Twenty questions, round 474

[Aristocrat]

Free Guess: Wentworth Cheswell

Scratch born in NH

[Hominidae]

I am guessing this is someone whose last name is the namesake for something really famous.

[damo666]

I give up

[Aristocrat]

William Marbury

Edit: at first I thought "I would be impressed if any of you knew his first name without looking it up" meant it was a weird first name. But this also fits...

[Ernst_Brenner]

"Progressive" slave-owner Zebulon Vance? Oh wait, no he was born too late.

How about Willis Alston, who had some sort of relationship with John Randolph which involved Randolph calling him a puppy and beating him bloddy with a cane in the House of Representatives, for which Randolph was fined $20 by the House?

[Spartaculous]

William Marbury

Very good! "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." - Marbury v. Madison (one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time).

Note that he is most famous for *not* serving in government.

Edit: at first I thought "I would be impressed if any of you knew his first name without looking it up" meant it was a weird first name. But this also fits...

I have to ask - did you know his first name?

[Aristocrat]

William Marbury

Very good! "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." - Marbury v. Madison (one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time).

Note that he is most famous for *not* serving in government.

Edit: at first I thought "I would be impressed if any of you knew his first name without looking it up" meant it was a weird first name. But this also fits...

I have to ask - did you know his first name?

I didn't know his first name, I had to look it up.

I pulled up some Wikipedia list of famous 18th century Americans and, based on your clue, looked for people with weird names starting with V/W/X/Z and didn't find anyone who I thought would be the pick (though I did see the ones Ernst Brenner found). William Marbury was not actually on these lists as far as I remember, though I skipped over everyone named William or Walter or similar.

Then I read Hominidae's posts and kind of put one and one together that it might be someone we generally only know their last name, and not someone with a weird first name. I am a lawyer and am familiar with Marbury v Madison (as you already know, it's probably a top-5 famous legal case in US history, along with Brown vs Board and other more recent ones) so I searched to see what Marbury's first name was and then guessed it.

[damo666]

I also went down the weird first name route.

Never heard of the case/man tbh. How many non-Americans/non-lawyers playing have?

[Aristocrat]

I will put up a new round later tonight. Probably won't be super difficult but will try to think of something interesting nonetheless.

[Aristocrat]

This was a fun round. Next one is up!