William Cranch
William Cranch | |
---|---|
Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia | |
In office February 24, 1806 – September 1, 1855 | |
Appointed by | Thomas Jefferson |
Preceded by | William Kilty |
Succeeded by | James Dunlop |
Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia | |
In office March 3, 1801 – February 24, 1806 | |
Appointed by | John Adams |
Preceded by | Seat established by 2 Stat. 103 |
Succeeded by | Allen Bowie Duckett |
2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
In office 1801–1815 | |
Preceded by | Alexander J. Dallas |
Succeeded by | Henry Wheaton |
Personal details | |
Born | Weymouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America | July 17, 1769
Died | September 1, 1855 Washington, D.C. | (aged 86)
Resting place | Congressional Cemetery Washington, D.C. |
Political party | Federalist |
Spouse(s) | Nancy Greenleaf (m. 1795) |
Children | 4 (including Christopher Pearse Cranch and John Cranch) |
Parents | Richard Cranch Mary Smith |
Relatives | William Greenleaf Eliot (son in law) Henry Ware Eliot (grandson) T. S. Eliot (great-grandson) |
Education | Harvard University |
Signature |
William Cranch (July 17, 1769 – September 1, 1855) was a United States Circuit Judge and Chief United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. A staunch Federalist and nephew of President John Adams, Cranch moved his legal practice from Massachusetts to the new national capital, where served as one of three city land commissioners for Washington, D.C., and during his judicial service also was the 2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and a Professor of law at Columbian College (which later became George Washington University).
Early life and education[]
Cranch was born on July 17, 1769, in Weymouth, Massachusetts to Mary (Smith), the sister of Abigail Adams and her husband Richard Cranch, who had emigrated from Devonshire, became a judge of the court of common pleas and wrote a religious book.[1][2][3] Cranch graduated from Harvard University in 1787 and read law with Thomas Dawes, a relative by marriage.[1]
Legal career[]
Admitted to the Massachusetts bar, Cranch began a private legal practice in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1790.[1] He continued private practice in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1790 to 1791.[1] He was Justice of the Peace for Essex County, Massachusetts.[1]
Following Congress's decision to move the capital to a new federal city in 1790, Cranch moved to the area ceded by Maryland that would eventually become Washington, D.C. from 1791 to 1800.[1] He became of the new city's land commissioners (serving from 1800 to 1801) possibly replacing Gustavus Scott. Washington, D.C. was officially established by the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 on February 27, 1801.[1]
Federal judicial service[]
President John Adams nominated his nephew on February 28, 1801, to the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. The Judiciary Act of 1801 authorized the new seat, the United States Senate affirmed the appointment on March 3, 1801 (President Adams' last day in office), and Branch received his commission the same day.[1] His service technically ended on February 24, 1806, when he was elevated to Chief Judge of the same court, as described below.[1]
Notwithstanding his disagreement with other of President Adams' "midnight judges" which had led to the Judiciary Act of 1802 and the famous Supreme Court decision, President Thomas Jefferson on February 21, 1806, nominated Cranch as the Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, when his appointee as Chief Judge, William Kilty, resigned to become Chancellor of Maryland.[1] The Senate confirmed the promotion on February 24, 1806, and Cranch received his commission the same day.[1]
Cranch's Federalist Party died out in the mid-1820s; he was last holder of a United States government office who had been a Federalist.[4]
While a federal judge, Cranch became the 2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1802 to 1815.[1] He also edited his own volume of reports on civil and criminal cases from the District of Columbia.[5] In 1805, Cranch became a member of the first Board of Trustees for Public Schools and served on that board for 7 years.[6] On February 3, 1826, the Columbian College (now George Washington University) board of trustees elected Cranch and William Thomas Carroll, Esq., as the first law professors. On June 13 of the same year, President John Quincy Adams attended Professor Cranch's first law lecture, in the court room of the City Hall.[7]
Notable decisions[]
Cranch is known for several decisions that set a precedent for jury nullification (allowing a jury to nullify an "unjust" law and refuse to convict), including:
- United States v. Fenwick, 25 F. Cas. 1062; 4 Cranch C.C. 675 (1836): Right to make legal argument to jury.
- Stettinius v. United States, 22 F. Cas. 1322; 5 Cranch C.C. 573 (1839): Right to make legal argument to jury.
- Kendall v. United States ex Rel. Stokes, 37 U.S. 524 (1838): Asserted the D.C. Circuit's right to issue Writs of mandamus.[8]
Cranch also handed down important precedent in a variety of topics, for example in a criminal law case regarding the mens rea of intoxication, Cranch wrote:
It often happens that the prisoner seeks to palliate his crime by the pleas of intoxication; as if the voluntary abandonment of reason ... were not, of itself, an offense sufficient to make him responsible for all of its consequences.[9]
Personal life[]
Cranch married Nancy Greenleaf. They had four sons, of whom three became painters: Christopher Pearse Cranch, , and John Cranch.[10] Their daughter Abigail Adams Cranch married William Greenleaf Eliot, and their son Henry Ware Eliot was the father of poet T. S. Eliot.[citation needed]
Judge Cranch owned four slaves in 1800.[11] He owned a enslaved women of between 50 and 60 years old and two girls between 10 and 15 years old in 1830,[12] and one enslaved woman of between 10 and 24 in 1840.[13]
Death, honors and legacy[]
Judge Cranch's judicial service terminated on September 1, 1855, due to his death in Washington, D.C.[1] He was interred in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[14]
- In 1871, the Cranch Public School Building, named in Cranch's honor, opened at the southwest corner of 12th and G, SE in Washington, D.C. It was demolished in 1949.[6][15]
- Cranch was elected an Associated Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1809.[16]
- Cranch was elected as a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.[17]
- During the 1820s, Cranch was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and many prominent men of the day, including military officers and officials of government service, and leaders of medical and other professions.[18]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m William Cranch at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- ^ https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/adams-abigail-1744-1818
- ^ Biographies of Notable Americans (1904) on ancestry.com
- ^ Finkelman, Paul (2011). Millard Fillmore: The American Presidents Series: The 13th President, 1850-1853. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8050-8715-4.
- ^ Columbia), United States Circuit Court (District of; Cranch, William (July 2, 1853). "Reports of Cases Civil and Criminal in the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, from 1801 to 1841". Little, Brown – via Google Books.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Twenty-fifth Report of the Board of Trustees of Public Schools of the City of Washington, 1871-'72. M'Gill & Witherow. 1872. p. 136.
- ^ "Probing the Law School's Past: 1821-1962". gwu.edu. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
- ^ Roberts, John G. (2006). "What Makes the D.C. Circuit Different?: A Historical View". Virginia Law Review. 92 (3): 375–389. ISSN 0042-6601. JSTOR 4144947.
- ^ William Cranch, White, Edward G. 1988. The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815–1835. Vols. 3 and 4, History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1815–1835. New York: Macmillan
- ^ David Bernard Dearinger; National Academy of Design (U.S.) (2004). Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826-1925. Hudson Hills. ISBN 978-1-55595-029-3.
- ^ 1800 U.S.Federal Census for Washington, District of Columbia p. 10 of 17
- ^ 1830 U.S.Federal Census for Ward 4, Washington, District of Columbia p. 19 of 26
- ^ 1840 U.S.Federal Census for Washington, District of Columbia p. 214-215 of 328; His name does not appear on the 1850 slave schedules, though digital indexing links someone of a similar surname to an 11 year old woman in Culpeper, County, Virginia
- ^ William Cranch at Find a Grave
- ^ "12th and G Street SE". The Ruined Capitol. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ "MemberListC". American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
- ^ Rathbun, Richard (1904). The Columbian institute for the promotion of arts and sciences: A Washington Society of 1816-1838. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, October 18, 1917. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
Sources[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Cranch. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: William Cranch |
- William Cranch at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- White, Edward G. 1988. The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815–1835. Vols. 3 and 4, History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1815–1835. New York: Macmillan.
- Witt, Elder. 1990. Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly
Further reading[]
- William Cranch, O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family (accessed Nov. 4, 2015) This person page networks the involvement of William Cranch in the legal records and proceedings of the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia between 1800 and 1855.
- 1769 births
- 1855 deaths
- 18th-century American judges
- 19th-century American judges
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Harvard College alumni
- Judges of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
- Members of the American Antiquarian Society
- People from Weymouth, Massachusetts
- Reporters of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States
- United States federal judges appointed by John Adams
- United States federal judges appointed by Thomas Jefferson