William Cranch

William Cranch (July 17, 1769 – September 1, 1855) was a United States circuit judge and chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. A staunch Federalist and nephew of President John Adams, Cranch moved his legal practice from Massachusetts to the new national capital, where he became one of three city land commissioners for Washington, D.C., and during his judicial service also was the 2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and a Professor of law at Columbian College (which later became George Washington University). Early life and education Cranch was born on July 17, 1769, in Weymouth, Massachusetts to Mary (Smith), the sister of Abigail Adams and her husband Richard Cranch, who had emigrated from Devonshire when he was twenty years old. His father, although educated as a watchmaker, became the town's postmaster and an ardent patriot during the American Revolutionary War. The elder Cranch then studied law and won election to the Massachusetts legislature (serving in both houses), then served many years as a judge of the court of common pleas, as well as wrote a religious book and received two honorary degrees from Harvard. William Cranch's maternal grandfather was Rev. William Smith of Weymouth. Cranch was born at his maternal grandparents' home, about 12 miles south of Boston, since his mother retreated there from a smallpox outbreak in Boston. He was their only son, and both parents would die within a day of each other, on October 16, 1811. Cranch received his first schooling from his mother, who also instructed him in Latin and Algebra. Then he prepared for Harvard College under the guidance of his uncle, Rev. William Shaw of Haverill, Massachusetts. Cranch attended Harvard University with his cousin, John Quincy Adams, whose later-published diary mentions him. Cranch graduated in 1787, then read law with Thomas Dawes, a relative by marriage and judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.