second, that he should enter into recognizance to appear at the next term; and third, that he should give security to keep the peace and to be of good behavior. The defendant refused to comply with these conditions. The court, instead of ordering on the trial, committed him for contempt, charging him with abusing the queen's witnesses. Another defendant submitted to trial, but refused to swear any witnesses in his own behalf. The jury rendered a verdict of guilty, but the court did not dare pronounce judgment, and sentence was never imposed. At the next term, one of the other defendants was tried and acquitted, but the court refused to discharge him until he paid the costs of prosecution. The utter subservience of the Chief Justice to his master, the Governor, was fully manifested through all these trials.

Very little is known of the private character of Mompesson; and he may be dismissed with the remark that he gained no credit as a lawyer, no glory as a judge, by his discharge of the duties of first Chief Justice of New Jersey.

At last Lord Cornbury became so outrageous in his deportment that complaint was made to the queen, and in 1710 he was removed; and his first Chief Justice, fearful that he, too, might be removed, resigned. Roger Mompesson, from the time of his resignation, disappears for a short time from the history of New Jersey. He will again appear in the same judicial position, but he is best remembered as the pliant tool and base adviser of the worst governor who ever ruled in New Jersey. William Pinhorne was associated with Mompesson as the second judge of the Supreme Court. He would now be called an associate justice. Before he became judge in New Jersey he had served in a prominent position in New York. He became er officio Governor of New Jersey when Lord Cornbury was removed. He had been a merchant in the City of New York, and was a member of the Council of that colony until 1692, when, being a resident of New Jersey, he was not allowed to take the oath of office. He purchased during the latter part of the seventeenth century, a large plantation, near Snake Hill, between Newark and Jersey City, which he called "Mount Pinhorne." This property is mentioned in that curious production called "The Model of the Government of East Jersey," printed in Edinburgh in 1685, and written by George Scot of Pinlochie of Scotland. Mr. Scot says: "Next unto Snake Hill is a braw Plantation, on a piece of Land almost an Island, containing 1,000 & 1,200 Acres, belonging to Mr. Pinhorne, a Merchant of New York, and one Edward Eickbe. Its well improved and Stokt. Mr. Pinhorne payed for his half 500 lib."

Mr. Pinhorne was a hospitable man, and had quite a large family. Some of his descendants are still resident in New Jersey, among whom are the children of the Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, at one time ChiefJustice of New Jersey and one of the most distinguished men who ever adorned the judiciary of the State. Chief Justice Mompesson was a bachelor when he reached this country. He became a frequent visitor at the house of the associate judge and the result was that Martha Pinhorne became Mrs. Mompesson.

Judge Pinhorne attached himself warmly to Lord Cornbury, and became one of his staunchest adherents. He supported the Governor in his quarrels with both people and Assembly. A paper was prepared, most probably by the Governor himself, addressed to the Queen, intended to answer the remonstrance of the Assembly against Cornbury, which assailed the Legislature and some of its individual members in the most slanderous terms. The address was circulated secretly, and although bearing a semi-official character was never entered on the minutes of the Council. Judge Pinhorne signed this paper, and when called to account for his action had not the manliness to avow the act, but evaded responsibility. In fact, there was only one man among the signers who had the moral courage to defend his action. He not only did that, but refused to apologize, and was expelled from the Assembly. Pinhorne took his seat on the bench in November, 1704. It would have been impossible for him, if he had followed the lead of his sonin law, to have escaped the censure which attached to Mompesson. He undoubtedly concurred with the Chief Justice in all his rulings relative to the indictments for seditious words spoken of the Governor. He became quite unpopular, and received very severe rebukes from the Assembly. Among other charges made against him was the very serious one that he had refused the writ of habeas corpus to Thomas Gordon, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and allowed him to remain in custody until the prisoner had obtained the services of the son of the judge, who was an attorney.

It must not be forgotten, however, that the Assembly, from which body came the fiercest denunciation of the two judges, were factious, too often inconsistent with themselves and not observant of the rights of those in authority. Lewis Morris, who was the idol of the Assembly while these squabbles between the Governor and the popular branch of the Legislature were in progress, when he afterward became Gov

ernor, was denounced in as unmeasured terms as ever Lord Cornbury

was.

Pinhorne remained in commission during the whole of Cornbury's administration, and continued after his removal to be a member of the Council. The Assembly, however, insisted that he should be removed from office, and was successful at last, but not until Robert Hunter became Governor.

Pinhorne at one time was President of the Council, and by virtue of his holding that position, was Governor of the colony for a short time, in the interregnum between the removal of Ingoldsby and the appointment of Robert Hunter. He died probably in 1720. His will is dated May 10, 1719, and was probated April 12, 1720. He was a man of ample means, and was enabled to draw around him at "Pinhorne Mount" a goodly company of cultured and educated men. He seems to have retired to private life after his dismissal from the Council. The successor of Mompesson was Thomas Gordon, formerly Speaker of the Assembly. His term of office as Chief Justice was very short, but prior to that he had filled a very large space in the political history of the colony. He was a Scotchman, and claimed to be connected with the family of the Duke of Gordon, but becoming complicated with some of the political troubles of Scotland, came to New Jersey in 1684, bringing his family and servants with him. He became a large landed proprietor near Scotch Plains, which place was undoubtedly named from the great number of Scotch colonists who settled in that vicinity, and locating there soon made himself felt as a man of ability and force. He held several offices under the Proprietors and the Colonial Government. He was Deputy Secretary for the Proprietors, Clerk of the Court of Common Right, Register of the Court of Chancery, Judge of Probate, and Collector of Customs at Amboy. He was also, late in the seventeenth century, Attorney General of the State, and subsequently became Speaker of the Assembly. He adopted the popular side in the quarrels between Cornbury and the representatives of the people, and was firm and outspoken in the opposition to the Governor, but was not violent either in speech or in conduct. On the resignation. of Mompesson, Governor Lovelace, who succeeded Lord Cornbury, appointed Gordon Chief Justice. His appointment was dated April 28, 1709. He took his seat on the bench in the May term of that year. He does not seem to have been educated as a lawyer, although licensed as an attorney, and soon became conscious of his inability to perform

the duties of the office. He resigned in a very few months after his appointment, and then became Receiver Generai and Treasurer of the Province. He died in 1722, and was buried at Amboy.

After the resignation of Gordon, Roger Mompesson again appears. He was reappointed Chief Justice by Lieutenant Governor Ingoldsby, who became acting Governor upon the death of Lord Lovelace.

Robert Hunter arrived in the colony in 1710 with a commission as its Governor; and Mompesson again withdrew, David Jamison being appointed to the position thus vacated. His name would indicate that he was a Scotchman. He had been a lawyer of some eminence in New York, and had been counsel for McKernie, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church who had been indicted, in 1707, for preaching without a license at Newtown, Long Island. He was tried and acquitted, but was detained in prison, notwithstanding the acquittal, until he paid the cost of the prosecution. For his defence of Mr. McKernie, Gordon acquired great favor with the citizens of New York, but he did not escape the popular fury in New Jersey. Governor Lovelace's administration was one which had won almost universal favor; but at one time there was a serious break of the excellent relations which had existed between the Governor and the Assembly. The Chief Justice became involved in the quarrel, and an indictment was found against him at the Quarter Sessions in the county of Burlington, and this was the ground of the indictment. At the November term of the court in 1715, one of the grand jurors refused to take the oath in the ordinary form, alleging that he was a Quaker, and that by an act of the Legislature passed several years prior to that time, he was entitled to be affirmed and not sworn, as he had conscientious scruples against taking an oath. The passage of the act was admitted, but it was contended that it had been repealed by a statute of Parliament. This was the position assumed by the partisans of Lord Cornbury. The Chief Justice overruled the objection, and ordered that the juror should be affirmed. But the Clerk was contumacious and refused to obey the order of the Chief Justice. Here was a decided contempt of court, and that of the most flagrant character,--a refusal of the sworn officer of the law to perform a known duty. Of course, no grand jury could be impanneled at that term. The Chief Justice had but one course to pursue: he was necessarily obliged to sustain the dignity of the court; he held the obstinate Clerk to be in contempt and fined him. The punishment, under the circumstances, was very light. Yet, at the next term of the Court of

Quarter Sessions the Chief Justice was indicted for fining the Clerk. Jamison behaved in the most dignified manner. Governor Hunter felt constrained to interfere, and rallied in defence of the Chief Justice. He published an address to the citizens of the colony relative to the subject, and in a calm and dispassionate manner reviewed the whole case. The indictment was quashed on motion of the Attorney General, after having been removed into the Supreme Court. The order setting aside the indictment may still be read in the minutes of the court. It states that it is made because the proceeding is against the Chief Justice of the colony for doing his duty in the execution of his office. Jeremiah Basse, a licensed attorney, one of the most prominent men in the province, was most instrumental in procuring the indictment to be found against Jamison. Promptly, so soon as the indictment was quashed, an order of court was entered disbarring Basse.

The rest of the term of Jamison as Chief Justice was uneventful. Harmony was restored between the contending parties and no disturbing cause ever interfered to prevent the peace that reigned while Hunter continued in the office of Governor. Jamison appears to have been a great student of the Bible. He delighted to quote largely from the sacred records, especially in his charges to grand juries. He was a believer in witchcraft, and thought heretics ought to be punished. But no persecution for either of these offences, as they were called by Chief Justice Jamison, ever disgraced the jurisprudence of New Jersey. He was continued in office by Governor Burnet, who succeeded Hunter in 1719. Jamison resided in New York during all the time he was Chief Justice. By this arrangement suitors and their counsel were very much embarrassed, and at the earnest solicitation of the Assembly, Governor Burnet removed him and appointed William Trent in his place.

Trent was not a lawyer by profession; but he had been a judge in Pennsylvania and had acquired a most enviable reputation. He was a Scotchman, had been a successful merchant, and was a man of excellent judgment, of good sound common sense, with not a breath of suspicion on his reputation. At the time of his appointment he was Speaker of the Assembly. His house, in which he had resided in Philadelphia, was standing a few years ago. At the time of the meeting of the Continental Congress, during the Revolution, it was used as a boarding house, and John Adams and several other members of Congress boarded there. Trent, in 1714, bought several hundred acres