Judge James F. Schneider at the Archives

One Special Collections summer intern project dealt with the history of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, now the Baltimore City Circuit Court. The project focused on processing the Schneider Collection, SC 5598, and researching the most notable cases of Judge Joseph N. Ulman. Both projects led to a better understanding of the history of the city and state judicial system.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James F. Schneider recently donated to the Archives a collection of materials dealing primarily with Baltimore and Maryland judicial history. The collection includes biographical information and photos of judges, lawyers and other public figures, newspaper and magazine clippings on historical events, historical information on Baltimore, and historical information and photographs on Maryland county courthouses. Judge Schneider acquired the materials over the past 40 years, mostly as a result of research for his several books, including histories of the Maryland State Bar Association and the Baltimore City Bar Association, both compiled to commemorate organizational centennials. His current project is a history of the Supreme Bench.

Judge Schneider came to the Archives on August 15 as a guest speaker. His talk, entitled “40 Years as a History Detective,” reflected his research and historical interests over the years, including Baltimore County, Baltimore City, family genealogy, and First and Franklin Street Presbyterian Church.

During the summer after graduating from high school, he began his pursuit of history by following historic routes through Baltimore County from a guide to Maryland prepared as a WPA project . The guide was later updated by the Archives and published as A New Guide to the Old Line State. He was also interested in family genealogy and did research at the Maryland Historical Society. His legal background helped him learn about government agencies and their records.

During his careers as a lawyer and court official, Judge Schneider was always concerned with the history of the offices and buildings where he worked. As a clerk for Judge Sklar, he became interested in the Mitchell Courthouse portrait collection. He has researched the portraits themselves and compiled biographies on the subjects. He gained a reputation as the amateur court historian, and began collecting historical items as well as research notes. These include cartes de visite of numerous prominent lawyers from the nineteenth century and a book, dated 1840, from the Baltimore Bar Library, documenting the legal research of some of the most important legal minds in Baltimore. He saved the book from certain destruction by removing it from a trash pile in the Mitchell Courthouse.

Judge Ulman was a member of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City from 1925 to 1943. His prominence in Baltimore's legal history stems in part from his book, A Judge Takes the Stand, published in 1933. This semi-autobiographical publication describes the life of a judge and the state of the legal system from a judge's perspective. The intern project this summer focused on identifying, describing, and scanning papers relating to cases heard by Judge Ulman, with an emphasis on those discussed in his book and on others with special legal or historical significance. Nearly thirty cases were identified, representing five of the six courts in Baltimore at the time, and more than 3300 pages of material were scanned.

The focus on the Baltimore court system is important in several ways. First, Baltimore City had a very peculiar and unique system of courts, consisting of the Criminal Court, City Court, Superior Court, Circuit Court, Circuit Court No. 2, and Court of Common Pleas. In 1983 they were consolidated into one court, called the Circuit Court, more in line with those in the counties. Second, the Supreme Bench was made up of some of the state’s best legal minds, making the interpretation of the law in the Baltimore City judicial system a very significant part of the legal history of Maryland.

Colonial penal laws could be harsh. At the February-March 1638/9 Session the Assembly passed a law providing that anyone who committed manslaughter or burned down a house or a stack of corn or tobacco could be sentenced to death by hanging. If a plea for “benefit of clergy” was offered, the individual instead could be burnt in the hand or forehead or lose a hand (Archives of Maryland 1:72). Other legislation at the same session specified that in offenses of petit treason the punishment of death would be by drawing and hanging for a man and by burning for a woman (Archives of Maryland 1:72).

In October 1685 Mrs. Anne Thompson was sentenced to be burnt in the hand for having two husbands. The Council relieved her of the punishment when she promised to live a better life (Archives of Maryland 17:417-418). As shown in a previous article, persons who committed suicide might have their property confiscated by the State.

On the other hand, the government of colonial Maryland could show mercy. When a malefactor was sentenced to death by the county court, the residents or even some of the justices could petition for mercy.

One of the earliest cases concerned Ann Smith of Anne Arundel County who had been sentenced to death for murdering a Negro boy. Governor Nicholson felt she was penitent enough to be pardoned (Archives of Maryland 20:461).

In 1738 the Council advised the governor to grant a pardon to Negro Sampson, under a sentence of death in Dorchester County, and a reprieve to Mary Oneil, under a similar sentence for burglary in Baltimore County, with the proviso that she be transported out of the province. The Council considered other cases of condemned persons and adjudged their crimes too heinous, and it recommended the issuance of warrants of execution (Archives of Maryland 28: 136-137).

In December 1763 Justice John Darnall wrote the Council about the conviction of Negro Toby, a slave of Benjamin Hall, Jr. of Frederick County for the murder of Ely Linthicum. Because of his age, only nine years old, the Court thought him a suitable object of mercy. The Council concurred and the governor issued a pardon (Archives of Maryland 32:91).

In April 1768 the Baltimore County Justices sent a petition to the Council, outlining the conviction of Richard Mansfield for stealing the horse of Richard Rogers. The evidence delivered in court justified the verdict, but with extenuating circumstances. Mansfield’s wife was giving birth in a “lonesome wood cutter's cabin” and his master was not at home. By foot he went to town for rum and sugar, and out of concern for his wife wanted to return as fast as possible. He took a horse and released it when he reached his home a few miles away. Accompanying the petition were witness accounts, character verifications, and an indenture showing him to be “no Convict from abroad.” On advice of the Council, the governor granted a pardon (Archives of Maryland 32:221).

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