Gideon Cornell

{{Short description|American judge}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Gideon Cornell | image = | caption = | order = 1st | office = Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court | term_start = May 1747 | term_end = January 1749 | predecessor = Office established | successor = [[Joshua Babcock]] | birth_date = 5 July 1710 | birth_place = [[Portsmouth, Rhode Island|Portsmouth]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]] | parents = Thomas Cornell and Martha Freeborn | death_date = 1766 | death_place = [[Kingston, Jamaica]] | resting place = | occupation = Deputy, assistant, chief justice | education = | spouse = Rebecca Vaughan | children = Gideon, Rebecca }}

'''Gideon Cornell''' (1710–1766) was a farmer, trader and judge who became the [[List of Chief Justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court|first Chief Justice]] of the [[Rhode Island Supreme Court]], serving from 1747 to 1749.

== Ancestry and early life ==

Born July. 5, 1710 in [[Portsmouth, Rhode Island|Portsmouth]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], Gideon Cornell was the son of Martha Freeborn and Thomas Cornell, who was elected several times as an assistant and deputy (representative) from Portsmouth.<ref>{{cite web|title=family treemaker|url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/h/a/m/Melanie-S-Hamilton/GENE9-0004.html|accessdate=2012-05-21}}</ref> Cornell descended from Thomas Cornell who came from [[Saffron Walden]], County [[Essex]], England, and settled in Portsmouth in the Rhode Island colony, and later in [[New Netherland]].{{Sfn|Moriarty|1959|p=107}}{{Sfn|Austin|1887|pp=54-5}} He also descended from [[Thomas Hazard]], one of the [[List of early settlers of Rhode Island#Founders of Newport|nine founding settlers]] of [[Newport, Rhode Island]], and from [[William Freeborn (settler)|William Freeborn]], who was one of [[List of early settlers of Rhode Island#Founders of Portsmouth|the 23 signers]] of the [[Portsmouth Compact]] which established the first government in the Rhode Island colony.

Upon his father's death in 1728, Cornell inherited a large amount of land in Rhode Island and Jamaica and a substantial sum of money. At the age of 21 in 1731 Cornell became a [[freeman (colonial)|freeman]] of Portsmouth. On 22 February 1732 he married in [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]] Rebecca Vaughan, the daughter of Captain Daniel Vaughan, a ship captain, and Rebecca Weaver. Governor [[William Wanton]] officiated the wedding.

== Political and mercantile career ==

[[File:Cornell.Gideon.House.Newport.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|Gideon Cornell house, Newport}}]]

In 1732 Cornell began his public service as a deputy (representative).{{Sfn|Cornell|1902|p=46}} From 1740 to 1746 he was elected as an "assistant" to the governor (according to Austin, or from 1739 to 1745, 1764 according to another source),{{Sfn|Palfrey|1890|p=570}} and in 1746 he was also on a committee to run the boundary line between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.{{Sfn|Cornell|1902|p=46}} In 1738 Cornell served as one of the Justices of the Peace for Portsmouth, and in 1741 was selected as one of the Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace for Newport County.{{Sfn|Smith|1900|p=79}} He had initially been selected as the fifth justice "in room of" (replacing) William Ellery, Sr. who was "chosen assistant," and in 1742 Cornell was selected again to serve as a Justice of this court.{{Sfn|Smith|1900|pp=86,92}}

In May 1747 Cornell was chosen as the [[List of Chief Justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court|first Chief Justice]] of the [[Rhode Island Supreme Court]], which at that time went by the title of the "Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Gaol Delivery."{{Sfn|Smith|1900|p=122}} He was likely untrained in the [[common law]]. In the early days of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, the legislature was distrustful of an independent judiciary and non-lawyer farmers were appointed as justices as late as 1819 (although Cornell likely served as a judge prior to his appointment).{{Sfn|Warren|1908|p=66}} His name is misspelled as "Cowell" in Warren's history of the Harvard Law School.{{Sfn|Warren|1908|p=66}}

Cornell owned the sloop ''Jupiter'' which was seized in Jamaica for violating the [[Navigation Act]], despite an unsuccessful appeal in 1758 to the Lords of the Committee of Council for Hearing Appeals from the Plantations for the Court at Kensington (28 July 1758).<ref>{{cite book|title=Report and court opinion on the appeal of John Boutin, 1758 |oclc=064434449 }}</ref> Other ships of Cornell's were also accused of trading in foreign contraband according to the British laws.{{Sfn|Pitman|1917|p=xxxx}} Cornell was also involved in other legal entanglements, including a land dispute over mortgaged property in Newport, when in 1763 he filed a trespass and ejectment suit. The opposing party, Thomas Shearman, appealed the case to the Rhode Island Supreme Court and then eventually to the "[[King in Council]]" in Great Britain in 1767.{{Sfn|Washburn|1923|pp=150-3}}

Cornell died in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] in 1766 where he had gone to receive a large sum of money awarded to him by the British government.{{Sfn|Cornell|1902|p=47}}{{Sfn|French|French|1894|pp=132-3}} His purported city house still stands at 3 Division Street in Newport, Rhode Island<ref>{{cite web |title=Newport Restoration |url=http://www.newportrestoration.org/preservation/historic_houses/details/4-gideon_cornell_house |accessdate=2012-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424160614/https://www.newportrestoration.org/preservation/historic_houses/details/4-gideon_cornell_house |archive-date=24 April 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cornell was a co-founder of Newport's [[Redwood Library]], which is housed in the oldest library building in America.{{Sfn|Stockwell|1876}} He was also one of the original signatories for the petition creating [[Brown University]].{{Sfn|Guild|1896|p=517}} The [[Historical Society of Pennsylvania]] contains Cornell's commissions of appointment as judge from 1743 to 1748.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Society of Pennsylvania |url=http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/0001.htm |accessdate=2012-05-26}}</ref>

== Family ==

Cornell had two known children, the oldest being a son, Gideon, born 10 October 1740, who appears to have died in infancy. His only other known child was a daughter, Rebecca, born 17 February 1755, who married Colonel [[Clement Biddle]] of the [[Biddle family]] and had numerous descendants.{{Sfn|Brownell|1910}}

== Ancestry ==

Cornell's ancestry after the first generation comes mostly from John O. Austin's ''Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island''.{{Sfn|Austin|1887|pp=29,54,121,296,320}} The George Lawton ancestry is from Shurtleff and Shurtleff.{{Sfn|Shurtleff|Shurtleff|2005|pp=73-4}}

{{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. Gideon Cornell (1710-1766) |2= 2. Thomas Cornell (1674-1728) |3= 3. Martha Freeborn (1671-1748) |4= 4. Thomas Cornell (c.1653-1714) |5= 5. Susanna Lawton (died 1712) |6= 6. Gideon Freeborn (1635-1720) |7= 7. Sarah Brownell (c.1641-1676) |8= 8. Thomas Cornell (1627-1673) |9= 9. Elizabeth [not Fiscock]<ref>In 1959 genealogist G. Andrews Moriarty revealed that the Thomas Cornell who married Elizabeth Fiscock in New Amsterdam was not this Thomas, as stated in most genealogies of the family</ref> |10= 10. [[George Lawton (settler)|George Lawton]] (1607-1693) |11= 11. Elizabeth Hazard |12= 12. [[William Freeborn (settler)|William Freeborn]] |13= 13. Mary Willson |14= 14. Thomas Brownell (1608 – before 1665) |15= 15. Anne Bourne (1607 – after 1665) |16= 16. Thomas Cornell (1594/5-1655) |17= 17. Rebecca |20= 20. George Lawton (c.1580-1641) |21= 21. Isabel Smith (1585 – after 1641) |22= 22. [[Thomas Hazard]] (by 1610-after 1677) |23= 23. Martha }}

== Images == <gallery> File:Cornell.Gideon.House.NRHPplaque.Newport.2.20120722.jpg|{{center|NRHP plaque affixed to house}} </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===

*{{Cite book|last=Austin |first=John Osborne | author-link = John Osborne Austin | title=Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island|place=Albany, New York |publisher=J. Munsell's Sons|isbn=978-0-8063-0006-1 |year=1887 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LA7ntaS11ocC&q=abbott%2C+daniel+235}} *{{cite book|last=Brownell |first=George Grant |title=Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Thomas Brownell, 1619 to 1910 |place=Jemestown, New York |year=1910 |url=https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalreco00byubrow/genealogicalreco00byubrow_djvu.txt}} *{{cite book|last=Cornell |first=John |title=Genealogy of the Cornell family, being an account of the descendants of Thomas Cornell |year=1902 |url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/john-cornell/genealogy-of-the-cornell-family--being-an-account-of-the-descendants-of-thomas--nro/page-6-genealogy-of-the-cornell-family--being-an-account-of-the-descendants-of-thomas--nro.shtml}} *{{cite book |last1=French |first1=Anne Warner |last2=French |first2=Abbie Maria |title=An American ancestry |publisher=Higginson Book Company |year=1894 |pages=132–3 }} *{{cite book |last=Guild |first=Reuben Aldridge |title=Early history of Brown University: including the life, times, and correspondence of President Manning. 1756-1791 (Google eBook) |publisher=Snow and Farnham |year=1896 |page=517 }} *{{cite journal |last=Moriarty |first=G. Andrews | author-link = George Andrews Moriarty, Jr | title=Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island |journal=[[The American Genealogist]] |date=April 1959 |volume=35}} *{{cite book |last=Palfrey |first=John |title=History of New England |volume=5 |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |place=Boston |year=1890 }} *{{cite book |last=Pitman |first=Frank Wesley |year=1917 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VFnAAAAMAAJ |title=The Development of the British West Indies, 1700-1763 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780722226889 }} *{{cite book|last1=Shurtleff |first1=William Roy |last2=Shurtleff |first2=Lawton Lothrop |title=The Shurtleff and Lawton Families: Genealogy and History, second edition |pages=73–4 |publisher=Pine Hill Press |place=Lafayette, California |year=2005|isbn=0-942515-10-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RL5RAAAAMAAJ&q=Cranfield+parish+Lawton&pg=PA74}} *{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Joseph Jencks|title=Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647-1800|publisher=Preston and Rounds, Co.|location=Providence, RI|year=1900|url=https://archive.org/details/civilandmilitar00smitgoog|quote=cornell.}} *{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Stockwell |editor-first=Thomas B. |title=A history of public education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876|year=1876|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&view=text&rgn=main&idno=ABJ2388.0001.001 }} *{{cite book|last=Warren |first=Charles |title=History of the Harvard Law School and of Early Legal Conditions in America |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |place=New York |year=1908 |isbn=9781584770060 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7GbD_J57LbQC&q=gideon+cowell+rhode+island+superior+court&pg=PA66 }} *{{Citation |last =Washburn |first=George Adrian |year =1923 |contribution =Imperial Control of the Administration of Justice in the Thirteen American Colonies, 1684-1776 |title =Studies in History, Economics and Public Law |location =New York |publisher =Columbia University |volume=CV |number=3 |pages =150–3 |isbn=9781584776215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6yXlNdtFHsC }}

== External links ==

*[https://archive.org/details/annalsredwoodli00athegoog/page/n48  Annals of the Redwood Library]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornell, Gideon}} [[Category:1710 births]] [[Category:1766 deaths]] [[Category:Merchants from colonial Rhode Island]] [[Category:18th-century American farmers]] [[Category:Cornell family|Gideon]] [[Category:Chief justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court]] [[Category:People from Portsmouth, Rhode Island]] [[Category:Politicians from Newport, Rhode Island]] [[Category:People from colonial Rhode Island]]