William Cranch

Born on July 17, 1769, in Weymouth, Massachusetts,[1] Cranch graduated from Harvard University in 1787 and read law with Thomas Dawes, a relative by marriage.[1] He entered private practice in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1790.[1] He continued private practice in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1790 to 1791.[1] He was Justice of the Peace for Essex County, Massachusetts.[1] He resumed private practice in the area ceded by Maryland that would eventually become Washington, D.C. from 1791 to 1800.[1] He was a city land commissioner for Washington, D.C. (which was officially established by the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 on February 27, 1801) from 1800 to 1801.[1]

Cranch was nominated by President John Adams, his uncle, on February 28, 1801, to the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, to a new seat authorized by the second Judiciary Act of 1801.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 3, 1801, and received his commission the same day.[1] His service terminated on February 24, 1806, due to his elevation to serve as Chief Judge of the same court.[1]

Cranch was nominated by President Thomas Jefferson on February 21, 1806, to the Chief Judge seat on the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia vacated by Chief Judge William Kilty.[1] He was confirmed by the Senate on February 24, 1806, and received his commission the same day.[1] His service terminated on September 1, 1855, due to his death in Washington, D.C.[1] He was interred in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[2] Cranch was a member of the Federalist Party, which died out in the mid-1820s.[3] He was the last holder of a United States government office who had been a Federalist.[3]

• In 1871, the Cranch Public School Building, named in Cranch's honor, opened at the southwest corner of 12th and G, SE in Washington, D.C. It was demolished in 1949.[7][9]
• Cranch was elected an Associated Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1809.[10]
• Cranch was elected as a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.[11]
• During the 1820s, Cranch was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and many prominent men of the day, including military officers and officials of government service, and leaders of medical and other professions.[12]

Cranch was the son of Richard Cranch, a cabinetmaker, and Mary Smith, the sister of Abigail Adams. Cranch married Nancy Greenleaf. They had four sons; of these, three: Christopher Pearse Cranch, Edward P. Cranch, and John Cranch, all became painters.[13] Their daughter Abigail Adams Cranch married William Greenleaf Eliot. They were the parents of Henry Ware Eliot and the grandparents of poet T. S. Eliot.

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Wikiquote has quotations related to: William Cranch

• William Cranch at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• White, Edward G. 1988. The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815–1835. Vols. 3 and 4, History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1815–1835. New York: Macmillan.
• Witt, Elder. 1990. Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly

• William Cranch, O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family (accessed Nov. 4, 2015) This person page networks the involvement of William Cranch in the legal records and proceedings of the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia between 1800 and 1855.