Draft:William Killen (judge)

William Killen (1722 – October 5, 1803)^[1] was the first chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, from 1777 to 1793, and the first chancellor of the State of Delaware, from 1792 to 1801.

"Under the State Constitution of 1776 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and held that office until he became Chancellor under the Constitution of 1792".^[2]

Killen was born in the north of Ireland in 1722, probably of Scotch-Irish parentage. In 1737, at the age of fifteen, he emigrated to Philadelphia and became an inmate in the Kent County, Delaware, household of Samuel Dickinson, father of Governor John Dickinson, of Revolutionary fame.^[1]

There, by industry and diligence, he acquired his preliminary education, became deputy surveyor of Kent county, under the proprietary government, and subsequently a member of the bar in good standing and practice. He was commissioned June 6, 1777, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under Delaware's first State Constitution of 1776, and held the office until 1793. When equity jurisdiction was separated from the law courts, under the State Constitution of 1792, he was appointed the first chancellor of Delaware in October, 1793. Little is known of his judicial career, either as chief justice or chancellor, as there are no private notes or official reports of adjudicated cases during his early period. He resigned as chancellor in 1801.^[1]

In 1753, at the age of 31, he married Rebecca Allee, with whom he had two sons and three daughters, one of whom became the wife of Hon. Willard Hall, United States Judge for the district of Delaware, and another of Jacob Stout, who was appointed an associate judge of Delaware.^[1]

He died in Dover, Delaware at the age of 81.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, Vol. 1 (1899), p. 82.
^ http://genealogytrails.com/del/kent/bios_k1.html