Walter Dorsey (March 17, 1771 – July 31, 1823) was a Maryland politician and judge who served as a justice of the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the state supreme court, highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The cou ...

from 1817 to 1823.

John Thomas Scharf John Thomas Scharf (May 1, 1843 – February 28, 1898) was an American historian, author, journalist, antiquarian, politician, lawyer and Confederate States of America soldier and sailor. He is best known for his published historical works. ...

,
Judges of the Court of Appeals
, ''History of Maryland from the Earliest Period to the Present Day'' (1879), p. 773.

Career

Born in Maryland to Colonel John Dorsey and Mary Hammond Dorsey, Dorsey was elected to the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

representing St. Mary's County, Maryland, in 1794, and returned to that body representing the city of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

in 1797. On February 9, 1800, he was appointed chief judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Baltimore City and County. He served on the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the Constitution of the United Kingdom, British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the e ...

from 1812 to 1813, and as a judge of the Court of Appeals from his appointment on March 14, 1817 until his death in August, 1823. In the mid-to-late 1810s, Dorsey established a private

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

in Baltimore, and by the time of his death, it was described as a "large and successful law school", such that when David Hoffman was appointed professor of law at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

in 1814, he was unable to begin lecturing immediately due to the competition provided by Dorsey's program.Columbia University Press, ''Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law'', Vol. 575 (1952), p. 106.

Personal life and death

On July 8, 1795, Dorsey married Hopewell Hebb, with whom he had eight children. Dorsey died in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

at the age of 52.

References

1771 births 1823 deaths People from Maryland Members of the Maryland House of Delegates Judges of the Supreme Court of Maryland {{Maryland-state-judge-stub