THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE NEW HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. By William H. Hackett, Clerk of the U. S. Circuit Court for New Hampshire. THE Chief-Justice and five associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States were appointed Sept. 26, 1789. Of the associate justices, Robert H. Harrison, of Maryland, resigned, and James Iredell, of North Carolina, was ap pointed, Feb. 10, 1790. The court was not fully organized till the 3d of April, 1790, and on the next day Chief-Justice John Jay held in New York the first Circuit Court. In the same month he commenced his first circuit through New England, and on the 20th of April came to Portsmouth, when the first term of the Circuit Court for the District of New Hampshire was held in the State House. The citizens of Ports mouth, who had a few months before enter tained President Washington for several days, evinced their respect for the new court by tendering the Chief-Justice a public entry into the town, and on his departure an es cort attended him a considerable distance on his journey. The District Court having been previously organized, and by law, its clerk being the clerk of the Circuit Court, the new court had business prepared for its consideration. The loyal people of New Hampshire do not appear to have committed any infraction of the Federal laws, as no grand jury was summoned, but petit jurors were in attend ance. The first action entered upon the docket was a suit in favor of Christopher Gore, of Boston, against Jonathan Warner, of Portsmouth. Warner was a prominent personage in Portsmouth, and had been one of the King's council until the War of the Revolution terminated his office. His wife . was the granddaughter of Lieut. -Gov. John Wentworth. In the right of his wife he owned the Warner mansion, one of the finest old houses in that old town so noted for its
splendid specimens of colonial architecture. This house has to-day a lightning-rod put up in 1762 under the personal inspection of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. The house was begun in 171 8, and finished in 1723 at an expense of £6,000. It has massive walls, eighteen inches thick. Much of the brick and other material used in its construction was brought from Holland. Warner was the third largest taxpayer in Portsmouth in 1770. He owned several slaves, and was one of the twenty-nine persons out of all the male inhabitants of the town who refused to sign the obligation recommended by Con gress March 14, 1776, "to oppose the hostile proceedings of British fleets and armies." However, in 1789 he was one of the com mittee with John Langdon and other lead ing citizens to address President Washington on his coming to Portsmouth; in fact he was, take him for all in all, one of the most respect able citizens of New Hampshire who would be likely to be a defendant in a suit at law. The action was brought to recover the amount of several bills of exchange drawn on Messrs. Lane, Son & Fraser, of London, the originals of which bear the signature of a man who was conscious of his relative im portance. The bills were dated Sept. 21, 1789, and amounted to 710 pounds sterling. The aristocratic defendant was arrested by the marshal, and gave bail. He appeared in court by counsel, and confessed judgment in the sum of #4,236 with costs taxed at £116s. 6d., on condition that execution should not issue against him until August 20, with which the plaintiff was content. Colonel Warner had the honor of being the first man in the District of New Hampshire against whom was entered a judgment in a Federal court; and this too, at the trifling cost of six dollars and twelve and a half cents.
