Paca was the child of John Paca (c.1712–1785),a wealthy planter in the area of English heritage,and his wife Elizabeth Smith (d.c.1766).[3] He was the second son of the family,after his elder brother Aquila,and had five sisters.[4] He courted Mary Chew,[5] the daughter of a prominent Maryland planter,and they were married on May 26,1763. They had three children,though only their son John Philemon survived into adulthood.[4]
Among the other young lawyers in Annapolis at the time was Samuel Chase,who became a close friend and political colleague of Paca.[3] Paca and Chase led local opposition to the British Stamp Act of 1765 and established the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sons of Liberty.[3]
Federal judicial service
Paca received a recess appointment from President George Washington on December 22,1789,to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland,to a new seat authorized by 1Stat.73.[2] He was nominated to the same position by President Washington on February 8,1790.[2] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 10,1790,and received his commission the same day.[2]
Paca's career on the federal bench had a significant impact on the admiralty jurisdiction of the Federal courts and what was to become the principal business of the Supreme Court over the subsequent four decades. As the first federal judge for the District Court of Maryland,he rendered an opinion on the case of Betsey that had far reaching consequences when it was overturned by the Supreme Court. In that case,Paca argued on solid precedents of international and British law that the District Court did not have jurisdiction over the awarding of prizes brought into American ports by foreign privateers. The Supreme Court asserted otherwise in seriatim opinions and established an exclusive jurisdiction over prize cases vested in the Federal District Courts that took that privilege away from what had been the responsibility of foreign consulates. Paca's opinion was the first District Court opinion to be published,and although ultimately reversed,it provides insight into the extensive legal training of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an author/compiler of several provisions of what became the Bill of Rights.[9]
Paca was admitted as an honorary member of The Society of the Cincinnati in the state of Maryland in 1783.[12][13] "The resolution conferring the honor,adopted November 22,1783,reads in part:... In consideration of the abilities,merit,patriotism of His Excellency,Governor Paca,this society direct that Secretary-General Williams wait on His Excellency and inform him that this society do themselves the honor to consider him as an honorary member."[14] He later served as the vice president of the Maryland Society from 1784-1787.[15] Unlike hereditary members,honorary members are not eligible to be represented by a living descendant.[16]
Paca has been described as being of Italian ancestry from Abruzzo.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] According to Stanley South,"[t]he rumor that the name was Italian came from a remark made in 1911 by James Cardinal Gibbonsof Baltimore,who commented that he thought a relationship existed between Paca and the Italian family Pecci".[29] In a July 18,1937,letter to the New York Times,a self-described descendant of Paca claimed:
The ancestors of William Paca were of Italian and English origin. The name is said to have originally been spelled Pacci [sic].
However,in an interview with Giovanni Schiavo,the letter writer apparently attributed the suggestion that the name was Pecci to Cardinal Gibbons.[30] Schiavo also reported that Paca mentioned Pope Leo XIII,whose surname was Pecci,during the interview.[30] Stiverson and Jacobsen reported that spellings of the surname of William Paca's immigrant ancestor Robert include Peaker,Pecker,Peaca,Peca,and Paka.[31] Neither "Pecci" nor "Pacci" (nor "Pacca") are attested,but that could be attributed to the fact that the Italian spelling of the name would have simply been difficult or unfamiliar to the English-speaking clerks of the time.
If the Paca family did have Anglo-Italian origins,they were distant. William Paca's father John Paca was born in Colonial Maryland,as was his grandfather Aquila Paca (c.1675–1721). His great-grandfather Robert Paca was born in England in 1632,arrived in Maryland by 1651 and may also have gone by the surname "Peaker."[32][33]
↑ Secretary of State of Maryland (1915). Maryland Manual 1914–1915: A Compendium of Legal, Historical and Statistical Information relating to the State of Maryland. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: The Advertiser-Republican.
↑ Peter G. Fish, Federal Justice in the Mid-Atlantic South: United States Courts from Maryland to the Carolinas, 1789–1835 (2002).
↑ Thomas, William Sturgis (1929). Members of the Society of the Cincinnati, Original, Hereditary and Honorary; With a Brief Account of the Society's History and Aims New York: T.A. Wright, p. 114.
↑ Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 37 Baltimore, MD: The Maryland Historical Society. 1942. p. 15.
↑ Metcalf, Bryce (1938). Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., p. 22.
↑ Caso, p. 57 and Welsh, They Too Made America Great; Branden Books, 1978. Online source: ; accessed March 13, 2008. This history includes a rather detailed exploration and affirmation of the well established Italian origin of the Paca family of Maryland in response to the earlier Stiverson and Jacobsen text.
↑ Maryland, The Seventh State Website for the book Maryland, The Seventhcaleb John T. Marck, author; accessed March 13, 2008.
↑ South, Stanley A. An Archaeological Evolution. New York: Springer, 2005. p. 202
1 2 Giovanni Ermenegildo Schiavo. 1976. The Italians in America Before the Revolution. New York: Vigo Press. p. 74.
↑ Stiverson, G. A., & Jacobsen, P. R. 1976. William Paca, a biography. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society. p. 26.
↑ Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995. p. 395-397
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
