James Sewall Morsell was a lawyer and then a judge in Maryland and Washington DC for the better part of his career.

Perhaps most notable about his long tenure is that he handled freedom petitions for many Black Americans during the slavery era as the families’ representative, something that many other attorneys were not willing to do, especially in Maryland, which was a slave state during the war but occupied by Union forces for the duration.

When the Court to which he was assigned was abolished, he retired from practice and lived with his daughter and son-in-law in Prince Georges County. The town of Bowie, Maryland is named after that son-in-law’s family.

Happy 250th Birthday to James Sewall Morsell!