several witnesses touching the murder of George Highland, and also the recognizance of two persons taken because of their having assaulted an Indian. The stubborn witness having been brought before the grand jury, they returned two in dictments, — one for murder, and the other for assaulting and beating the Indian. The last defendant appeared in discharge of his recognizance, taken at his preliminary exam ination; and the case of the first defendant was set for trial at the next term. Thereupon the court entered an order for the examination of Gabriel Jones Johnston as counsellor, if he should be found to be a per manent resident of the Territory; and then, "Ordered that the court be adjourned till the term in course," signed, Wm. Clarke. Such was the first day of the General Court of Indiana Territory. The court did not meet again until the first day of Septem ber. The court held two terms a year, March and September. The second term had but six days, but several cases were tried. While the record of the first day recites that John Griffin appeared on that day, yet this statement is flatly contradicted in the proceedings of the first day of the March Term, 1802, when he appeared, produced his commission, and took his seat. He did not sit at the preceding September term. On the first day of the March term, 1802, Benjamin Parke, John Rice Jones, and Gen. Washington Johnston produced their licenses as counsellors, and took the requi site oath. At subsequent terms these gen tlemen were examined and admitted as attorneys at law; and all others had to pass through the same ordeal. But what must strike the practitioners now as sin gular was the examination by the court of the Attorney-General of the Territory, and his admission. He was commissioned by the President. Perhaps, however, this was to enable him to attend to civil business in the court, and not his official business; for he appeared in several criminal cases
before even an order was made for his ex amination as an attorney at law. And so several other gentlemen appeared and trans acted business before their admission, either as counsellors or attorneys; possibly the court of necessity was compelled to enter tain their motions, or there would have been no business for the court, — even the Attor ney-General's in his official capacity. The first and second and only dockets or order-books of the General Court lie before the writer. The first contains 457 pages, and ends with the September term, 18 10. The second begins with the March term, 18 11, and ends on Tuesday, the 16th day of September, 1816, on the 120th page. The first is worm-eaten and shattered, and should be recopied; the second, in a good state of preservation. All the entries are clear, legible, and in a good hand. William Clarke was evidently the president of the court, — for when present, his name is always first, and then on such occasions he signs the day's proceedings. After the September term, 1811, he no longer sat on the bench. Who he was, and whence he came, cannot now be told. He has been confounded with a brother of Gen. George Rogers Clarke, but this is error; for this brother of the General was the Clarke of Lewis and Clarke fame, who went overland to the Pacific coast in 1804. It is not often that the memory of a man so high in the affairs of a State has so completely faded from sight as that of William Clarke. The same may be said of John Griffin, an associate of Clarke and Vanderburgh, whose fofficial duties ended with the special May term, 1806. Henry Vanderburgh invariably wrote his name with a capital B, and in the early laws his name is printed as Vander Burgh; but he himself wrote it as one word. He was a captain in the Fifth New York Regiment of Continentals, and as such served in the War of the Revolution. Soon after the close of that war he settled in Vincennes, and married into an old and distinguished
