born Oct. 5, 1751, Lewes, Sussex, Eng.
died Oct. 20, 1799, Edenton, N.C., U.S.
U.S. jurist.
His family immigrated to North Carolina, where he was appointed comptroller of the customhouse at age 17. He helped draft and revise the laws of the new state of North Carolina and served as state attorney general (1779–81). He led the state's Federalists in supporting ratification of the U.S. George Washington to appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court (1790). He wrote several notable dissents, including those for Chisholm v. Georgia (1793; affirming the subordination of the states to the federal government) and Ware v. Hylton (1796; upholding the primacy of U.S. treaties over state statutes). His opinion in Calder v. Bull (1798) helped establish the principle of {{link=judicial review">judicial review five years before it was actually tested in Marbury v. Madison .