O Say Can You See

 

Washington C.C.U.S.

No. 64. 33.

William H. Williams Plaintiff in Error
vs
James Ash Defendant in Error

Transcript Record of Proceedings

Filed January 13th 1841

Affirmed with costs
4 March 1842.

 

Supreme Court of the United States

No. 64.

William H. Williams Plaintiff in Error
vs
James Ash defendant in Error

Index In Error to the Circuit Court U.S. for Washington D.C.

Index

Petition of Plaintiff to the Hon R. B. Taney Ch: Jus. Sup. Ct. U. States praying for a Writ of Error	Page 1.
Order of Chief Justice directing same to issue	" 4.
Writ of Error	" 5.
Citation	" 6.
Appeal Bond	" 7.
Style of Court	" 9.
Parties	" 9.
Petition for freedom	" 10.
Defendants Appearance & plea of not free	" 10.
Issue joined & venire facias	" 10.
Jury Sworn & Verdict	" 11.
Judgment on Verdict	" 11.
Defendants Bill of Exceptions	" 11.
Extract from the Will of Maria A. T. Greenfield	" 12.
Clerk Certificate & Seal	" 13.

  1

James Ash
vs.
William H. Williams

Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington.

Petition for Freedom.

Be it remembered that on the first day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, Judgment by the said Court was rendered against the Defendant in the above cause, as appears from the minutes and proceedings of said Court.

Whereupon the said Defendant by John Marbury Esquire his Attorney filed in Court here the following petition, which appears to have been addressed to the Honorable Roger B. Taney Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the words & off the tenor following, to wit:

To the Honorable the Ch. Justice of the United States of America

The petition of William H. Williams of Washington City in the District of Columbia, respectfully shews. That in the month of December last he purchased from Gerrard T. Greenfield, a negro man named James Ash, with notice that the said Greenfield claimed the said negro under the will of Maria A. Greenfield, late of Prince Georges County, Maryland, deceased, and that the said Maria had, by a proviso in her will restricted the sai right of said Gerrard to any one or to reserve him from the State of Maryland, a restriction   2 which she in like manner imposed upon the said Gerrard as legatee of sixteen other negroes in her said will. Your petitioner was also informed that the said Gerrard had been advised that such restriction upon the right to dispose of the property given him by the said will, being repugnent to the nature of the estate given, was void, and that his object in selling the negro James Ash was to obtain a Judicial decision on that question. the negro James was therefore informed of the sale and an opportunity given him to commence a suit for his freedom. Your petitioner was fully indemnified in the event of a decision in favour of the freedom of the said negro.

Your petitioner further shews that the said negro James did commence his said suit, and the same was tried at the term of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for Washington County whi on finding which closed its sittings on Friday the 1st of this month, and the judgment of the said Court in said cause being against your petitioner, be, feeling himself agrieved thereby, did pray an Appeal, but in as much as the said negro is not of the value of one thousand dollars your petitioner cannot have the benefit of his appeal without an order from one of the Justices of the Supreme Court directed directing the same to be allowed. Your petitioner therefore believing that there is error in the judgment of the said Circuit Court in the said cause, and that such error involves a question of law,   3 important to the slave states, and therefore of such important extensive interest as to render a final decision of the same by the Supreme Court of the United States desirable, respectfully lays before your Honor a copy of the proceedings complained of, and prays, that the same may be considered, and that your Honor would direct such order to the Clerk of the said Circuit Court as will enable your petitioner to reverse the said cause by appeal to the Supreme Court. & he will pray.

And your petitioner asks leave to suggest the following as a sufficient cause why such order should be allowed.

That in the decision of the case of James Ash, the Circuit Court have held virtually that the rule of law which would have been applied in the trial often right to any other property inapplicable to a case in which the right of a negro to freedom was involved, it having been conceeded on all hands, that if the bequest had related to other than negro property with a devise over in case of sale or removal, the devise over would have been void as depending on a repugnant condition. Or if Maria A. Greenfield had, instead of giving freedom to the negroes, in the event of their being sold or removed, given them in such event to some third person that the devise over would have been void for the same reason.

In addition to which your petitioner may suggest that the value of the property   4 effected by the decision of James' case is very dif considerable as appears by the clause of the will under which he claims his freedom. he further begs leave to refer to the case of Bradley vs Peixote. 3 Ves: 324.

John Marbury for the Petitioner

May 5. 1840.

Upon the back of the aforegoing petition was the following endorsement to wit:

To William Brent Clerk of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington.

You are hereby directed to issue the Writ of Error prayed for in the aforegoing petition, upon the terms and conditions prescribed by law.

District of Maryland
Baltimore May 12, 1840

R. B. Taney Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Whereupon, in the virtue of the above order the Writ of Error issued as prayed, with a citation directed to the sames James Ash and the said William H. Williams, having given bond, as required by law, the following Transcript of the record proceedings in the said cause is accordingly transmitted to the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

United States if America Sct.

The President of the United States

To the Judges of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, sitting for the County of Washington, Greeting.

Because in the Record & Proceedings as also in the rendition of the Judgment of a plea, which is in the said Court before you, between James Ash Petitioner, and William H Williams Defendant, a manifest error hath happened to the great damage of the said James Ash William H Williams, as by his Complaint, appears. And we being willing that error if any hath been, should be duly connected and full and speedy justice done to the parties aforesaid in this behalf, do command you if Judgment be therein given, that under your Seal, distinctly and openly, you send the Record & Proceedings aforesaid with all things concerning the same to the Supreme Court of the United States together with this writ, so that you have the same at W there on the Second Monday of January next in said Supreme Court then & there had & held. And that the Record & Proceedings aforesaid being inspected the said Supreme Court may cause further to be done therein, to correct that error which of right & according to the laws & the custom of the United States should be done. Witness the Hon: Roger B. Taney Chief Justice of said Supreme Court. Issued 14th May 1840

Wm Brent Clk

 

Writ of Error

filed 14th May 1840

 

District of Columbia Sct.
The United States of America
To James Ash Greeting.

You are hereby cited and admonished to be and appear at a Supreme Court of the United States on the Second Monday of January next pursuant to a Writ of Error filed in the Clerks Office of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Columbia in the County of Washington wherein William H. Williams is Plaintiff in error, and you are Defendant in error to shew cause if any there be why the Judgment rendered against the William H Williams should not be corrected, and why speedy justice should not be done to the Parties aforesaid in this behalf

Witness the Hon Wm Cranch Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia.

Issued this 22d January 1840. Issued this 14th of May 1840

W. Cranch.

 

Citation

Filed 14 May 1840.

 

Know all men by these presents, that we William H. Williams, Thomas Williams and Alexander Lee all of Washington County in the District of Columbia, are held and firmly bound unto James Ash, in the just & full sum of Five hundred dollars current money, to be paid to the said James Ash, his executors, administrators or assigns, to which payment well and truly to be made and done we bind ourselves and each of us, our & each of our heirs, executors and administrators, jointly & severally firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals and dated this 14th day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty.

Whereas lately in a Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, sitting for the County of Washington in a suit depending in the said Court, wherein the said James Ash, was the petitioner, and the said William H. Williams was defendant, judgment was rendered against the said defendant, and he having obtained a writ of error and filed a copy thereof in the Clerks Office of the Circuit Court, to reverse the judgment in the aforesaid suit, and a citation to the said James Ash to be and appear at a Supreme Court of the United States, to be held on the Second Monday of January next.

Now the Conditions of the above obligation is such, that if the said William H. Williams, shall prosecute his said writ with effect, and answer all damages and costs if he fails to make his plea good, then the above obligation to be null & void, otherwise to be and remain in the full force and virtue in Law.

Wm. H. Williams (seal)
Thos. Williams (seal)
Alexander Lee (seal)

Signed Sealed & Delivered in the Presence of Benjamin Burns

Approved
W. Cranch

Copy Test. W. Brent Clk

  9

District of Columbia Ss.

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 forty, and of the Independence of the United States the Sixty Fourth.

Present

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

In the record after the proceedings of the said Court, among others, are the following, to wit:

James Ash
vs.
William H. Williams

Be it remembered, that heretofore, to wit: on the nineteenth day of December in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine, the said James Ash, by Joseph H. Bradley, Esqr. his attorney, filed in the Court here, the following petition, to wit:

  10

The Petition of James Ash to the Honorable, the Judges of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington.

Humbly sheweth that the said James Ash is entitled to his freedom, and he hath filed his petition, in Prince Georges County Court & State of Maryland, that the said petition is still pending in the said County of Prince George; that a certain John Grimes hath arrested your petitioner, and now holds him in the private jail of William H. Williams in the City of Washington.

Your Petitioner prays that subpoena may be issued for the said William H. Williams, and that your petitioner may have a fair trial of his said petition in your Honorable Court.

Jos. H. Bradley for Petitioner

Whereupon subpoena issued as prayed, and the said William H. Williams, by John Marbury Esquire, by John Marbury, Esquire, his attorney, comes into Court here, and defends the Complaint aforesaid, when and where the said Court shall take the same into consideration, and for plea he says that the said Petitioner is not entitled to his freedom as is alleged, and of this he puts himself upon the Country; and the said petitioner in like manner and so forth.

therefore let a Jury thereon appear before the Court here immediately by whom &c. and who neither &c. recognize &c. because as well &c., who being called, come, to wit:

  11

• 1 William N. Waters
• 2 Samuel Phillips
• 3 Hy. H. McPherson
• 4 Geo W. Phillips
• 5 W. C. Orme
• 6 Jos. B. Ford
• 7 Wm Clarke
• 8 Thomas Owens
• 9 John Purdy
• 10 John N. Ferguson
• 11 A. W. Turner
• 12 Joseph H. Daniels

who being duly elected, empannelled and sworn to say the truth in the premises, upon their oath do say, that the said Petitioner is entitled to his freedom, as he above alledges. Therefore it is considered by the Court here, that the said James Ash, the Petitioner aforesaid be free and discharged of and from service of the said William H. Williams, and that the said petitioner go thereof without day. It is further considered by the Court here that the said Petitioner recover against the said William H. Williams the sum of     dollars and    cents, his cost and charges by him about his Petition in that behalf laid out and expended &c.

Memorandum. Before the jurors aforesaid withdrew from the bar of the Court here the said William H. Williams by his attorney aforesaid filed in the Court here the following bill of Exceptions, to wit:

Defendants Bill of Exceptions

Upon the trial of this cause, the Petitioner by his counsel, to support the issue on his part joined, produced and gave in evidence to the jury, the last will and testament of Maria Ann T. Greenfield, hereto annexed; and it was admitted   12. that the said Testatrix, died at the Country of Prince Georges in the State of Maryland, soon after the date of said Will in the year 1824; that upon her death Gerard T. Greenfield, the Executor named in the said Will duly proved the same in the Orphans Court of said County, where the slaves and property left by the Testatrix were; and took letters testamentary as such Executor, that the said G. T. Greenfield is the same person mentioned and described in the said Will, to whom several portions of the slaves of said Testatrix, under various limitations and the residue of the estate, are devised.

That the petitioner in one of the slaves named and demised in that clause of the said Will, which is in the words following to wit:

"I also give and bequeath to my nephew Gerard T. Greenfield all of my negro slaves, namely' Ben, Mason, Henry, George, Lewis, Rebecca, Kitty, Sophia, Mary, Elizabeth, Nathaniel and Maria; also Toney, Billy, Betty and Anne, provided he shall not carry them out of the State of Maryland, or sell them to any one, in either of which events, I will and desire the said negroes to be free for life."

That the Petitioner was a slave born and the property of said Testatrix at the time of her death; that the said G. T. Greenfield, upon the death of said Testatrix, took possession of the Petitioner and the other slaves devised demised to him in said Will, and held the same as his slaves so demised to him, from that time till the 18th day of December last, when, before the institution of this suit he sold the petitioner to the defendant: that the said G. T. Greenfield at   13 the time of the date of said Will, and ever since resided in the State of Tennessee; with an interval of between two and three years, that he sojourned after the death of the Testatrix, in Prince Georges Country aforesaid for the purpose of settling his business: thereupon the Court was of opinion and instructed the jury that by the fact of such sale of the Petitioner the estate or property in the petitioner so demised to said G. T. Greenfield ceased and determined; and the Petitioner thereupon became entitled to freedom and claimed in his said petition: to which opinion and instruction of the Court, the defendant by his counsel excepted &c. and this his bill of exceptions is sealed &c. this 1st day of May 1840.

W. Cranch (seal)
B. Thruston (seal)

Test: W. Brent. Clk.

District of Columbia
Washington County, to wit:

I William Brent Clerk of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington hereby certify that the aforegoing is a full, true and perfect transcript of all the proceedings had in the said Court, in the said cause, as appeareth of Record.

In Testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name   14. and affixed the seal of said Court, this 22d day of May 1840.

W. Brent. Clk