O Say Can You See

At a Circuit Court of the District of Columbia begun and held in and for the County of Washington, at the City of Washington, on the fourth Monday of March, being the twenty fourth day of the same month, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the Fifty eighth.

Present
The Hon William Cranch, Chief Judge
Buckner Thruston & James S. Morsell Assistant Judges
Alexander Hunter, Esquire, Marshal
William Brent Clerk

In the record of proceedings of the same Court among others are the following, towit

Be it remembered, that heretofore towit, on the eighth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty three, the said Fanny Jackson, & children by John J Dermott, Esquire, their attorney, filed in the Circuit Court here the following petition, towit:

"To the Honourable the Judges of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington.

The Petition of Fanny Jackson in behalf of herself and her infant children Louisa, Robert and Maria humbly complaining sheweth unto your Honors that she and they are entitled to their freedom and are unjustly   2 held in bondage by Aris Bucker and Bernard H Buckner who claim your Petitioners as slaves.

Wherefore your Petitioners pray your Honors to grant a subpoena to the said Aris Bucker & Bernard H Buckner directed, and such relief in the premises as may be according to Law.

John J. Dermott
Atty for Petitioners"

And thereupon the United States writ of subpoena was issued, directed to the Marshal of the District of Columbia in the words and of the tenor following to wit:

"District of Columbia, Towit:

The United States of America, to the Marshal of the District of Columbia, Greeting:

You are hereby commanded to summon Bernard H Buckner and Aris Buckner if they shall be found in the County of Washington, that (all excuses set aside) they be & appear before the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, to be held for the County of Washington, in the City of Washington, on the fourth Monday of November next, to answer the petition for freedom of Fanny Jackson and children filed in said court against them.

Herein fail not at your peril; and have you then and there this Precept.

Witness W Cranch, Esquire, Chief Judge of the said Court.

Issued the 8th day of July 1833.

Dermott W Brent clk"

At which said fourth Monday of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & thirty three, being the day of return of the   3 aforegoing writ of subpoena, came into the Circuit Court here the Petitioners aforesaid by their attorney aforesaid; and the marshal of the District aforesaid to whom the said subpoena was in form aforesaid directed, make return thereof to the Court here thus endorsed towit:
"Non Sunt, H Ashton, Marshal"

And thereupon the said Aris Buckner and Bernard H. Buckner by Walter Jones, Esquire their attorney voluntarily came into the Circuit Court here and defend the Complaint aforesaid, when and where the said Court shall take the same into consideration; and for plea they say that the said Petitioners are not entitled to his their freedom as is alledged, and of this they put themselves upon the Country, and the said Petitioners in like manner, & so forth; Therefore let a Jury thereon appear before the Court here, on the fourth Monday in March next, by whom &c, and who neither &c, to recognize &c, because as well &c, the same day is given to the said parties then & there & so forth.

And now at this day, to wit, the said fourth Monday of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty four, came again into the Circuit Court here as well the said Petitioners by their attorney aforesaid, as the said Bernard H Buckner and Aris Buckner by their attorney aforesaid; and thereupon the said Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner by their attorney aforesaid, filed in Court here the following affidavit, vizt.

Aris Buckner one of the Defendants in the above case makes oath, that he is credibly & certainly informed, & has good reason to think & believe, that a fair and impartial trial of the abovenamed case cannot be had in the County of Washington, where the said suit is depending; and prays for the usual order for removing the same into the County of Alexandria, pursuant to the act of Congress in such cases.

And the said Defendant further makes Oath, that some time early in the session of this Court, commencing in March last, he duly made and presented to the Court then in session an affidavit, duly sworn to in Open Court, of the same effect as above, and thereupon moved the Court for such order as aforesaid: which order, no opposition being thereto made, he understood was granted; and he attended the late Term of this Court at Alexandria, under the full expectation & belief of finding such order carried into effect, and the said case there docketted for trial; but to his surprise discovered that the case had not been transmitted from this Court to that; & upon enquiry finds that, owing to the accidental omission and inadvertency either of the Court or the Clerk, no trace either of the former affidavit, or of the motion and order thereupon made, can be discovered among the papers or records of this court; he presumes   5 that the affidavit was mislaid by the Court, and the order, though in fact allowed in the mind of the court, was forgotten to be delivered to the Clerk; because the Clerk distinctly recollects the fact of the affidavit being presented to the Court, but has no recollection of any order thereupon being communicated to him from the Court.

This Defendant further states that a suit is depending in the Court at Alexandria, brought by a negro woman, and of the same set of negroes as those who are petitioners in the above cases, against Franklin and Armfield, to whom she was sold, & which suit is defended by this Defendant, as being answerable over; that the last mentioned case is to be tried at the ensuing adjourned Term at Alexandria, when & where it would be highly convenient and save much expence to try all the cases together, as they are all intimately connected together, in the evidence & principles of law in which they depend.
Aris Buckner

Sworn to by Aris Buckner in Open Court this 20th May 1834
Test W Brent clk

Which being read and heard it was ordered by the Court here, in pursuance of the Law in such case made and provided, that a Transcript of the Record and proceedings, in the plea aforesaid, with all things thereunto relating, be transmitted to Alexandria County. And the same is transmitted accordingly.

In Testimony of all which I hereunto subscribe my name and affix the seal of the said Circuit Court, at the City of Washington, this 6th day of August 1834.
W Brent clk