Stroll back to 1787 to celebrate Delaware Day

By Andrew West

DOVER — The late Tom Eldred had this wonderful habit of observing all that was around him. Ever curious, he was a great reporter and writer.

Today, this editor is reflecting on a lead he wrote for a “Delaware Day” feature in 1997. Mr. Eldred noted:

Pause, if you will, and spend a few minutes walking the red brick sidewalks of Old Dover.

Enjoy The Green. Indulge your imagination as you view the historic Old State House on the eastern perimeter of The Green.

Turn to the left. Squint hard in the sharp December sun toward Elizabeth Battell’s Golden Fleece Tavern at the corner of South State Street. Travel back in time to Dec. 7, 1787. ... It was on that date that 30 delegates — 10 each from Delaware’s three counties — met to unanimously ratify the U.S. Constitution and join the new federal union.

The rest, they say, is history. Delaware, firmly entrenched in the call for liberty idealized in the Constitution, continues to wear its “First State” designation with pride and dignity.
But stay a moment. If you squeeze your eyes almost shut and face the Golden Fleece, you may be able to see the chimerical image of a young man, just 25 years old, entering the fabled tavern. He wears a tailored coat, short breeches with knee buckles and strides forward in “long, fair-top boots. ... ”

The man is Nicholas Ridgely, an emerging Kent County lawyer in 1787. He is said to be the youngest delegate elected to ratify the new charter.

***

Mr. Eldred was not a Delaware native, but he embraced the state and its history. (Below this column, you will find Mr. Eldred’s 1997 story.)

That is what makes Delaware Day special. Once a year, we hear the whispers of our past and hope others will take that stroll and reflect.

We can thank Rotary and E. Paul Burkholder for the annual observance. In 1933, he led a statewide petition to the state legislature to declare Dec. 7 Delaware Day.

A Joint House Resolution authorized and directed Gov. Douglass Buck to “issue a proclamation calling upon all citizens … to display State and national flags of December 7, of each year.” It also invited “the people of the State of Delaware to observe the day in schools, churches and civic organizations with appropriate celebrations.”

Among the most prominent displays of Delaware Day pride this year will be the Dover Colonial Rotary Club’s cluster of flags in front of Wilmington University on U.S. 13. Look for the flags Dec. 7-14.

Read about the Colonial Rotary initiative at flagsfordelaware.com.

***

For Delawareans, Dec. 7 offers two significant reasons for reflection.
Hopefully, time has not lessened Americans’ remembrance of Dec. 7,
1941 — the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Veterans will gather at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Pearl Harbor monument at Lake Como in Smyrna to pay their respects.

Father of the Chancery Court Ridgely family influence in Delaware law began over 200 years ago

December 7, 1997 | Daily State News

By Tom Eldred

Pause, if you will, and spend a few minutes walking the red brick sidewalks of Old Dover.

Enjoy The Green. Indulge your imagination as you view the historic Old State House on the eastern perimeter of The Green.

Turn to the left. Squint hard in the sharp December sun toward Elizabeth Battell's Golden Fleece Tavern at the corner of South State Street. Travel back in time to Dec. 7, 1787 ... It was on that date that 30 delegates -- 10 each from Delaware's three counties -- met to unanimously ratify the U.S. Constitution and join the new federal union.

The rest, they say, is history. Delaware, firmly entrenched in the call for liberty idealized in the Constitution, continues to wear its ''First State'' designation with pride and dignity.

But stay a moment. If you squeeze your eyes almost shut and face the Golden Fleece, you may be able to see the chimerical image of a young man, just 25 years old, entering the fabled tavern. He wears a tailored coat, short breeches with knee buckles and strides forward in ''long, fair-top boots ... '' The man is Nicholas Ridgely, an emerging Kent County lawyer in 1787. He is said to be the youngest delegate elected to ratify the new charter.

''From the (Constitutional) Convention at Philadelphia, we most expect either permanence and stability or ruin and misery,'' Mr. Ridgely wrote his brother in August 1787, four months before the Delawareans converged for their historic meeting in Dover. ''Should a tolerable government be formed, it will be our wisdom to adopt it.''

Admitted to practice law only that same year, the young attorney was no doubt already known by his last name -- a name that has been closely associated with Delaware law and the state's heralded judicial system for more than two centuries.

Nicholas' grandfather, also named Nicholas Ridgely, brought his family to Delaware in the 1730s from Maryland via New Jersey. He was named guardian to the orphaned Caesar Rodney in 1745 and served as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Three Lower Counties on the Delaware from 1746 until his death in 1755. Young Nicholas was born at Eden Hill in Dover in 1762. His father, Dr. Charles Ridgely, practiced medicine and was a member of the colonial General Assembly. Dr. Ridgely also served at the 1774 convention to elect delegates to the First Continental Congress and was appointed that same year as presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans Court in Kent County.

However, it was Nicholas (The Younger) that left perhaps the most lasting impression on early Delaware law. After serving stints in the state's General Assembly and as attorney general, Mr. Ridgely became Delaware's second chancellor in the Court of Chancery in 1801.

He served there until the day he died April 1, 1830, shortly after hearing SL: NIKRIDR Christ Church in Dover.

As chancellor, Mr. Ridgely established rules, forms of practice and general principles for the Court of Chancery, a jurisdiction that to this day is respected worldwide as a highly sophisticated and professional legal entity.

''He really was the father of the modern Chancery Court in Delaware,'' said state Superme Court Justice Maurice A. Hartnett III, a descendant of Nicholas Ridgely. ''Our law was, for the most part, undeveloped before he became chancellor. He had a tremendous impact on the procedures and rules of court.'' Almost equal to Mr. Ridgely's judicial legacy is the remarkable number of of legal minds from the same family that followed in his stead. Although the early chancellor fathered no children, there were numerous ''collateral'' descendants. Many stayed and worked in Kent County.

Other current-day local descendants, besides Justice Hartnett, who also served on the Court of Chancery before becoming a Supreme Court justice, include Superior Court President Judge Henry duPont Ridgely and retired Supreme Court Justice Henry R. Horsey. Justice Hartnett's daughter, Anne E. Hartnett, is a deputy attorney general for the state in Dover.

''He essentially provided the organizational expertise for the Court of Chancery in the early days,'' said Judge Ridgely. ''He has been an inspiration to those who followed him in the law.''

As you enter the tastefully appointed Chancery courtroom in the Kent County Courthouse, you'll notice a portrait of Chancellor Ridgely hanging at the front of the room, gazing out over the lawyers' tables and audience area.

''His picture sat right behind when were were having court,'' Justice Hartnett said, recalling his own days on the Chancery bench. ''I kind of felt his presence, his eyes at the back of my head, looking over me as I worked, and on towards The Green. You know, he served the court longer than any judge has ever served in Delaware.''

Another fascinating twist to the Nicholas Ridgely legacy is that all three of his residences in Kent County still survive.

Two of the homes -- Eden Hill and the Ridgely House on the Green in Dover -- are still occupied by Ridgely descendants. The third, Somerville, near Kenton, was the chancellor's home during his early years on the court. It remains much the same today as when Mr. Ridgely married his housekeeper, Mary Brereton, and greatly enlarged the house to accommodate his new wife.

Justice Horsey, who lives in the Ridgely House on the Green, provided much of the information for this article. He owns the original portrait of Nicholas Ridgely, reproduced for this story.

''Our common ancestor was Nicholas' father, Dr. Charles Ridgely,'' Justice Horsey said. ''Nicholas lived in this house when he was a child, and then, he lived at Somerville until he inherited Eden Hill. He was considered an outstanding man of his time.''

Open your eyes now, and walk over to the Golden Fleece Tavern. On a bronze tablet, erected by the Friends of Old Dover Dec. 7, 1987, at the corner of the building, is a replica of the famous ratification document signed 210 years ago to make Delaware the ''First State.''

In the middle column of those who signed, second from the top, is the signature of Nicholas Ridgely.