Parliament, and had filled in the mothercountry the office of Recorder of Southamp ton. He was of an old English family, and came to America with a letter of introduc tion from William Penn, declaring him to be "well-grounded in the law, and an hon est, good-tempered, and sober gentleman." All the contemporary authorities agree in representing him to have been a man of learning in his profession, and O'Callaghan says that he " probably did more than any other man to mould the judicial systems, both of New York and New Jersey." 1 In his political relations, however, with Lord Cornbury, he is said to have played a some what conspicuous and not very creditable part, and for signing, with some other mem bers of the Council, an address to the Queen, justifying the whole of Lord Cornbury's con duct, he has received from an historical writer "a sentence of stern and unqualified con demnation." 2 Atwood knew that in the case of such a man it would be idle to expect the minis try, after they had confirmed his appoint ment as Chief Justice, to remove him merely for the purpose of putting Atwood in his place, and he determined, therefore, to wait, as a more fitting opportunity for renewing his application, until the course of Corn bury should become such — of which he felt assured — as to confirm all that he said against him, and compel the government to remove him. When this event occurred in 1708, and Lord Lovelace was appointed Governor, Atwood's former associates, the two judges, Walter and DePeyster, together with Dr. Staats, petitioned the new Governor to be restored to the Council, setting forth in their petition the injustice of the suspen sion that had caused their removal; and Atwood, on his part, petitioned the Queen to be reinstated in the office of Chief Jus 1 4 Col. Doc. 11 19, 11 20. V. id. 69. 2 Elizabeth Thomas's Miscellanies and Poems on several tice, upon the ground that Lord Cornbury subjects, London, 1722. It contains also another poem suspended him upon charges made against entitled To same on the death of that excellent young 1 s Col. Doc. 423. man, Leigh Atwood, Esq., his only son, who died under 2 Field's Provincial Courts of Xew Jersey, pp. 61, 69. Cyprienos Hands, after he had endured the operation.
able notoriety, Dr. Bridges, who had been appointed Chief Justice in his stead, died, and Atwood applied to the ministry for the place. But Lord Cornbury, upon the death of Dr. Bridges, for the reason, as he said, that there might be no failure of justice, there being a great many causes in the court to be dispatched, immediately ap pointed Roger Mompesson Chief Justice, until the Queen's pleasure should be known, and in the same letter in which he informed the ministry of the death of Bridges and of the appointment he had made, urged that Mompesson might be confirmed, as he was a man of resolution, who would serve the Queen with the utmost fidelity; to which the Lords of Trade replied that they had no doubt that Mompesson would answer from the character given of him; that it was not necessary to apply to the Queen, as by the commission given to him by Cornbury, he was actually Chief Justice, and en titled to the emoluments of that office, which disposed of Atwood's application.1 But he was not discouraged. He kept up the Scotch controversy by another pub lication, entitled " The Scotch Patriot Un masked," and appears to have indulged in the writing of verses. Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, a lady poetaster of that day, whom Pope has perpetuated in the Dunciad, under the name given to her by Dryden of Corrina, published a volume of poems, one of which is addressed " To William Atwood, Esq., Chief Justice of New York on some verses he gave me." 2 By the publications that have been mentioned, he appears to have acquired some influence with the min istry, but his efforts to get back to his for mer place were now more difficult; for Mompesson was an able man, who in Eng land had been for two terms a member of
