Ammiel(1) Jenkins Willard, served as the second chief justice of the Supreme Court. He was elected on May 15, 1877,(2) to fill the unexpired term of Chief Justice Franklin J. Moses, Sr., who had died on March 6, 1877. The exact date upon which he qualified for office is not known, but he was sitting as chief justice by June 7, 1877, when he authored the Court’s decision issued that date in Whipper v. Reed, 9 S.C. 5 (1877).

When it became clear that the Legislature intended to elect a new chief justice in 1879, Willard contended that he had been elected to a full six-year term as chief justice in 1877 and that his term did not expire until 1883. The General Assembly, however, disagreed and, on December 11, 1879, unanimously elected Associate Justice Henry McIver to a term as chief justice beginning July 30, 1880. On December 15, however, McIver declined the position, and the General Assembly then unanimously elected Governor William Simpson as chief justice. Willard challenged the appointment of Simpson, but the Supreme Court ruled on October 15, 1880, in Simpson v. Willard, 14 S.C. 191 (1880), that Willard’s term had ended on July 30, 1880, and that Simpson was the duly elected and commissioned chief justice. In 1884, Willard moved to Washington, D.C., where he died on May 5, 1900, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.(3)

Willard was first elected to the Court on July 30, 1868, as one of the two original associate justices.(4) He was elected as an associate justice on the third ballot in a joint session of the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives. Willard led the vote on each of the three ballots, with the remaining votes split among a number of candidates including Sen. James M. Rutland of Fairfield County, J.A. Inglis, and Lemuel Boozer.

Immediately following Willard’s election, Solomon Lafayette Hoge was elected to serve as the second original associate justice. A separate vote was then conducted by the General Assembly to determine which of the two men would serve a four-year term, with the loser elected to a two-year term, thereby staggering the terms of the three justices. Willard received the four-year term by a vote of 91-28. Willard was commissioned the following day(5) He was then re-elected to a six-year term as associate justice on January 18, 1872, receiving 124 of the 132 votes cast,(6) and he remained an associate justice until his election in 1877 as chief justice.

Chief Justice Willard was born in Albany, New York on June 21, 1822,(7) the son of John and Mary Ann Jenkins Willard.(8) He was married to Cornelia Platt.(9)

He began the study of law in 1842 under New York Attorney General Willis Hall.(10) He was admitted to the Bar in the City of New York in 1845.(11) In 1848 he became an assistant corporation counsel in New York. In 1849, he entered into private practice, first with Peter B. Sweeny (later a key leader of Tammany Hall), and later with others.(12)

In November 1864, he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the 35th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, which saw action in coastal South Carolina, and which occupied Charleston after the war.(13) He remained in Charleston serving as a judge advocate in 1865-66. He left military service in 1866, and in July 1867, he became solicitor of the Second Military District and served as head of the Bureau of Civil Affairs in Charleston when he was elected to the Court in 1868.(14)

In 1882, he authored a substantial volume of his legal philosophy entitled An Examination of the Law of Personal Rights: To Discover the Principles of the Law, as Ascertained from the Practical Rules of the Law, and Harmonized with the Nature of Social Relations.