On This Day…in 1746 – Thomas Heyward Jr. with Giveaway by Donna Schlachter

Thomas Heyward Jr from Wikipedia

Born on this day in 1746 in what is now knowns as Jasper County (then, St. Luke’s Parish) to Mary Miles Heyward and Daniel Heyward, Thomas Jr. grew up to be an American Founding Father, lawyer, judge, and politician. Of interest, he was called “Junior”, yet there is no indication he was named after his father. This author conjectures that perhaps his father’s name was Daniel Thomas or Thomas Daniel, as was his son, but both went by different Christian names.

Middle Temple students called to The Bar -- Wikipedia

 

Educated at home, Thomas studied law in England, where he joined the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, the British equivalent of the American Bar Society. On his return to the United States, he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and in 1776, was the final delegate to sign the Declaration of independence, forever enshrining him as a Founding Father.

Although the exact dates aren’t known, Thomas married twice, both times to women named Elizabeth. His first wife, Elizabeth Mathews, daughter of Colonel John and Sarah Gibbs Mathews, was also the sister of South Carolina governor John Mathews.

Thomas Heyward House, current day -- Wikipedia

 

 

Following his term, he returned to South Carolina to serve as a judge in 1778. Of note, he presided over a trial of several persons on the charge of treason against the United States. The jury found them guilty and they were executed in sight of the British army encamped nearby. His participation in this trial earned him no points with the enemy, and two years later, while serving in command of a militia unit, he was captured by the British during an attack on Charleston.

To prove their mastery over him, the British captured his many slaves, transporting 130 to a sugar plantation in Jamaica. However, this huge financial loss (more than $50,000 value), resulted in his being named as a martyr to the revolution by the press.

After being relocated to a prison ship in the harbor, they were removed to St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained for about 11 months until freed in a prisoner exchange. As though to mock his captors, he transposed a popular song, “God Save the King”, into “God Save the States”, earning him even more popularity. He was finally released in 1782, and it was during this year that Elizabeth died during childbirth, having delivered six children to him. Only one, Daniel, survived childhood.

His second wife, Elizabeth Savage, was the daughter of Colonel Thomas and Mary Elliott Savage of Charleston. Together they had three children, all of whom lived to adulthood: Thomas, William, and Elizabeth.

As was common in that time, he also had children of the female slaves he owned. Most notably, his grandson, Thomas E. Miller, became one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the south in the 1890s.

In 1784, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society, and he continued serving as a judge, retiring in 1798.

Thomas Heyward, Jr. is buried at Old House Plantation near Ridgeland, South Carolina, passing away at the age of 62.

Giveaway: Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for another story about a former slave, Theresa, in “Theresa’s Talent”. Don’t forget to cleverly disguise your email address so the bots don’t get you but we can if you win. For example: donna AT livebytheword DOT com





About “Theresa’s Talent”: Theresa, a former slave, wants two things: to own a business, and to vote. She excels at cooking and baking, so the first should be easy. The second? Already suffragettes had been working for twenty years—while it was the law in Colorado, would she see it the law of the land for every woman in the union in her lifetime?

Toby, a freeman now working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, loves the sense of adventure and justice that being a private investigator brings. But when he sees justice failing for a white man, he can’t stand idly by and do nothing. Even if it means putting himself in danger.

But, is he willing to put another in the same position? 

About Donna:
A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers' groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching committed writers eager to tell their story. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651



www.DonnaSchlachter.com

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Resources:

https://www.middletemple.org.uk/about-us

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Heyward_Jr.

Courts of the Old West

By Jennifer Uhlarik 

If you’re anything like me, watching western movies as a kid led to the belief that the western territories and states were a completely lawless land. Sure, I knew there were lawmen—sheriffs, marshals, and the like—and even a plethora of bounty hunters. Western movies, shows, and books were filled with those. But so many westerns, whether on the big or small screen, or in print, conveyed the idea that things were dealt with by vigilante justice rather than in an actual court of law. People took matters in their own hands, rather than seeking out a lawyer, a judge, or a court, right? Turns out, nothing was further from the truth.

 

In researching for my newest release, Love and Order: A Three-Part Old West Romantic Mystery, I had the pleasure of ferreting out whether there was the court system in Colorado Territory in the 1800s and how such an animal might have operated in that time and place. 

Judge Roy Bean, a Justice of the Peace, dubbed himself the "Only law west of the Pecos."

So, the court system in the western territories was typically set up with a Territorial Supreme Court, comprised of three justices who were each appointed by the President of the United States. These justices were not only the highest judges in the territory—but often, they were the only judges. (Yes, there might have been Justices of the Peace who were in charge of hearing small local matters, but these JP’s were not typically part of the Territorial Court system that would try cases dealing with the Territorial laws. An example would be Judge Roy Bean).

 

Each territory was segmented into three parts, and each Supreme Court Justice became the traveling judge who oversaw cases in one of those territorial districts. Each judge had a U.S. Marshal working closely with him to schedule trials, who acted as bailiff during trials, and helped with other court matters. If a lawman or prosecutor wished to bring a case to trial, he would contact the Marshal, get the case on the judge’s docket, and then would have to wait until the judge and his traveling court continent made it through the circuit to the nearest town to hear that case.

 

In most places, there wasn’t a dedicated courthouse in which to host a trial. So where did the proceedings happen? Anywhere they could find a place. Court cases might have been held in an open field if the weather permitted, in a schoolhouse, a church, a meeting hall, or a saloon. And the cases were often seen as a great source of entertainment, so people would often take off work to witness the spectacle. And a spectacle it often was! 

An Old West Saloon

Though the judges had garnered the attention of the President to receive the appointment as territorial justice, many of them saw this as a punishment. They viewed it not as an honor, but as being banished to the uncivilized territories. Thus, many of them took a very lackadaisical attitude toward their jobs. Judges were sometimes known to come into court drunk (or to become so as the day went on—especially when the venue was a saloon). They also often lent only half an ear to the proceedings while they trimmed their nails or took care of other personal grooming tasks. And often, lots of shenanigans went on because the judge would allow the audience too much power. For instance, in one case I read about, held in a local saloon, many of the townsfolk who were in attendance would holler out, asking for a recess, so that they could get a refill on their alcoholic beverages—and the judge permitted it. I’m sure you can imagine the wild and wooly spectacle such a trial might have been.

 

Certainly, some of the judges would’ve taken their jobs seriously, but many didn’t treat it with the respect it deserved. So if the outcome of a trial was in question, the defendants and their attorneys could always ask for an appeal to the Supreme Court. But wait…! Keep in mind that the judge who just heard the case was one of the three Justices of the Territorial Supreme Court, and an appeal required two of the three Justices to agree to hear the case. If the original judge ruled no (which they often did), and he could convince a second Justice to deny the request, then the appeal would go nowhere. The initial judgment stood.

 

I mentioned earlier about the court contingent that the judges traveled with. Interestingly, each territorial judge had a whole group of people they would bring along on their circuit—a slate of prosecutors, defense attorneys, a court reporter, investigators, and more. Everyone the judge would need to try a case was in that company, except for the defendants and witnesses. Now, that’s not to say that every trial lawyer traveled with the judge around the territory. In fact, one of the many interesting facts I discovered through my research was that the topmost profession in the 1800s western territories was that of attorney. So not all attorneys could travel with the itinerant court system. In fact, attorneys were so prevalent in that day that most of them had to have a second job to pay the bills, which tied many of them to their local towns. They might also own a saloon (great if the court used their venue for its cases!), ran cattle or horses on a ranch, or operated a local store. Some were miners, land surveyors, or had some other kind of business to help make ends meet. Really, the only attorneys who made a living from their law practice were the ones who were part of the traveling court system. 

By Jonathunder -
Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3899115

 

So if a defendant didn’t have a private attorney, a traveling defense attorney would be assigned his case. Same with the prosecutors. If a local prosecutor wasn’t bringing the case, a traveling one was assigned. These attorneys could prepare for their cases before arriving in the town where the trail was to take place by writing letters, sending telegrams, reading up on any reports or testimony that had been gathered (if there was any), and could break away from the traveling company to go and meet with a defendant or other witnesses in between other cases they were assigned. But I’m sure you can imagine, expecting a traveling attorney to mount an airtight defense under such circumstances could be a risky thing. So it was in the defendant’s interest to retain his own attorney so that he could expect a better defense. (Surprise, surprise…not a lot has changed in that aspect between the courts of old and courts of today).

 

(If you’re interested in learning more about how one became an attorney in the Old West, I wrote a post on the topic several years ago. Please find it here.)

 

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, when the court rolled into town, it was usually quite a spectacle. Often, there was as much excitement for the court proceedings as there might be for a traveling circus, medicine show, or other form of entertainment. And sometimes, there’d be some very interesting happenings in the proceedings. In one case I read about, a widow sat quietly through the trial of her husband’s killer, waited for the verdict, and then calmly left her seat, approached the defendant, and feet from the judge, leveled her dead husband’s pistol at the killer’s belly. If my memory serves, not only the U.S. Marshal bailiff drew down on her, but so did the judge, the defense attorney, and several who’d come to watch the proceedings.

 

So yes, there was a court system in the western territories of the 1800s. But I should add one other fact. The movies, TV shows, and novels I took in during my teens did have it partially right. Because the traveling courts could take months to reach a town and try a case, it often did lead to the prevalence of vigilante groups bringing justice outside of the courts—especially since jails of the Old West tended to be rather “leaky.” (That’s a tease for next month’s topic…)

 

It's Your Turn:

Were you aware that there was a robust court system in the western territories of the 1800s? What did you find surprising about how these courts operated?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

 

Available now

 

Love and Order

 

Wanted: 

Family, Love, and Justice

One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.

 

Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter. 

 

When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

Becoming A Lawyer In The Old West

I’m working on a few new ideas for stories, and in the course of trying to plot one of them, I found I needed to research how people became lawyers in the Old West.

We all know how you’d study law today. One would apply for law school, complete the required coursework, take a bar exam, and voila!—you’re a lawyer. But the process was much different in the past.

During the colonial days, there were no law schools, either here in America or back in England. In fact, it wasn’t until a few years after the American Revolution that the first colleges—the College of William and Mary and the University of Pennsylvania—added a “Chair in Law” to their collegiate staff. By 1784, the Litchfield Law School opened, becoming the first official law school. It wasn’t until the 1840s and beyond that Yale, Harvard, and other prestigious institutions known today opened the doors to their law schools. And if you were a woman hoping to practice law, your choices were even fewer. Women were not allowed to study law in colleges and universities until the late 1800s or early 1900s.

So how did one become a lawyer with few choices for schooling? The short answer is—you became an apprentice. Sounds simple enough, though in my estimation, the process was anything but...

The process, called “reading law,” was composed of only two steps. First, the would-be lawyer would need to find an experienced, practicing lawyer who was willing to apprentice or mentor him. Second, under the tutelage of a willing teacher, the new apprentice would begin a period of study. There was no determined length of this period of study, so I’m led to believe the length of study depended on the how quickly the student learned and could convince his teacher he understood the ins and outs of the law.

Title page of Coke's
The Institutes of Lawes of England

There were two main texts used in this study time. The first, The Institutes of Lawes of England written by Sir Edward Coke, was a series of legal articles first published between 1628 and 1644. The other, Commentaries on the Laws of England written by Sir William Blackstone, was a 18^th century publication on the common laws of England published in four volumes. I imagine that trying to muddle through these extensive tomes on a self-study course would be difficult, at best, and would probably require many long discussions between the experienced lawyer and the apprentice. In addition, other lesser-known texts could be used for clarification and support, and lectures by the “Chair of Law” professors at various colleges and universities were also used to bolster the apprentice’s understanding, if he were near enough to attend such events. For those living in out of the way places, they relied strictly on the two resources named above.

Title Page of Blackstone's
Commentaries on the Laws of England

As the study progressed and the apprentice grew in knowledge, the mentoring lawyer would allow him to do more of the work of a full-fledged lawyer, whether that was researching laws, filing petitions, or helping to prepare for trials.

In 1878, the American Bar Association was formed. Due to the association’s pressure upon the states not to admit just anyone to the Bar, the method of apprenticeship began to wane. By the 1890s, the new standard was to attend at least a couple of years of law school before one could be admitted to the bar.

A few historical figures who became lawyers via the process of “reading law” were:

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson—7^th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln—16^th President of the United States

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge—30^th President of the United States

Robert H Jackson

Robert H Jackson—US Supreme Court Justice

Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond—US Senator and former Presidential candidate

Interestingly, while the standard today is for would-be lawyers to graduate from law school, there are still several states that allow people to become lawyers by reading law under the tutelage of a practicing judge or attorney, then taking the bar exam. Among them are California, Maine, Vermont, Virginia, and New York (though New York requires at least one year of law school). In 2013, sixty people in the U.S. were admitted to the Bar Association under this process, as opposed to the 84,000 people who studied in law schools before being admitted to the Bar.

It’s your turn: Would you employ the services of an attorney today who had “read law” rather than attended law school?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and finaled in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.