I have also perused and considered an Act passed in New Jersey in the same Year 1771, Intitled, "An Act to enable Creditors more easily to recover "their Debts from Joint Partners within the Colony "of New Jersey." This Act appears to me not fit to continue in force, because an absent Person, may under it be unjustly Charged as Partner; together with a Person who truly owes a debt, and makes a fair defence, or perhaps owes nothing, but collusively with the Plaintiff may permit Judgment to go against himself and the absent Person, who is not in truth a Partner with him. It is essential to Justice that no Judicial Determination shall affect any Man who has not an opportunity of making a Defence, it is evident that there is no one in the Case above stated, before the Court, interested to prove that the Partnership does or did not exist so that the absent person made liable by this Act of Assembly may perhaps have an unjust Judgment entered against him, against which he might have made a Successful defence by proving himself no Partner, in case he had had an opportunity so to do; 1 therefore humbly beg leave to advise Your Lordships to propose that the said Act be repealed, to the End that the Remedy intended by it may be attained without the Mischief that may frequently happen under the Law established by this Act, Which is humbly Submitted by My Lords, Your Lordships Most Obedient R JACKSON Report of Richard Jackson, Esq., on a claim of the Assembly of New Jersey to order the issuing of a writ for the election of a new member in the room of Mr. Ogden, who had resigned his seat. My Lords, [From P. R. O., B. T., New Jersey, Vol. 10, L. 16.] 15 July 1772. In Obedience to your Lordships Order Signified to me by Mr Pownall in his Letter of the 18th of Dec' last, inclosing an Extract of a Letter from Governor Franklin to ye Earl of Hillsborough & also the Minutes of the Assembly of the Province of New Jersey. I have taken the said Letter and Minutes into my Consideration; by which it appears that the Assembly have set up a Claim to order the issuing of a Writ, for the Election of a new Member, to serve in that House for the County of Essex in that Province in the Room of Mr Ogden who had resigned his Seat. And I am humbly of Opinion, that the said Claim is illegal, unconstitutional, & altogether unwarranted by any approved Usage or Practice in Great Britain or any of her Colonys & I apprehend that notwithstanding the Resignation of M' Ogden, his seat continues full, & that ye Order founded upon his Resignation is void because it issued improvidently which is humbly submitted by My Lords Y Lordships most Obedt 24 Draft of a Clause to be inserted in the instructions to Governors in America, giving them as Chancellors the power to issue commissions for the care and custody of idiots and lunatics. [From P. R. O. B. T. Plantations General, Vol. 42, p. 426.] WHITEHALL July 29, 1772 To Lord William Campbell, Governor of Nova Scotia My Lord, The King having been pleased, with the Advice of His Privy Council, to signify to Us His Majesty's Pleasure, that We should, in all future draughts of Commissions for Governors in the Plantations, insert a Clause, giving them, as Chancellors, the necessary Powers to issue Commissions for the Care and Custody of Ideots and Lunaticks, agreable to the usage and practice in this Kingdom; inclosed We send you the Draught of such a Clause, as We have prepared for that purpose, desiring to be informed, whether there is any, or, if any, what objection (founded on any provisions, which may have been already made by Law for those Purposes,) to the inserting such Clause in any future Commission for the Governor of Nova Scotia, We are, My Lords, Your Lordship's most obedient hum: Serts ED: ELIOT. BAMBER GASCOYNE. Draught of a Clause proposed to be inserted in the Commissions for Governors of His Majesty's Plantations in America. And Whereas it belongeth to Us, in Right of Our Royal Prerogative to have the Custody of Ideots, and their Estates, and to take the Profits thereof to our own use, finding them necessaries; and also to provide for the Custody of Lunaticks, and their Estates, without taking the Profits thereof to Our own use; And Whereas, while such Ideots, and Lunaticks, and their Estates remain under Our immediate Care, great trouble and charges may arise to such, as shall have occasion to resort unto Us for directions respecting such Ideots and Lunaticks, and their Estates; and considering, that Writs of Inquiry of Ideots and Lunaticks are to issue out of Our several Courts of Chancery, as well in Our Provinces in America, as within this Our Kingdom respectively, and the Inquisitions, thereupon taken are returnable in those Courts; We have thought fit to instrust you with the Care and Commitment of the Custody of the said Ideots, and Lunaticks, and their Estates; And We do by these Presents give and grant unto You full Power and Authority, without expecting any further special Warrant from Us, from time to time to give Order and Warrant for the preparing of Grants of the Custodies of such Ideots and Lunaticks, and their Estates, as are, or shall be found by Inquisitions thereof taken, or to be taken and returnable into Our Court of Chancery; and thereupon to make, and pass Grants and Commitments, under Our Great Seal of Our Province of Nova Scotia, of the Custodies of all and every such Ideots and Lunaticks, and their Estates, to such Person or Persons, Suitors in that behalf, as according to the Rules of Law, and and the use and practice in those and the like Cases, you shall judge meet for that Trust, The said Grants and Commitments to be made in such manner and form, or as nearly as may be, as hath been heretofore used and accustomed in making the same under the Great Seal of Great Britain, and to contain such apt and convenient Covenants, Provisions and Agreements on the part of the Committees and Grantees to be performed, and such Security to be by them given, as shall be requisite and needful. Commission of David Ogden as Supreme Court Justice. [From Liber AB of Commissions, in Secretary of State's Office, at Trenton, fol. 111.] GEORGE the Third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c. To our Trusty and welbeloved David Ogden' Esq. Greeting We reposing special Trust and Con 1 DAVID OGDEN, the oldest son of Col. Josiah Ogden, of Newark (third son of David Ogden, of Elizabethtown-see Newark Bi-Centennial, 148), was born about 1707, was graduated from Yale College in 1728, standing second in a class of twelve (Yale Triennial), studied law in New York, and returning to New Jersey, by his abilities and untiring industry in the course of time stood at the head of the bar of his native State. "Solid, rather than brilliant; more distinguished for accuracy of judgment than fertility of invention, and for clearness of apprehension than for quickness of perception; of deep learning; of long practice; and of unsullied integrity; he seemed to combine every property requisite for a Judge." Upon the beginning of hostilities with Great Britain he left Newark, and took refuge with the British in New York, where he remained during the War, becoming a member of the Board of Refugees, established in 1779. In a letter from his son, Isaac Ogden (also a lawyer, who accompanied his father to New York), of February 6, 1779, to Joseph Galloway, he says: "The State of New Jersey have again taken the lead, in passing a Law declaring all Persons from that Province under the Protection of the King's Troops, Guilty of High Treason & their Estates forfeited, in Consequence of this Law my Father and Myself, with many others have had Judgments enter'd against us, & our Estates declared forfeited, & our Real Estates advertized for sale on the first of March. This is no more than I Expected, & is of little Moment or importance, as without the Restoration of Government I could never Expect to Enjoy it."-Nelson Manuscripts, After the peace Judge Ogden went to England, where he received compensation for the confiscation of his property. In 1790 he returned to the United States, taking up his residence at Jamaica, Long Island, where his brother, Dr. Jacob Ogden, had long lived (see "Antiquities of Grace Church, Jamaica"). There he died in 1800, at the age of 93. The fullest sketch of his life is to be found in Field's "Provincial Courts of New Jersey;" the biography in Sabine's "Loyalists" is condensed from the same account.-[W. N.] |