Spellbinder of the
Hillsborough Bar
In n glittering' array of Colonial ora¬
tors few. if any. could inateli the t;jl-
ents of Areliilialil llellow Murphcy.
«»/
III HICI ICI S. H UM IC
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century there was no court-town that
surpassed Hillsborough, although it
had less than five hundred white in¬
habitants. in all that was best in the
public life of the State.
The Hillsborough Bar of that era
has never been surpassed in the State
for learning, ability, and eloquence. It
included such men as Archibald
DcBow Murphcy. one of the greatest
geniuses in its history; Thomas Ruffin,
a great lawyer and later Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of North Caro¬
lina; Willie P. Mangum. popular orator
and statesman; William Norwood, able
lawyer and Judge; Frederick Nash, a
great advocate surpassed by none in
his day; Francis L. Hawks, who prac¬
ticed law and then turned to theology
and later wrote a history of North
Carolina; Duncan Cameron, lawyer
and Judge, who became President of
the State Bank; George E. Badger, who
became Secretary of the Navy under
presidents Harrison and Tyler; Wil¬
liam H. Haywood; Bartlett Yancey;
and William A. Graham, who twice
became Governor of the State.
Some of these men were older than
Murphcy. some of them had been his
students, not all of them lived in the
town of Hillsborough itself, but all of
them were connected with the Hills¬
borough Bar and all of them had a
state-wide reputation for ability and ef¬
ficiency.
The New Lawyer
Archibald DcBow Murphcy was ad¬
mitted to the Bar in the year in which
Jefferson became President of the
United States. In the spring of 1801 he
resigned his Professorship at the Uni¬
versity and began reading Law under
the direction of William Duffy in Hills¬
borough. It was known of course that
he had been a Professor at the Uni¬
versity and he was invited to make the
fourth of July address that summer.
The Raleigh Register in reporting this
meeting said that the second cannon
was fired at twelve o'clock as a signal
for the men of the town to collect at the
Market House and from there they
walked in procession "accompanied
with drum and fife, round one of the
squares to the Court-House, where a
handsome Oration, suited to the day
was pronounced by Mr. A. D.
Murphcy, before a numerous audience
of both sexes." On November 5, he
was married to Jane Armistead Scott
and went to live at The Hermitage on
the Haw River. At the December Court
of Conference he was licensed to prac¬
tice Law.
In after years, when he had become
one of the leading lawyers of the state,
he often delighted his friends by re¬
lating the circumstances under which
he was admitted to the Bar. The only
requirement for licensure in those days
was the endorsement of two judges of
the court. The first judge to whom he
applied refused to examine him be¬
cause his reading in the Law was so
limited. At a succeeding term of the
Court of Conference he presented a
letter from a distinguished friend to one
of the judges, who conducted the
examination in his private chambers,
and secured the signature of one other
judge without his having examined
Murphey. He made his first appearance
as an attorney at the May term of the
Caswell County court in 1802. In a
very short time he became one of the
most successful lawyers in the State.
Distinguished Performer
In the first half of the nineteenth
century the lawyer in North Carolina
practiced his profession in a “public
forum." The court room was always
filled with interested spectators who
gathered to watch the lawyers perform.
I heir knowledge of the law. their skill
in examining and in cross-examination
of witnesses, as well as their display of
oratory, were all designed not only to
convince the jury, but to impress the
spectators as well. Most of the lawyers
of that day had political ambitions and
it was just as important to impress the
spectators as it was to win cases.
Archibald DcBow Murphcy was
particularly distinguished for his
knowledge of criminal law. and for his
conduct of criminal cases. It has been
said that no man ever appeared to
greater advantage at the bar. He was a
remarkably handsome man, of medium
height and si/e. His complexion was
fair. His kindly eyes were bluish gray
and his face was soft and delicate.
“Raphael-like in rounded grace of out¬
line and softness of expression." His
voice was soft and musical and his
command of the English Language was
masterly. Both at the bar and on the
public forum he went immediately to
the point, and in his statement of a
client's case he was always so clear and
pointed that it seemed like a demon¬
stration itself. He dressed in an almost
Quaker-like plainness, and he was al¬
ways scrupulously neat and clean, and
his coat was tailor made.
When he entered the court room his
personal magnetism was such as to
make him the focus of attention. He
was one of the lawyers connected with
THE STATE, SEPTEMBER 1. 1970
9
