Andrew Hamilton (lawyer)

For other people named Andrew Hamilton, see Andrew Hamilton (disambiguation).

Andrew Hamilton
18th Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In office 1729–1732, 1734 – 1738
Personal details
Born	c. 1676 Scotland
Died	August 4, 1741(1741-08-04) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)	Anne Brown Preeson
Profession	Lawyer
Signature

Andrew Hamilton (c. 1676 – August 4, 1741) was a Scottish lawyer in Colonial America, best known for his legal victory on behalf of printer and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger. This 1735 decision helped to establish that truth is a defense to an accusation of libel. His eloquent defense was concluded with the notion that the press has "a liberty both of exposing and opposing tyrannical power by speaking and writing truth." His success in this case has been said to have given rise to the expression "Philadelphia lawyer," meaning a particularly adept and clever attorney, as in "It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to get him off."

Emigration to Virginia

He seems to have kept secret his parentage, career, and real name in the Old World. At one time he was called Trent, although he returned to his original name when Queen Anne came to the throne in 1702. In his address to the Pennsylvania assembly in 1739, he speaks of “liberty, the love of which as it first drew me to, so it constantly prevailed on me to reside in this Province, tho' to the manifest prejudice of my fortune.” Probably, Hamilton was his real name, but, for private reasons, he saw fit to discard it for a time. About 1697, he came to Accomac County, Virginia. There he continued his study of law and taught a classical school. He later obtained employment as steward of a plantation owned by one of his former students, Joseph Preeson. After Preeson’s death in 1705, Hamilton continued working the Preeson estate. This led to his marriage, on March 6, 1706, with the widow of the estate, Ann Preeson, a daughter of Thomas and Susanna Denwood Brown, who were members of a prominent Quaker family. The marriage is said to have brought Hamilton influential connections, and he began the practice of the law.

Two years after his marriage, on March 26, 1708, Hamilton purchased from John Toads a 600-acre estate in Maryland known as “Henberry.” It was located on the North side of the Chester River in Kent County, Maryland. Current day Millington, Maryland is situated in the area that Henberry used to encompass. He still had residence in Virginia as he was working in both colonies at the time.

Early career

It was not until 1712, at age 36, that Hamilton had established himself in Chestertown, Maryland with a reputable and lucrative law practice. During this year, Andrew Hamilton traveled to London in order to gain higher rank and favor in his profession. On January 27, he joined the legal society of Gray’s Inn, one of the four societies for barristers in London. Two weeks later on February 10, he was called before the English Bar. At the end of the year, during the winter of 1712/13, William Penn hired Hamilton in a replevin case against Berkeley Codd, Esq. Codd disputed some of Penn’s rights under his grant from the Duke of York, who would later become King James II. This started the long and friendly relationship between Andrew Hamilton and the Penn family.

His trip to London and continued work in the colony of Pennsylvania and with the Penn family raised Hamilton to higher prominence. He came to the attention of both the Baltimore family and the government of the Maryland colony. In April 1715, he was chosen as a deputy to Maryland's House of Delegates from Kent County. Hamilton himself was presenting cases before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on April 29, 1715. He did not return to Maryland or learn of his election until May 5, 1715. Hamilton then took the oath of office, test, and abjuration. This happened the day of his return because of his arrest by the House due to his delayed return. The explanation that he was one hundred miles from his home in Chestertown and unable to return was accepted though he still had to pay a total of sixty-five shillings to officials as a fine. Placed on the Committee of Laws, Hamilton was charged with the organization and codification of the Maryland colony's judiciary laws. By May 14, 1715, Hamilton had helped put together a series of laws that became the Act of 1715. This Act would form the basis of the law for Maryland until the Revolution.

At some point during 1715, Hamilton moved to Philadelphia. He and his family occupied Clark Hall, owned by William Clark Jr. and Rebecca Clark, and managed by their relative Clement Plumsted. It was located at the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets.

Philadelphia lawyer

On September 7, 1717, Hamilton was made attorney-general of Pennsylvania by Governor William Keith. In March 1721, he was called to the provincial council, and accepted on condition that his duties should not interfere with his practice. Hamilton resigned the office in 1724, and traveled to London to oversee the formal approval of William Penn’s will on behalf of the Penn family.

The killing of a Native American by a man named Cartledge in an area outside the boundaries of Philadelphia County created tension between the tribes in the area and the colonists. There was a fear of violence erupting unless Cartledge could be brought to trial. A new Court Act was deemed necessary and created under the advisement and supervision of Hamilton, as Attorney-General, and the Chief Justice, David Lloyd. Lloyd's older laws were consolidated into the Judiciary Act of 1722, which was passed by Governor Keith on May 22, 1722. One feature allowed the Chief Justice to act as a justice of the peace anywhere in the colony if conditions called for it, a clear response to the Cartledge situation. With the continued fear of the Iroquois nation's response to the situation, the Native American killed had been of the Seneca people, Lloyd prepared for a trial on Cartledge. However, a letter from the Iroquois received on July 30, 1722 urged that Cartledge be forgiven. At once the Assembly ordered one-hundred pounds set aside for expenses and one-hundred pounds for gifts and had Hamilton in his position as Attorney-General, Judge Hill, and a Mr. Norris act as a committee to visit the five nations.

In 1727 was appointed prothonotary of the Supreme Court, Master of the Rolls, and Recorder of Philadelphia. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from Bucks County in the same year, chosen speaker in 1729, and re-elected annually until his retirement in 1739, with the exception of a single year, 1733.

Zenger case

The crowning glory of Hamilton's professional career was his defense of John Peter Zenger in 1735, which he undertook pro bono. Zenger was a printer in New York City. In his newspaper, Zenger had asserted that judges were arbitrarily displaced, and new courts were erected, without the consent of the legislature, by which trials by jury were taken away when a governor was so disposed. The attorney-general charged him with libel, and Zenger's lawyers, objecting to the legality of the judge's commissions, were stricken from the list of attorneys.

Fearing that the advocate, who had subsequently been appointed by the court, might be overawed by the bench, at the head of which was Chief Justice De Lancey, a member of the governor's council, Hamilton voluntarily went to New York and appeared in the case. He admitted the printing and publishing of the article but advanced the doctrine, novel at the time, that the truth of the facts in the alleged libel could be set up as a defense and that in this proceeding the jury were judges of both the law and the facts.

The offer of evidence to prove the truth of Zenger's statements was rejected, but Hamilton then appealed to the jury to say from the evidence that they had met with in their daily lives that the contents of the defendant's article were true. His eloquence secured a verdict of “not guilty.”

The people of New York and the other colonies hailed the verdict with delight, since it insured free discussion of the conduct of public men. Gouverneur Morris referred to Hamilton as “the day-star of the American Revolution,” and the common council of New York passed a resolution thanking him for his services, and presented him with the freedom of the city. In addition, a group of prominent residents contributed to the production of a 5½-ounce gold box that was presented to Hamilton as a lasting mark of their gratitude to him. His fame spread to England, an account of the trial passing through four editions there within three months.

Later career

On May 12, 1732, Thomas Penn, John Penn and Richard Penn, as the proprietors of Pennsylvania, signed an order to create a commission. This order was directed to prominent figures in colonial Pennsylvania and Philadelphia including Hamilton as well as Governor Gordon, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, and James Logan, Esquires, and to the gentlemen James Steel and Robert Charles. The commission, which was to be made up of at least three or more of these individuals, was given full power on behalf of the proprietors for the “running, marking, and laying out” of any boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This was in accordance to the agreement signed between the Penn brothers and Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore on May 10, 1732.

From 1736 to his death in 1741, Hamilton was the mentor of young Benjamin Chew, who later became Attorney General and Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Hamilton was for many years a trustee of the general loan-office, the province's agency for issuing paper money, and in 1737 was appointed judge of the vice-admiralty court by Governor George Thomas, the only office he held at the time of his death.

Independence Hall

Building the Cradle of Liberty, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Andrew Hamilton (center), with two women on his arms, discusses construction plans with a foreman during the construction of Independence Hall (shown in the background).

By the Spring of 1729 the citizens of Philadelphia were petitioning to be allowed to erect a state house. A sum of two thousand pounds was raised for the proposal. Andrew Hamilton, along with Thomas Lawrence and John Kearsley, were appointed to a committee to decide upon plans for the building, select a site for construction, and hire contractors. Hamilton, in company with his son-in-law, William Allen, purchased the ground now lying within Independence Square, whereon to erect “a suitable building” to be used as a legislative hall. Prior to 1729, the assembly met in a private residence.

Andrew Hamilton is often credited for the design of Independence Hall (then known as the Pennsylvania State House). It is more likely that his designs were only for initial planning and he was not the creator of the final plans. Beginning in 1732, Edmund Woolley was responsible for the finalized design and construction of the Pennsylvania State House, a project that employed Woolley and his apprentices well into the 1750s. The statehouse was not completed until after Hamilton's death, and the conveyance of the land to the province was made by his son and son-in-law.

Bush Hill, The Woodlands, and Lancaster County, PA

For his legal work formalizing William Penn’s will in London from 1724–1726, Hamilton was awarded land in 1726 and 1729 by the Pennsylvania proprietors; William Penn’s widow Hannah Penn and sons, Richard Penn, Thomas Penn, and John Penn. Hamilton also took this time to purchase from Stephen Jackson a portion of land from the Springettsburg Manor. These gifts and purchases added up to 153 acres of land, which Hamilton received a patent for in 1734.

Bush Hill

Bush Hill. The Seat of Wm. Hamilton Esqr. near Philadelphia, by James Peller Malcolm. Bush Hill was the country seat of Andrew Hamilton.

The Bush Hill estate contained the land that is now bound by 12th Street to the East, 19th Street to the West, Vine Street to the South, and what is now Fairmont Avenue but was once Coates Street to the North. The manor itself was located on what is now the southern side of Spring Garden Street near the old Philadelphia Mint building, which is now used by the Community College of Philadelphia. This estate was left to his son James Hamilton after his death, who in turn would leave the land and manor to his nephew William Hamilton.

The Woodlands

Main article: The Woodlands (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

The Woodlands was a large area of land given to Hamilton situated on the west side of the Schuylkill River and contained much of present-day West Philadelphia. He left it to his son Andrew, who survived him by only six years. The next to inherit and use the land was the younger Andrew Hamilton's son, William Hamilton.

Lancaster, PA

Hamilton and his son James were among the founders of Lancaster, which became the fourth county in the province of Pennsylvania in 1729. The community was located on a 500-acre (2 km²) tract owned by Hamilton, on which he laid out Lancaster Townstead around 1730. By 1734, James, now proprietor of Lancaster town, won a seat in the Assembly and became the political leader of the county, and in 1742, secured the original charter of government, which gave the settlement the status of borough (this charter can be found today in the city clerk’s office).

Later life

Andrew Hamilton's wife Anne is believed to have died around the year 1736. He himself died in Philadelphia at his country seat of Bush Hill and was at first buried on that property. After the sale of his estate in the 1800s, Hamilton and the remains of his family were later moved to a spacious mausoleum currently located at Christ Church. On August 6, two days after Hamilton’s death, Benjamin Franklin published an editorial of appreciation for the man in his Pennsylvania Gazette.

Family and immediate descendents

During the early years after his marriage Hamilton saw the growth of his family. Margaret Hamilton, his first child, was born in 1709. Circa 1711, Hamilton’s second child and first son James Hamilton was born; he went on to become a mayor of Philadelphia and a governor of the Pennsylvania colony. In 1713, Hamilton’s last son, also named Andrew Hamilton, was born.

Margaret Hamilton married William Allen on February 16, 1734. William and Margaret would have six children together. Andrew Hamilton had a close working relationship with his son-in-law. They both worked in the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania governments. Along with James Hamilton, they acquired the land for the state house, now Independence Hall, and its surrounding yard.

Andrew Hamilton, the younger, married Mary Till on December 24, 1741. She was the daughter of William Till, a businessman and gentleman of consequence in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and Mary Till née Lillingston, the step-granddaughter of Berkeley Codd, the same lawyer in Delaware that the elder Andrew Hamilton had faced against in court in 1712. Andrew Hamilton II and Mary Till Hamilton had two sons, Andrew Hamilton and William Hamilton.

Legacy

The Hamilton Watch Company was named after Andrew Hamilton, original owner of the site in Lancaster.

Honors

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Andrew Hamilton was named in his honor.

External links

• Article at Philadelphia Reflections
• Article at Encyclopedia.com
• Andrew Hamilton Esq. A site dedicated to emerging research on Andrew Hamilton, Esq.
• Andrew Hamilton (lawyer) at Find a Grave