Cranch. I. William, an American jurist, born in Weymouth, Mass., July 17, 1769, died in Washington, Sept. 1, 1855. He graduated at Harvard college in 1787, and was admitted to the bar in July, 4790. In 1800 he was appointed one of the commissioners of public buildings, and on Feb. 27, 1801, was nominated as one of the assistant judges of the United States circuit court for the District of Columbia. In 1805 he was appointed chief justice of the court, and held the office until his death. In all this period of time only two of his decisions were overruled. His reports of the decisions of the United States supreme court, and of the circuit court of the District of Columbia from 1801 to 1841, are well known. His legal acquirements were extraordinary, and he studied his cases with a patience and research that never grew weary. Among the last services imposed upon him by congress was the final hearing of patent causes after an appeal from the commissioner of patents. II. Christopher Pearse, an American artist and poet, son of the preceding, born at Alexandria, Va., March 8, 1813. He graduated at Columbian college in Washington in 1831, studied for three years in the divinity school of Harvard university, and became a licentiate, but in 1842 devoted himself to landscape painting.

He resided in New York in the practice of his art from that time till 1846, when he visited Italy for two years. He went again to Europe in 1853, and lived in Paris and in Italy for ten years, executing many landscapes, of which those devoted to Swiss and Italian scenery have been specially admired. After his return from Europe he resided some time at Fishkill on the Hudson, and now lives on Staten Island. Besides frequent contributions to periodical literature, he has published a volume of poems (1854); " The Last of the Huggermuggers " (1856) and "Kob-boltozo" (1857), tales for children illustrated by himself; and a translation of the .Aeneid into blank verse (1872).