after revolution to 1805 63

and it asked what gentlemen the Senators had in
contemplation as proper judges, because none had
occurred to the Delegates that they thought would
accept the trust. The Senate responded at once
with a list of those proposed to be balloted for in
that house, but the names are not preserved in
the records. Three days later, on December 12,
1778, the House balloted on the question, and
selected the names of Benjamin Rumsey, Benjamin
Mackall, 4th, Thomas Jones, Solomon Wright,
and James Murray; and on the same day the
Senate concurred in the appointments of these
men. No basis of selection was announced; it was
not stated that judges of the court were, or should
be, selected from different parts of the state. A
joint commission to the five judges was issued by
the Governor and Council under date of Decem-
ber 22, 1778, and on January 11, 1779, the judges
were notified of its issuance by a letter from the
Council,²

The order of precedence of the judges was, ac-
cording to the custom long followed in the ap-
pointment of councillors and other officers, left to
implication from the order in which they were
named in the joint commission; and thus it was
that Benjamin Rumsey became Chief Judge,. He
was not explicitly so designated in the commission
or in the certificate of his oath of office, and he is
not so described in the contemporary minutes until
1799. Chief Judge was, perhaps, his unofficial
title or description, just as it had been that given
to the Governor before 1776, when sitting on the
Court of Appeals; and the retention of the title

2. Archives, Journal and Corresp. Council, 1778 to 1779, 277.