Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/215

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RAWLE
RAWLE


a flourishing Trade, Humbly submitted to the Legislative Authority of these Colonies." This book is said to be the first that was printed by Franklin. George Brinley's copy of this work sold for $100. In the following year he published " A Just Rebuke to a Dialogue betwixt Simon and Timothy, shewing What's therein to be found. &c.," being a reply to James Logan's " Dialogue shewing What's therein to be found, &c." (Phila- delphia, 1725), printed by Logan in answer to Rawle's " Ways and Means." His great-grandson, William, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 28 April, 1759; d. there, "12 April, 1836, was educated at the Friends' academy, and was yet a student when the war for independence was begun. His immediate relatives and connections were loyalists. On the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, young Rawle accompanied his step-father, Samuel Shoe- maker, who had been one of the civil magistrates of the city under Howe, to New York, and there began the "study of the law. Mr. Rawle completed his studies in the Middle Temple, London, and re- turned to Philadelphia, where, in 1783, he was ad- mitted to the bar. In 1791 he was appointed by President Washington U. S. district attorney for Pennsylvania. By direction of the president, Mr. Rawle accompanied the U. S. district judge and the military on the western expedition in 1794, and it became his duty to prosecute the offenders after the insurrections in that year and in 1798 had been put down. In 1792 lie was offered by the president the office of judge of the IT. S. dis- trict court for Pennsylvania, but declined it on ac- count of his youth and professional prospects. He was for many years the attorney and counsel for the Bank of the United States. From 1786 till his death he was a member of the American philo- sophical society, and for twenty years he was one of its councillors. In 1789 he was chosen to the assembly. He was one of the original members of the Society for political inquiries, founded by Franklin, which held its weekly meetings at his house. From 1796 till his death he was a trustee of the University of Penn- sylvania. He was the chancellor of the As- sociated members of the bar of Philadel- phia, and when, in 1827, this institution was merged in the Law association of Philadelphia, he be- came chancellor of the latter in 1822. and held the office till his

death. He was chosen

the first vice-president of the Law academy, was one of the founders of the Historical society of Pennsylvania in 1824, and its first president. He was also a" member of the Agricultural, Humane, Linna?an, and Abolition societies, and was long president of the latter. For many years he was secretary and afterward a director of the Library company of Philadelphia. In 1830 he was appoint- ed, with Thomas I. Wharton and Joel Jones, to re- vise the civil code of Pennsylvania, and he was the principal author of the reports of the commission, the results of whose labors are embodied in stat- utes that still remain in force. Among his pub- lished writings are " An Address before the Phila- delphia Society for promoting Agriculture " (Phila- delphia, 1819); "Two Addresses to tin- Associated Members of the Bar of Philadelphia" (1824) ; "A View of the Constitution of the United States" (1825) ; and " The Study of the Law " (1832). To the literature of the Historical society he contrib- uted a " Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder's 1 1 istory of the Indian Nations,' " a " Biographical Sketch of Sir William Keith," and " A Sketch of the Life of Thomas Mifflin." He left various manu- scripts on theological matters, among them an " Es- say on Angelic Influences," and an argument on the evidences of Christianity. He was a fine classical scholar. He translated from the Greek the " Pha;- do " of Plato, adding thereto a commentary there- on. These " would in themselves alone," accord- ing to David Paul Brown, "suffice to protect his name against oblivion." He received the degree of LL. I), from Princeton in 1827, and from Dart- mouth in 1828. See a sketch of him by Thomas I. Wharton (Philadelphia, 1840). William's son, William, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 19 July, 1788 ; d. in Montgomery county. Pa.. 9 Aug., 1858, was educated at Princeton, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1810. During the war of 1812 he served as captain of the 2d troop of Philadelphia city cavalry. Returning to the practice of the law, he in due time attained a rank at the bar but little inferior to that of his father. He was for four years president of the common council. He was a member of the American philosophical society, for many years a vice-president of the Historical society of Pennsylvania, and secretary, and afterward a director, of the Library company, and for twenty years a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. As reporter of the state supreme court, he published 25 volumes of reports (1818-'33). Among his published writings are an " Address before the Law Academy of Philadelphia" (1835), and "An Address before the Trustees of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa." (1836). The second William's son, William Henry, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 31 Aug., 1823; d. there, 19 April, 1889, was graduated in 1841 at the University of Pennsylvania, trom which he received in 1882 the degree of LL. D. He studied law with his father, was admitted to practice in 1844, and has won reputation in his profession. In 1862, upon the "emergency" call, Mr. Rawle enlisted as a private of artillery, and in 1863, under a similar call, he served as quartermaster. He was a vice-prcivust of the Law academy from 1865 to 1873, later vice-chancellor of the Law association, and was for several years the secretary, and afterward it director, of the Library company. He published a treatise on the " Law of Covenants for Title" (Philadelphia, 1852): the 3d American edition of John W. Smith's "Law of Contracts," with notes (1853 ; with additional notes by George Sharswood, 1856) ; the 2d American edition of Joshua Williams's " Law of Real Property" (1857); "Equity in Pennsylvania," a lecture, to which was appended " The Registrar's Book of Gov. William Keith's Court in Chancery " (1868) ; " Some Contrasts in the Growth of Pennsylvania in English Law" (1881); "Oration at Unveiling of the Monument erected by the Bar of the U. S. to Chief-Justice Marshall " (Washington, 1884) ; and " The Case of the Educated Unemployed," an address (1885). William Henry's nephew, William Brooke-Ratvle, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 29 Aug., 1843, is the son of Charles Wallace Brooke by his wife, Elizabeth Tilghman, daughter of the second William Rawle, and has taken for his surname Brooke-Rawle. He was graduated at the University of