No man we believe ever wore the robes of office, or ministered at the alters of justice, of purer or more spotless life. — Alexandria Gazette
For 68 continuous years William Cranch served the legal community in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He was a political progressive, a persistent and ardent opponent of slavery, duels, and alcohol, and an early supporter of public education in Washington. — An Encyclopedia of Great American Judges
Judge Cranch was a citizen of unexampled usefulness in upbuilding the new capital…The tenderness of his conscience, conspicuous throughout his career, is evidenced in one of the earliest national cases. — The Court House of the District of Columbia.
For over fifty years, Cranch served the court, a tenure probably without parallel anywhere. In more ways than one, he was the court. -- An Anecdotal History of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Cranch’s unflinching commitment to judicial independence, judicial duty, and the rule of law boded well for the future of the court over which he would preside for the following half century. -- A Noble Beginning for the D.C. Circuit Court, R. Kent Newmyer.
In May, we wrote about the loss of a dozen homes along Washington Street. Our peek into that part of Alexandria’s past led us to learning more about Sarah Whittlesey, a poetess and novelist who lived at Duke and Washington.
“A Seaport Saga,” our source of inspiration for both of those, also includes a photograph and brief mention of Judge William Cranch (1769-1855). Appointed by President Adams, Cranch had a long and distinguished career as a Federal Judge in the District of Columbia. He is not in the same breathe as the Supremes, but Cranch deserves our attention. He served on the bench for 54 years, eighth most in the Federal system, and only two years less than Henry Potter, second most. Cranch also had the unglamorous, but important duty of Reporter of Decisions, and served in community leadership roles.
A gift to the searcher of insight into the life of William Cranch is his familial connections to John and Abigail Adams and their family. Cranch’s mother Mary was the oldest sister of Abigail Adams. The two families were very close, and exchanged quite a few letters. Cranch and John Quincy Adams were cousins and also exchanged scores of letters.
Let’s take a look into some of the life of William Cranch (1769-1855), whose adult life spanned the first 60 years of the republic. We make note that no one has written a book about his life. Filling in the gaps are a number of sources that shine lights through the cobwebs. We are in debt to them, seen below.
Arnebeck, Bob. Through a Fiery Trial. Building Washington, 1790-1800.
Carne, William. Life and Times of William Cranch, Judge of the District Circuit Court, 1801-1855.
Clark, Allen Culling. Greenleaf and Law in the Federal City.
Founders Online.
Jacobs, Diane. Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters”
John Quincy Adams Digital Library
Massachusetts Digital Library
Massachusetts Historical Society
Nagel, Paul. The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters.
Scott, Leonora Cranch. The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch.
Vile, John R. An Encyclopedia: Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia
Early Life
The fourth and youngest child of Richard (1726-1811) and Mary Smith Cranch (1741-1811), William Cranch, came into the world in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1769. Coming up on its 400th anniversary, the town, the second oldest in the state behind Plymouth, lies about ten miles south of Boston.
Once a small seaport, Weymouth has produced or been the home of Abigail Adams, Booker T. Washington and Frank Lloyd Wright. Abigail Smith and John Adams married in Weymouth. Some town folk surely take some measure of pride in knowing about a skirmish at nearby Grape Island, an action that turned back some British soldiers in 1775.
Cranch (1769-1855) was too young to remember the Boston Tea Party (1773), but his father surely told his young son about Paul Revere’s Ride and the Battles at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill, which took place not too far from Weymouth. He also no doubt learned about the patriotic actions of his uncle John Adams in Philadelphia and other Weymouth stories.
Cranch was 13 years old when the Revolutionary War ended. He was likely very proud of his father. Founders Online tells us Richard emigrated from Devonshire in 1746 and settled in Boston. After running a glass factory in Braintree, he moved to Weymouth and repaired and made watches. Educated at Harvard, Richard Cranch sat on the bench of Common Pleas, held political offices, and was a delegate at the Massachusetts convention to ratify the federal constitution.
Cranch’s mother Mary was the eldest child of Reverend William Smith (1707-1783) and Elizabeth Quincy (1722-1775). The city of Quincy is named after Colonel John Quincy (1869-1767), the father of Elizabeth Quincy and William Cranch’s great grandfather. Presidents John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were born in Quincy.
Where some colonial era mothers had their stories banished to a dusty book shelve, Mary’s stories were intertwined with well-known citizens. Her sister Abigail would marry John Adams, future first Vice President and second President of the United States. Elizabeth Smith Shaw (1750-1815), the third and youngest sister, would play key roles in family stories. All three were very close to each other. Their letters are the binding to our insight into the family circle and beyond.
In his biography of John Adams, the Pulitzer-prize winning author David McCullough gives us some insight into the world of the Cranch family. In 1759, when John Adams first met Abigail Adams (ages 24 and 15), it was in conjunction with Richard Cranch courting Abigail’s older sister Mary. Richard married Mary in 1762. Two years later, John married Abigail in Weymouth.
The two families spent considerable time together and became very close. McCullough writes that Abigail was very fond of her sister Mary and, “attributed her taste for letters to Richard Cranch, who taught her the love of poets.” Jacob echoes this, and adds that John Adams was also attracted to his intellect.
In a (1797) letter Abigail Adams wrote to Mary, she said:
The President says one of sister Cranch’s letters is worth half a dozen others. She always tells us so much about home.
Elizabeth Smith Shaw (1750-1815) was also very close with the family members. Jacobs points out that Elizabeth was particularly close to William (“Billy”) Cranch. After Cranch left for Washington in 1794, she penned a letter to Abigail. Elizabeth wrote, “I shall feel the separation from Billy even more than his own father and mother.”
Women of this era knew their roles were limited by societal norms and expectations. Nevertheless, those in this story shined in other ways. In her book, “Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters,” author Diane Jacobs tells us Mary became a de facto mayor of her small village while Elizabeth co-founded a co-educational school.
The Adams and Cranch women did a lot more than that, things not largely known or appreciated. As Nagel points out, Abigail and Louisa, wife of John Quincy Adams, were “independent, strong persons, and bore no resemblance to the gentle, retiring females portrayed in journals like “Wide Awake.”
Richard and Mary had three children who lived beyond childhood. Elizabeth (1763-1811), the first, exchanged scores of letters with her aunt Abigail Adams, and a number of letters with John Quincy Adams, her cousin. Elizabeth married Rev. Jacob Norton (1764-1858). At the time of his death, he was the oldest graduate from Harvard.
Lucy (1767-1846) also exchanged quite a few letters with her aunt Abigail. In one written July 20, 1786, Abigail described one of her outings in London. Lucy surely marveled at the first-hand account of Windsor Castle.
We spent only one day at Portsmouth, but returned an other road which brought us back through Windsor. Here we stopped a day and half, and I was charmed and delighted with it, the most luxuriant fancy cannot exceed the beauties of this place.
William (1769-1855) was the third and last born. An early reference to him in letters came from the pen of his aunt, Abigail Adams, on Jul 29, 1776. Writing from Boston to her husband John, the future First Lady passed along some family news to the future President. Small pox would take away many lives in the colonies and across the continent from 1775-1782. The Adams received the inoculation, as did Cranch, who Adams referred to as “Billy.”
Cranch was also close to his cousin, John Quincy Adams, the second child and first son of John and Abigail, and future sixth US President. Adams favorite place to be was the Cranch family home. They, too, exchanged dozens of letters.
Writing from Paris (May 31,1778) when he was just 11 years old, JQA gave his “affectionate cousin” an account of his visit to Montmartre.
I went to the Castle of the Count Brancard & dind there with him and some other Gentleman & Ladies, from which Place there is a most Beautiful Prospect of the City.
John Quincy Adams is also a gift to the searcher. As pointed out by the John Quincy Adams Digital Library, he kept a diary for 68 years, a total of 15,000 pages.
This extraordinary dedication to pen and paper makes his diary, “the longest continuous record of any American of the time.”
In 1780, John Quincy Adams (age 13) wrote to Cranch (age 11). The letter gives us an idea of a day in his life. It’s possible William had the same type of schedule and daily routine.
My Dear Cousin:
I am in one of the schools which I was in when I was here before and am very content with my situation. I will give you an account of our hours. At 7 o clock A.M. we get up and go in to school and at 8 o clock we breakfast which consists of bread and milk. At 9 go into school again, stay till one when we dine, after dinner play till half after two, go into school and stay till half after 4 and then we have a piece of dry bread. At 5 we go into School and stay till 7 when we sup, after supper we amuse ourselves a little and go to bed at 9 o clock.
I am your affectionate friend and Cousin,
John Quincy Adams
Education and Law Practice
For some during colonial times and beyond, education before college came in the form of home schooling and reading the classics. Some families kept their own library of books. For those who could afford it, some sons and daughters received private tutoring.
William Cranch received such a multi-component education. His father loved to read and had a large library at home. The Massachusetts Historical Society tells us William’s uncle John Shaw (husband of Elizabeth Smith Shaw, sister of Abigail Adams) tutored him from April 1783 to March 1784 in Haverhill.
In 1784, when he was fifteen, Cranch entered Harvard, the oldest and 57 years ahead of William and Mary, second oldest. His uncle John Adams had graduated from the famed college in 1755. One of his classmates was a future President of the United States and his cousin, John Quincy Adams. Adams’ younger brother Charles (1770-1800) also attended the distinguished school and graduated in 1789. They stayed in Hollis Hall, one of the oldest building on the famed campus.
Cranch graduated from Harvard with honors (Bachelor of Arts) in 1787. Cranch and his cousin John Quincy Adams both gave a commencement speech. No doubt influenced by his uncle John Adams, Cranch spoke on the need for three branches of the government.
After graduating Cranch studied law under the tutelage of Thomas Dawes (1757-1787), a Supreme Court judge in Massachusetts and close friend of John and Abigail. Dawes married Margaret Greenleaf, sister of William’s wife, Anna Nancy Greenleaf.
In 1790, Cranch put up his first business sign in Braintree, another town in Boston’s orbit with associations to the Adams family. His stay there lasted just one year. He then moved to Haverhill, a long day’s horse ride, and replaced John Thaxter who had practiced there.
The Massachusetts Historical Society tells us Thaxter’s mother, Ann Quincy, was a sister of Abigail Adams’ mother, Elizabeth Quincy Smith (1722-1775). In the family tree Jacobs provides in her book, one sees Boston-born Colonel John Quincy (1689-1767) and Elizabeth Norton (1696-1760), the grandparents of Abigail Adams and Mary Cranch, and thus the great grandparents of William Cranch.
Thaxter, too, stood in this circle of Smith families. The MHS write that Abigail treated Thaxter, “almost like another son.”
Nagel points out William flourished in Haverhill, which “offered the more cheerful household of Elizabeth and John Shaw.” That cheerfulness belied the sadness that came when Rev. Shaw passed away in 1794. The disease of alcoholism took him away too soon.
Their son William Smith Shaw, Cranch’s cousin, might too have had a problem with alcohol. His accomplishments were noteworthy, and included the helmsmanship of the Boston Athenaeum and serving as private secretary to President Adams.
In December 1790, Cranch wrote a letter to his uncle John Adams, who had become the first Vice-President, serving under George Washington for both terms (1789-1797).
I find myself, Sir, very ignorant of the Civil law. Where shall I begin my Course of Study in that branch?
Adams picked up his pen and replied at length. Among his recommendations were:
One branch of the division is the Law of Nature and Natures and the other the Roman Law.,,, increase your familiarity with the Latin language and the Roman learning in general… read carefully the institutes and acquire a familiarity with the titles and indexes of the Corpus Juris…. Study the Greek translation of Theophilus.
Cranch must have applied himself. He began his practice in Braintree and argued cases before the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1793. He also had clients in Haverhill in 1791.
Coming to Washington
In a word cloud of early Washington history, one sees, among others, the names of Washington, L’Enfant, and Jefferson, as well as Morris, Nicholson, Law and Greenleaf. In the summer of 1791, L’Enfant, the French-American artist and Revolutionary War officer, sketched out his plan for the new Federal capital. Then came the land speculators, who had a bad case of “Potomac Fever.” Morris, Nicholson, Law and Greenleaf all had money and access to credit. Their belief that significant amounts of people would want to buy lots in the new seat of government proved to be a siren song.
The Greenleaf family was well-known in New England. One of the best looks at James (1765-1843) is, “Greenleaf and Law in the Federal City,” by Allen Culling Clark. The family were Huguenots, who left France over worries of religious persecution.
His father, William Greenleaf (1725-1893), active in the American Revolution, held meetings at his house in Boston. In July 1776, as Sheriff, he stood on a balcony of the Statehouse and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Listening intently in the audience were William Cranch (age 8) and John Quincy Adams (age ten).
In days of old, some families consisted of more than ten children. The Greenleafs certainly tell this story. Mary, wife of William Greenleaf, gave birth 15 times.
James Greenleaf drew a lot of attention. He piled up bags of money in Amsterdam and married Dutch Baroness Scholten van Aschat in 1788. Nancy, the last born of the Greenleafs, married William Cranch. Rebecca married Noah Webster. Margaret married the Honorable Thomas Dawes. Susanna married a Captain. Sarah married a Doctor. John married Lucy Cranch, William’s younger sister. Descendants include T.S. Eliot and John Greenleaf Whittier.
William Cranch probably thought his life would play out in Massachusetts, where his familial, social, and economic needs could be fulfilled. Then came the lusty sales pitch from James Greenleaf (1765-1843), his brother-in-law.
Greenleaf was serving as the US Consul in Amsterdam when he paid a visit to Washington in 1793. After George Washington and his team of Virginia planters had wrangled the seat of the government away from the north, Greenleaf, Robert Morris and John Nicholson formed the Greenleaf Syndicate. They were required to build twenty houses a year for seven years, a goal that proved way too lofty.
William’s wise uncle John Adams had told Abigail he did not approve of speculators. William was probably leery, too, but as Clyde Willis (“An Encyclopedia: Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia”) tells us, he had a case of wanderlust. In a letter, he wrote, “the lot of the small-town lawyer held too little promise for him.”
In her terrific book, “No Silent Witness: The Eliot Parsonage Women and Their Liberal Religious World,” author Cynthia Grant Tucker tells us William Cranch was “tender, devout, and studious.” On the other hand, he was “incapable of earning or managing money.” “Naive and impatient,” he fell for the scheme to make a quick fortune.
In 1795, Cranch took the bait from Greenleaf and took the long and bumpy coach ride to Washington. His first year got off to a bad start when his law books were lost in a fire on the ship carrying them. It wouldn't be long before he lost his money.
The Land Syndicate of Morris, Nicholson and Greenleaf hired Cranch to serve as a legal counsel for the firm. The triumvirate had formed in 1793 and bought up large numbers of lots near and around the site of the Capitol. Morris was a lion of commerce and US Senator from Pennsylvania. John Nicolson, a native of Wales also lived in Pennsylvania, serving as Comptroller General from 1782 to 1794. They both went to debtor’s prison. Nicholson died there in 1800.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was Washington. As detailed by Arnebeck, the syndicate members lost their hats when only a small number of lots were sold and little interest was shown in their sale of stock of the North American Land Company.
Greenleaf went to debtor’s prison. As Nagel writes, “the Cranch family was devastated.” Just two years after his arrival, William was broke, as well as his sister Lucy and her husband John Greenleaf.
Fortunately for Cranch, he had a circle of family around him. As Nagel writes, Nancy displayed courage and “exemplified the strength women often had to show in marriage.”
Abigail sent him letters of encouragement and asked her husband more than once to help their nephew. After tabbing him as District of Columbia commissioner in 1800 (replaced Gustavus Scott), President Adams made William one of his 23 appointees as a Federal Judge in February, 1801. Much has been written about these “midnight judges,” although as McCullough notes, there was “no frenzied rush to name midnight appointees as portrayed by Jefferson and the Republican press.”
The appointment not only righted Cranch’s ship, it gave him a new direction with a good, steady paycheck. In 1805, President Jefferson, even though no fan of Adams, elevated Cranch to the Chief Judge bench. He would serve in that position for the next 50 years.
Where Cranch Served
Washington
If Judge Cranch and others of his time were to come back and walk along Pennsylvania Avenue to Judiciary Square, they would perhaps have mixed feelings. A number of large limestone buildings put up in the twentieth century fill some of the blocks and hold the court and police business, as well as the National Law Enforcement Memorial.
A knowing smile would come across Cranch’s face as his eyes turned to Indiana Avenue. Standing as a sentinel to those early days of the Federal capital is the large, U-shaped District of Columbia Courthouse (historically known as Old City Hall) where he sat on the bench for all those years.
Designed by George Hadfield and built in stages between 1820 and 1850, the imposing Greek Revival building (one of oldest in the District and a National Historic Landmark) saw multiple uses, including City Hall, the Court proceedings, and governmental offices. As James Goode points out, that part of the city remained undeveloped until the construction of City Hall building began in 1820. Most of what went up in Cranch’s time, including residential row houses and Blagden Row, was demolished in the twentieth century. Goode describes the homes as one of the most elegant pre-Civil War house groups. Cranch probably was a guest in one or more of them.
Judiciary Square remains the haunt of shined shows and uniforms, with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the Juvenile Court Building, District of Columbia Superior Court Building C, the Police Court Building and Municipal Court Building, and seen-a-lot-on-the-news, the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse.
Alexandria
Although on a smaller scale than Judiciary Square, Judge Cranch might also have mixed feelings about seeing Market Square in Alexandria. Cranch would see nothing of what once filled it (City Hall rebuilt in 1871 after a fire), but he would recognize the square as a place of public use with a large City Hall. With the farmers arriving daily, Market Square used to keep Alexandria fed. Today, the Farmers Market is held on Saturdays.
First Years and Where Cranch and Family Lived
McCullough gives us a succinct description of the infant new Federal district when President John Adams arrived in 1800 - “squalid shacks of the work crews… only a rather shabby village with great stretches of stumps and stubble.”
William Carne, a long time observer of life in Alexandria, gave this description:
“the city rising in the field and along the morasses, old farmhouses and new residences, scattered here and there.”
Fortunately for Cranch, the former Maryland land included Notley Young’s brick mansion. The Georgian home had been built in 1750 and overlooked the Potomac near Georgetown (G Street between 9th an 10th, SW, demolished 1856, site Banneker Circle). With a commanding position, Notley’s mansion would have been a landmark for many years in the capital city. He was one of the original proprietors of the land. Ever so sadly, Young owned scores of enslaved humans.
Still single, Cranch boarded with Young before he married Nancy in April, 1795. The couple then domiciled in a number of locations. The addresses Clark gives don’t all list the quadrant — NW, NE, SE, and SW. In his book, “Through A Fiery Trial, Building Washington, 1790-1800,” Bob Arnebeck tells us Greenleaf let Cranch live at his 2,000 acre farm hugging the south side of Eastern Branch (Anacostia River). Cranch raised vegetables there.
These first years in Washington were difficult ones for Cranch and Nancy. They had to make the adjustments associated with living so far from home, and Cranch went bankrupt when only a few lots were sold. During this time, William and Nancy had William 1796, Richard 1797, and Ann, 1799. Cranch wrote to his mother that concerns of being sent to debtor’s prison gave him “horrors… that haver tormented my mind.” He avoided debtor’s prison, but no doubt felt shamed.
Family-wise, William Cranch and James Greenleaf were not the only ones in financial distress. While serving in London, John Quincy Adams met and married Louisa Johnson. She was the daughter of Joshua Johnson (1742-1802), a Marylander born in Calvert County and Catherine Nuth of London.
Chris Haugh (“Six Degrees of Joshua Johnson”) tells us about Joshua Johnson. Born not too far from Annapolis, he helped establish the first American tobacco firm to cut out the British middlemen. By the time Cranch had moved to Washington, the “obnoxious weed” was no longer the cash cow it once was for Virginia or Maryland. But Johnson rode the eighteenth-century waves and parlayed his financial gains into the post of US Consul to London. Among his guests was John Adams, serving as a diplomat.
Despite all this, Johnson had lived too high off the hog and ended up bankrupt in 1797. With wounded pride and little money in his pocket, he arrived in Georgetown. In an act he would repeat for Cranch, President John Adams pulled out his godfather file and appointed Johnson as head of the US General Stamp Office. It wasn’t enough. Johnson, burdened with mental stress, died in 1802.
Duncanson-Cranch House, Near Arena Stage
In 1807, Samuel Eliot, Jr., (1772-1822) leased this house. He was a nephew to Cranch’s wife Nancy and kept the books for the Syndicate. Cranch and his family stayed there from 1808-1811. His children at that point were William (age 12-14), Richard (11-13), Ann (9-11), Mary (7-9), Elizabeth (3-5), John 1-3), and Edward (birth to 2). Yet to be born were Christopher Pearse 1813 and Abigail 1817.
Once again, what surprises Cranch would see a century later. Visitors to the Southwest part of DC flock to The Wharf, a booming new mix of residential, restaurants, and retail along the shore of the channel waters. Steps away lies the long-time anchor, Arena Stage, now part of a gentrified area around the Metro station. Filling out the stock are residential units built after Urban Renewal took too much away in the 1960s.
Embedded in this landscape and within a short walk from each other are the Duncanson-Cranch House (1794), Wheat Row (1795), and the Thomas Law/Honeymoon House (1796). All three are steps from the corner of 4th and N, SW. The masked trio are part of a small handful of homes built during that period of speculation when the seat of government was in the process of being transferred from Philadelphia to Washington.
Cranch did not live in the other two but it was part of his world and the builders and residents are part of the story of the infant city of Washington. This was a mostly barren landscape, a long walk to the Capitol (such as it was). The Honeymoon House (Sixth and N) was for a short time, home to Thomas Law and his bride, Elizabeth Parke Custis Law. She was the oldest of Martha Washington’s four grandchildren, who gave the new Federal district a fine Virginia flavor. Her sister Martha Parke Custis Peter and her family lived in the lap of luxury on a high hill in Georgetown and were part of the “Cave Dweller” high society set. Although not fitting in as Southern, Cranch might have met them in social settings. One can imagine the conversation turning to George Washington, their step grandfather.
Note: William Cranch is not found in Washington’s diary (Founders Online). Abigail wrote several letters to Mary, telling her about dinners and visits with the Washingtons in New York. While there, Abigail became Martha’s “staunch social ally.”
Law not only lost money, he also lost his wife when she left him and retreated to the Virginia portion of the District. Their break up gave the society columnists juicy material.
Wheat Row (4th and N) stretches across as four Federal style row houses (1794-1795). James Greenleaf and his Syndicate built them about 1794. The National Register for Historic Places notes they are “probably the first speculative housing erected after Washington was chosen as the seat of government.” Daniel Reiff, an architectural historian, believes the design is similar to Hollis Hall, the building where Cranch resided while at Harvard.
Built in 1794, the Duncanson-Cranch House (Cranch-Eliot House) is a six-windows wide, three stories tall structure at 468-470 N. Street, SW. It is part of the Harbour Square Co-Operative Apts. William Mayne Duncanson, a sea captain, rented the dwelling in 1795-1796. Duncanson and Law were Anglo-Indians, who had made money in India and came to Washington with money in their pockets and a gleam in their eye. As Clark put it, “they saw in visions, bazaars and temples.” Duncanson also built a mansion home at 619 D. Street NE. Known as The Maples or Friendship House, is was converted into residential in 2015.
Like Greenleaf and Law, Duncanson lost a considerable amount of money in the speculations. Founders Online tells us President Jefferson declined to appoint him as either the librarian of Congress or the US Marshall for the District of Columbia.
Alexandria Beckons
While the city of Washington slowly grew, newcomers had two other options for a place to lay their head and find a developed town. While not as populated as Baltimore, Georgetown and Alexandri had more than a half century each under their belts. As seaports, they possessed elements of a cosmopolitan place to live.
Down where Great Hunting Creek’s big mouth waters flowed into the Potomac, stood the town of Alexandria. Founded in 1749, the growing seaport certainly had experienced economic ups and downs and would continue to do so during the years the Cranch family was there (1811-1825). But while Washington teethed, the Virginia part of the District held a vitality. A visitor in 1808 (“Journal of Capt. Henry Massie,” Pen Portraits of Alexandria, T. Michael Miller) had the following observations:
Alexandria is a very handsome town. There is here open every morning an abundantly supplied market with all kinds of meat and vegetables. The wharves are crowded with vessels of different sizes.
Two hundred years after the arrival of enslaved humans from Africa, Virginia planters were still keeping large numbers of them in bondage and gifting them to their children. Some visitors to Alexandria and the nearby farms and fields, mainly those from the North, and especially Quakers, shook their heads at the slavocracy and their terrible ways. There were a number of black communities in the town, with both free and enslaved African Americans. Some of the churches they built stand today as reminders of their success and struggles, and help weave the fabric of the Old Town and Parker Gray communities.
By the time Cranch and his family arrived in 1811, Alexandria had blossomed into a place to be. With tobacco fading away, flour exports put money in pockets. A number of fine Georgian and Federal homes lined the streets. On King Street, one could easily find a tavern to quaff a beer and catch up on news, and an established restaurant to slurp oysters. The town’s associations with George Washington served as major bragging rights and families were proud of the service given to the patriot cause. Through the door at John Gadsby’s tavern had walked Washington a number of times and Jefferson’s Inaugural Ball was held there in 1801.
Perhaps Cranch walked down to the tip of Jones Point, then shaped lie a dog-leg, to see where the first stone of the new Federal District had been ceremoniously laid in 1791. Market Square held an array of farm products as well as the Hustings (minor offenses) Court. Cranch worked there in his first years in the District, which then included Alexandria and environs. A religious man, he worshipped the Old Presbyterian Meeting House.
In June, 1800, President Adams, in the final summer of what would prove to be his only term, paid Alexandria a visit. At his website, "Our History Museum," Ken Lopez details the story. After visiting the widowed Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, Adams was escorted into the town and given the customary salutes and honors of recognition. The feting continued at Gadsby’s Tavern where toasts were made. And is there any doubt, the President was treated to a fine array of Virginia food?
In September, 1811, Cranch wrote the following letter to his Aunt Abigail.
I have sometimes thought of removing to Alexandria, where rents are low & provisions cheap; and where I can have the benefit of good schools for my daughters without sending them to a boarding school; & where every thing is convenient, and society upon a scale better suited to our circumstances and habits. The district court, of which I am sole Judge, sits only in Alexandria.— The only disadvantage which I think of at present is, that I shall not find it so convenient to attend the Supreme Court to take notes of reports, as if I resided in this city. Alexandria I believe is more healthy than the city. The Ague & fever has not been known for many years, in the thick settled part of the town; and the bilious fever is very rare. I should be able to visit my land, in case I should improve it, without the heavy tax of the Bridge toll.
These are my principal reasons for thinking of a residence in Alexandria—but I am by no means determined.—Health, education, society, economy and convenience are considerations of the first importance in choosing a residence, and if the balance of these should be clearly in favour of Alexandria I ought to go there.
Cranch listened to his own advice and moved his family to Alexandria that year. Christoper Pearse Cranch, arguably their most famous child, was born in Alexandria in 1813. Abigail was the last, born there in 1817. The family’s move coincided with the British occupation of the seaport during the latter stages of the War of 1812.
Sadly, Ann Allen Cranch (21 years old), their eldest daughter, passed away in 1821. The Gazette noted the “funeral will proceed from her father’s house on Washington Street.” William and Mary also lost four other children, two in 1822 and one in 1824.
Places Lived in Alexandria
609 Oronoco, 1813
Want to start a good discussion in Alexandria? How about — name the most famous intersection?
Tabbed with three state highway markers, the intersection of N. Washington and Oronoco is certainly one of Alexandria’s most heralded places. Former residents at this corner included Robert E. Lee, Edmund Jennings Lee, and other members of the famed family, as well as the highly respected Quaker educator Benjamin Hallowell.
Cranch is certainly not found in this conversation, but he lived at 609 Oronoco in 1813. Robert E. Lee was just another young Lee living next door (607), but his father was Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Cranch might have met Charles Lee, although his fading sun, like Henry’s, was dipping behind Shuter’s Hill. Lee had practiced in the halls of justice and was a town leader.
Cranch might have borrowed milk from Edmund Jennings Lee, who lived on the other corner. Edmund served as clerk of the US District Court for Alexandria.
Richard Bland Lee was another possibility. The congressman had helped the Virginia team of planters move the seat of government moving from Philadelphia to Washington.
220 S Washington
1817-1821
This dwelling, now a business on the first floor, still stands as part of a row of houses built by Johnathan Schofield in 1812. John Lloyd acquired them, thus the name “Lloyd’s Row.” Five are three-story and one is a two-story. Cranch bought the latter in 1817. The family lived here from 1817 to 1821.
Another insightful source on the Cranch family is “The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch" by Leonora Cranch Scott (1846-1933), his oldest daughter. She used not only her memories, but also her father’s autobiography and letters. The result is a rich and thorough source.
In his autobiography, Christopher Pearse Cranch recalled part of his childhood in and around Alexandria.
My first recollections date from the house in Washington Street when I was about four or five years old. I was taught to read by my sister Nancy. When she was eight or nine, she died. Everyone loved her. About this time my sister Mary also died. The deaths of these two elder sisters were my first great griefs, and made a deep impression on me.
212 S Fairfax
Dates Uncertain
Living here put the family in the heart of the seaport. The court at Market Square stood just two blocks away, and the same distance for the waterfront. According to Ethelyn Cox ("Historic Alexandria, Street by Street"), the home dates to 1786. Its first resident was Dr. William Brown (1748-1792). A marker affixed to the handsome home tells the reader he was a Physician General of Hospital for the Continental Army, author for the first America Pharmacopeia, and personal physician of George Washington. After Dr. Brown died in 1792, his widow “offered four good rooms.” Among them were the widow of Richard Blackburn of Rippon Lodge, Carlyle Fairfax Whiting, grandson of John Carlyle and Cranch and his family.
Note: In 1913, the Richmond Daily Dispatch told its readers about the home at 212 S. Fairfax. One of its windows panes had been cut with diamonds, an etch of the names of those who had lived there. Among them were Dr. Brown, S.R. Greene, and Judge Cranch.
Cranch worshipped three blocks away at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House. Donald Dahmann, the historian there, tells us Cranch “enjoyed playing the church’s Hilbus organ.”
Cranch got involved in the community in Alexandria, serving as a trustee of the Alexandria Academy along with Edmund J. Lee, Thomas Swann and John Janney. Those were three big family names in town. Cranch might have enjoyed conversing with Janney, a Quaker. Perhaps he tried to reconcile any friendships he had with Alexandrians who were slave owners.
Farm South of Alexandria
In his autobiography, Christopher Pearse Cranch recalled part of his childhood in and around Alexandria. The family (father, mother, him, William, Richard, John and Edward, Elizabeth, Abby and Margaret) spent their summers, “on a farm, Suffield, about four miles to the southwest.” His brother Richard Cranch oversaw the work of the family. They raised vegetables, rye, wheat and oats, and small apples. They had a dog named Watch, a mix of setter and Newfoundlander.
Note: I was not able to determine the site of this farm.
Christoper also wrote about their move back to the town of Alexandria in 1823.
In 1823, we moved to another part of Alexandria, which went by the name of the Village.The house was a large and pretty frame dwelling, in the southern suburbs of town, not far from Hunting Creek.On the southern side of the house was a veranda of two stories, overlooking a yard with a semi-circle of tall Lombardy poplars, a well of water, and a large garden with an abundance of fruit and flowers. The roses were particularly plentiful and fine.In the center of the garden was a large summer arbor, with seats, and covered with multi-flora roses. We had strawberries, gooseberries, cherries, damsons, peaches, and fine winter pippins. At the bottom of the garden was a small building used by my father as a library, and law office.From the upper story of the veranda there was a fine view of the majestic Potomac, and the sails constantly gliding up and down the river.It was a beautiful place, and to this day it mingles with my dreams.But the situation was not healthy, all that region near the creek being subject to fever and ague, at which I took my turn with others.
I shall always remember this pleasant house at the village as the happy suburban home where, in spite of these domestic sorrows, we children found such ample scope for play, such delight in our beautiful garden, such amusement with the dogs, the chickens, the ducks, the hayloft, and the rural surroundings.And it was there that I attempted my first versification, a paraphrase from Ossian.
Market Square
In her book, “The Market Square Cookbook, Alexandria’s Founders, Farmers and Food,” Tiffany Pache provides a history of Market Square through the years. From 1785 to 1802, the Hustings Court, where Cranch sat on the bench, was located in the Market House. It was a two- story building on the southeast corner of Cameron and N. Royal (across from Gadsby’s Tavern).
1817 saw expansion and changes to this square. On that same corner, a larger Market House building, now fronting Royal Street, was built with brick and rose to three stories high. The first floor continued to serve as the farmer’s market. The second floor held the city library and court offices. The city museum was on the third floor. The pillory and stocks had been removed while the scale house remained mid block Cameron Street. Sharpshin Alley ran east to west and divided the square in half. On the lower half facing King, stood a mishmash of retailers and businesses.
Emblematic of a growing and proud town, that new three story building was topped by a steeple with a bell and clock designed by Benjamin Latrobe.
Cranch Family Children
In colonial times, families suffered greatly from the loss of children dying before adulthood, as well as mothers dying after labor. Although, the percentages dropped by the start of the nineteenth century, the black veils continued to wrap families in grief this way. Ann died of tuberculosis at age 20. After marrying Richard Norton, Mary died at the same when her child was one week old. Richard’s promising life was cut short when he drowned at age 28.
William, Richard, Ann, Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward were born in Washington and were part of the move to Alexandria in 1811. Christopher and Abigail were born in Alexandria. For Elizabeth, John, Edward, Christopher and Abigail, their formative years were lived in Alexandria. The family lived there until 1825, when they returned to Washington. William was the only one of the children who stayed in Washington the rest of his life.
William Greenleaf Cranch
1796-1872
Residence: Corner of 4th and East Capitol Streets
Buried: Congressional Cemetery
In the colonial era and beyond, the first born child and the last born child could be separated by 15 or more years. This was the case with William and Abigail (21 years) and Christopher (17). In fact, Christopher, in his autobiography, has but one brief mention of William.
It’s hard to know where in Washington William was born but it was likely near the Capitol. No doubt a function of his financial straits, William Cranch moved his family to several places before the move to Alexandria in 1811. This could have been a difficult time for his first son, age fifteen when they crossed the river, and he himself, was looking down at his chasm between adolescence and adulthood.
The Census for 1850 shows William Greenleaf Cranch living with his father. The 1860 Census shows him as a Clerk in the Post Office. Also listed are John, age 39, an Artist, Charles, 36, Hannah, 14, Edward 8, and Mary Dines, a 50-year-old black “home servant.”
The City Directory (1869) for William shows him working at the Patent Office and living near 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. He passed way at his residence at the corner of 4th and East Capitol streets.
His obituary in the Evening Star, January 29, 1872, noted his funeral was at the residence of his brother John Cranch, No. 13 4th street S.E. near East Capitol street, and was largely attended.
Richard Cranch
1797-1825
Born: Washington
Died: Pennsylvania
Buried Pennsylvania
William and Nancy suffered deeply in the first half of the 1820s. Ann and Mary died in 1821, followed by Richard drowning in 1825. Richard had managed the family farm south of Alexandria. In 1825, he was attached to the Brigade of Topographical Engineers. The crew was working on the route for a canal from between Lake Erie and Pittsburgh. The Meadville Messenger gave an account of Richard’s drowning.
In short, two lieutenants, Turnbull and Ramsay, along with Cranch and two other men were in a boat in a lake about two hundred yards off shore. A squall of winds turned the boat over. Lt. Ramsay and another man tried to save Cranch. They pulled him to the shore and tried to revive him, but it was too late.
In his autobiography, Christoper wrote:
“I shall never forget what a dark day that was, when the tidings of this event reached us. I can well remember how all the family were plunged into grief and tears. We all loved our brother Richard dearly. He was the strongest and most active in the family.”
According to MyHeritage, Richard was buried in Pennsylvania.
Ann Allen Cranch
1799-1821
Ann’s obituary (April 11) in the Gazette indicated she was the eldest daughter of Judge Cranch, and that the funeral will proceed from her father’s house on Washington Street.
She might have died from consumption (tuberculosis). Ann was laid to rest at Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria.
Mary Cranch Norton
1801-1821
There is very little information on both Ann and Mary. In “The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch,” he writes:
My first recollections date from the house in Washington Street when I was about four or five years old (He was born in 1813). About this time my sister Mary also died. She had been married to her cousin Richard Norton about a year, and died soon after confinement, with a daughter, who also died. About a year later, Mr. Norton died from some virulent fever badly treated by an ignorant physician.
The deaths of these two elder sisters were my first great griefs, and made a deep impression on me.
Mary might have died from childbirth. She too was buried in Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery.
Elizabeth Eliot Cranch Dawes
1805-1860
Congressional Cemetery
In Washington in 1829, Elizabeth married Rufus Dawes (1803-1859) of Boston. He was the son of Judge Thomas Dawes of Boston. Perhaps he wrote poems for Elizabeth, for Thomas was talented this way. He had some of his verses published (“The Valley of the Nashaway and other Poems.") According to the website LawLit, Rufus later found employment in Washington as a governmental clerk. He died there in 1859.
The Baltimore Sun published Elizabeth’s obituary (June, 1860). It pointed out she was the widow of the late Rufus Dawes and the daughter of the late estimable Judge Cranch. She died “after a severe and protracted illness.”
The funeral for Elizabeth was at the residence of her brother William at the “corner of second street east and D Street south.”
John Cranch
1807-1891
Died: Urbana, Ohio
Three of Cranch’s sons -- John, Edward, and Christopher -- earned a measure of fame through their creative talents. John, like Christoper and Edward, also spent some of his early life in Alexandria, and, like his father and brothers, graduated from Columbian College, the predecessor to GWU.
In 1829, readers of the Alexandria Gazette learned that the paper took great pleasure in mentioning “a young artist, one of our own townsmen, is now located in Washington, pursuing with assiduity, and we doubt not success, his profession.”
That was John Cranch. He would go on to have his work exhibited at, among others, the National Academy, Apollo Association, Boston Athenaeum, American Art Union, and the Washington Art Association.
In 1837, readers of the paper got an update. The Gazette published an extract from the New York Daily Express. The paper pointed out John Cranch was a son of Judge Cranch, and was “one of the most promising and talented artists in our county.”
Two years earlier, he painted a portrait of Grenville Mellen (1799-1841). Born in Maine, Mellen (1799-1841) Mellen penned poetry and books. He was the son of Prentiss Mellen, who served as the first Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court.
The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has in their collection a photograph of John Cranch. It was taken in his studio at his daughter’s home in Urbana, Ohio, c 1885. One sees his portrait of his father behind him, and another (unknown) portrait beside him. The photograph was donated by John E. Cranch, his great-grandson in 1985.
The book,"Paintings and Sculptors in the Collection," provides a bio of Cranch, as well as a self-portrait. After graduating from Columbian College, he traveled to Italy (Venice and Florence) in 1830 to study art. He befriended Hiram Powers, described by the Met as “among the most influential and best-known American sculptors of the nineteenth century.” Also in the inner circle of American ex-pats was Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Returning to the states, Cranch lived in New York where his work appeared in an exhibition held by the National Academy of Design. He then moved to Cincinnati in 1839 and became President of the Fine Arts Section of the Hamilton County Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
In 1841, John’s brother Christopher was not feeling well. He took sanctuary in Washington and began to take up landscape painting. He writes in his diary of buying paint and brushes and using one of John’s old easel. Christopher surely took inspiration from his brother, too, as John painted landscapes.
In 1845, John married Charlotte Dawes Appleton (1824-1909) of Baltimore. He exhibited in Boston and again in New York. In New York he shared space with Christopher. In 1855, John returned to Washington, where he provided leadership to the newly formed Washington Art Association.
His studio in Washington was at 278 1/2 Pennsylvania Avenue, above the Adams & Co. Express Office on Pennsylvania Avenue. On a visit to Washington, a Boston newspaper reporter noticed a portrait of Judge Cranch there. He also saw “David playing on the harp before Saul.”
The book, "The First Smithsonian Collection," adds to our knowledge of John Cranch. He worked with William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), to promote the formation of a national gallery and art school. The famed founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (opened 1874) grew up in Georgetown and lived in Washington.
Cranch painted a portrait of early Smithsonian regent Robert Dale Owen. In 1895, his widow Charlotte donated a large collection of prints to the National Academy. Cranch had acquired European engravings and Renaissance paintings and sculptures.
Cranch stayed in Washington from 1855 to 1881. He moved to Ohio in 1885, and drew his last breath there.
According to the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, a portrait of his father hangs in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington.
Edward Pope Cranch
1809-1892
Died in Cincinnati
Edward Pope Cranch was born in Washington. He followed in his brother’s footsteps as a hand at the family farm and a graduate of Columbian College, and in his father’s footsteps as an attorney. In his autobiography, Christopher tells us Edward wrote that he had great insight into their father’s life. Edward studied law for three years in his chambers at City Hall in Washington and observed — “I don’t believe he spent an idle hour in his life.”
Edward was close with Christopher, their fondness seen in lengthy letters exchanged. After Christopher passed away in February, 1892, Edward wrote to Mrs. Scott:
He was very dear to me from my childhood, and his memory will be precious to me while I live.
Edward also had talents with the brush and as a lecturer. He made his way to Cincinnati in 1831 and studied under Salmon P. Chase. Edward lectured at the Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge. He returned to Alexandria in the late 1850s and painted and taught there, followed by a stint in Washington in the mid-1870s. He decorated pieces of Rookwood ware in Cincinnati between 1882 and his passing in 1892.
Christopher Pearse Cranch
1813-1892
Born: Alexandria
Died: Cambridge
Christopher Pearse Cranch was arguably the most famous of the Cranch children. Born in Alexandria in 1815, he became a preacher, poet, essayist, author of children books, and an artist. After graduating from Columbian College (the predecessor to GWU) in Washington, he began a remarkable, multi-talented and well-traveled life.
The Walden Books website says he met Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) after entering Harvard Divinity School. The two, along with some of their fellow students, helped form the Transcendental Club. Christopher sketched “The Transparent Eyeball,” an ode to Emerson who wrote Nature (1836). He was the only one in the group born in the South.
The two exchanged letters. In March 1840, Emerson wrote:
I thank you for the beautiful verses which I have read and re-read with great content. The first piece is true and the second is brilliant.
Cranch became particularly close to George William Curtis (1824-1892), who became a writer for Harper’s Weekly and the New York Tribune. In her biography of Curtis, Linda Dowling tells us he was also an essayist, lecturer, editor and best of all, the “beloved author of the Editor’s Easy Chair column in Harper’s Monthly Magazine.”
The two were friends who traveled to Italy and France together, exchanged letters, buoyed each others spirit, and shared poetry, ideas, criticisms, and thoughts. One particularly poignant moment came during the Civil War. Christopher wrote to Curtis:
...sorry to hear about your brother who died at the Battle of Fredericksburg. (Lt.Col. Joseph Bridgham Curtis).
Cranch’s daughter tells us Christopher asked her to send, after his death, his published and unpublished works to Curtis. Cranch named one of his sons, George William (1847), after his friend and Curtis helped him publish a book.
When Christopher passed away in 1892, Curtis wrote about him in his column in Harper’s Magazine called, "The Easy Chair."
He was of that choice band who are always true to the ideals of youth, and whose hearts are the citadels which conquering time assails in vain. It was a long and lovely life, a life gentle and pure and good.”
As many did in his time, Cranch married someone he and the family knew. Elizabeth De Windt (1787-1870) was a niece of John Quincy Adams. Her mother Caroline (1795-1852), was a daughter of Abigail “Nabby” Adams Smith (1765-1813), who was the only daughter of John and Abigail Adams.
Jim Olson wrote about Nabby in his book, “Bathsheba’s Breast, Women, Cancer & History.” She was seventeen when her father was appointed to minister to England. Contrary to certain ideals that advocated for modesty, her husband, William Smith, spent lavishly. As a harbinger for what would happen in Washington, he lost everything on real estate speculation. Much worse, Nabby had breast cancer that spread to other parts of her body. Her mother Abigail Adams fell into a depression.
Elizabeth’s father was the wealthy Dutch-American, J.P. De Windt II (1787-1870). Her sister Caroline married Andrew Jackson Downing, the distinguished architect who spent some of his formative years in Alexandria.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art tells us Cranch devoted all his time to painting after 1840. He and Elizabeth spent time in Rome, Paris and Switzerland. He was praised for his landscape painting. “Virginia, A Guide to the Old Dominion,” tells us Christoper published in 1875 what is “probably the best American translation of Virgil’s Aeneid.”
In 1993, the University of Georgia Press published an edited edition of “Three Children’s Novels,” by Christopher Cranch. They write that his most enduring achievements are his novels for children and he was the first American author to write novel-length works solely for children.
As the editors explain in their introduction, Cranch was the first American author to write novel-length works solely for children, and to fuse elements of fantasy and adventure. One of them was titled, “The Last of the Huggermuggers,” which Cranch described as a story about “a good giant.”
Cranch’s letters give the reader a host of descriptions. Visiting Washington in March 1886, he wrote:
This great city of Washington. I had heard of its transformation into a beautiful city, but it is much beyond anything I imagined… the immense area which I remember as field and common and slashes — all built up with fine houses and and churches and public buildings, with monuments and statues and parks.
Christopher also gave us this description of his father…
… tall and erect…serious and somewhat taciturn… quiet temperament, inclined to melancholy, fond of children, devoted attachment between him and my mother,
… and his mother"
… industrious and regular, early riser, busy attending to her duties.
Christopher spent his final two decades in Cambridge, passing away at the age of 78.
Abigail Adams Cranch Eliot
1817-1908
Born in Alexandria
Died in St Louis
Abigail, the last of the Cranch children, was born in Alexandria. Her childhood included living in the seaport. One can imagine her excitement at age seven when the town pulled out all the stops to fete Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. He stayed at the corner of Duke and S. St. Asaph, almost within earshot of the family home on S. Washington.
Abigail married William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887), who was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and raised in Washington. After graduating from Columbian College in 1831, Eliot earned his degree from Harvard Divinity School. He married Abigail in 1837. As Charlotte C. Eliot (“William Greenleaf Eliot, Minister, Educator, Philanthropist”) tells us, their move from Washington to St. Louis in 1837 took two weeks and involved:
a steam car where they were “nearly shaken to pieces,” a steamer to New York, canal boats to Cleveland, stagecoach all night ride to Cincinnati, and finally, a steamer to St Louis where they were greeted with smoke and mud.
T.S. Eliot is the most famous Eliot in St Louis, but his grandfather, William Greenleaf Eliot, made great contributions to the city. He was a friend of the poor and oppressed, preached for 39 years, and helped start Washington University and other schools in St. Louis. All the while, Rev. Eliot preached and taught, visited his parishioners three hours a day, and founded several Unitarian churches in the West.
Among William and Abigail’s eight children was Henry Ware Eliot (1843-1919). One of Henry’s sons was T. S. Eliot (1888-1965). Abigail also would have been proud of sons Rev. Thomas Lamb Eliot, who was once greatly admired in Portland, Oregon.
Like many other women of the past, Abigail’s story has been pushed aside or not even recognized. Coming to the rescue is Cynthia Grant Tucker and her book, "The Eliot Parsonage Women and Their Unitarian World."
She tells us Unitarian’s ideals were tolerance, freedom, fairness and boundless love and that “no natives did more to map out this world than the family of Abigail Adams Cranch (1817-1908) and William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887).” But for the women, “they had to strain to make themselves heard.”
Abigail Adams Cranch contribution was “not only the dedication and wit of the great-aunt for whom she was named but also the insights unique to those who had grown up together with their religion.
Return to Washington in 1825
Cranch and his family moved back to Washington in 1825. Alexandria was still an appealing place to live, but Washington’s population had tripled its sister across the river to 8,000 in 1820. Cranch’s commute certainly shortened to a short walk away from City Hall and the Courthouse.
Cranch lived at 217 Delaware NE from 1826 to 1854 (Site is the Russell Senate Building between the Capitol and Union Station). The website “O Say Can You See, Early Washington, D.C” provides a searchable map of 1834. Judge Cranch’s neighbors included William Brent, Chief Clerk in the District Court, a Mrs. McCardle, who ran a boarding house, and William Dundas, clerk in the Post Office.
No African Americans lived on his block but they were part of the growing neighborhoods - Capitol Hill, (modern day terminology) Navy Yard, Penn Quarter and Downtown, Foggy Bottom and SW. A Sophia Custis, a free black female, resided on the west side of Third between C and D. In 1854, Cranch moved to D and Second, whose site is part of Judiciary Square.
1843 must have been a rough year for Judge Cranch. His beloved Nancy passed away and the children, except for William, were living elsewhere. He did receive visits from Christopher and his family.
Career Highlights and Noteworthy Events
Costin v. Washington, 1821
It seems Cranch never met George Washington, but he sat on the bench for a case involving William Costin (1780-1842). Some believe Costin was related to Martha Washington. He might have grown up near Mount Vernon, perhaps not far from the farm Cranch and his family kept when they were living south of Alexandria.
Around 1800, Costin moved from Virginia to the city of Washington. He married Delphy Judge, sister of Ona Judge, who escaped from her bondage to the First Family. The map provided by O Say Can You See (1822) shows Costin living near the northeast corner of the intersection of Pennsylvania and A Street SE (Site near LOC).
In 1820, the District City Council passed a law that required all free African Americans in the District to apply for a permit. Without it, and a copy of their manumission, they could be subject to fines or removal.
In their book, “Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital” authors Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove summarize the story. Costin refused to obey the new law. After he was arrested and fined, Costin sued the District. His argument was that “the constitution knows no distinction of color.”
In the case of Costin v. Washington, Judge Cranch ruled against Costin, but he cut him some slack. He wrote that the law did not apply to Costin and other free black people who currently lived in the city. Cranch:
"conceded that the law was unfair to free blacks who had long lived in the city and contributed to it, noting that they could not compel whites to give surety, and that the law threatened to force families apart. He ruled that those who had lived in the District prior to the law's enactment were exempted from having to abide by it."
On the other hand, Cranch, in a foreshadowing of Plessy v. Ferguson, said:
Every state has the right to pass laws to preserve the peace and the morals of society; and if there be a class of people more likely than others to disturb the public peace, or corrupt the public morals, and if that class can be clearly designated, it has a right to impose upon that class, such reasonable terms and conditions of residence, as will guard the state from the evils which it has reason to apprehend.
The Trial of Anne Royall
One gathers Cranch didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with this one.
In his book, “The Trials of a Scold,” Jeff Biggers captures the story of Anne Royall. Through our modern day lenses, we view charging someone for being a “scold” as ridiculous. But in 1829, such a trial took place in Washington. Royall, a travel writer who was not afraid to speak her mind, was brought up on charges of cursing at church children. Cranch presided over her trial, which drew a lot of newspaper coverage. He dismissed two charges, leaving the one of Royall being a “common scold.” Cranch sentenced her to a $10 fine, which was paid by two reporters.
Of the case, Willis tells us it was significant on two grounds - the ties to the Jackson administration and how it “illustrated how the judge eluded politically sensitive situations by focusing on some of the finer points of law.”
The Trial of Reuben Crandall
Seven years after the trial of Anne Royal, Cranch presided over the trial of abolitionist Dr. Reuben Crandall. Francis Scott Key prosecuted Crandall for “publishing malicious and wicked libels, with the intent to excite sedition and insurrection among the slaves and free colored people of the District.” The jury found him not guilty
U.S. v. Bollman & Startwout
Willis writes that Cranch is best known for his dissent in U.S. v. Bollman. The two defendants were charged with treason. Cranch held that the pair had not actually “levied war” against the United States. Chief Justice John Marshall later agreed with Cranch.
In part of his ruling Cranch wrote:
Dangerous precedents occur in dangerous times. It then becomes the duty of the judiciary calmly to poise the scales of justice, unmoved by the arm of power, undisturbed by the clamor of multitude.
Of Cranch’s decision, upheld by the US Supreme Court, Matthew McGuire wrote:
Bollman and Swartout may have been rogues but they had rights which the Constitution protected, and Cranch said so, no matter what the President thought or did. The Court as far as he was concerned, was not the President’s creature.
Willis also praised Cranch:
Cranch was a political progressive in many ways. He was a persistent and ardent opponent of slavery, duels, and alcohol, and an early supporter of public education in Washington.
Attempted Assassination of President Jackson
In January 1835, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed residence of Washington, tried to kill President Andrew Jackson. Both shots mis-fired. U.S. Attorney Philip Barton Key brought Lawrence before Judge Cranch. The jury acquitted him but he spent the remainder of his life in a mental institute.
The Pearl
In the early morning hours of April 15, 1848, the schooner Pearl slipped away from its mooring in SW DC. On board were 77 enslaved humans, including the Edmonton Sisters, hoping to find their freedom. After being caught near the mouth of the Potomac, and returned to the District, organizer Daniel Drayton and skipper Edward Sayres were tried in the DC Courthouse.
Drayton was found guilty on the charges of larceny and illegal transport of slaves. About a month later, Judge Cranch overturned Drayton’s convictions. Drayton later pleaded guilty to additional charges. Unable to pay the fine, he spent four years in jail. President Fillmore pardoned Drayton and Sayres in 1852.
Petition for Harriet Bell
In her book, “Escape of the Pearl,” Mary Kay Ricks tells us about Harriett Bell, an enslaved human who was owned by Susannah Armistead. James Carlise, an attorney hired by the Bell family, filed an injunction requesting that the court prevent Armistead from moving Harriet out of the Washington jurisdiction. Judge Cranch granted the injunction.
Dorcas Allen
This case was fascinating in that Judge Cranch had to give testimony to his cousin John Quincy Adams.
In her dissertation, ("Slavery Exacts an Impossible Price: John Quincy Adams and the Dorcas Allen Case, Washington, DC"), Alison T. Mann lays out the story. In 1837, a Georgetown resident sold Dorcas Allen and her four children to James H. Birch. He took them to the Alexandria slave pen on Duke Street. In what is easily the darkest chapter in the city’s history, more than a thousand enslaved humans would be shipped away to the Deep South in the antebellum period.
That evening, Allen killed her two youngest children. In October she appeared before the court in Alexandria and pleaded not guilty. John Quincy Adams, Cranch’s cousin and former US President, was in his fourth term as a Congressman representing Massachusetts. He attended the auction Birch was holding to sell of Allen and her two surviving children. Mann used his diary as part of her research.
The only surviving evidence of Allen’s testimony is from Adams, who talked with Cranch about the matter. The jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.
Marbury v. Madison
Many have said this was one of the most important rulings ever made by the Supreme Court. It set forth the principle of judicial review, which allows the judicial branch to determine the constitutionality of legislative acts. Cranch was not on the bench, but he was the reporter for this case.
The blog, Duty & Breach, quotes Cranch:
Every case decided is a check upon the judge. He can not decide a similar case differently, without strong reasons, which, for his own justification, he will wish to make public. The avenues to corruption are thus obstructed, and the sources of litigation closed.
Other Achievements:
- Became one of the first professors at Columbian College, the predecessor to GWU.
- Vice President, Washington National Monument Society.
- Wrote a memoir of John Adams in 1827.
- Edited “The Jurist,” a series of reprints of standard law books.
- President of the Capitol Hill Seminary for Young Ladies.
- Helped organize the Washington Library Company.
- Elected to American Antiquarian Society.
- Administered the oath to Presidents John Tyler and Millard Fillmore.
- Signed Petition for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.
Later and Final Years
Carne tells us Judge Cranch’s later years were “quiet and serene.” At age 86, he had lived a long life. The longevity, however, would have been bittersweet in some ways, in that all of his cousins except Abigail Adam Shaw, had passed away before him. His sister Elizabeth departed in 1811 and Lucy in 1840. Saddest of all, his beloved Nancy passed away in 1843, a dozen years before he took his last breathe.
His son Christopher visited him in March 1852 and found him “exceedingly feeble -- He has not left his room, I think for a year. He reads, however, all day. His mind is clear."
It’s impossible to know William Cranch’s final thoughts. They must have been filled with many good memories. His mother and father had led by example and provided him with a solid upbringing. There’s something to be said for the women in his formative years — his mother, his sisters Elizabeth and Lucy, his aunts Abigail and Elizabeth. His children’s accomplishment surely pleased him, and the knowledge he and Nancy had raised them with love and care.
Cranch had many memories to recall regarding his extended family. His uncle John, though not revered in our time, stood among the greats of the Founders. And consider the fact just how many enslaved humans the early Presidents owned, while Adams and his son President John Quincy Adams spoke out vigorously against the slavocracy.
The funeral for Judge Cranch was attended by President Franklin Pierce and U.S. Attorney General Caleb Cushing. He was laid to rest in Congressional Cemetery, where so many of the stone tablets read like the first line of an historical marker.
When Cranch arrived in Washington, the city was an infant. He was part of the growth from that “shabby village” to a population of about 60,000 that included African Americans striving long and hard for their civil rights.
When the Judge was laid to rest the nation’s capital was still “a city of magnificent distances.” So, too, was the republic. In a foreshadowing to the nation splitting apart in 1861, Alexandria had retroceded back to Virginia in 1848.
As Tom Lewis notes, Washington “seemed more than ever a bifurcated city in the 1850s.” Northerner abolitionists wanted to see slavery end, while Southern slave holders did not. Nevertheless, the rule of law had held its own and Cranch had done his part.
Many newspapers published his obituary.
The New York Herald:
Judge William Cranch, eminent as the author of the Circuit Court Reports. He had been connected with the judiciary of the District of Columbia for half a century.
The Boston Evening Transcript had a lengthy one page tribute.
The talents, education and principles of Judge Cranch caused him to be highly respected.
The Alexandria Gazette:
He was an estimable citizen, an upright and honest man, and a learned and impartial judge.
Titled, "Tribute to Judge Cranch," The Washington Daily Union offered these words.
In Alexandria members of the bar, former and present officers of the court, met at the Court House, to express their high appreciation and veneration for the memory and virtues of the late William Cranch.
The Evening Star reported on his funeral.
A large number of citizens were in attendance, including President Franklin Pierce. The pall bearers included John Marybury and Richard S. Coxe.
President Pierce attended the funeral led by Rev. William Furnace of the Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. Carne tells us the pall bearers were old lawyers, James Adams, Roger Weightman, Richard S. Coxe, James Carlisle, William Redin and John Marbury.
Public Memory
As far as we can tell, there are no markers for Cranch anywhere, and nothing named after him. In 1871, the Cranch Public School Building opened at the southwest corner of 12th and G, SE, but it was demolished in 1949.
According to the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, a portrait of Judge Cranch hangs in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse.
They provide the portrait details. His son, John Cranch painted the portrait.
In a city of monuments and memorials, there is, other than the hidden away portrait, no plaque or public memory erected to William Cranch's memory.
Hopefully, an historical marker will be erected for him in Washington. We recommend one in Alexandria, too.
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