History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

CHAPTER VIII

DEVELOPMENT OF JUDICIARY
TERRITORIAL SUPREME COURT-OLD DISTRICT COURT-COUNTY COURTS'
- CHANGE IN SUPREME COURT-CIRCUIT COURTS AND JUDGES —THE
"ONE-HORSE" COURT-UNDER THE 1850 CONSTITUTION —A SUMMARY —UNDER THE PRESENTY CONSTITUTION.
By Aaron Perry
As a matter of historic investigation it is of interest to trace the origin
of the various courts of justice which have extended their jurisdiction
over the southern peninsula of Michigan. Reference has already been
made to the Quebec act of 1774 which provided that the civil law of
Paris and the criminal law of England should prevail in that region as
well as the country farther to the north and northwest. So although it
may satisfy historic curiosity to know that William Dummer Powell,
afterward chief justice of Upper Canada, was the first to preside over
the courts which sat at Detroit until I796, when Jay's treaty went into
operation, it is well understood that Northern Michigan was virtually an
unpeopled region and was little affected by the supreme court and courts
of common pleas and quarter sessions which convened in that city, the
seat of justice from I778 of the Canadian "district of Hesse."
TERRITORIAL SUPREME COURT
By the ordinance of 1787 the Northwest territory was provided with
a governor, secretary and three judges, who composed the supreme court
which held sway over Michigan. The judges, with the governor, constituted a legislature empowered to compile laws selected from the statutes of the original states, but not to enact original laws. The new territory acquired by the Jay treaty, which included all of Michigan and
Wisconsin containing any settlements, was attached to the Northwest
territory as the county of Wayne, and it was during the year when that
treaty became operative (I796) that the authorities made the first appropriation ($85) for a court in Detroit after Michigan came under
control of the United States. One session of the supreme court was
held in that city annually and John C. Symmes, the presiding judge
who lived in Cincinnati, never missed a session until the Northwest
territory was dismembered by the setting off of Ohio in 1800.
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