Theophilus Harrington (March 27, 1762 – November 18, 1815) served as a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court

Vermont Supreme Court

The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont and is one of seven state courts of Vermont.The Court consists of a chief justice and four associate justices; the Court mostly hears appeals of cases that have been decided by other courts...

 in America from 1803 to 1813.

Harrington was born in 1762 and moved to Clarendon, Vermont

Clarendon, Vermont

Clarendon is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,571 at the 2010 census. Clarendon spans U.S. Route 7 and is split by the highway, the Cold River and Mill River, Otter Creek, and the Green Mountains into the villages of Clarendon, West Clarendon, East Clarendon,...

, 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.

Slave ownership case

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

Bill of sale

A bill of sale is a legal document made by a 'seller' to a purchaser, reporting that on a specific date, at a specific locality, and for a particular sum of money or other "value received", the seller sold to the purchaser a specific item of personal, or parcel of real, property of which he had...

 for both the slave and the slave's mother. Judge Harrington said that the documents of title

Title (property)

Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership...

 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." 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

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

.

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

Benjamin Shaw

Benjamin Shaw is an English a musician and artist based in London.He released his debut EP "I Got the Pox, the Pox is What I Got" in October 2009 on Audio Antihero which saw airplay from BBC 6 Music on the Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe, Steve Lamacq, Jon Holmes and Tom Robinson shows and positive...

's 1846 lecture "Illegality of Slavery."