William Griffith

Background

William Griffith was born in 1766 at Boundbrook, New Jersey, the son of Dr. John Griffith.

Education

His early education was obtained at home.

Career

When William was eighteen he entered the law office of Elisha Boudino, at Newark.

In 1788 he was admitted as attorney to the New Jersey bar, in the following year he removed to Burlington to practise his profession, and in 1791 he was admitted to the bar as counselor.

He eventually became the state’s ablest lawyer on New Jersey land titles. One of his students was Richard Smith Coxe, who later became his son-in-law.

In 1798-99 he published in the New Jersey State Gazette a series of fifty-three essays, over the signature of “Eumenes, ” which were issued in the form of a pamphlet in 1799. These essays r were written to demonstrate that the state constitution, adopted hastily on July 2, 1776, was defective in structure and unsound in principle.

The author urged the election of a convention to revise the constitution, but his proposition was defeated in the legislature. He was appointed by President John Adams as an associate justice of the third federal circuit, his appointment being one of those confirmed by the Senate at midnight on March 3, 1801, but his court was abolished by act of Congress in December of the same year and he resumed his law practise.

In 1812 he invested heavily in the business of wool and woolen manufacture and soon became bankrupt. To recoup his losses he returned to his law practise and to legal writing.

He was a member of the Assembly in 1818-19 and again in 1823-24.

During the years 1820-24 he published the Annual Law Register, containing a reliable account of the officials, laws, and regulations of each of the then twenty-four United States, and a succinct account of the origin, history and practise of the courts of New Jersey.

From 1824 to 1826 he served as mayor of Burlington, and in the latter year he was appointed clerk of the United States Supreme Court. Before he could assume his new duties, however, he was stricken with heart disease and died in Burlington.

Achievements

• Griffith is best known for his legal writings. He published in A Treatise on the Jurisdiction and Proceedings of Justices of the Peace in Civil Suits, which passed through three editions, and in The Scriveners Guide, both of which works proved valuable to the legal profession. His Historical Notes of the American Colonies and Revolution from 1754 to 1775, incomplete at his death, was published posthumously in 1836; another edition was published in 1843.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The scriveners guide; containing concise precedents of acquittances, agreements, arbitration and awards, assignments, attornies letters, &c. bills of ... and conditions, composition with creditors

    ( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)

  • A treatise on the jurisdiction and proceedings of justices of the peace in civil suits in New-Jersey: with an appendix ...

    (The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 ...)

Connections

Father:

John Griffith

son-in-law:

Richard Smith Coxe