Due Process: Georgetown Law Library Blog

As Special Collection’s celebration of Women’s History Month continues, we have another item of interest.  This highlight comes to us again from the Francis Cabell Brown Collection.  This manuscript collection contains an assortment of 18^th and early 19^th century Justice of the Peace writs from Queens County in New York and Windham, Litchfield and New London Counties in Connecticut. 

This feature is an estate writ, believed to be from the late 18^th century.   The transcription is as follows:

Release of dower legacy by Elizabeth Jackson.  Ms. Jackson releases the legacy she received by right of dower from her deceased husband to her two sons, DJ & JJ, and their heirs. This also includes real estate she received.  Undated and Unsigned.

The verso, or back, of the writ contains only some mathematical notes and the inscription “Right of Dower Elizabeth Jackson”.  This writ is another unique example of women in the law in early Colonial America.

For some other interesting reads check out:

The Ties That Buy: Women and Commerce in Revolutionary America, by Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor

Constitutional Context: Women and Rights Discourse in Nineteenth-Century America, by Kathleen S. Sullivan

Witches, Wife Beaters and Whores:  Common Law and Common Folk in Early America, by Elaine Forman Crane

For more information on the manuscript collections, contact Special Collections at 202/661-6602 or email  htm@law.georgetown.edu.

This entry was posted on March 23, 2012 at 4:17 PM and has received 2787 views. Print this entry.

In celebration of March being Women’s History Month, we have reached into the Special Collections' holdings to highlight a series of our rare items relating to Women, the Law and History.  This week’s highlight comes to us from the Francis Cabell Brown Collection.  This manuscript collection contains an assortment of 18^th and early 19^th century Justice of the Peace writs from Queens County in New York and Windham, Litchfield and New London Counties in Connecticut. 

This week’s feature is a Writ of Execution of Civil Judgment in the matter of Mary Goodell v. Charles Goodell, dated April 23^rd, 1811. 

The transcription is as follows:

To Sheriff of the County of Windham to levy the goods, chattels, and lands of Charles Goodell for $13.23 or, if no goods available to satisfy the judgment, to seize Charles Goodell and place him in jail until he pay unto Mary Goodell the sum she received via judgment.  Dated the 23^rd Day of April 1811. Signed John Holbrook, Justice of the Peace.

On the verso of the writ is inscribed how the amount of the judgment was satisfied, through the sale of many farm goods and products, including hay, oats, and cider.  The award to Mary Goodell is a significant amount which in today’s terms would be about $170.83. 

*A brief post-script on Mr. Goodell:  April 23^rd, 1811 does not appear to be a good day for him.  His unknown shenanigans have gotten him into quite some trouble, as he is also the Debtor in several other Civil Judgments issued on that date.  On a positive note, Mr. Goodell had sufficient goods to cover his debts totaling $46.35, or $598.48 today, and did not have to serve any time in jail.

For further reading check out:

Women, money, and the law: nineteenth-century fiction, gender, and the courts, by Joyce Warren

For more information on the manuscript collections contact Special Collections at 202/661-6602 or email  htm@law.georgetown.edu.

This entry was posted on March 9, 2012 at 1:19 PM and has received 4178 views. Print this entry.

“… I am fighting for a human life. The life of a hated enemy but nevertheless a life,” wrote John G. Brannon on November 25, 1947 in a letter to his brother Bernard.  John Brannon had arrived in Tokyo, May 17^th, 1946, about five years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was an American attorney from Kansas City, Missouri, appointed by MacArthur to defend Class A Japanese war criminal Osami Nagano, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, in his trial before the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. 

The Law Library’s Special Collections has recently acquired over 150 letters written by John Brannon to his brother over a period of 3 years (1946-1949), along with numerous photographs, manuscripts and two 16mm films (John G. Brannon Papers).  It is a collection teeming with fervent American patriotism, Truman politics and personal reflections of a transitional time in world history.  In his letters, Brannon discusses and describes:  Japanese culture, his defense strategies, the Tribunal, the Defense team, mounting U.S. tension with Russia, and the stigma attached to American attorneys defending the enemy after the war in the Pacific.  His writing is a vibrant personal view of the inner workings of, and politics behind, an important historic and international trial.   

The George Yamaoka Collection is also part of the Law Library’s Special Collections holdings.  George Yamaoka, a graduate of Georgetown Law class of 1928, was also one of the select group of American attorneys appointed by General MacArthur in 1945 to help in the defense of those Japanese accused of war crimes.  His collection contains Tribunal proceeding transcripts and a multitude of defense documents and exhibits from both the Prosecution and the Defense, among other interesting items.  Despite the circumstances, the Defense’s zeal and passion toward “the preservation of international justice” is a testament to past, present and future lawyers. (Brannon Papers, November 14, 1947) The John G. Brannon Papers and the George Yamaoka Collection are well worth a look.  They are open for research and finding aids are available online.

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For more information on the manuscript collections contact Special Collections at 202/661-6602, email  htm@law.georgetown.edu or online at http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/special/manuscripts.cfm . 

This entry was posted on November 22, 2011 at 3:36 PM and has received 9409 views. Print this entry.

1865 was the beginning of the Reconstruction Era of American History.  The Civil War had ended, President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated and President Andrew Johnson was trying to rebuild and unify America.  Washington, DC became the converging ground where parties debated numerous issues, such as:  voting rights, war crimes and building infrastructure.  An unusual participant in America’s political history during this time was Walt Whitman, who would later become well known for his poetry and less for the part he played in American politics.  

Whitman worked as a clerk in the Attorney General’s office from 1865-1873. The National Archives announced that it has recently discovered 3,000 documents relating to Whitman’s work in Washington, DC.  The documents were found by Kenneth M. Price, a professor of English and co-director of the Walt Whitman Archives.  The find illuminates not only this moment in American history, but what might have shaped the thoughts of Walt Whitman as well.

This entry was posted on May 23, 2011 at 3:59 PM and has received 20041 views. Print this entry.

Available in Special Collections is the George W. Peterson Papers. This collection of class notes and course materials comes from the note pad of George W. Peterson (L’ 1942).  His notes detail classes such as Civil Procedure, Common Law Actions, Equity and Real Property II from before WWII.  His was a time without computers, a time when note taking captured the essence of legal learning.  George Peterson’s collection opens a unique window into the 1940s student experience at Georgetown Law.  To learn more about this collection, please see the George W. Peterson Papers web page.  You can also come by Special Collections (Williams Library, 2nd Floor, Room 210) to view the collection in person.

This entry was posted on April 12, 2011 at 10:22 AM and has received 23658 views. Print this entry.

Newly opened and ready for viewing is the McLaughlin Brothers Manuscript Collection. The collection is composed of personal letters, written by brothers William Law McLaughlin (C' 1882, L'1884) and Daniel Joseph McLaughlin (C' 1888) during their studies at Georgetown Law in the late 1800s. The Collection is a unique look at student life at Georgetown. After law school both brothers went on to practice law in Deadwood, South Dakota. To learn more about this unique collection, please see the McLaughlin Brothers Collection page. You can also stop by Special Collections to request to view the collection in person.

This entry was posted on March 11, 2011 at 3:13 PM and has received 23555 views. Print this entry.