250 and Counting

Category: Maryland judges

  • March 29, 1775: The Brits Head to Roxbury

    Cover art for March 29, 1775: The Auckward Squad, painted by George Cruickshank, ca. 1780

    There are plenty of scholarly books and articles out there regarding American History, but there are elements of British history that stick out, too. General Gage giving the order today that his troops begin to march on Roxbury. It was a relatively small gesture at the time, but many, many colonial events can be traced to that particular action.

    And as a result the Colonists determined that Britain can’t move numbers of men like that again without bumping into a few flintlocks along the way.

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  • 250 and Counting: January 10, 1775

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    Cover art for January 10, 1775: Portrait of James Sweall Morsell

    James Sewall Morsell was a lawyer and then a judge in Maryland and Washington DC for the better part of his career.

    Perhaps most notable about his long tenure is that he handled freedom petitions for many Black Americans during the slavery era as the families’ representative, something that many other attorneys were not willing to do, especially in Maryland, which was a slave state during the war but occupied by Union forces for the duration.

    When the Court to which he was assigned was abolished, he retired from practice and lived with his daughter and son-in-law in Prince Georges County. The town of Bowie, Maryland is named after that son-in-law’s family.

    Happy 250th Birthday to James Sewall Morsell!