# Gabriel Duvall *American politician and jurist; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1811–1835* Gabriel Duvall (December 6, 1752 – March 6, 1844) was an American politician and jurist. He sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1811 to 1835, during the Marshall Court.[^1] Before he reached the Court he had been a Maryland state legislator, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland, a Maryland state court judge, and Comptroller of the Treasury.[^1] Duvall's tenure has drawn academic attention over whether he was the least significant justice in the Court's history. The best-known exchange came in 1983 between two [[University of Chicago]] law professors, David P. Currie and Frank H. Easterbrook, who later became a judge.[^1] His opinion record on the Court includes one dissent, in *Mima Queen and Child v. Hepburn* (1813), a freedom suit that turned on hearsay evidence.[^2] As a lawyer, Duvall represented more than 120 enslaved people who sued for their freedom. He also contested the freedom petition of a family he held enslaved.[^3] At his death he enslaved 39 people.[^4] ## Early and family life Duvall was born in Prince George's County, in the Province of Maryland. He was the sixth child of Benjamin Duvall and his wife, Susanna Tyler, and he grew up on the land later known as Marietta.[^5] Two of his older brothers died in the American Revolutionary War.[^5] After reading law, Duvall was admitted to the bar in Prince George's County in 1778. He kept up a practice in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, at least part-time, until 1823.[^5] He began appearing as county prosecutor in the Mayor's Court in Annapolis in 1781 and in the Anne Arundel County court in 1783. According to an archivist's research, he had formally appeared in 600 cases by 1792.[^5] The spelling of the surname has varied. The Court's reporters Cranch, Wheaton and Peters used "Duvall", while Marshall biographer Albert Beveridge used a single "l".[^5] Irving Lee Dilliard concluded that the earlier family forms "DuVal" or "Duval" had become "Duvall" before the future justice was born. Later family members used "DuVal".[^5] Duvall was an Anglican, which after the Revolution meant Episcopalian. He held pews at St. Anne's Church in Annapolis and at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Collington, his family's parish in Prince George's County.[^5] In 1787 he married Mary Bryce, daughter of the Annapolis sea captain Robert Bryce. She died in 1791. Their only child was a son, Edmund Bryce Duvall (1790–1831).[^5] His second wife was Jane Gibbon Duvall (1757–1834), daughter of the sea captain James Gibbon.[^5] ## Career From 1775 to 1777 Duvall clerked for the Maryland Council of Safety, the body that managed the state militia. From 1777 to 1781 he clerked for the Maryland House of Delegates.[^3] In the Revolutionary War he served as a mustermaster and commissary of stores in 1776. He later served as a private in the Maryland militia and fought at the Battle of Brandywine and at Morristown, New Jersey.[^3] He was then a commissioner to preserve confiscated British property from 1781 to 1782, and a member of Maryland's Governor's Council from 1782 to 1785.[^3] Duvall won election to the Maryland House of Delegates and sat there from 1787 to 1794. He then represented Maryland's second district in the U.S. House of Representatives for a single term, from November 11, 1794, to March 28, 1796.[^3] He was Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court from 1796 to 1802. From 1802 to 1811 he held the office of U.S. Comptroller of the Treasury, the first person to do so.[^3] In private practice Duvall represented more than 120 enslaved men, women and children who sued for their freedom. The source account credits him with winning nearly 75 percent of those petitions.[^3] He also opposed the freedom petition filed by Thomas and Sarah Butler, whose family he held enslaved at Marietta from 1805 to 1831.[^3] ## Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court On November 15, 1811, President James Madison nominated Duvall to the associate justice seat left vacant by [[Samuel Chase]], also a Marylander.[^2] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed the nomination on November 18, 1811, and Duvall received his [[Commission]] the same day.[^2] He took the oath of office on November 23, 1811, and remained on the Court until January 14, 1835.[^2] Over 23 years on the bench, Duvall wrote opinions in 18 cases: 15 majority opinions, two concurrences and one dissent.[^2] The source account describes the Court of that period as largely a vehicle for Chief Justice [[John Marshall]]'s belief in a strong federal government. Marshall himself wrote most of the opinions, and the associate justices seldom dissented.[^2] Duvall's only dissent came in *Mima Queen and Child v. Hepburn* (1813). The question in that case was whether the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman could offer hearsay evidence that her mother had been free when the daughter was born.[^2] Duvall dissented alone and would have admitted the evidence. He wrote that "people of color from their helpless condition under the uncontrolled authority of a master, are entitled to all reasonable protection," and that "It will be universally admitted that the right to freedom is more important than the right of property."[^2] The majority excluded the hearsay evidence, and the Queens' petition for freedom failed.[^2] Duvall retired from the Court shortly after his 82nd birthday. The source account gives deafness as the ground for his retirement.[^2][^4] ## Death Duvall outlived both his wife's death and his retirement by about a decade. He died in Prince George's County, Maryland, at the age of 91.[^4] He was buried in the family cemetery at Wigwam, one of the plantations he owned.[^4] His house, Marietta, was built in 1812–1813. It became his permanent residence after the State Department used his Washington, D.C., mansion, following the British burning of many federal buildings during the War of 1812.[^4] At his death Duvall enslaved 39 men, women and children.[^4] His property included approximately $14,000 in bank stock, 528 volumes of law books, 400 books on other subjects, and 700 acres of real estate in Prince George's County. His principal heirs were his sister, Sarah Simpson, and four grandchildren.[^4] Around 1987 his remains were reinterred on the grounds of Marietta, along with other family graves endangered by development in the area. The house is now operated by M-NCPPC as the Marietta House Museum.[^4] In 1959 Maryland gave the name DuVal High School to a new school near his former home, and the school still operates.[^4] ## Significance In 1939 Ernest Sutherland Bates, author of *The Story of the Supreme Court*, called Duvall "probably the most insignificant of all Supreme Court Judges."[^6] Irving Dilliard rejected that judgment in his biographical entry in *The Justices of the United States Supreme Court 1789–1969* (1969). He did not name an alternative candidate.[^6] In 1983 Professor David P. Currie of the [[University of Chicago Law School]] took up the question in the 50th anniversary issue of the *University of Chicago Law Review*. He argued that "impartial examination of Duvall's performance reveals to even the uninitiated observer that he achieved an enviable standard of insignificance against which all other Justices must be measured."[^6] Using pages of published opinions per year (PPY) as his measure, Currie judged Duvall "far and away the most insignificant of his colleagues during the time of Chief Justice Marshall."[^6] Currie compared Duvall with other candidates using what he called "Indicators of Insignificance (IOI)". The justices he considered included [[Thomas Johnson (judge)]], [[Robert Trimble]], [[John Rutledge]], [[Bushrod Washington]], [[Henry Brockholst Livingston]], [[Thomas Todd]], [[John McKinley]], [[Nathan Clifford]], [[Alfred Moore]], [[Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar]] II, [[Joseph Rucker Lamar]], [[William Henry Moody]], [[Horace Harmon Lurton]], [[George Shiras Jr.]], [[William R. Day]], [[John Hessin Clarke]] and [[William Cushing]].[^6] Frank H. Easterbrook, then a professor and now a judge, replied to Currie's article. He wrote the justice's name as "Duval[l]", with the final letter in brackets.[^6] Easterbrook argued that Currie's analysis lacked "serious consideration of candidates so shrouded in obscurity that they escaped proper attention even in a contest of insignificance." He concluded that Duvall's colleague Thomas Todd was even more insignificant.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, lead section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Duvall's dates, offices and Supreme Court tenure; the 1983 Currie–Easterbrook debate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, "Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court" section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — nomination, confirmation, oath and departure dates; opinion counts; *Mima Queen and Child v. Hepburn* (1813) and Duvall's dissent; retirement after his 82nd birthday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, "Career" section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — clerkships, Revolutionary War service, Maryland and federal offices with dates; freedom-suit representation and the Butler petition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, "Death" section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — retirement on grounds of deafness; death and burial; Marietta; enslaved persons and property at death; heirs; reinterment circa 1987; DuVal High School (1959). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, "Early and family life" section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth and parentage; bar admission and practice; spelling of the name; church membership; marriages and son. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Gabriel Duvall*, "Significance" section (revision 1362040118, retrieved 2026-10-26) — the Bates characterization (1939), Dilliard's entry (1969), and the Currie and Easterbrook articles (1983). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Duvall