William Paca

William Paca
3rd Governor of Maryland
In office November 22, 1782 – November 26, 1785
Preceded by	Thomas Sim Lee
Succeeded by	William Smallwood
Maryland State Senator
In office 1777–1779
Maryland Delegate to the Continental Congress
In office 1774–1779
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
In office February 8, 1790 – October 13, 1799
Preceded by	new seat
Succeeded by	James Winchester
Personal details
Born	(1740-10-31)October 31, 1740 Abingdon, Baltimore County, Province of Maryland, British America (now Abingdon, Maryland, U.S.)
Died	October 13, 1799(1799-10-13) (aged 58) Queenstown, Maryland
Resting place	Wye Plantation, Queenstown, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Signature

William Paca (October 31, 1740 – October 13, 1799) was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland, and later Governor of Maryland and a United States federal judge.

Early life and education[edit]

Paca was born in Abingdon, in what was then Baltimore County (Abingdon was later included in Harford County when that county was formed from Baltimore County in 1773), in the British colony of Maryland.^[1] He was the child of John Paca (c. 1712 – 1785), a wealthy planter in the area, and his wife Elizabeth Smith (?-c. 1766).^[2] He was the second son of the family, after his elder brother Aquila, and had five sisters.^[3] The brothers entered school at the Philadelphia Academy and Charity School in 1752, and the younger Paca went on to attend the College of Philadelphia (now merged into and known as the University of Pennsylvania), graduating in 1759 with a bachelor of arts degree.^[2] He was also to receive a master of arts degree from the college in 1762, though this required no further study, only that Paca request it and be in good standing.^[3]

After graduating from college, Paca returned to Maryland, reading law in the colonial capital of Annapolis under the tutelage of a local lawyer named Stephen Bordley.^[2] By 1761, he was licensed to practice law, and in 1764 was admitted to the provincial bar, having stayed in Annapolis to establish his practice.^[2] Professional success was mingled with personal success, as the previous year he had courted Mary Chew,^[4] the daughter of a prominent Maryland planter, and they were married on May 26, 1763. They had three children, though only their son John Philemon survived into adulthood.^[3]

Career[edit]

Among the other young lawyers in Annapolis at the time was Samuel Chase, who became a close friend and political colleague of Paca.^[2] Paca and Chase led local opposition to the British Stamp Act of 1765 and established the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sons of Liberty.^[2]

Paca was elected to the Maryland legislature in 1771 and appointed to the Continental Congress in 1774. He was reelected, serving until 1779, when he became chief justice of the state of Maryland. In 1780, he was elected to serve as a federal judge on the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture.^[5] In 1782 he was elected governor of Maryland. On December 22, 1789, Paca received a recess appointment from President George Washington to a seat on the newly created United States District Court for the District of Maryland, created by 1 Stat. 73. Formally nominated on February 8, 1790, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 10, 1790, and received his commission the same day, serving until his death.

Paca's career on the federal bench had a significant impact on the admiralty jurisdiction of the Federal courts and what was to become the principal business of the Supreme Court over the subsequent four decades. As the first Federal judge for the District Court of Maryland he rendered an opinion on the case of Betsey that had far reaching consequences when it was overturned by the Supreme Court. In that case Paca argued on solid precedents of international and British law that the District Court did not have jurisdiction over the awarding of prizes brought into American ports by foreign privateers. The Supreme Court asserted otherwise in seriatum opinions and established an exclusive jurisdiction over prize cases vested in the Federal District Courts that took that privilege away from what had been the responsibility of foreign consulates. Paca's opinion was the first District Court opinion to be published, and although ultimately reversed, it provides insight into the extensive legal training of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an author/compiler of several provisions of what became the Bill of Rights.^[6]

Paca died in 1799 at his estate of Wye River in Queen Anne's County, Maryland and was buried in the family cemetery there.^[7]

Legacy[edit]

In Maryland, three elementary schools are named for him: one in Landover, one in Baltimore city (#83) and the other in his home town of Abingdon. A prominent street in Downtown Baltimore bears his name, as does a dormitory on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis as well as one on the campus of Towson University. Outside of Maryland, a Middle School in Mastic Beach, New York and P.S. 155 in New York City are also named after him. In August 2008 the House was added as a new residence hall in Towson University.

His Annapolis home, the House and Garden, was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971.^[8]

The William Paca Club in New Providence, New Jersey is named in his honor. The Club cites the fact that Paca was the only Italian America to sign the Declaration of Independence as the reason for bestowing him this honor. ^[9]

Personal life[edit]

Paca has been described as being of Italian ancestry.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

According to Stanley South, "[t]he rumor that the name was Italian came from a remark made in 1911 by James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, who commented that he thought a relationship existed between Paca and the Italian family Pecci".^[18] In a July 18, 1937, letter to the New York Times, a self-described descendant of Paca claimed:

The ancestors of William Paca were of Italian and English origin. The name is said to have originally been spelled Pacci [sic].

However, in an interview with Giovanni Schiavo, the letter writer apparently attributed the suggestion that the name was Pecci to Cardinal Gibbons.^[19] Schiavo also reported that Paca mentioned Pope Leo XIII (1879–1903), whose surname was Pecci, during the interview.^[19] Stiverson and Jacobsen reported that spellings of the surname of William Paca's immigrant ancestor Robert include Peaker, Pecker, Peaca, Peca, and Paka.^[20] Neither "Pecci" nor "Pacci" (nor "Pacca") are attested, but that could be attributed to the fact that the Italian spelling of the name would have simply been difficult or unfamiliar to the English-speaking clerks of the time.

See also[edit]

• Colonial families of Maryland

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• "Chase, Samuel (1741–1811)". Maryland Online Encyclopedia (MdOE). Maryland Online Encyclopedia, a joint project of the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Humanities Council, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Maryland State Department of Education. 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2008. 

External links[edit]

• United States Congress. "William Paca (id: P000001)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 
• William Paca at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
• Oswald Tilghman, Samuel Alexander Harrison (1915). History of Talbot County, Maryland, 1661–1861. Williams & Wilkins company. pp. 550–555. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
• Paca, William (1740–1799), Maryland Online Encyclopedia, Maryland State Department of Education