|
Chapter XXV
The Court, Bench, And Bar Of Delaware County.
| |||
|
of five appointed by Delaware County to receive Lafayette, and in the fall of that year he was again elected one of the commissioners. In 1826-27 he was a member of the Legislature, and in the latter year was appointed by Governor Shulze to the associate judgeship made vacant by the resignation of Maj. Anderson. His long association with the courts as clerk gave him considerable knowledge of the manner in which legal matters were therein conducted, and frequently during Judge Darlington's term as president judge - the latter was subject to severe attacks of gout - Associate Judge Engle was compelled to preside, charging the grand jury and trying the cases. Jan. 26, 1842, he was recommissioned, although on that occasion his nomination had been sent to the Senate over a year before the date given, and was not confirmed, owing to the fact that at the December court, 1840, Judge Engle had been presented by the grand inquest for an alleged disturbance at the preceding Presidential election at Chester, the complaint being made by William Eves, Sr., Isaac Lloyd, and James McClarum. The proceedings failed in court at the February sessions, but the quarrel was carried to Harrisburg, and prevented for a time the confirmation by the Senate of the appointment of Judge Engle. In 1851, his term having expired, and being advanced in years, he retired from public life. Judge Engle died Oct. 18, 1857, aged eighty-seven years and nine months.
Henry Myers was prothonotary, recorder, register of wills, and clerk of the courts of Delaware County for three terms, being commissioned Jan. 17, 1824, Dec. 21, 1826, and Jan. 18, 1830. In 1824 he was one of the committee from Delaware County appointed to receive Gen. Lafayette. On Dec. 27, 1833, he was commissioned one of the associate judges, and while discharging the duties of that office was elected, in 1836, senator from this district, then comprising Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster Counties, serving in that capacity for four years. At the expiration of the term he retired from public life. On Feb. 23, 1855, Judge Myers died. He left his home, in Upper Darby, on the morning of that day, and when night came, not having returned, his family immediately instituted a search for him, but without success until the following day, when his body was discovered near Cobb's Creek. The intense cold had benumbed him so that he sank to the earth and perished. Dr. George Smith was appointed by Governor Ritner, Dec. 8, 1836, one of the associate judges, and subsequently elected by the people to the same position in 1861. I present a sketch of the useful life-work of this eminent native of Delaware County in the article on physicians, and it is unnecessary to repeat it here. On Feb. 25, 1843, George Gray Leiper was appointed by Governor Porter an associate judge of the courts of Delaware County. He was a son of Col. Thomas Leiper, of Ridley, and was born in Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1786. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1803, when in his seventeenth year, and after his marriage made his home permanent on the Leiper estates, in Ridley township. Here in 1811 he established the first Sunday-school in the annals of the county. During the war of 1812 he was first lieutenant in Capt. James Serrill's company, the Delaware County Fencibles, which organization was mustered into service Sept. 21, 1814, and December 6th, of the same year, was discharged. In 1818 he built, at his own cost, the Ridley (Leiper) Presbyterian Church. In 1822-23 he was a Representative in the Legislature, and while there he so strongly and successfully urged State appropriation for the maintenance of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, in Philadelphia, that in recognition of his services he was chosen a director of that institution, and continued until his death. In the fall of 1824 he was one of the committee from Delaware County appointed to receive Gen. Lafayette. In 1828 he was elected a member of the Twenty-first Congress, and although strongly pressed to be a candidate for re-election, refused, even when President Jackson, a warm personal friend of Mr. Leiper, personally requested him to allow his name to go before the people for a second term. In 1843, as above stated, Governor Porter appointed Mr. Leiper one of the associate judges, to which position he was reappointed by Governor Shunk, Feb. 16, 1848, and continued on the bench until the office was made elective. Judge Leiper retired from active public life, devoting his attention to the care of his large estate. He died at Lapidea, his residence on Crum Creek, Nov. 18, 1868, in his eighty-third year. At the October election of 1851, James Andrew, of Darby, was chosen to the office of associate judge, and was commissioned Nov. 10, 1851. He and Sketchley Morton were the first associate judges elected by the votes of the people. James Andrew held no other county office than that of judge, but so acceptably did he discharge the duties of the position that he was reelected in 1856, his commission being dated November 12th of that year, and in 1861 he was again called to a seat on the bench. At the expiration of his term, having attained threescore and ten, he retired from public service. Sketchley Morton was born in Springfield, Oct. 12, 1810, his father's (John S. Morton) farm constituting much of the present village of Morton, on the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad. From his early manhood be devoted himself mainly to merchandising and other business enterprises in which he was engaged, declining to take any very active part in political movements. He was, however, elected a member of the Legislature, serving during the session of 1847-48, at a time when the question of removing the seat of justice had divided the people of the county into removalists and anti-removalists, and although he was adverse to the change, his action in the House in pressing a bill to carry out that par- | |||