from 1806 to 1851 107

retirement as merely temporary." Nicholson re-
moved to Baltimore and lived there until his
death in 1817. After the death, on October 9,
1806, of Robert Purviance, Collector of the Port
of Baltimore, the President offered Judge Nich-
olson that position, which would have paid him
more than he received as judge, but the judge de-
clined it. He wrote to the President:¹⁴

The office which I now hold is, indeed, a laborious one, and
the compensation totally inadequate to the service when it is
considered in connection with the place to which my residence
is confined by law. But it is one, while it gives me employment,
places me in one of the most dignified stations under the govern-
ment of my native state.

He became the first president of the Commercial
and Farmers' Bank of Baltimore in 1810; in the
war of 1812, raised and commanded a battery
or company of artillery; was at Bladensburg, and
at Fort McHenry during the bombardment; and
he has gained some posthumous mention from the
fact that he caused the publication of Francis Scott
Key's verses, the "Star Spangled Banner." Key
and Judge Nicholson had married sisters.

Richard Sprigg, who had accepted the appoint-
ment as Chief Judge of the first district, left va-
cant by Gabriel Duvall's refusal, died two months
after his appointment, without having qualified
for the office, and in his place John Mackall
Gantt, of Prince George's County, who had been
appointed an associate judge of the district, was
elevated to the position of Chief Judge.

Finally, then, the chief judges of all the dis-
tricts, and judges of the Court of Appeals, ap-

14. Nicholson Papers, vol. 7, undated.