The Act of the New York Legislature on February 7, 1791, set apart a certain portion of Albany County to form the county of Rensselaer, so named in honor of the Van Rensselaers who owned the patroonship which was so powerful during the Dutch period, and about which so much has been written in earlier chapters of this compilation, and also in this chapter.

The judges appointed in 1791 to constitute the courts of the new county were: Anthony Ten Eyck, First Judge; John Van Rensselaer, Israel Thompson, Robert Woodworth and Jonathan Brown, judges; John Knickerbocker, Jr., John W. Schermerhorn, Jonathan Niles, Benjamin Hicks, Nicholas Staats, Robert Montgomery, Moss Kent and John E. Van Allen, assistant justices. Moss Kent was appointed surrogate, and Albert Pawling was the first sheriff. The first Court of General Sessions and that of Common Pleas were held in the tavern; of Ananias Platt, in Lansingburgh, in May, 1791, First Judge Ten Eyck presiding. The court adopted thirty-seven rules, and did other business in its opening session of three days, adjourning to meet at the inn of Stephen Ashley in Troy. These two taverns thereafter alternated as the venue of court sessions until the erection of county buildings. The first Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery was held at Platt's Tavern in Lansingburgh, on July 5, 1791.

Strenuous efforts were made by each village to be chosen as the county seat, but Troy was the first to meet the legislative requirements, having by 1793 raised the sum of $5,000 among its inhabitants to insure the building of a court house. During the 1793 session of the Legislature, provision was made for the erection of a court house and jail "within sixty rods of the dwelling house of Stephen Ashley, in the village of Troy, in the town of Troy." The court house was soon built, the Court of Common Pleas being the first to hold a session in the new building in June, 1794. During the next thirty years the building was steadily used by the courts, and was steadily becoming more and more inadequate. In 1826 the supervisors resolved to petition the State Legislature for permission to raise means of erecting a new court house. They were authorized to raise $25,000, provided the city of Troy would undertake to defray two-fifths of the cost of construction, in addition to its proportionate part of the county expense. This was arranged, the municipality being privileged to house the municipal departments also in the court house. The old court house was demolished, and while the new county buildings were being raised the Methodist Church was used as headquarters of the court. The new court house was completed in March, 1831. It was constructed in Doric style of Sing Sing marble at a cost of $40,000. In accordance with the arrangement between county and city, the Mayor's Court was established in a room on the north side of the ground floor, and other parts of the ground floor and basement were assigned to the city for the use of its departments. Prior to the building of the court house a substantial stone and brick jail had been erected on Fifth Street.

Troy has given to the State some eminent jurists and public men. It has produced some lawyers "who take rank with the foremost minds of the State," said the Honorable Martin I. Townsend, who, himself, had gained an enviable record as lawyer and statesman.

At the first session of the Court of Common Pleas, held in 1791, the lawyers admitted to practice in the court were Dirck Ten Broeck, Moss Kent, Peter B. Elmendorf, John V. Henry, Peter D. van Dyck, Abraham Hun, John W. Yates, Nicholas Fonda, Gerrit Wendell, Gerrit van Schoohoven, Cornelius Vanderburgh, Francis Silvester, Sanders Lansing and John Woodworth. The only lawyer among the judges and "assistant justices" of the first court session was Moss Kent. Among the early lawyers of Rensselaer County were John D. Dickinson, John Lovett, John Bird. Dickinson was a pioneer in many public fields; was one of the first trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; was president of the first bank in Rensselaer County; director of its first insurance company; president of the Troy Lyceum of National History; indeed, he had so many responsibilities that his professional work suffered probably. John Bird began to study law in Connecticut in 1786, and was there admitted to practice. He removed to Troy in 1794, but died twelve years later. In this brief period he demonstrated that he was "a genius of high order, a brilliant and impressive orator, a sharp debater and reasoner, and frequently charming in his display of eloquence." He was Assemblyman for one session, and Congressman for four years. John Lovett was Assemblyman in 1801. Herman Knikkerbakker (Knickerbacker, Knickerbocker) was "the peer of all the suave, brilliant and polished lawyers of the early days" in Rensselaer County. He came to be known as "the Prince of Schaghticoke"; and with reason if John Woodworth's description pictures him truly. Woodworth wrote, in his "Reminiscences," as follows: "Bred from his Childhood to Association with some of the most Distinguished Men of an Age remarkable for its hightoned Courtesy, and to the Control of a large Family of Slaves, his Manners acquired that blending of Suavity with Dignity peculiar to those accustomed from early Intercourse with the World and the early Habit of Command." Knikkerbakker was born in Schaghticoke in 1779, studied law under Bird, was admitted to practice, and when thirty years old sat in Congress. In 1828 he was First Judge of the County Court. He died in 1855. Benjamin Smith, who, states Woodworth, "came to Troy about the commencement of the settlement," and spent the greater part of his life in the courts, for a while as puisne judge of Common Pleas, and who served as county clerk until his death, was a man of unusually kind heart. "He was always ready" states Woodworth, "to aid the unfortunate and distressed," especially debtors from Vermont, who were arrested in Troy by New York creditors. "He was ready to become bail for all Vermont," writes a contemporary. Peter Buell Porter comes less creditably into Troy history than into Buffalo records, where he earned well-deserved fame as a soldier during the War of 1812-14.

Moss Kent, who was first surrogate of Rensselaer County, had practiced in Dutchess County for thirty years prior to coming to Rensselaer. His son was Chancellor James Kent, whose "Commentaries on American Law," published in 1826-30, covered the entire field of American jurisprudence, and have ever since been an authority in the United States. John Woodworth (1768-1858) , who succeeded Moss Kent as surrogate of Rensselaer County in 1793, had then been only two years in practice But after ten years as surrogate he became attorney-general (1804-08), and later served for nine years (1819-28) on the bench of the Supreme Court. Woodworth was a law pupil of John Lansing, who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and eventually Chancellor. Woodworth collaborated with William P. Van Ness in publishing a revision of the laws of New York in 1813. Woodworth also served in the Assembly and Senate of New York. Another brilliant Troy lawyer of his time was William Learned Marcy (1786-1857), who was thrice Governor of New York, and was a Supreme Court justice for some time, resigning after his election to the United States Senate. As a justice of the Supreme Court he delivered some interesting opinions, probably the most memorable being those rendered in the trials of the alleged abductors and murderers of William Morgan, who was about to expose Freemasonry. These cases came before the court of which Justice Marcy was a member, on appeal and he wrote the opinion. The case is reported as People vs. Mather (4 Wendell 229) and the opinion covers twenty-seven pages and discusses the laws of trials, the impanelling of juries, and the subject of conspiracies. The opinion "is a monument of research and laborious citation of authorities." Justice Marcy's opinion, however, did not add fuel to the fire of anti-Masonic fury which swept the country during the next few years; in fact, although some convictions resulted on the charge of abduction the charge of murder was never established judicially. Justice Marcy went from the United States Senate to the Governorship of New York. He was Secretary of War during the Mexican War, and in 1853 was again in the national cabinet, as Secretary of State under President Pierce. In ministerial office, he gained wide repute as a diplomat and statesman of ability. Secretary Marcy retired to private life at the close of the Pierce administration. Four months later he was dead, his end coming suddenly one evening as he sat reading in his library, at Ballston Spa, New York. For almost fifty years he had been connected with the bar of Rensselaer County, but few who knew Justice Marcy in his first years of law practice, or as recorder of Troy, expected or imagined that his merit would carry him so far in public life.

John Paine Cushman was a Circuit judge, Third Circuit, from 1838 to 1844, and he, like Nathan Williams, who went to Utica and became a Circuit judge, studied law and entered practice in Troy. George Gould was for many years, from 1855, a member of the Supreme Court bench. He was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1807, was admitted to the bar at Troy in 1830, and died in that city in 1868. Some of his famous legal contemporaries paid him graceful tribute. Charles O'Connor spoke of him as "a man of high legal attainments added to rare abilities inherited from a family which is illustrious in legal lore." John K. Porter said: "Judge Gould will need no monument other than that which is found in the records of the State of New York."

David L. Seymour (1803-67), a graduate of Yale Law School, was one of the ablest lawyers of his time in Rensselaer County. He came to Troy in 1830 and began to practice in the office of John P. Cushman. Two years later he was taken into partnership. He served as district attorney, as Assemblyman, and also sat in Congress. At different times he associated with some great lawyers, John P. Cushman, George van Santvoord, and Charles R. Ingalls. His last law partner was Charles E. Patterson, his son-in-law. Charles Russell Ingalls removed from Greenwich, New York, to Troy in 1860, and with David L. Seymour formed the firm of Seymour and Ingalls. In 1863 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District. In 1870 he became a member of the Court of Appeals, and in 1871 was again elected to the Supreme Court bench, this time for a fourteen years term. In all, he served as a Supreme Court justice for twenty-six years, retiring in 1890, having reached the age limit of seventy years. He died in 1908, aged eighty-nine years.

George van Santvoord is remembered as the author of the "Lives of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court," a well-written work. He was an Assemblyman in 1856, and district attorney of Rensselaer County in 1859. His son, Seymour van Santvoord, reached excellent repute also, as a lawyer and writer. Charles E. Patterson was Assemblyman in 1881, and Speaker in 1882. He was the unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic party for election to the Supreme Court bench in 1902, when Wesley O. Howard was elected. Franklin J. Parmenter, an able lawyer with literary inclinations, was admitted to the bar in Troy in 1852, and practiced for many years in that city. He was police justice for a few years, 1860-64, and came into wide notice at the time of Charles Dickens' visit to this country by his Dickensian poems, which appeared in "Harper's Weekly," and were widely copied. His elder brother, Roswell A. Parmenter, was city attorney of Troy for many years, 1853-54 and 1871-83, and corporation counsel from 1886-90. For some years he was a law partner of Judge John McConihe and the latter's son, General John McConihe.

Edgar Luyster Fursman, who was admitted to practice in 1857, came from Schuylerville, Saratoga County, to Troy in 1867, and in 1882 was elected county judge^[1] of Rensselaer County. He was reelected in 1888, and in the next year was elevated to the Supreme Court bench. He sat in the Criminal Branch of the Supreme Court in New York City in 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, and was assigned by Governor Odell as an associate justice of the Appellate Division of the Third Division in 1901. He resigned in October, 1902, and resumed the practice of law. As a jury lawyer, Fursman was sometimes likened to the famous William A. Beach. When the latter left Troy, in 1870, Fursman became a member of the law firm of Smith, Fursman & Cowen, which succeeded that of Beach and Smith.

William Augustus Beach, who was gifted with remarkable oratorical ability, came into notice long before he took up law practice in Troy, in 1851. He practiced in Saratoga County for almost twenty years, opening offices at Saratoga Springs in 1833. He was leading counsel in very many famous cases, both before and after leaving Troy. From 1870 until his death, in 1884, he practiced in New York City, where his reputation "as one of the most consummate lawyers of the day steadily grew." His eminence was essentially as a jury lawyer, and although so eloquent he steadfastly refused to take part in political campaigns.

Gilbert Robertson, Jr., "Troy's undisputed Republican leader between the years 1865 and 1893," studied law in the offices of Hayner & Gould, at Troy, following graduation from Union College in 1837. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, and then became a law partner of Judge McConihe. He served as justice of the Justices' Court of Troy, as police justice, as recorded, and for eight years (1859-67) was county judge. He exerted himself worthily to improve the school system of Rensselaer County.

So many other lawyers call for notice, by reason of their professional excellence, that brevity is advisable, lest all the available space be used before notice can be given to all. Ebenezer Smith Strait practiced ably for many years from 1849. He was Assemblyman in 1857 and 1863, and in 1867 was elected surrogate^[2] of Rensselaer County. Four years later he became county judge. He presided over that court until his death in 1881. Isaac Grant Thompson, the founder and first editor of the "Albany Law

Journal," was a native of Rensselaer County. Born in 1840, he was admitted to the bar at Troy in 1865, and in 1870 founded the "Albany Law Journal." Upon his death, in 1879, Irving Browne took the editorship. The latter was a gifted writer, and his historical writings have been of much use in the compilation of the current work. An eminent jurist once wrote of him: "In my judgment he is not second to the most brilliant and effective writers, at home or abroad, in the department of forensic literature." Irving Browne was born in Oneida County, New York, in 1835, and was graduated from Albany Law School in 1857, in which year he went to Troy and entered into partnership with Rufus M. and Martin I. Townsend. The life of the latter, spanning as it did almost a century, brings the record down almost to recent times; therefore others of his early contemporaries will be noticed first. Thomas Clowes (1810-66) came to Troy in 1810, or thereabouts. He was the first lawyer in Rensselaer County to take up Chancery practice. He was a firm friend of Marcy, also of Seward, and was a forceful political leader. He was surrogate from 1821 to 1827, and held many public responsibilities during the next three decades. Cornelius Tracy was an able surrogate; Samuel G. Huntington served well as puisne judge of Common Pleas, also as Congressman; John L. Flagg was mayor of Troy from 1866 to 1868, and later served several terms as Assemblyman; James Forsyth, county judge in 1881, was president of the Polytechnic Institute. Other prominent lawyers noticed in a recent work were: John H. Colby, district attorney in 1862; Benjamin H. Hall. an able writer, city chamberlain for many years; Giles B. Kellogg, called the "Nestor of the Rensselaer County Bar," who was for many years master and examiner of the Court of Chancery; David Buell, Jr., (1784-1860), admitted to the bar at Troy, and partner at first of John Bird, of Troy, and later of Daniel Jones and Mr. Beers, of Albany, and finally of Abraham van Vechten, Buell's record including five years (1823-28) as First Judge of Common Pleas of Rensselaer County; Abraham B. Olin (1809-79), recorder of Troy, 1844-48, Congressman, 1856-63, and justice of the Supreme Court of District of Columbia, to which bench he was appointed by President Lincoln in 1863; Esek Cowen and Moses Warren, "foremost legal lights in Troy in 1865"; Edgar L. Fursman, at one time partner of Esek Cowen and later of Levi Smith, who was a partner of William A. Beach; Amos K. Hadley, State Assemblyman, 1847-49, and twice Speaker; Nelson Davenport, president of Troy Young Men's Association in 1861; Job Pierson, surrogate in 1835; Levi Smith, who for four decades was connected with the bar of Rensselaer County; Robert Henry McClellan, surrogate in 1855; George R. Davis, county judge in 1838, Assemblyman later and twice Speaker, his career being cut short by drowning; Hiram P. Hunt, Congressman; James Lansing, surrogate; Moses T. Clough; Edward F. Bullard, John H. Colby; Moses Warren, surrogate for several terms and a man of strong personality; Thomas Neary, for many years a police justice; Justin Kellogg; John T. Hogeboom; John M. Landon, police commissioner and United States commissioner; Richard C. Jennyss, district attorney and police magistrate; John D. Wilard, an associate judge of Court of Common Pleas in 1834; Francis Norton Mann, thrice mayor of Troy, admitted to bar at Troy in 1828, and in practice for fifty years thereafter, excepting the few years of service on the county bench (1840-45); his sons, Francis N., Jr., graduate of Albany Law School in 1872, and Elias P., graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in same year, the younger son also being destined to be thrice mayor of Troy, from 1903; Lewis E. Griffith, county judge for one term from 1890; Albert C. Comstock, of Lansingburgh, surrogate, 1895-1901, Assemblyman, State Senator, and originator of the phrase Peanut Politics, that was much used during the administration of Governor David B. Hill; John H.. Peck, who served with Roswell A. Parmenter and William J. Roche as member of the Constitutional Convention in 1894; George B. Wellington, corporation counsel, 1905-11, and Senator later; William J. Roche, city attorney, 1883-86, corporation counsel of Troy, 1890-1900, and trustee of Rensselaer County Law Library; Michael A. Tierney, his law partner for many years, and county judge for twelve years, from 1903; Henry T. Nason, Tierney's immediate predecessor as county judge, a jurist of marked literary ability; John T. Norton, an "all-around" lawyer of marked ability; Edward W. Douglas, an able lawyer; Anthony P Finder, a "legal historian of marked ability," and in practice in Troy for more than thirty years; Surrogates Willis E., Heaton, Calvin S. McChesney and Chester S. Wager; Jarvis P. O'Brien, who served three terms as district attorney; Frederick E. Draper, Jr., State Senator in 1921-22; Andrew P. McKean, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1915; J. Albert Cipperley and William W. Morrill, who were the oldest members of the Rensselaer County Bar in 1924.

Pierce H. Russell, who has been county judge of Rensselaer County since 1915, was admitted to the bar in 1903, and for six years was assistant corporation counsel of Troy. He is also judge of the Children's Court, which was established in Troy in 1922.

Wesley O. Howard, who recently resigned his seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Third Judicial District, was born in Troy in 1863, and began law practice in that city in 1889. He was district attorney^[3] of Rensselaer County for two terms, 1896-1902, and in November of the latter year was elected a justice of the Supreme Court for a term of fourteen years, at the end of which he was reelected. His term would not end until 1930, but he recently resigned, and in March, 1925, James V. Coffey, of Troy, was appointed in his place.

An interesting item of legal history of Rensselaer County is in the service of Harvey J. King and his son, Edwin A., as register and assignee in bankruptcy, 1867-98, and as referee and trustee in bankruptcy from 1898 to 1925. Of this period of sixty-eight years, the father served fifty-four. Harvey J. King, indeed, was a member of the Troy Bar for sixty-two years, death ending the connection in 1911, in his eighty-eighth year.

One naturally thinks of Martin I. Townsend after reading Referee King's record. Martin I. Townsend, who was referred to as "the Grand Old Man" of the Troy bar, was born in 1810 and died in 1903, aged ninety- three years, seventy of which were spent in Troy. It was in 1833 that Townsend came to Troy and began to read law in the office of Henry Z. Hayner. In 1835 he entered the law office of his elder brother, Rufus M. Townsend, "the ideal jury lawyer of his time." A year later he was taken into partnership, and soon came into notice in public movements by reason of his eloquence, strength of mind and character, and aptitude for public affairs. It is said that the "movement which eventually led to the formation of the Republican party was really started by him in 1848, when Mr. Townsend with two other Trojans organized the first Free Soil meeting in the United States." Martin I. Townsend was delegate-at-large to the Constitutional Convention of 1867, which resulted in considerable change in the judicial system. In 1872, Mr. Townsend was chairman of the New York delegation to the National Republican. Convention, and had the honor of nominating General U. S. Grant for the Presidency. Mr. Townsend became a member of Congress in 1874, and was reelected in 1876. In 1879 he became United States attorney for the Northern District of New York. In 1884, at the National Republican Convention, he nominated Chester A. Arthur for the Presidency. Mr. Townsend did not come into his pronounced political leadership by chance; his power as a speaker did not come from a vapid flow of insincere generalities; his literary popularity was not freakish; he was a man of distinctive talent, of ready wit, a forceful speaker, of sound logic, an essayist of inspiring constructiveness. His place of leadership in the public and political life of his time in New York State was his by well-earned right. He lived a long life vigorously, and much to the benefit of his city, State ' and Nation. His many essays prompted constructive, ambitious thoughts in his fellow-citizens, and his work at the bar was just as valuable. He was counsel for the United States in the celebrated Whitaker case at West Point. For seven decades he was in active legal and public work, and for thirty years was a regent of the University of the State of New York. No Trojan was better able to review the history of the bench and bar of Rensselaer County during the nineteenth century. Troy was not much more than a hamlet when he was born, and through seven decades he came to know and to be able to gauge the capabilities of all her lawyers, great and small. In an address delivered at Troy in 1889, on the occasion of the centennial celebration of that place, Mr. Townsend averred that even in her early decades her lawyers were "preparing . . . to take rank with the foremost minds of the State." Further, he said of the legal profession of Rensselaer County: "It has sent to the bench of the Supreme Court some of the most profoundly learned and wise judges; and it has produced some of the most eloquent pleaders who ever stood before the bar of justice in this country."

Rensselaer County Bar has also provided two Governors of New York State-Marcy and Black. Marcy's distinguished career has been referred to. Frank Swett Black, thirty-third Governor of New York (1897-99), was born in Maine in 1853. In 1875 he graduated, with honors, from Dartmouth College. In 1876 he was editor of a Johnstown (New York) newspaper, but soon came to Troy, where he began to read law in the office of Robertson & Foster, acting as night reporter for the "Troy Whig," and working for part of each day in the Troy Post Office. In 1879 he was admitted to the bar. With the exception of his first year in practice he never had a law partner; but his pronounced ability, "clear insight and thorough mastery of every detail of his cases soon won him a recognized position as one of the leading lawyers of Rensselaer County." Governor Black is referred to as "a capable lawyer and a political genius; an orator who was a master of epigrammatic expression." He became especially active in campaigning for Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and 1892. In 1893, after the murder of Robert Ross, on election day, Mr. Black gained great popularity by the part he took in securing the conviction of the assassin. In 1894 he was elected to Congress, and in November, 1896, was elected Governor of New York. He served as such until 1899. Upon resuming law practice, he went to New York City. Death came in 1913, closing a career that, from the time he had begun to teach each winter while in his 'teens in order to pay for his college course to his last years in practice, had been filled with earnest, honest and especially able effort. In resolutions drawn up soon after the death of Mr. Black is a sentence which reads: "The memory is crowded with instances of the alertness, the promptitude, the determined energy which made the mental stature of this leader loom among men as did his physical height." His record is deserving of, and is accorded, high place in the legal history of Rensselaer County and of the State.

Footnote 1:Judges, County Court, Rensselaer County Anthony Ten Eyck, 1791; Robert Woodworth, 1803; James L. Hogeboom, 1805; Josiah Masters, 1808; David Buell, Jr., 1823; Harmon Knickerbocker, 1828; George R. Davis, 1838; Charles C. Parmelee, 1847; Archibald Bull, 1855; Gilbert Robertson, Jr., 1859; Jeremiah Romeyn, 1867; E. Smith Strait, 1871; James Forsyth, 1881; Edgar L. Fursman, 1882; Lewis E. Griffith, 1890; Henry T. Nason, 1896; Michael A. Tierney, 1903; Pierce H. Russell, 1915.

Footnote 2:Surrogates, Rensselaer County Moss Kent, 1791; John Woodworth, 1793; Jeremiah Osborne, 1803; Alanson Douglass, 1806; David Allen, 1813; William McManus, 1815; Benjamin Smith, 1818; Nicholas McMasters, 1820; Thomas Clowes, 1821; Philip Viele, 1827; Job Pierson, 1835; Cornelius L. Tracy, 1840; Stephen Reynolds, 1844; George T. Blair, 1847; Robert H. McClellan, 1855; Moses Warren, 1859; E. Smith Strait, 1867; Moses Warren, 1871; William Lord, 1883; John Lansing, 1889; Albert C. Comstock, 1895; Willis E. Heaton, 1901; Calvin S. McChesney, 1913; Chester G. Wager, 1919.

Footnote 3:District Attorneys, Rensselaer County William McManus, 1818; Job Pierson, 1821; Samuel Cheever, 1821; Job Pierson, 1823; Jacob C. Lansing, 1833; John Coon, 1836; David L. Seymour, 1839; Martin I. Townsend, 1842; Robert A. Lottridge, 1847; Anson Bingham, 1853; Robert A. Lottridge, 1856; George Van Santvoord, 1859; John H. Colby, 1862; Robert A. Lottridge, 1865; Timothy S. Banker, 1868; Francis Rising, 1872; John C. Greene, 1872; Albert E. Wooster, 1875; Samuel Foster, 1878; La Mott W. Rhodes, 1881; Lewis E. Griffith, 1887; John P. Kelly, 1889; Welsey O. Howard, 1896; Jarvis P. O'Brien, 1902, Abbott H. Jones, 1908; Clarence E. Akin, 1911, John P. Taylor, 1914; Abbott H. Jones, 1920; Timothy J. Quillinan, appointed, February, 1922.