Hugh Campbell Murray (April 22, 1825 – September 18, 1857) was an American lawyer and the third Chief Justice of California.
Hugh Murray | |
---|---|
3rd Chief Justice of California | |
In office March 1852 – September 18, 1857 | |
Preceded by | Henry A. Lyons |
Succeeded by | David S. Terry |
Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court | |
In office October 11, 1851 – March 1852 | |
Appointed by | Governor John McDougall |
Preceded by | Nathaniel Bennett |
Succeeded by | Stephen Johnson Field |
Personal details | |
Born | St Louis, Missouri | April 22, 1825
Died | September 18, 1857 Sacramento, California | (aged 32)
Murray was born in St Louis, Missouri before his family moved to Alton, Illinois when he was a child.[1] Little is known of his schooling except that he almost certainly studied Latin. In 1846 he began studying at the law firm of N.D. Strong in Alton.[2] On March 8, 1847, following the outbreak of the Mexican–American War he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 14th Infantry Regiment. After the end of the war he resigned his commission on March 31, 1848, and returned to Alton to study.[1][2]
After completing his studies he was called to the Bar and moved to California, where he gained a large circle of friends and a lucrative practice as a lawyer.[3] On January 8, 1850, at the age of 24, he was elected a member of the San Francisco ayuntamiento (town council), and continued to work as a lawyer.[4][2] On April 20, 1850, he was made a Judge of the San Francisco Superior Court.[5] On October 11, 1851, at the age of 26, he was made an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, the youngest ever appointed.[1][6]
In March 1852, upon the resignation of Henry A. Lyons, he became Chief Justice at the age of 27, the youngest ever Chief Justice of California.[1][7] He was subsequently elected to another term as chief justice.[1] As Chief Justice, his annual salary in 1854 was US$8,000.[8]
As Chief Justice, he was noted for his dislike of changing the law through his decisions and for his irascible temper. Having heard that a man had called him "the meanest Chief Justice ever," Murray found the man and beat him with his cane.[9][10] He was consequently fined by the city recorder of Sacramento the sum of $50 plus costs.[11] Murray wrote the majority opinion of the court in People v. Hall, 4 Cal. 399 (1854), which Charles J. McClain describes as "containing some of the most offensive racial rhetoric to be found in the annals of California appellate jurisprudence."[12]
On September 18, 1857, he died in office of consumption.[13] He is interred in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery.[14] In the October 1857 election, Stephen Johnson Field was elected to fill his seat.
He was a member of the Society of California Pioneers.
Meeting Chief Justice Hugh Murray of the state supreme court, In a bookstore one day, he, with much complacency, remarked that he had noticed what I had said about him in the Times that morning, alluding perhaps to some remark about the Andy slave case; continuing, he said: 'Lay on! the skin of my back Is as thick as that on the back of a rhinoceros.' But the judge could hardly have been as callous as he pretended, for about that time he called at the store of Thomas Hill, a reputable merchant of Sacramento, and a Republican of the most pronounced type, who had said something politically offensive about the Judge, which had come to his ears. The judge, armed with a heavy bludgeon, assaulted Hill in his store without warning, In a most cruel manner, knocking him down and disabling him for a long time. Hill was by no means a strong man, and it was thought his life was saved by the circumstance of the bludgeon coming in contact with an overhead beam ln dealing the blow.