Thomas Law (1756–1834)

Thomas Law (October 23, 1756 – 1834), was a reformer of British policy in India, where he served as collector of revenue for the East India Company. Working with Lord Conwallis, governor-general of India, Law formulated a major policy known as the Permanent Settlement, which served as the basis for land tenure and taxation policy for natives during subsequent decades of British rule. He returned to England for his health in 1791, and emigrated to the United States in 1794. He settled in Washington, D.C., where he became a major investor in property and a prominent civic leader in the developing new capital. A widely read intellectual, he had grand visions for bringing Enlightenment ideas to bear in reshaping both colonial British India and the early American republic.

When he left India, Law took his three illegitimate sons, borne of his Indian mistress, to England. He eventually brought his sons to the US. The eldest, George, died in 1796. John attended Harvard and Edmund attended Yale. In 1796 Law married Elizabeth Parke Custis, the eldest granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington. They had one daughter, Eliza Custis Law, who married Nicholas Rogers of Baltimore.

Life

Thomas Law was born on October 23, 1756 in Cambridge, England, as the youngest son of a clerical British family. He was raised in the Anglican Church as his father was Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle;[1][2] his brothers were John Law, Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh in Ireland;[3] Ewan Law MP; Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice; and George Henry Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells.[4]

Thomas Law went to India in the service of the East India Company in 1773, as a "writer" or clerk, the entry-level position. He rose through the Company ranks. He became a revenue collector and judge in the province of Bihar, which had a population of two million, but resigned the position as judge. As collector, in addition to fiscal duties he had responsibilities that combined a judicial and executive nature of a chief magistrate.[5]

During this period, like many of his countrymen, Law formed a long-term relationship with an Indian woman and had three sons by her. According to East India Company records, his sons George (1784-1796),[6] John (1787?-1822), and Edmund Law (1790-1829)[6][7] were baptized at St. John's Church in Calcutta.[8]

Also like many ranking EIC officials, Law made a small fortune in trading in the course of his career. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Law was also something of an intellectual. As a policy-maker he helped devise the so-called "Permanent Settlement", which transformed the basis of taxation and land tenure for the natives of India, while attempting to establish a secure revenue base for the Company.[9] It was so successful that the Board adopted it across the country. When Law returned to England in 1791 because of declining health, he had £50,000. (Accounts of this vary; other sources say £100,000 or higher.)

He had placed bonds with a bank in Calcutta to provide support of his Indian consort. He brought his three Anglo-Indian, mixed-race "natural" sons with him in order to provide them with education. Once returned, Law encountered some personal and professional setbacks, getting into disagreements with company superiors and having difficulties because of the East India Company refused to pay him money that was owed. He also fell out of favor because of his opposition to the projected war with France.[8]

Emigration to the United States

Law decided to leave England and go to the United States. In 1794, he emigrated to the United States, taking his eldest sons, George and John, with him He left his youngest son Edmund, then four, with an aunt for a few years until he got settled and the boy was older. Law first went to New York, where he met James Greenleaf who told him of speculative and development opportunities in Washington, DC, which had been designated as the national capital in 1790. Law invested large portions of his fortune in buying land there and helping develop the new capital. There was much speculation in real estate. He invested in property with the Greenleaf Syndicate, which went bankrupt in 1797.

Law continued to care for his sons and arranged for their education. Following a trip to England about 1802-1803, he returned to the United States with Edmund. John attended Harvard College [Class of 1804] and Edmund attended Yale College.[6]

Marriage and family

In 1796 Law married Elizabeth Parke Custis (d. 1832), the eldest granddaughter of Martha Washington and step-granddaughter of George Washington.[10] Soon after their marriage, Law and Elizabeth moved temporarily into a new house built on 6th Street SW as part of development in that area. The Federal-style house became known as "Honeymoon House"; the Laws lived there from about March through August 1796. They next moved to the house they had built for them.[10]

Due to differences, Law and his wife separated in 1804, and they were divorced on 18 January 1811.[10] The couple had one daughter who survived infancy, Elizabeth Law (19 January 1797 – 9 August 1822). She married Nicholas Lloyd Rogers (known as Lloyd N. Rogers) of Druid Hill, Baltimore on 5 April 1817.[11][12]

When Law and his wife, known as Eliza P. C. Law, separated, he made a deed of certain real estate as jointure, to provide an annuity to her during her life of $1,500, for her own separate use and benefit. At her death, the said real estate was to be reconveyed to Thomas Law and his heirs, clear of encumbrances by the annuity administrators.[12] Eliza P. C. Law acquired a residence in Alexandria, Virginia, and continued to be active in Washington, DC society.

Their daughter Elizabeth Law (19 January 1797 – 9 August 1822) had three children with her husband Lloyd N. Rogers: Edmund Law (1816-1865), Eliza, and Eleanor Rogers. Elizabeth Law Rogers was survived by her husband and children, and both her parents, who at her death had been divorced for more than a decade.[12]

Career in Washington, DC

Law built several buildings in DC, including a hotel and other properties along New Jersey Avenue, SE, and invested in others. He bought land down to Buzzard's Point, an area along the East Branch of the Potomac, and established some commercial businesses there, including a sugar mill.[7] Because of his commercial background, he thought that area along the waterfront would rapidly develop. But early development in the city was concentrated around the White House and Capitol, the center of its political life.

Over time, Law assumed a prominent role in the city's social, political, and economic life, becoming known as an energetic, if somewhat eccentric, promoter of his adopted country. He published poetry, and moral philosophy. He helped found the first theater in the nation's capital, a dancing society, and a learned society called the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences.

After the War of 1812, in which Washington had suffered burning by the British, Law led an effort to retain the national capital there. He directed construction of a temporary Capitol, so Congress would have a place to meet.[7] He continued to invest in real estate holdings in the Southwest and Southeast parts of the city.

His son John Law served with United States forces in the War of 1812;[7] he had become a lawyer. John Law also served as a local legislator.[6] Both sons became involved in business affairs with their father.[6] John Law also went out to the Illinois Territory to work for a period, scouting for land and development opportunities.[7]

The senior Law also worked tirelessly to gather support to build a canal through the city to facilitate trade. He publicly advocated the creation of a national paper currency to improve the country's economic development.

In 1817 he bought a plantation, known as the Retreat or Tusculum, in Prince George's County, Maryland, from which he could see the East Branch of the Potomac and the city. He was elected as president of the county agricultural society. While he did use it as a retreat, he also entertained large parties, reportedly including President Monroe and top-ranking officials.[7]

Privately Law supported the abolition of slavery, as well as the colonization of free blacks outside the bounds of the United States. The American Colonization Society was active in this period in supporting relocation of free blacks to the colony of Liberia (originally separate settlements were established by state colonization societies, including one in Maryland).

At the time of his death in 1834, Law had earned the support and friendship of such important national figures as presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay, as well as the esteem of many ordinary citizens. Law's life and career provide a concrete link between Britain's Second Empire in India and its First Empire in North America.[13][5][7]

Law had invested most of his fortune in property in Washington, DC, at a time of speculation as the capital was being moved to this new city. He bought some property from the Greenleaf Syndicate, which at one time owned one-third of the saleable property, and went bankrupt in 1797.[10] Law was repeatedly on the verge of bankruptcy. Property values fell, for instance, after the 1814 invasion and destruction by the British during the War of 1812.

Estate and settlement

In 1832 Thomas Law executed a will, in which he bequeathed $5,000 each to his grandsons Thomas Law and Edmund Law, the sons of the late John Law, Esq., his natural son, of Washington, DC. (Townsend said he bequeathed them $5,000 in Illinois lands to be available when they came of age.)[7] James Adams was the executor of his will. He also bequeathed $1000 to Joseph Edmund Law, the illegitimate son of Edmund law with Mary Robinson[12] and $1000 to Thomas Law, an illegitimate child the elder Thomas Law had later in life with his enslaved servant, Margaret Jones.

By a codicil to his will, Thomas Law also bequeathed $5,000 to his legitimate grandchildren, Edmund, Eliza, and Eleanor Rogers, with a provision that the will should be null and of no effect if they should set up a claim under the marriage settlement he had made with Elizabeth P. C. Law.[12]

In late December 1832 Lloyd N. Rogers (as he was known) had gained appointment as administrator for the estate of his mother-in-law Eliza P. C. Law, who died December 31, 1831, on behalf of her grandchildren, her only survivors. He sued Thomas Law for payment of annuity and interest in arrears since 1804 on her marriage settlement.[12]

Law died in 1834.

In 1838, Joseph E. Law (illegitimate son of Edmund Law), represented by his mother Mary Robinson (as "next friend" in court) filed suit to receive his $1000 bequest and pay him interest. He amended the suit seeking to have as parties Edmund and Thomas Law, and Edmund, Eliza, and Eleanor Rogers, and other heirs of Eliza P. Custis Law.[12]

The case went to the Circuit Court, which ruled that the Rogers children (grandchildren of Thomas Law) had a claim on the property he had identified as jointure in his 1804 settlement with Elizabeth P. C. Law, as did Lloyd N. Rogers for arrears of annuity and interest as administrator of Eliza P. C. Law's estate until her death. The court ordered the will to be executed and an auditor was assigned, reporting from 1848 to 1852. The trustee of the jointure and executor of the estate (Adams) appealed.

The case was finally decided by the US Supreme Court in 1854 (Adams v. Law). It ruled only on the grandchildren's claim and said that the Rogers grandchildren had no "take" on the property that was subject to jointure, which Law had assigned by trust to Elizabeth P. C. Law in her lifetime via the settlement he made when they separated.[14]

By then, this property had appreciated substantially in value, making his estate one of the most valuable in DC. Only the Rogers children and Joseph E. Law survived to see their inheritance.[14][10]

Legacy
  • The Thomas Law Family Papers (1791-1834), including some of his sons Edmund and John, are housed at the Maryland Historical Society.[6]
  • As one of the earliest Federal-style houses built in Washington, DC, what became known as the Thomas Law House happened to be preserved. The house was rented after he and his wife lived there and, by the 1860s, was being used as a hotel.[10] In 1973, this historic house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (see Thomas Law House). Since the 1960s it was used as a community center for a related apartment development.[10][15]

References
  1. "About the Custis Family". The Papers of George Washington: Documents. Archived from the original on 2010-06-02. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
  2. Clark, Allen C. (1900). Thomas Law: A Biographical Sketch. (Washington, D.C.: Press of W. F. Roberts. pp. 11–12. Early in 1796 the engagement with Eliza Parke Custis was announced. Thomas Law, youngest son of the late Bishop of Carlisle, to Miss Custis. At Google Books.
  3. Bronson, E.; Others (1810). Memoir of the Life and Character of Dr. John Law. Select Reviews and the Spirit of Foreign Magazines. 4. Philadelphia: Edward Earle. pp. 281–282. OCLC 1765355. At Google Books;
  4. George Henry Law, National Portrait Gallery (London)
  5. Allen C. Clark, Greenleaf and Law in the Federal City (Washington, D.C.: Press of W.F. Roberts, 1901), full text online
  6. [ww.mdhs.org/findingaid/thomas-law-family-papers-1791-1834-ms-2386 "Thomas Law Family Papers 1791-1834, MS. 2386"], Maryland Historical Society, Library of Maryland History
  7. George Alfred Townsend, “Thomas Law, Washington’s First Rich Man”, Records of the Columbia Historical Society 4 (Washington, D.C., 1901), 222-45; via JSTOR; accessed 5 February 2018
  8. Anupama Arora and Rajender Kaur. India in the American Imaginary, 1780s–1880s, Springer, 2017, pp. 78-81
  9. Ranajit Guha, A Rule of Property for Bengal: An Essay On the Idea of Permanent Settlement (Durham, N.C., 1996)
  10. Brown, T. Robins (1973-02-05). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Law, Thomas, House (Honeymoon House)" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2015-11-19. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. Thomas Jefferson, ed. J. Jefferson Looney, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
  12. Adams v. Law, 58 U.S. 417 (1854), Justia - US Supreme Court cases; accessed 5 February 2018
  13. Matthew, H.C.G. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 765–766.
  14. Adams v. Law, 58 U.S. 417 (1854), full case, Justia - US Supreme Court
  15. "Law, Thomas, House". Focus: Digital Access Management System. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
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