Gabriel Duvall

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Gabriel Duvall
Gabriel Duvall

In office
November 23, 1811 – January 14, 1835
Nominated by James Madison
Preceded by Samuel Chase
Succeeded by Philip Pendleton Barbour

Born December 6, 1752 (1752-12-06)
Prince Georges County, Maryland
Died March 6, 1844 (aged 91)
Glenn Dale, Maryland

Gabriel Duvall (December 6, 1752 - March 6, 1844) was a U.S. jurist. He was a U.S. Representative from the second district of Maryland from November 11, 1794, to March 28, 1796, Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland from 1796 to 1802, and First Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury from 1802 through 1811. He was appointed to the United States Supreme Court to replace fellow Marylander Samuel Chase in 1811 and served until 1834, when he resigned due to old age.

In the twenty-three years he sat on the Supreme Court, Duvall penned an opinion in only seventeen cases. For all of Duvall’s tenure, John Marshall presided as Chief Justice. In only two cases, does the record show the two men holding different opinions. In Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward,17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 518 (1819), Duvall offered only a brief note calling attention to French law on the irrevocability of royal charters. In Mima Queen v. Hepburn, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 290 (1834), Duvall would have authorized the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to accept hearsay evidence proving the emancipation of a slave by her owner, but the rest of the Court, per the Chief Justice, decided against it.

Justice Duvall's home, Marietta House Museum, is open to the public and is operated as an historic house museum by the Prince George's County Historical Society.

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United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
John F. Mercer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 2nd congressional district

1794 – 1796
Succeeded by
Richard Sprigg, Jr.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Samuel Chase
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
November 23, 1811January 14, 1835
Succeeded by
Philip Pendleton Barbour