William Jessup in 1838. He was twice commissioned as judge of the court of common pleas, first in 1838 and next in 1848. A part of the time in the change in the districts, this county came within his circuit. By a compromise arrangement between Judges Jessup and Conyngham, and with the consent of the attorneys of Susquehanna and Luzerne districts, matters were so adjusted as to accommodate the two presiding officers, putting Luzerne in Conyngham's district and Susquehanna in Jessup's.

John N. Conyngham, 1839, resigned in 1870, after serving thirty-one years. Garrich M. Harding, from July 12, 1870; resigned 1879.

Charles E. Rice, present incumbent, since 1879.

The second regular term of the court, September 5, 1787, presided over by Justices Obadiah Gore, Mathias Hollenback, William Hooker Smith, Benjamin Carpenter, James Nesbitt and Nathan Kingsley. For the full particulars of the first

court and officers and the four attorneys then admitted, see Vol. III, Families of the Wyoming Valley, by George B. Kulp.

The constitution of 1790 vested the judicial powers of the State in a supreme court, courts of oyer and terminer, and jail delivery; courts of common pleas, orphans' courts, register court and court of quartersessions for each county, justices of the peace, and such other courts as the legislature may provide. Judges of the supreme court and courts of common pleas to hold office during good behavior. The supreme court judges were ex-officio justices of oyer and terminer courts in the several counties; the governor to appoint for each county at least three and not more than four judges, residents of the county; the State divided into six judicial circuits, and a president of each circuit to be appointed. The president and any two of the lay judges to be a quorum; to hold courts of common pleas and oyer and terminer, and two of the lay judges could hold a court of quartersessions and orphans' court. At the next session of the legislature the State was divided into five circuits-Luzerne, Berks, Northampton and Northumberland, and composed the third circuit. The president judge was to be a person "skilled in the law."

Act of 1851 provided for the election of judges of the several courts, and regulated certain judicial districts, and constituted the eleventh circuit out of the counties of Luzerne, Wyoming, Montour and Columbia. John N. Conyngham, elected president judge for a term of ten years; he was re-elected in 1861. In the meantime Montour county was annexed to the eighth district.

In 1856 Luzerne county was made a separate district, Judge Conyngham presiding. By act June 27, 1864, Luzerne was authorized to elect an "additional judge," who, like the president judge, should be "learned in the law," to hold his office by the same tenure, have the same powers and jurisdiction, subject to the same duties, and receive the same compensation. The governor to appoint until the regular election. Under this law Hon. Henry M. Hoyt was appointed additional judge, and filled the office until December, 1867; succeeded by Edmund L. Dana, who was commissioned for ten years. Judge Conyngham resigned in 1870, and July 8 of that year Garrick M. Harding was appointed to fill the vacancy. fall of 1870 and commissioned for a term of ten years.

He was elected in the

The constitution of 1874 made some changes in the judiciary, among others providing that counties containing over 40,000 inhabitants shall constitute a separate judicial district and elect one judge "learned in the law," and authorize the legislature to provide additional judges as the business of the respective districts may require. President Judge Harding and "additional" Judge Dana were in commission at the time of the adoption of the new constitution, of this Luzerne, the eleventh judicial district; and it was entitled to another additional judge. John Handley was elected to serve ten years from the first Monday in January, 1875. At the general election in 1877 William H. Stanton was elected successor to Judge Dana. At the time of the erection of Lackawanna, out of the territory of Luzerne,

Hon. Garrick M. Harding was president judge; Hon. John Handley and Hon. William H. Stanton were additional judges of the court of common pleas.

The act of April 17, 1878, provided for the division of an erection of a new county out of any county containing 150,000 inhabitants, also providing that the judicial, representative and senatorial districts should remain and that the judges of said districts, or a majority, shall meet and organize the courts. Lackawanna county was erected under the provisions of this act and an election held August 13, 1878, and the final proclamation of the governor made August 21, 1878. The claim was at once made that as the new county had more than 40,000 inhabitants it became thereby a separate judicial district. Gov. Hartranft therefore appointed Benjamin S. Bentley, president judge, who opened the court.. Judges Harding, Handley, and Stanton declined to interfere, but in order to test the governor's action an application was made to the supreme court for a mandamus against the former judges to organize the Lackawanna courts. The supreme court holding that Bentley's commission was unauthorized, ordered the judges to organize the court. Judges Harding, Handley and Stanton thereupon opened the courts of Lackawanna county, October 24, 1878. Judge Stanton resigned February 25, 1879, and March 4, following, Hon. Alfred Hand was appointed and commissioned to fill the vacancy. The law authorized the governor in case of the division of counties where there were over 40,000 inhabitants in the new county to issue a proclamation and make it a separate judicial district. The president judge of the old court now was directed to elect to which district he would be assigned and the other law judge or judges were to be assigned to the new district.

If more than one law judge then the oldest in commission to be president. Judge Harding elected to remain in the old district of Luzerne, and Handley and Hand were assigned to the new-the forty-fifth district-the former president and the latter law judge, from March 27, 1879. This of course ended the service of Handley and Hand in Luzerne county.

At the fall election 1879 Hon. Charles E. Rice was elected additional law judge of Luzerne-the eleventh district; commissioner December 4, 1879, for ten years from the first Monday in January following.

Judge Harding resigned to take effect December 31, 1879. Judge Rice entered upon his office January 4, 1880, and on the next day, by reason of holding the oldest commission, he was commissioned as president judge for the term of ten years commencing the first Monday of January, 1880. Gov. Hoyt appointed Stanley Woodward additional law judge to fill the vacancy; his commission dated January 9, 1880. Judge Woodward was elected at the election following and December, 1880, commissioned additional law judge to serve ten years from the first Monday in January, 1881. An additional law judge became necessary and Judge Lynch was appointed; he was elected to a full term in 1892, as will more fully appear in the list of present county officials elsewhere.

Separate Orphans' Courts were authorized by the constitution of 1874 in counties containing 150,000 inhabitants. This was mandatory as to the above described counties and "may" established separate orphans' courts, under one or more judges "learned in the law." The same section register's courts, transferred the jurisdiction to the orphans' court. The separate orphans' court of Luzerne was therefore, May 19, 1874, with one judge, and Hon. Daniel L. Rhone elected to preside. By law this office is now styled president judge of the orphans' court. The term runs ten years. There was no separate orphans' court in Lackawanna authorized by law. Judge D. L. Rhone was re-elected in 1884, and commissioned for a term of ten years from the first Monday in January, 1885.

Many of the eminent men of Pennsylvania have come from the Luzerne bar. In the old time recollections are given an account of James McClintock, the poetic, the brilliant, the great orator whose short career of much promise settled in such

hopeless gloom and a long life of blank imbecility. His first appearance at the bar, an unknown young man, as blushing and diffident as a girl, his latent powers as unknown to himself as to his casual acquaintance. At a court soon after his coming, by a strange chance, the briefless advocate was appointed by the judge to defend a little girl who had stolen a pair of shoes from the front of a store. The owner had readily recovered his property, but in a spirit of persecution, proceeded to inflict the heavy hand of the criminal law upon the child. The attorney's speech to the jury in defence of that little girl as she sat in the prisoner's box gave him a wide fame as the first orator of the bar of northern Pennsylvania. It made him soon after a nominee for congress. Three candidates were before the people. And in those times the size of the districts and the slowness of getting news was such, that two weeks after the election it was not known who was elected. In the meantime McClintock had married, and Chester Butler gave a grand party to the newly married pair. That evening when the festivities had begun news came that convinced McClintock and his friends that he was elected, and then commenced the double congratulations on his marriage and election. Subsequently came the official news, and he was defeated by a small margin. Within the year his wife died of child-birth, the child was not saved, and in a few weeks poor McClintock was a raving maniac. He was sent to an asylum in robust physical health, his brilliant intellect like sweet bells jangled and out of tune, and from the fever of violence his remarkable mind settled into helpless and hopeless imbecility. The rising, flashing, brilliant meteor; the charred, blackened and burned stick; and cruel fate spun out the years of his darkened life to extreme old age-the dead mind in the living body.

It has already been told how Judge John B. Gibson went from the Wilkes-Barre bench to that of the supreme court and fixed his immortal fame as a great judge. Among others of the bar from this place who were transferred to the supreme court, we note George W. Woodward and Warren J. Woodward. Henry M. Hoyt, ex-governor of the commonwealth, and at this time a practicing member of the bar of Wilkes-Barre. Henry M. Fuller was one of the brilliant and versatile lawyers of Luzerne-in many ways a remarkable man; a member of the legislature, twice elected to congress, was the whig candidate for State canal commissioner, and in 1860 was presented for the nomination of candidate for vicepresident, and died at the age of forty years. Death only could check a career that must have been phenomenal had not fate passed its shadow over it.

This bar has furnished as attorney-general, Ovid F. Johnson and Henry W. Palmer.

Hendrick B. Wright was speaker of the house, several times elected to congress, and was president of the convention that nominated Polk for president. Among other members who have been in congress from this bar were Charles Denison, Chester Butler, L. D. Shoemaker, E. S. Osborn and the present member-elect, Hon. George W. Shonk.

In the recollections of the early bar, it is told that George Denison was one of the most powerful advocates that ever stood before a jury in the court. The greatest criminal lawyer of the old times was supposed to be Lyman Hakes. "Hal" Wright, as he was affectionately called by his friends, is remembered as a great lawyer, in the civil, criminal and equity courts-strong before a jury, eloquent before the court, wherein his statement of his case was the strongest presentation of law and fact that could be made.

A curious incident of how our lives are shaped by trivial circumstances is found in the career of George Griffin, who was admitted to the bar in this county in the year 1800; a son of Maj. Jasper Griffin, and a descendant of the noted New England Pecks; born at East Haddam, Conn., January 14, 1778; graduated at Yale college; studied law; licensed in 1799 and came to Wilkes-Barre in 1800 and practiced law