Theophilus Harrington (also spelled Herrington or Herrinton) (March 27, 1762 – November 18, 1815) served as a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court in America from 1803 to 1813.
Harrington was born in 1762 and moved to Clarendon, Vermont, in 1788. Although never receiving any formal legal education he worked as a judge and representative of Clarendon in the state assembly. In October 1800 he was made the chief judge of the County Court of Rutland. In October 1803 he was chosen as one of three justices of the Vermont Supreme Court, where he served until 1813.
In June 1804, a runaway slave was brought before the Vermont Supreme Court in Middlebury, Vermont. When the slave's owner sought to claim his ownership of the slave Judge Harrington demanded to see proof that he did indeed own the slave. The owner produced bills of sale for both the slave and the slave's mother. Judge Harrington said that the documents of title did not go far enough back in time. When the owner asked what proof of ownership the judge would accept, Judge Harrington replied, "Nothing short of a bill of sale signed by God Almighty Himself."[1] The other justices concurred, and the slave was set free. Their actions were considered by abolitionists as an expression of the Vermont Constitution's prohibition against slavery.[2]
Decisions from that period were not recorded, so there is no way to ascertain the validity of the story. The story has been recorded as far back as the 1840s. The first evidence of the story can be traced back to Benjamin Shaw's 1846 lecture "Illegality of Slavery."