William M. Merrick (1818 - 1889) was a graduate of Georgetown University, a lawyer, politician, judge, and faculty member at Georgetown University Law School. He received two degrees from Georgetown: an A.M. in 1831 and an honorary LL. D. in 1875. He was the son of Hon. William D. Merrick and the sibling of two other Georgetown alumni: Richard Thomas and George Carr Merrick.
William M. Merrick was born on September 1, 1818 in Charles County, Maryland and graduated from St. Mary's College in Baltimore. After receiving his A.M. from Georgetown, he was admitted to the bar in 1839 in Baltimore. in 1844 he moved to Frederick, MD and served as deputy attorney general of Frederick County from 1845 to 1850. In 1854 he moved to Washington, where he was appointed as associate judge of the United States circuit court of the District of Columbia by President Franklin Pierce.
In 1863 the court on which he served was abolished by the United States Congress and Judge Merrick was briefly held under house arrest to prevent him from rendering a court decision that the government found counter to the interests of the war. He later moved to Ellicott City, MD to practice law once again. In 1870 he was elected to the Maryland State Legislature and in 1872 he was elected as U.S. Congressman for the fifth district of Maryland. On May 1, 1885 President Grover Cleveland appointed him as associate justice to the District of Columbia supreme court, a position he held until his death. He died on February 4, 1889 from a gastric disease.
He was married to Mary Wickliffe, the daughter of Kentucky's Governor Wickliffe. They had no children.1
- 1James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. Vol. 2, New York: Lewis, 1907, pp. 132 - 133. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=148
