Hon. Charles Smith and Mary Yeates

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Husband Hon. Charles Smith ^{1 2}

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           Born: 4 Mar 1765 - Philadelphia, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: Mar 1836 or 1840 - Philadelphia, PA 1 3
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. William Smith, D.D. (      -      ) 1 2
         Mother: 

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       Marriage: 3 Mar 1791 1

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Wife Mary Yeates ¹

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           Born: 13 Mar 1770 - Lancaster, Lancaster Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: Aug 1836 - Belmont, PA 1
         Buried: 

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         Father: Judge Jasper Yeates (1745-1817) 4 5
         Mother: Sarah Burd (1749-1829) 4

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Hon. Charles Smith

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He read law, was admitted to practice, and on March 27, 1819, was appointed president judge for the Ninth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Cumberland, Franklin, and Adams. In 1820 he was commissioned president judge of the District Court of the city and county of Lancaster, holding the office for several years, and living at his country-seat called "Hardwick," which he built. It was later destroyed to make way for a new Pennsylvania Railroad line around Lancaster.

He received his degree B. A. at the first commencement of Washington College, Charleston, Maryland, March 14, 1783. His father, William Smith, D.D., was the founder, and at that time the provost of that institution. Charles Smith commenced the study of the law with his elder brother, William Moore Smith, who then resided at Easton, Penn. After his admission to the bar he opened his office in Sunbury, Northumberland County, where his industry and rising talents soon procured for him a large practice. He was elected delegate, with his colleague, Simon Snyder, to the convention which framed the first constitution for the State of Pennsylvania, and was looked on as a very distinguished member of that talented body of men. Although differing in the politics of that day from his colleague, yet Mr. Snyder for more than thirty years afterward remained the firm friend of Mr. Smith, and when the former became the governor of the State for three successive terms it is well known that Mr. Smith was his confidential adviser in many important matters.
Under the old circuit court system it was customary for most of the distinguished country lawyers to travel over the northern and western parts of the state with the judges, and hence Mr. Smith, in pursuing this practice, soon became associated with such eminent men as Thomas Duncan, David Watts, Charles Hall, John Woods, James Hamilton, and a host of luminaries of the middle bar. The settlement of land titles, at that period, became of vast importance to the people of the state, and the foundation of the law with regard to settlement rights, the rights of warrantees, the doctrine of surveys, and the proper construction of lines and corners, had to be laid. In the trial of ejectment cases the learning of the bar was best displayed, and Mr. Smith was soon looked on as an eminent land lawyer. In after years, when called on to revise the old publications of the laws of the state, and under the authority of the Legislature to frame a new compilation of the same (generally known as Smith's Laws of Pennsylvania) he gave to the public the result of his knowledge and experience on the subject of land law, in the very copious note on that subject, which may well be termed a treatise on the land laws of Pennsylvania. In the same work his note on the criminal law of the state is elaborate and instructive. Mr. Smith was, in 1819, appointed president judge of the district, comprising the counties of Cumberland and Franklin, where his official learning and judgment, and his habitual industry, rendered him a useful and highly popular judge. On the erection of the District Court of Lancaster he became the first presiding judge, which office he held for several years. He finally removed to Philadelphia, where he spent the last years of his life, and died in that city in 1840, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

1 Franklin Ellis & Samuel Evans, History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 227.

2 —, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 156.

3 —, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 177.

4 Franklin Ellis & Samuel Evans, History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 226.

5 —, Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (J. H. Beers & Co., 1903), Pg 49.