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	(1769-07-17)July 17, 1769 Weymouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died	September 1, 1855(1855-09-01) (aged 86) Washington, D.C.
Resting place	Congressional Cemetery Washington, D.C.
Political party	Federalist
Spouse	Nancy Greenleaf (m. 1795)
Children	4 (including Christopher Pearse Cranch and John Cranch)
Parent(s)	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 he became 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. Cranch graduated from Harvard University in 1787 and read law with Thomas Dawes, a relative by marriage.

Legal career

Admitted to the Massachusetts bar, Cranch began a private legal practice in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1790. He continued private practice in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1790 to 1791. He was Justice of the Peace for Essex County, Massachusetts.

Following Congress's decision to move the capital to a new federal city in 1790, the 25 year old Cranch moved to the area ceded by Maryland and Virginia that would eventually become Washington, D.C.. Cranch became of the new city's land commissioners (serving from 1800 to 1801 and possibly replacing Gustavus Scott). However, the lack of housing in the new city meant that he initially resided in Alexandria, Virginia, which was made part of Washington, D.C. when the federal city was officially established by the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 on February 27, 1801 (and would remain so until retroceded to Virginia in 1847). In 1825, Cranch moved his residence across the Potomac River, to Delaware Avenue.

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. His service technically ended on February 24, 1806, when he was elevated to Chief Judge of the same court, as described below.

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 his appointee as Chief Judge, William Kilty, resigned to become Chancellor of Maryland. The Senate confirmed the promotion on February 24, 1806, and Cranch received his commission the same day.

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.

While a federal judge, Cranch became the 2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1802 to 1815. He also edited his own volume of reports on civil and criminal cases from the District of Columbia. In 1805, Cranch became a member of the first Board of Trustees for Public Schools and served on that board for 7 years. 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.

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.

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.

Personal life

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 debtor's 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. Nancy Cranch bore 13 children. Of the four Cranch sons who survived to adulthood, three became painters: Christopher Pearse Cranch, Edward P. Cranch, and John Cranch. Their daughter Abigail Adams Cranch married William Greenleaf Eliot, and their son Henry Ware Eliot was the father of poet T. S. Eliot. Judge 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..

Judge Cranch owned four slaves in 1800. He owned a 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.

Death, honors and legacy

Judge Cranch's judicial service terminated on September 1, 1855, when he died in Washington, D.C. He was interred in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

• 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.
• Cranch was elected an Associated Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1809.
• Cranch was elected as a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.
• 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.

See also

• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

Sources

• William Cranch at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a 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.