the Revo- lution opened (soon after his admission to the bar), he raised a company which was included in Colonel Irvine's Sixth Pennsyl- vania Battalion, of which he was commis- sioned captain (January 9, 1776). IIe was in the Canada eampaign and taken prisoner at Three Rivers. After his release from captivity he returned to his home near Car- lisle, where he remained until his exchange was cffeeted. He was afterwards promoted

to major in one of the new regiments of the Pennsylvania line. His name appears as a practitioner from 1778 until within a few years of his death, March 17, 1788, at the age of thirty-six. "In him," says an obituary in Kline's Carlisle Gazette, "the country has lost a distinguished patriot."

Another but non-resident practitioner who was admitted before the Revolution on mo- tion of Jasper Yeates, October, 1773, was George Ross, Jr., of Laneaster, who became afterwards a member of the supreme execu- tive council (1787-90), and colonel and deputy quartermaster general in the Revo- lution. ITis name appears for some few years as a practitioner at our bar.

There were some of the men who practiced at our bar in or before the memorable year 1776, men who, by their services in the field and in the courts and the halls of legislation, helped to lay firm and deep the foundation of the government which we enjoy. "From 1770 to 1774 inclusive," says Hon. Edward W. Biddle, in an Historical address on Three Signers, &c., delivered under the aus- piees of the historical committee of the Car- lisle Civic Club, April 4, 1902, "Wilson had the largest practice at the bar, Magaw being a good second and Smith and Ross, by rea- son of their being occupied elsewhere, hav- ing a comparatively small share of the busi- ness. The dockets show that 819 cases were entered to the July term of the five years referred to, and that Wilson appeared in 346 of these, Magaw in 267, Smith in 71 and Ross in 34. Public duties now began to claim the attention of these four able law- yers, and of the 172 eases entered to July term, 1775, we find that Wilson appeared in only 40, Magaw in 26, Smith in 8 and Ross in 1.""

Wilson was, therefore, as would naturally have been expected, at this time the un- questioned leader of the bar. His ability afterwards as a judge is said not to have equaled his eminence as a lawyer; he shone

THE BENCH AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA

more conspicuously at the bar than on the bench. With sound logic and mature judg- ment, he combined a graceful delivery and ready command of language which capti- vated all who heard him. In the famous question of the Chester county election (in 1778) and in others after "he displayed the most extensive erudition and the energy of his mind commanded universal admiration." Hle was a powerful speaker. There was something singular in his mode of arriving at his goal. He appeared studiously to avoid the beaten track, but never failed to throw the strongest lights upon his subject-rather to flash than elicit conviction syllogistically. "At any rate," says Graydon, "he produced greater orations than any other man I have heard." He was, in truth, "a learned man and a profound lawyer, distinguished for his judicial attainments, and conspicuous for his political talents. Possessed of compre- hensive means he had closely devoted him- self to the researches which afford material for the construction of republican institu- tions, and which, in his hands, would have been absolutely perfect if political data ad- initted of mathematical results. "As time goes on," says Hon. Edward W. Biddle, "the splendid intellect which he possessed, and his merits as patriot, statesman, advocate, jurist and logician, are becoming more gen . erally recognized. The high regard which Washington entertained for his character and attainments is conclusively shown by the placing of Bushrod Washington in his office as a law student, and by his appoint- ment as a member of the first Supreme Court. Provincial conventions, Congress, the forum and the court room severally fur- nished a theater for his powers, and he was undoubtedly one of the most potential forces of his age." "In the councils of the colon- ists, no voice was more persuasive, no argu- ments more powerful than Wilson's. The principles of human government, the prin- ciples of the English constitution, the funda-

mental truth of liberty, were nowhere so clearly, so boldly, so fully examined and so plainly illuminated as in the masterly discourses of James Wilson," said Prof. James DeWitt Andrews, of Chicago, in a recent address on James Wilson and his relation to jurisprudence and constitu- tional law. And again, says the same writer: "Among them all there is perhaps one name more worthy, but after him, among the choice spirits of this new nation who stood like corner-stones against whom the waves of danger dashed and broke, no other man was more honored or more worthy of it than James Wilson. How long, oh, how long, shall the pages of a foreign author say of him, and of us, 'He was one of the great luminaries of his time to whom subsequent generations of Americans have failed to do justice. ' "'

Wilson was about six feet in height, with a large frame and erect bearing. Peale's por- trait of him is in Independence Hall, Phila- delphia.

Mr. Ross, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was at this time (1775) a member of the Assembly at Philadelphia. "In all legal matters, Mr. Ross, at thi: period," says Waln, "stood deservedly high." Before the Revolution he was among the first of his profession, and in the change which that event had produced in its component parts, as well as in its forensic character, he still maintained the same rank. The changes were indeed very considerable. Subjects of higher importance than those which commonly fall to the lot of provincial judicatures were brought forward; motives sufficient to arouse all the latent energies of the mind were constantly presenting them- selves. The bar was chiefly composed of gentlemen of aspiring minds and industrious habits, and Mr. Ross found himself engaged among men with whom it was honorable to contend and pleasant to associate. Mr. Wilson, who had practiced with great repu-

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tation at Carlisle, and others, in conjunction with Mr. Ross, "formed an assemblage of powerful and splendid talents which might have coped with any of equal number in any forum in America." (See Waln's "Lives of the Signers," Vol. VIII, pp. 197-8.)

II.

FROM THE REVOLUTION UNTIL THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITU- TION OF 1790.

From the period of the Revolution to the adoption of the State Constitution of 1790 the courts were presided over by justices who were appointed by the Supreme Execu- tive Council. They were as follows: John Rannalls and associates, from 1776 to Janu- ary, 1785; Samuel Laird and associates, from January, 1785. to 1786; Thomas Beals and associates, April. 1786; John Jordan and associates, from July, 1786, to October, 1790.

John Reynolds (always spelled in the court records "Rannalls") was the son of John Reynolds and was born at Shippens- burg in 1749. He was commissioned a jus- tice prior to the Revolution and was an active partisan in that struggle for inde- pendence. He was continued in commission by the Supreme Executive Council, June 9, 1777, and by virtue of seniority, became one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a member of the Pennsyl- vania convention to ratify the Federal con- stitution of 1787, but voted against the rati- fication. He died October 20, 1789, aged forty. (The writer is indebted for these facts to the late state librarian, Dr. William H. Egle.)

Samuel Laird came from the north of Ire- land in early life. He was born in 1732 and was among the earliest settlers of the town of Carlisle. He took an active part in the Revolution, was one of the commissioners of the county in 1778, and was appointed a justice February 6th, in the succeeding year.

The Supreme Executive Council appointed him (March 3, 1781) one of the auditors of the depreciation accounts, and on the 11th of October, 1785, he was commissioned pre- siding justice of the Courts of Quarter Ses- sions and of the Orphans' Court. Under the constitution of 1789-90 he was commissioned an associate judge (1791), in which office he continued until his death, at Carlisle, Sep- tember 27, 1806, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. "He was," says an old copy of the Carlisle Gazette, "for many years an upright magistrate before as well as since he took his seat upon the bench. Society, both civil and religious, has lost one of its greatest ornaments."

Thomas Beals was born in Chester county in 1737, and afterwards moved into Tusca- rora Valley, then in Cumberland county. In 1776 he commanded one of the associated battalions of Cumberland county. He was commissioned a justice, July 18, 1781, and became one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, October 27, 1786. He repre- sented Cumberland county in the General Assembly from 1786 to 1789, and opposed the calling of the constitutional convention of 1789-90, of which body, however, he was elected a member from Mifflin county, of which county he was commissioned an asso- ciate judge in 1791. He was a man of con- siderable prominence in public affairs. He died in January, 1803.

John Jordan, the fourth and last of these presiding justices, was born in the north of Ireland and settled in Cumberland county in 1740. when probably about thirty years of age. He was a captain in the Revolution and later was appointed a major of militia in 1792. He was commissioned a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, January 3, 1785, and under the constitution of '90 was ap- pointed by Governor Mifflin one of the asso- ciate judges on the bench in 1791. He died at Carlisle, December 5. 1799. He had been. according to the Carlisle Gazette, "a uni-

THE BENCHI AND BAR OF PENNSYLVANIA

form Whig-a lover of order, his country, constitution and laws."

And so, adieu! Ye Judges! Ye whose shades appear so dimly before us, and so little of whom we have been able to rescue from oblivion.

Thomas Smith, afterwards the first presi- dent judge of the courts of Cumberland county under the constitution, was admitted on motion of Mr. (Robert) Galbreath, at April term, 1778. Mr. Galbreath had been admitted upon his own application in Octo- ber, 1765.

RE-ADMISSIONS.

Owing to the adoption of the Declaration and the necessity of taking the new oath, most of the practicing attorneys were re- admitted in 1778-9. In July, 1778, Jasper Ycates and James Smith were re-admitted upon their own motions, and then upon the application of Jasper Yeates, James Wilson and Edward Burd were also re-admitted. In the October term following (1778) Ed- ward Shippen, Jasper Ewing and David Grier were admitted, and James Wilson again in the Court of Quarter Sessions. In April, 1779, on motion of Mr. Galbreath, David Sample, Esq. (of Lancaster?), was re-admitted. In July, 1779, on application of James Smith, Thomas Hartley was re- admitted, and on the application of Jasper Yeates, George North, Esq. James Hamil- ton, who afterwards became the fourth judge under the constitution, was admitted to practice upon the motion of Col. Thomas Hartley in April, 1781. Thomas Duncan was also admitted on motion of Mr. Yeates in October term of the same year.

Edward Shippen .-- Among those who practiced during this period between the Revolution and the adoption of the constitu- tion of 1790 was Hon. Edward Shippen, ad- mitted to our bar in 1778. He was the son of Edward Shippen, the elder, 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 Governor's Council. He afterwards rose rapidly and became chief justice of Penn- sylvania. He was the father of the wife of Gen. Benedict Arnold. During the Revolu- tion his sympathies were with England, but owing to the purity of his character and the impartiality with which he discharged his official duties, the government restored him to the bench. His name appears upon our records as late as 1800.

James Hamilton was admitted to the bar in April, 1781. He was an Irishman by birth, but emigrated to this country some time before the Revolution. He settled in Carlisle, where he soon acquired a large practice. Hc became the fourth president judge of this judicial district.

Hon. Thomas Duncan, LL. D., was, as we have seen, admitted to the bar in 1781, when he was twenty-one years of age. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, born in Carlisle in 1760, educated under Dr. Ramsey, the his- torian, and studied law in Lancaster under Hon. Jasper Yeates, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania. On his admission to the bar he re- turned to his native place and began the practice of law. His rise was rapid, and in less than ten years he was the acknowledged leader of his profession in the midland coun- ties 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 Pennsyl- vania outside of Philadelphia.

In 1817 he was appointed by Governor Snyder to the bench of the Supreme Court in place of his instructor, Judge Yeates, deceased. He shortly after moved to Phila- delphia, where he continued to reside until his death, November 16, 1827. During the ten years he sat upon the bench, associated with Gibson and Tilghman, he contributed largely to our store of judicial opinions, and

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the reports eontain abundant memorials of his industry and learning. These opinions begin with the third volume of the same series.

For years before the beginning of the present eentury and under four of the judges after the adoption of the constitution, name- ly, Smith, Riddle, Henry and Hamilton, Thomas Dunean praetieed at the bar of Cumberland eounty. At the bar he was distinguished by aeuteness of dis- eernment, promptness of decision and a ready resouree to the riel stores of his own mind and memory. He was both an exeel- lent land and eriminal' lawyer and was partieularly strong in the teehniealities of special pleading. (See Colonel Porter's re- marks in "Essay on Gibson.") He was enthusiastieally devoted to his profession, indefatigable and zealous, and praetieed over a large portion of the state. In appear- anee he was about five feet six inehes high, of small, delieate frame, rather reserved in manners, had rather a shrill voiee, wore powder in his hair, knee breeches and buekles in the fashion of the day, and was very neat and partieular in his dress. Upon his monument in the old graveyard in Car- lisle there is an eloquent eulogy which we have been informed was from the pen of Judge Gibson.

Of James A. Wilson, who was admitted before the Revolution, but praetieed for ten years during this period, we have already spoken. He was the "Major Wilson" of whom MeMaster speaks in his "History of the People of the United States," who defied the mob of anti-federalists on the publie square at Carlisle in December, 1787. James Wilson, "the Caledonian," whom they burned in effigy, was the noted man of earlier date at the bar, whom we have inen- tioned. (See MeMaster's "History of the People of the United States," Vol. I, p. 375.)

Among others who praetieed at this time was Stephen Chambers (from about 1783),

who was from Lancaster and a brother-in- law of John Joseph Henry, who was after- wards appointed judge of this judicial dis- triet in 1800. There was also John Clark, from York (from 1784 and after), who had been a major in the Revolution; a large inan, of fine personal appearance, jovial, witty, and the delight of the lawyers who traveled upon the cireuit in that day. There was Ross Thompson, who had praetieed in other eourts, admitted in 1788, but who died young. Another, John Andrew Hanna (1785), settled in Harrisburg at about the time of the formation of Dauphin county, and was the son-in-law and executor of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg. He was also in Congress from 1797 to 1805, in which year he died. There was Ralph Bowie, of York, admitted to the bar in October, 1785, who praetieed considerably in our courts from 1798 until after 1800. He was a Seotehman by birth and had probably been admitted to the bar in his native country. He was a well-read lawyer and was much sought after in important eases of ejeetment. He was of fine personal appearance, eourtly and dignified in manner, neat and partieular in dress. Ile powdered his hair, wore short elothes in the fashion of the day, and had soeial qualities of the most attractive ehar- aeter. The writer was told some years ago by the then oldest living member of our bar (George Metzger, Esq.), upon whose committee of examination in 1805 Ralph Bowie had been, that Ralph Bowie had been at one time the private seeretary of Lord George Gordon, of the "Gordon Riot" fame.

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume I, Part 2

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co. Number of Pages: 1102

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1102