1783 - Organization of Ky. Dist. Supreme Court
In May of 1783 Caleb Wallace returned to Virginia as a Kentucky district representative for the May legislative session. During this term the establishment of Transylvania Seminary, to become Transylvania University, was carried forward from its arrested beginnings in 1780, and the "family connection" was well represented among the trustees named; they included Caleb Wallace , William Fleming, William Christian , and Samuel McDowell. Caleb thus became mid-wife at the birth of another of the South's finer educational institutions. An effort had also been under way, for some time, to establish a Supreme Court for the district of Kentucky; Caleb had by now become interested in becoming a member of this exclusive body, whose constitution was being hampered by a series of deaths, resignations, and reluctance to accept what was viewed as a highly demanding and poorly-compensated position. Caleb, however, procured a commission dated July 2, 1783; he revealed new depths of political acumen in his letter to Governor Harrison of Virginia of "reluctant" acceptance, written August 14, in Botetourt County (LIFE AND TIMES, pg. 108).
"Botetourt County, August 14, 1783.
Sir: I received Your Excellency's letter of the 2nd ulto. accompanying a commission appointing me one of the Assistant Judges in the District of Kentucky, and beg leave to assure Your Excellency that no one can be impressed with a more lively sense of such a token of public confidence; yet the consideration of my insufficiency to fill the office would most certainly induce me to decline the honor intended me, were I not convinced that it is indispensable to the interest of that remote quarter of the country and its friendly attachment to the Government of Virginia that this court should be organized and proceed to business without further delay.
I purpose, therefore, to give attendance at the next and succeeding terms. But the uncertainty of obtaining a Presiding Judge qualified for the office, and the want of salaries sufficient to enable the Assistants to devote themselves to the study of the duties of their trust, do so magnify themselves in my mind upon every reconsideration that I fear I shall afterward be constrained to resign. I have the honor...", etc.
Judge Wallace proved quite insistent, and persistent, if subtle, in pressing monetary issues; in spite of the "want of salaries sufficient", however, he retained a seat as a superior court justice for more than thirty years, until the time of his death.
The Virginia Supreme Court District of Kentucky Order Books, 1783-1792, provides, on page 6, an accounting of the beginnings of this "Supreme" court of Kentucky, noting that the court was established by an act entitled "An Act for establishing a District Court on the Western Waters". This court met at John Crow's Station in Lincoln County on Nov. 3rd, 1783. "Present" (pg. 13) "HARRY INNES, SAMUEL MCDOWELL, and CALEB WALLACE, justices. Harry Innes having produced a commission from the Governor appointing him as a justice to the Supreme Court for the District of Kentucky and Caleb Wallace likewise, and both took the oaths of office." The early records of this court document the activities of the very families of the presiding justices; appeals and claims arising from settlement of estates, jurisdictional squabbles, and unsettled debts were common, along with arraignments for the sale of "spiritous liquor" and for accusations of adultery and incest (never involving names from the families of the presiders, for some reason). It was here also that the tragedies of the deaths of Stephen Trigg and William Christian find further amplification; problems with settlement of their estates (Col. Trigg appears to have been impecunious at the time of his death) and provision for the orphans arose on several occasions, and found their way into court proceedings.
© 1998, Dennis Boyer
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