TILGHMAN, WILLIAM, was born on the 12th of August 1756, upon the estate of his father, in Talbot county, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, about a mile from the town of Easton.
His paternal great grandfather, Richard Tilgh man, emigrated to that province from Kent county, in England, about the year 1662, and settled on Chester river, in Queen Anne's county.
llis father, James Tilghman, a distinguished law yer, is well known to the profession in Pennsylva nia at secretary of the Proprietary Land-Office, and as taving brought that department, by the ac curacy of his mind and the steadiness of his pur pose, into a system as much remarked for order and equity, as from its early defects it threatened to be otherwise.
His maternal grandfather was Tench Francis the elder, of Philadelphia, one of the most eminent lawyers of the province, the brother of Richard Francis, author %I' " Maxims of Equity," and of Dr. Philip the translator of Horace.
It is not surprisitg to find among the collateral ancestors of the late chief justice, the author of one of the earliest cohpends of scientific equity, and a scholar accomplished in the literature of the age of Augustus.
In 1762, his family renoved from Maryland to Philadelphia.
In the succeeding year he as placed at the Aca demy, and, in the regular Prozress of the classes, came under the instruction of Alp. Beveridge, from whom he received his fountlaton in Latin and Greek.
Upon the death of Beveridge 'is place was filled provisionally by Mr. Wallis, wbo vas perfectly skilled in the prosody of those languages, and who imparted to his pupils an accuracy, of which the chief justice was a striking example.
Dr. Davidson, the author of the grarnraar, suc ceeded Beveridge, and with him the sub;ec• of this discourse remained till he entered the in the year 1769, Dr. Smith being then the prcvost, and Dr. Francis Allison the vice-provost, the litter of whom instructed the students in the higher Greek and Latin classics ; and such was the devotion ao literature of the eminent pupil of whom we art speaking, that after he had received the bachelor's degree, and was, in the ordinary sense, prepared for a profession, he continued for some time to read the classics, with the benefit of Dr. Allison's pre dilections.
In February 1772 he began the study of the law in Philadelphia, under the direction of the late Benjamin Chew, then at the head of his profession, afterwards chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and at the close of the high court of errors and appeals, its venerable president.
In the office of this gentleman, he continued until December 1776, devoting himself to Littleton and Coke and Plowden, and the other fathers of the common law, at that time the manuals of the legal student, and at no time postponed in his estimation and regard to the more popular treatises of later days.
From 1776 to 1783, partly on his father's estate, and partly at Chestertown, whither his family had removed, he continued to pursue his legal studies, reading deeply and laboriously, as he has himself recorded, and applying his intervals of leisure to the education of a younger brother. When, there fore, in the spring of 1783, he was admitted to the courts of Maryland, we may infer that an appren ticeship of eleven years had filled his mind with legal principles sufficient to guide and enlighten him for the rest of his life.
In 1788, and for sonic successive years, he was elected a representative to the legislature of Mary land. His temper and habits were not perfectly congenial with active political life, nor was he at any time attracted by that career; but he was a re publican, in the catholic sense, and took an active part in procuring the adoption of the federal con stitution, to which, as well as to its founders and great first administrator, lie felt and uniformly de clared the most profound attachment.
In 1793, he returned to Philadelphia, and com menced the practice of the law, which he prose cuted until his appointment by President Adams, on the 3d of March 1801, chief judge of the cir cuit court of the United States for this circuit.* His powers as an advocate, but more especially his learning and judgment, were held in great re spect by the community, surrounded notwithstand ing as he was, by men of the first eminence in the land. His law arguments, which some now present may recollect, were remarkable for the distinctness with which he presented his case, and for the per spicuity and accuracy with which his legal refer ences were made to sustain it. He was concise, simple, occasionally nervous, and uniformly faith ful to the court, as he was to the client. But the force of his intellect resided in his judgment; and even higher faculties than his as an advocate, would have been thrown comparatively into the shade by the more striking light which surrounded his path as a judge.