29 Facts About William Cranch

William Cranch was a United States circuit judge and chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia.

The elder William Cranch then studied law and won election to the Massachusetts legislature, then served many years as a judge of the court of common pleas, as well as wrote a religious book and received two honorary degrees from Harvard.

William Cranch was born at his maternal grandparents' home, about 12 miles south of Boston, since his mother retreated there from a smallpox outbreak in Boston.

William Cranch was their only son, and both parents would die within a day of each other, on October 16,1811.

William Cranch received his first schooling from his mother, who instructed him in Latin and Algebra.

William Cranch attended Harvard University with his cousin, John Quincy Adams, whose later-published diary mentions him.

William Cranch graduated in 1787, then read law with Thomas Dawes, a relative by marriage and judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

William Cranch continued private practice in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1790 to 1791.

William Cranch spent winter poring over accounts provided by his brother-in-law James Greenleaf.

William Cranch's fledgling legal practices had highs and by the turn of the century, William Cranch had filed over a thousand lawsuits in Maryland courts.

Nonetheless, the pecuniary troubles nearly caused William Cranch to move back to Massachusetts, but he reconsidered after one of John Adams' final acts as President.

William Cranch replaced Gustavus Scott and served for less than two months in 1801, trying the extricate the board from its lack of cash and general financial plight, while continuing his vigorous private legal practice.

On February 27,1801 Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, which among other things established the court system and William Cranch became one of the city's first judges, leaving his role as commissioner.

In 1825, William Cranch moved his residence across the Potomac River, to Delaware Avenue.

The Judiciary Act of 1801 authorized the new seat, the United States Senate affirmed the appointment on March 3,1801, and William Cranch received his commission the same day.

Notwithstanding his disagreement with other of President Adams' "midnight judges" which had led to the Judiciary Act of 1802 and the famous Marbury v Madison 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 Chief Judge William Kilty resigned to become Chancellor of Maryland.

The Senate confirmed the promotion on February 24,1806, and William Cranch received his commission the same day.

Judge William Cranch edited his own volume of reports on civil and criminal cases from the District of Columbia.

Meanwhile, in 1805, William Cranch became a member of the first Board of Trustees for Public Schools and served on that board for 7 years.

In 1827, Judge William Cranch would deliver a memoir of the life, character and writings of John Adams before the Columbian, and in 1829 Harvard College would confer an honorary Doctor of Laws decree upon William Cranch.

Judge William Cranch was one of the initial members of the American Colonization Society later that year, and remained on its board of managers for decades.

William Cranch issued two decisions that reversed attempts to persecute blacks in the new capital city.

William Cranch reversed the prior conviction, finding the law could not retrospectively impose restrictions upon free blacks who resided in the city before the 1820 charter that allowed city officials lawmaking powers.

In 1835, Judge William Cranch ruled in favor of Rachel Brent, whom Buckner had left in the District of Columbia for five years after he moved back to Virginia, then bought her back to Virginia and sold her to slavetrader John Armfield.

William Cranch issued several decisions that set a precedent for jury nullification, including:.

William Cranch handed down important precedent in a variety of topics, for example in a criminal law case regarding the mens rea of intoxication, William Cranch wrote:.

William Cranch married Nancy Greenleaf, the sister of Boston-born real estate investor James Greenleaf, who helped develop the new federal city with Philadelphian Robert Morris, but had severe financial problems which led to a stint in debtors' prison, his wife's establishing a separate residence in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Greenleaf spending his final years in a small house in the federal city near his sister and her husband.

Judge William Cranch did not remarry after his wife's death; James Greenleaf died the day after his sister, September 17,1843, although Greenleaf Point would be named in his honor.

William Cranch owned an enslaved women of between 50 and 60 years old and two girls between 10 and 15 years old in 1830, and one enslaved woman between 10 and 24 years old in 1840.