John Faucheraud Grimké

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John Faucheraud Grimké (December 16, 1752 – August 9, 1819) was an American jurist who served as Associate justice and Senior Associate Justice of South Carolina's Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions from 1783 until his death. He also served in the South Carolina state legislature from 1782 until 1790. He was intendant (mayor) of Charleston, South Carolina , for two terms, from 1786 to 1788.

Life, education and war service

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Grimké's maternal grandparents were Huguenots who left France in the 17th century after the Edict of Fontainebleau stripped Protestants of their rights and emigrated to South Carolina (other Huguenots went to New England, New York, and Virginia, and to various tolerant European states, including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, and Russia). Grimké's paternal grandparents were German merchants from Alsace-Lorraine , who came to South Carolina in the 17th century. Their name was originally "Grimk" until changed by Grimké's grandfather, John Paul Grimké. He was a silversmith whose work was said to rival that of Paul Revere .

Grimké was tutored as a boy and studied as an undergraduate Princeton University . He then sailed to England to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge , and at the Middle Temple of the Inns of Court . After returning to the colonies, Grimké became increasingly caught up in the movement for independence. Though a young man, he (with Benjamin Franklin and others) signed a 1774 petition to King George III and the British government protesting the Boston Port Act .

After the 1775 outbreak of the American Revolution , Grimké returned to South Carolina and joined the Continental Army ; he was commissioned as a Captain in Charleston's Regiment of Artillery. He was promoted to Major in 1778, and later that year became Deputy Adjutant General, holding the rank of Colonel. He was taken prisoner by the British at the siege of Charleston in 1780, but released in a prisoner exchange and paroled. Arrested the next year on a flimsy pretext, he was imprisoned by the British for five weeks, which he considered to have nullified his parole.

Grimké then joined the army of Nathanael Greene , serving until the end of the war. He served as an officer under Colonel Samuel Elbert , under the extended Georgia command of Major General Robert Howe . He fought in several famous battles, such as Eutaw Springs and Yorktown which ended the war.

Political career

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Grimké was elected a judge of the superior court in 1783 under the new government of the state and United States. In 1799 he became senior associate. He was elected as a representative to the state house, and then as speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1785-86. He served as a member of the state convention of 1788 that reviewed and adopted the Federal constitution .

In 1811, political enemies in the South Carolina legislature attempted to remove Judge Grimké from his position by impeachment . He was easily acquitted of the charges but his health suffered from the experience.

Grimké was described by John Belton O'Neall as a "stern, unbending judge" who tolerated nothing. Grimké held a high opinion of the abilities of women; he believed his daughter Sarah Grimké would have made a good lawyer, had she been born a man and allowed to practice. He also believed that women should be allowed to serve as executrices of decedents' estates.

Publications

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In 1785, Grimké served as a member of a three-man commission designated to revise, digest, and publish the state laws. Though the commission’s final report was not adopted by the state, some recommendations were incorporated into law. Grimké’s research resulted in the publication of Public Laws of the State of South Carolina (Philadelphia, 1790). It served for several decades as a standard legal reference. The book contains information on the English statutes which extended to or were generally received in the North American colonies, and includes references to English cases and decisions on those statutes.

He also published the following texts:

Revised Edition of the Laws of South Carolina to 1789,
Law of Executors for South Carolina,
Duty of Justices of the Peace (2nd ed., 1796), and,
Duties of Executors and Administrators of Estates (anonymously) (New York, 1797) This was in the period when he was breaking his father's will in the Charleston Equity Courts.

Family

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Mary Moore Smith

John Faucheraud Grimké was a member of Charleston’s upper class and was well-known in society. His uncle Frederick Grimké (1705–1778) was the father of Elizabeth Grimké (1742–1792), the wife of John Rutledge . In 1784, he married Mary Smith, known as "Polly", a descendant of Thomas Smith, whose extended Charleston family was wealthy and influential. The couple maintained a large slave population at Belmont, their rice plantation, and their other up-countries properties, as well as in their house in Charleston at 321 East Bay Street. Mary Grimké was particularly strict with the slaves, often to the distress of her daughters, Sarah and Angelina. Grimké may have had questions concerning slavery,[_further explanation needed
_] but he never publicly stood against the system under which he became a rich man, nor did he take any action to oppos

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John Faucheraud Grimke

Judicial Career

Biography