The Supreme Court of Vermont. deacons, four misters, and plain Charles Brewster and Theodus Curtis. The acts authorizing the special courts were regarded as temporary merely, to last only until the next session of the legislature, even if there were several sessions annually.
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THE SUPERIOR COURT, 1778-82. The stirring events of the first year of Vermont's existence preclude the idea that there was much busi ness for the courts; in fact, the only busi ness prior to Decem ber of which we have tangible evidence was the trial of Redding for treason, and of Zerubbabel Mattison for " enimical con duct." That all laws passed in 1778 were but temporary and designed to last only until the succeeding session, may be in ferred from the vote of the General As sembly passed the day before final ad journment in Octo ber, " that all the STEPHEN bills passed the two sessions preceding this (except the act forming the special court, and the act respecting banishment) be revived until the next session of this Assembly." The act creating the special courts was not revived, as a substitute for them had already been provided by a prior vote, namely : — Jfesoired, That the Hon. Moses Robinson, Esqr., be, and is hereby, appointed Chief Judge of the Superior Court, and Major John Shepardson, second, John Fasset, Jr., third, Maj. Thomas Chandler, fourth, and John Throop, Esq., fifth, judges of said Court." 7'
The Assembly voted that the court should not sit longer than one week at one sitting, and should convene four times each year,— at Bennington on the second Thursday of December; at Westminster on the same day in March; at Rutland on the
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Newbury on the same Thursday in Septem ber. Nothing in the legislative records indicates the passage of any act relating to the powers or juris diction of the court. If one was enacted, it has passed into obliv ion with the other statutes of that year, for no copy of the acts of the year 1778 is now known. In February, 1779, it was enacted that all writs, plead ings, and entries should be in the Eng lish tongue and no other; and at the same time one supe rior court, for the year ensuing, was es tablished. The pow ers and duties of the judges, one chief, and four others, those of the clerk, the juris diction of the court, ROYCE. and the times and places of its sessions were defined, and an act passed for the directing and regulating of civil actions. At the same time it was enacted that as no county courts had been established, all causes within the jurisdiction of those courts should be heard in the Superior Court. At the October session, 1779, it was provided that the judges of the Superior Court should be chosen annually by the joint ballot of Governor, Council, and House of Represen tatives. It was also enacted that the Superior Court should be a court of equity in all . causes where the matter or cause in dispute
