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  Historical List of Supreme Court Chief Justices
  Supreme Court > Historical List of Supreme Court Chief Justices
 
 Chief Justice  Assumed Office
 Capt. William Crispin*  1681
 Dr. Nicholas Moore  June 4, 1684
 James Harrison (declined)  July 14, 1685
 Arthur Cook  January 31, 1686
 John Simcock  September 21, 1690
 Andrew Robeson  May 29, 1692

 * Captain Crispin was named by William Penn in a letter to William Markahm, dated London, August 18, 1681. Crispin, however, died at sea on the way to Pennsylvania.
   
 John Guest  June 20, 1701
 William Clarke  1703
 John Guest  1705
 Roger Mempesson  April 17, 1706
 Joseph Growden  November 20, 1707
 David Lloyd  February 15, 1717
 James Logan  August 20, 1731
 Jeremiah Langhorne  August 13, 1739
 John Kinsey  April 5, 1743
 William Allen  September 20, 1750
 Benjamin Chew  April, 1774
 Thomas McKean  July 28, 1777
 Edward Shippen  December 18, 1799
   
 William Tilghman  March 1, 1806
 John Bannister Gibson  May 18, 1827;  November 19, 1838+
 Jeremiah S. Black  November 17, 1851
 Ellis Lewis  December 1, 1854
 Walter H. Lowrie  December 7, 1857
 George W. Woodward  December 7, 1863
 James Thompson  December 2, 1867
 John Meredith Read  December 2, 1872
 Daniel Agnew  December 1, 1873
 George Sharswood  January 6, 1879
 Ulysses Mercur  January 1, 1883
 Isaac G. Gordon  June 6, 1887
 Edward M. Paxson  January 17, 1889
 James P. Sterrett  February 21, 1893

 + Resigned in 1838 when the new constitution set term limits for judicial office, then reappointed.
   
 Henry Green  January 1, 1900
 J. Brewster McCollum  August 17, 1900
 James T. Mitchell  October 5, 1903
 D. Newlin Fell  January 3, 1910
 J. Hay Brown  January 4, 1915
 Robert von Moschzisker  January 3, 1921
 Robert S. Frazer  November 24, 1930
 John W. Kephart  January 6, 1936
 William I. Schaffer  January 2, 1940
 George W. Maxey  January 4, 1943
 James B. Drew  March 21, 1950
 Horace Stern  November 1, 1952
 Charles Alvin Jones  December 29, 1956
 John C. Bell Jr.  July 31, 1961
 Benjamin R. Jones  January 3, 1972
 Michael J. Eagen  March 1, 1977
 Henry X. O’Brien  September 23, 1980
 Samuel J. Roberts  January 3, 1983
 Robert N.C. Nix Jr.  January 6, 1984
 John P. Flaherty Jr.  August 1, 1996
   
 Stephen A. Zappala  January 1, 2002
 Ralph J. Cappy  January 1, 2003
 Ronald D. Castille  January 7, 2008