Martin's Bench and Bar of Philadelphia
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MARTIN'S BENCH AND BAR OF PHILADELPHIA Together with other Lists of persons appointed to Administer the Laws in the City and County of Philadelphia, and the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania BY , JOHN HILL MARTIN OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR OF C PHILADELPHIA KKKS WELSH & CO., PUBLISHERS No. 19 South Ninth Street 1883 Entered according to the Act of Congress, On the 12th day of March, in the year 1883, BY JOHN HILL MARTIN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. W. H. PILE, PRINTER, No. 422 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Stack Annex 5 PREFACE. IT has been no part of my intention in compiling these lists entitled "The Bench and Bar of Philadelphia," to give a history of the organization of the Courts, but merely names of Judges, with dates of their commissions; Lawyers and dates of their ad- mission, and lists of other persons connected with the administra- tion of the Laws in this City and County, and in the Province and Commonwealth. Some necessary information and notes have been added to a few of the lists. And in addition it may not be out of place here to state that Courts of Justice, in what is now the Com- monwealth of Pennsylvania, were first established by the Swedes, in 1642, at New Gottenburg, nowTinicum, by Governor John Printz, who was instructed to decide all controversies according to the laws, customs and usages of Sweden. What Courts he established and what the modes of procedure therein, can only be conjectur- ed by what subsequently occurred, and by the record of Upland Court. It is said that the English after the conquest of the lands on the Delaware, concluded not to make any violent change in the administration of justice as it then existed under the Dutch rule, following the good example of the Dutch, wh'o, on taking possession of the country in 1664, permitted the Swedish magis- trates to remain in office. So we find that there was sitting at Upland (Chester) on August 18, 1672, a Court with titles and powers unknown to the English law, its powers appearing to have been legislative as well as judicial. At what time the seat of justice was removed from New Gottenburg to Upland, is not definitely known. Stuyvesant met the Swedish Magistrates and Sheriff at Tinicum, in 1658, but the records of the Court there, as well as the records of the Upland Court prior to November 14, 1676, are lost. See Upland Record, 4.3. Under William Penh, 1681, a new order of things took place, and as Peter McCall, Esq., in his discourse before the Law Academy, on September 5, 1838, p. 7, says: IV PREFACE. "The first organization of the Courts was admirable for its simplicity and convenience. The County Court, in the days of Alfred and Egbert, a tribunal 'of great dignity and splendour.' was drawn from the obscurity into which it had sunk after the Norman invasion, and was made the ground-work of the edifice. It was composed of the Justices of the Peace of the several counties, with an appeal to the Provincial or Supreme Court. The Provincial Court originally consisted of five Judges. The number afterwards varied from five to three, who went their Circuits every fall and spring in each county. To it belonged the cognizance of the higher criminal offences, and all appeals from the County Courts, both in law and equity. To complete the structure were added the Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Court, and the Admiralty. Such was the plan of the Judicial system established at the settlement of the Colony; so simple, yet convenient in its arrangements, that though frequent alterations were made in its details by subsequent legislation, the general outline remains to the present day a standing proof of its endur- ing excellence." In addition to the regular County Court, a tribunal was estab- lished by Act of March 10, 1683-4, called the Peace-Makers, consisting of three persons, who held their appointment from the Court. Their duties seem to have been somewhat analogous to those of Arbitrators. Their judgment, however, when certified to the Court, was conclusive of its sentence. The County Courts were early (1685) made Courts of Equity as well as Law, but the Law and Equity sides were distinct, though held by the same Justices, except that when sitting in Equity they were called Commissioners, as will be seen by refer- ence to the minutes of the Courts of Chester County, (all the Records of the Common Pleas of Philadelphia, previous to 1789, are missing.) See Dr. Smith's History of Delaware Co., 161. The foot notes to Dallas' Laws, in the different Acts relative to the organization of the Courts, are interesting in this connec- tion, (see / Dallas, 172-74, &c.,) as are also the sketch of the Court of Equity given by Henry William Rawle, Esq., in his discourse before the Law Academy, February n, 1868, and the address of the Hon. James T. Mitchell, one of the Judges of the late District Court, at its final adjournment on January 4, 1875. This introduction would hardly be perfect without reference PREFACE. V to the former lists of admissions to the Bar, and lists of our law- yers that have appeared in print, viz: The Members of the Philadelphia Bar. A complete catalogue from July, 1776, to July, 1855, by R. F. Williams, Philadelphia, 1855, pp. 50. A Catalogue of the Philadelphia Bar, admitted between June and 1861 i, 1855, January i, ; compiled from the records of the several Courts in the City of Philadelphia, by Horace L. Peter- son, Esq. Printed by King & Baird, 1861.- A List of Admissions to the Philadelphia Bar from 1855 to 1867, will be found in The Age newspaper of January i, 1867. The Philadelphia Bar, a complete catalogue of the Members from 1776 to 1868, by E. Cooper Shapley and David Paul Brownf Jr., Esquires; Philadelphia, 1868, pp. 53. The offering of the carrier of the Legal Gazette to its patrons, December 25, 1871, being a list of the practising lawyers of the Philadelphia Bar, arranged according to seniority of admission, with the dates to thereof, February 23, 1871 ; pp. 7. " List of the practicing Members of the Philadelphia Bar," with the dates of their admission. Printed by John Campbell & Sons, October 10, 1879; PP- I0 - Directory of the Members of the Philadelphia Bar, being a list the location their offices a of practising Attorneys, and the of ; C. 2n^ pocket edition, by Richard Winship, Esq., 1879; PP- 34 > edition, 1881; pp. 38; 3rd edition, 1883; pp. 48. The Philadelphia Legal Directory, for the use of the profession, giving a list of the practising Lawyers, with the location of their offices, &c. Compiled by E. C. Markley & Son, 1882; pp. 14. The Philadelphia Directories, from 1854 to 1868, published each year a list of the practising Lawyers, and similar lists have been continued in "The Philadelphia Business Directory" and " in Boyd's Business Directory," since 1868. Among the many customs imported from England, relative to the members of the legal profession, is the practice of carrying their briefs and papers to Court in what are termed "Lawyer bags." The profession generally, until after the Civil War of 1861-5, carried green bags, though a few of the older lawyers varied the custom by using those of a blue color, but red bags are a modern innovation, within the last ten years. In this connection the following article from Jeaffreson's book VI PREFACE. about lawyers may not be deemed inappropriate, but a fitting conclusion to the introduction of this work to the profession, wherein I have striven to rescue from oblivion the names of the good men and true who have labored on the Bench and at the Bar of Philadelphia. "On the stage of the Carolina theatres, the lawyer is found with a in his hand the is the case in the litera- green bag ; same ture of until a recent Queen Anne's reign ; and comparatively date, green bags were generally carried in Westminster Hall and in provincial Courts by the great body of legal practitioners. From Wycherley's 'Plain Dealer,' it appears that in the time of Charles II., angry clients were accustomed to revile their lawyers as 'green-bag carriers.' When the litigious widow Blackacre upbraids the barrister who declines to argue for her, she exolaims : ' Impertinent again, and ignorant to me ! Gad's boddikins ! You puny upstart in the law, to use me so; you green-bag carrier; you murderer of unfortunate causes, the clerk's ink is scarce off your fingers.' In the same drama making much play with the green bag Wycherley indicates the widow Blackacre's quarrelsome disposition by decorating her with an enormous green reticule, and makes her son, the law student, stagger about the stage in a gown and a heavy burden of green bags. So, also, in the time of Queen Anne, to say that a man intend- ed to carry a green bag, was the same as saying that he meant to adopt the law as a profession. In Dr. Arbuthnot's History of John Bull, the prevalence of ' the phrase is shown by the passage, I am told, cousin Diego, you are one of those that have undertaken to manage me, and that you have said you will carry a green bag yourself, rather than we shall make an end of our law suit. Til teach them and you, too, to manage.' It must, however, be borne in mind that in Queen Anne's time, green bags, like white bands, were generally adopted by solicitors and attorneys, as by members of the bar.