Chapter 5 (Part 1 of 2) - Bench and Bar from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1915 Page 43 CHAPTER V BENCH AND BAR Sketches of Rockingham County Lawyers and Judges Among the prominent agencies which give shape and order in the early development of the civl and social condition of society, the pulpit, press, and bar are perhaps the most potential in moulding the institutions of a new community; and where these are early planted, the school, academy, and col- lege are not long in assuming their legitimate position, and the maintenance of these institutions secures at the start a social and moral foundation upon which we may safely rest the superstructure of the country, the state, and the nation. The establishment of courts and judicial tribunals, where society is pro- tected in all its civil rights under the sanction of law, and wrong finds a ready redress in an enlightened and prompt administration of justice, is the first necessity of every civilized community, and without which the forces and press of society, in its changeable developments, even under the teach- ings of the pulpit, the directions of the press, and the culture of the schools, are exposed to peril and disaster from the turbulence of passion and conflicts of interest; and hence the best and surest security that even the press, the school, or the pulpit can find for the peaceful performance of its highest functions is when protected by and intrenched behind the bulwarks of law, administered by a pure, independent, and uncorrupted judiciary. The Rockingham County bar has from its beginning numbered among its members able jurists, talented advocates, and safe counselors. Here many have lived, flourished, and died, while others still are upon the stage of action who have been prominent in the advancement of the interests of the county and figured conspicuously in the councils of the state. PORTSMOUTH for so many years the important town of the state, and noted for the extent of its commerce, wealth, and political importance, naturally maintained an able and influential bar, whose members had a large practice, and some of whom were known throughout the country from their political as well as their legal celebrity. Matthew Livermore (son of Samuel) was born in Watertown, Mass., January 14, 1703; graduated at Harvard College, 1722, and went to Ports- mouth to keep school and study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1731, at which time there was no regularly educated lawyer in Portsmouth. He Page 44 practiced extensively in Maine and New Hampshire. He was attorney- general of the province and king's advocate in the Admiralty Court. He was afterwards judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and died August 11, 1762. William Parker was born in Portsmouth, December 9, 1703, and, after being for a while at school, was apprenticed by his father to a tanner, but on attaining his majority became master of one of the public schools. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1732. He was clerk to the com- missioners selected to settle the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts; was register of probate, surrogate, and judge of admiralty. He was a representative in the assembly for several years from 1765 to 1774. In August, 1771, he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court, and held this office until the Revolutionary war. He was not only a well-read law- yer, but an excellent scholar. He died April 21, 1781. Wyseman Claggett was born in Bristol, England, in 1721, and came to Portsmouth to serve as the king's attorney-general in 1758. He married in Portsmouth, 1759, Miss Warner, and died at Litchfield in 1784. As king's attorney he was faithful in the discharge of his "duties," but when the "Stamp Act" was promulgated he was one of the earliest to remonstrate. His father was Wyseman Claggett, a barrister at law in Bristol. Mr. Clag- gett was renowned as a classical scholar. In the war of the Revolution he took sides with the people at the risk of very much of his property, then within the power of the British government. Samuel Livermore was born in Waltham, Mass., May 14, 1702 (0. S.). He taught school in Chelsea Hall College, N. J., graduating in September, 1752. After teaching for a while he studied law with Judge Trowbridge, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1756. Commencing practice at Walt- ham, he removed to Portsmouth in 1757; thence, in 1764, he removed to Londonderry, which town he represented in the Legislature in 1768. He was commissioned attorney-general in 1769, then again living at Portsmouth. In 1775 he removed to Holderness. In 1776 he was again made attorney- general. In 1779 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and also in 1781. June 21, 1782, he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court. In 1790 he resigned his judgeship. In 1789 he was representative to Con- gress. In 1793 he was chosen United States senator, and again in 1798. He resigned the latter office in 1801. He died May, 1803, aged seventy-one. John Samuel Sherburne, the son of John and Elizabeth (Moffat) Sher- bune, was born in Portsmouth in 1757, and died in that town August 2, 1830, aged seventy-three. After reading law he began practice in Portsmouth. He was a representative in Congress from 1793 to 1797; attorney for the United States for the district of New Hampshire from 1801 to 1804; judge of the District Court of the United States from May, 1804, to the date of his death. In the war of the Revolution he served with distinction, and lost a leg in battle. He married Submit, daughter of Hon. George Boyd, in October, 1791. John Pickering was born in Newington in 1738; graduated at Harvard College in 1761; was chosen United States senator in 1789. In August of 1789 he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court, and chief justice in July following, serving until 1795. Was then appointed judge of the United Page 45 States District Court, and served till 1804. He was noted for his strength of character, learning, and personal excellence. He died April 11, 1805. Charles Story was appointed judge of the Court of Admiralty for New Hampshire in the fall of 1696. He sailed from England for Portsmouth late in the same season, and reached that town in January, 1697. On the 19th of January he presented his commission to the president and council, and it was read, approved, and recorded. In 1699 he was appointed register of probate, continuing in office till his death. His last record bears date December 11, 1714. In 1712 he was attorney-general of the province, and was engaged in many prominent suits. His residence was at New Castle. Jonathan Mitchell Sewall was born in Salem, Mass., in 1748, and read law with Judge John Pickering in Portsmouth. He began practice at Haver- hill, N. H., and was register of probate for Grafton County in 1773. Pre- vious to 1787 he removed to Portsmouth, where he was register of the Court of Admiralty. He was admitted to the bar of the Circuit Court of the United States, November 20, 1790, and held high rank as a counselor in the courts of the states. His poetic writings have to some extent survived him. He wrote an address presented to President Washington on his visit to Ports- mouth, and an oration delivered July 4, 1788. He was the author of the oft-quoted lines,- "No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours." Mr. Sewall died March 28, 1808, aged sixty years. Daniel Humphreys was the son of Rev. David Humphreys, of Derby, Conn., and graduated at Yale College in 1757. He became a lawyer and a teacher of the Sandemanian doctrines. He came to Portsmouth in 1774, and was United States district attorney from 1804 to 1828, and was a mem- her of the convention to frame a new constitution in 1791-92. He was in considerable practice, and was a man of unblemished character. Joseph Bartlett was noted for his eccentricities and wit. He was born at Plymouth, Mass., June 10, 1762, and graduated at Harvard College in 1782 with a high rank in scholarship. He studied law first at Salem, Mass., then went to England. Returning, he was a captain of volunteers raised by Massachusetts to put down Shay's rebellion. After this he resumed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar. He practiced at Woburn and Cambridge. In 1803 he removed to Saco, Me., where he had a good practice. After losing his influence and a large share of his business in Saco by the prose- cution of a protracted libel suit, he for a while lived in Branch, and came to Portsmouth in 1810. He died in Berlin, Oct. 27, 1827. He published an edition of poems dedicated to John Quincy Adams, and while in Saco edited a paper called the Freeman's Friend. July 4, 1805, he delivered an oration at Biddeford. He was a fluent, and at times eloquent, speaker, abounded in wit, which was at ready command, but his habits of life and a lack of firm- ness of purpose prevented his attaining a position at the bar which he otherwise might have filled. He married Ann Witherell, of Kingston, Mass., but left no children. Page 46 Edward St. Loe Livermore was a son of Hon. Samuel Livermore, and born in Portsmouth in 1762. He studied law and practiced his pro- fession in Portsmouth, and was United States district attorney for the District of New Hampshire from 1789 to 1797. Mr. Livermore was a member of the convention chosen to revise the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, which assembled at Concord on the 7th of September, 1791. His father was president of the convention. He was justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire from 1797 to 1799, and subsequently removed to Massachusetts. He died, aged eighty years. Jeremiah Mason, one of the ablest members of the Rockingham County bar, was born at Lebanon, Conn., April 27, 1768. He was a descendant of John Mason, captain in Oliver Cromwell's army, and who came from England in 1630, and settled at Dorchester, Mass. After graduating at Yale College, Mr. Mason studied law in Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in New Hampshire in 1791. He began practice at Westmoreland, and removed thence to Walpole, from which place he removed to Portsmouth in 1797. He was appointed attorney-general in 1802, which office he resigned in three years. In June, 1813, he was chosen a senator of the United States, and served with distinction until his resignation in 1817. He also served in the Legislature of New Hampshire, and was president of the United States Branch Bank at Portsmouth. His law practice was extensive, and in his office were many students-at-law. Mr. Webster has said of Mr. Mason that "his great ability lay in the department of the common law. In his address to the Court and jury he affected to despise all eloquence and certainly disdained all ornament, but his efforts, whether addressed to one tribunal or the other, were marked by a degree of clearness, directness, and force not easy to be equaled." He was the most adroit and successful in the cross-examination of witnesses of any lawyer ever seen at the bar of the state. In 1832, Mr. Mason removed to Boston, in which city he died October 14, 1848. While a resident of Portsmouth, Mr. Mason's practice extended throughout the state, and he was retained in the most important cases upon the dockets of the various counties of New Hampshire, and enjoyed a reputation as one of the leading lawyers of the country. Daniel Webster, whose fame is world-wide, lived the earlier half of his life in New Hampshire. The son of a Revolutionary patriot, Capt. Ebenezer Webster, and of New Hampshire descent for four generations, he was born in Salisbury, January 18, 1782. A feeble constitution pointed him out as fitter for education than for the sturdy labors of the farm, and with self-denial on the part of his parents, and struggle on his own part, he accomplished his wishes, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1801 with honor. His legal studies he completed under the direction of Hon. T. W. Thompson, of Salisbury, and Hon. Christopher Gore, of Boston, where he was admitted an attorney in 1805. He took up his residence at once in Boscawen, and remained two years a close student of his pro- fession and of general literature. In 1807 he made Portsmouth his place of abode, and lived there until 1816, when he removed to Boston. While Page 47 a resident of New Hampshire he served two terms as representative in Congress. Mr. Webster acquired a high reputation as a lawyer and a statesman (for he never was a politician) before he quitted his native state. When he went to Portsmouth, at the age of only twenty-five years, he was a mature man, armed at every point for the battle of life. Mr. Mason, then in the prime of his unrivaled powers, describes his first encounter with Webster. He had heard of him as a formidable antagonist, and found on trial that he was not over-estimated. Young and inexperienced as he was, Webster entered the arena with Mason and Sullivan and Bartlett, and bore away his full share of the honors. And before he quitted his New Hamp- shire home his reputation as a lawyer and as an advocate of eloquence, and power ranked with the very highest in the land. Those who heard his addresses to the jury in his early prime testify that none of his later great efforts surpassed them--if, indeed, they equaled them--as examples of earnest, impassioned forensic oratory. There was a youthful brilliancy and bloom about those earlier productions that is not found in the stately works of his maturer years. In those days, when practitioners made reputations by special pleading and sharp practice, Mr. Webster relied little upon mere technicalities or adroit management. He tried his causes upon their merits, and with his logical power and eloquent tongue made short work of trumped-up claims and dishonest defenses. Many traditions attest his commanding influence over court and jury at this period of his career. Without being authentic in all particulars, they all concur in demonstrating that on no legal prac- titioner of his time was the popular confidence and admiration so universally bestowed as on Webster. The events in the life of Mr. Webster from the time he re-entered Congress from Massachusetts are too familiar to require special repetition here. He continued in public life, with the exception of very brief intervals, up to the time of his decease in 1852. He was a senator in Congress for seventeen years. He was twice Secretary of State, and died in possession of that office. Every public position that he held he adorned and dignified by eminent, patriotic services. Now that nearly a generation has passed since Mr. Webster's death, his character is beginning to be estimated more justly, and the value of the work he did for the country has been tested. We see that his sagacity and foresight were far beyond those of his time; that his apprehensions for the safety of the Union were well founded; that his exhortations to his countrymen to stand by the flag were honest, necessary, and vitalizing to the patriotism of the people. The petty assaults that seemed temporarily to obscure his fame have had their brief day, and posterity will recognize the true grandeur of the man, and value at their just worth the great deeds of his life-time. As a statesman and a diplomatist, as a vindicator of the Constitution, as a lawyer and an orator, and, most of all, as a patriot, the country will be fortunate if the future shall furnish his peer. Nathaniel A. Haven, Jr., was born in Portsmouth, N. H., January 14, Page 48 1790, and was a son of Hon. Nathaniel A. Haven, and a grandson of Rev. Samuel Haven, D. D. He graduated at Harvard, and studied law in the office of that eminent jurist, Hon. Jeremiah Mason. He was admitted to the bar in 1811, and commenced practice in his native town. High as was Haven in his profession, he had not given to a single science a mind that could compass the circle of them. He had a decided taste for literature, and from 1821 to 1825 was connected editorially with the Portsmouth Journal. He also contributed articles for the North American Review. He was a member of the Legislature in 1823-24. He died June 3, 1826. Peyton Randolph Freeman was the son of Hon. Jonathan Freeman, of Hanover, and born November 14, 1775. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1796, and began the practice of the law in Hanover in 1801. Previous to this he was principal of an academy at Amherst, N. H. He came to Portsmouth and established himself in practice in 1803. He was deputy secretary of state in 1816-17, clerk of the United States Courts from March, 1817, to May, 1820. Mr. Freeman's strong point was his familiarity with the law concerning real property. He was of the old school, and any departure by the courts from the ancient rules of law concerning real estate was a horror to him. He was severely painstaking and careful in all business he undertook, such as the investigation of titles, drafting of wills, creating trusts, life estates, etc. Indeed, he was so much absorbed in following the intricate phases of cases and titles that his clients after experience in this direction were apt to prefer a man of more practical turn of mind. He was never married. He died March 27, 1868, in the ninety-third year of his age. Edward Cutts, son of Edward Cutts, was born in Kittery, Me., and was a descendant of Judge Edward Cutts. He graduated at Harvard College in 1801. He studied law with Jeremiah Mason, and after his admission to the bar began practice in Portsmouth in 1807. At the May term, 1809, he was admitted as an attorney and counselor of the Circuit Court of the United States, at the same time with Daniel Webster, and continued in large practice in the state and federal courts until his death, August 22, 1844, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Cutts neither sought nor attained political honors. He was a safe counselor, and devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. He was at one time president of the United States Branch Bank in Ports- mouth, and afterwards a director in the Rockingham Bank. He married Mary Huske Sheafe, daughter of Jacob Sheafe, a prominent merchant of Portsmouth, but left no children. His widow is remembered for her munif- icent legacy left to improve Richards Avenue, a fine street leading to the South Cemetery in Portsmouth. William Claggett was the son of Hon. Clifton Claggett, and grandson of Wyseman Claggett. He was born at Litchfield, April 8, 1790; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1808; was admitted to the bar in Hillsborough County in 1811, and soon after began the practice of his profession in Portsmouth. He was representative in the State Legislature in 1814, and was several times re-elected to that office. He was clerk of the State Senate in 1820; senator from District No. 1 in 1825; clerk of the United States Page 49 Circuit and District Courts from 1820 to his resignation March 5, 1825; and naval officer of the port of Portsmouth from 1830 to 1838. His first wife was Sarah F., daughter of George Plumer, who died in 1818. His second marriage was with Mary Thompson, daughter of Col. E. Thompson; she died in 1863. Mr. Claggett at one time had a large practice in Portsmouth, but when he too often became his own client his business diminished and finally dis- appeared. In 1812 he gave a Fourth of July oration in Portsmouth, Daniel Webster making one at the same time in another part of the town. He was for many years an ardent democrat, and subsequently became a free soiler, and wrote extensively for the press in Portsmouth and Concord after that party's formation. He died on the 28th of December, 1870, at Portsmouth, leaving one son, William C. Claggett, then a merchant in New York City. Ichabod Bartlett was born in Salisbury. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1808, and studied law in the office of Moses Eastman in his native town. He practiced law after his admission to the bar at Salisbury and at Durham, and in 1818 removed to Portsmouth. The same year he was appointed solicitor for Rockingham County. He was chosen clerk of the Senate for 1817 and 1818. He was a representative to the General Court from Portsmouth in 1820 and 1821 (being speaker of the House of Representatives for 1821), and also served as representative in the years 1830, 1838, 1851, and 1852. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1850, was representative in Congress in 1823, 1825, and 1827, and was for many years engaged in many of the most important lawsuits throughout the state. As a lawyer he had few equals; in ready wit and keen satire he was unsurpassed; public speaker, as an advocate of the bar, and a legislator he maintained a prominent position for very many years. He died at Portsmouth, October 17, 1853, aged seventy-seven, and was unmarried. Charles W. Cutter, son of Jacob Cutter, was born in Portsmouth, grad- uated at Harvard College in 1818, and studied law with Jeremiah Mason, and commenced practice in his native town. He was admitted to the bar of the Circuit Court of the United States in October, 1825, and appointed clerk of the Circuit and District Courts March 13, 1826, positions he held for fifteen years. In 1841 he was appointed naval storekeeper, and after- wards was navy agent at Portsmouth. He for several years edited the Portsmouth Journal, and was an effective public speaker in political cam- paigns, but never devoted himself with much zeal to the practice of his profession. He died August 6, 1856, aged fifty-six years, and unmarried. Timothy Farrar practiced law in Portsmouth from 1814 to 1822, and from 1834 to 1836. He was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States, October term, 1817, and subsequently removed to Exeter. Charles B. Goodrich. This eminent lawyer was born at Hanover, N. H., in 1812. He was graduated at Dartmouth College, and after a course of study, it is believed, in his native town, he was admitted to the bar. Coming to Portsmouth in 1826, he continued in practice for ten years, winning high reputation in his profession. His talents found a wider field of action at Page 50 Boston, whither he removed, and where he at once took rank as a leader. Till his death, in the summer of 1878, Mr. Goodrich had few equals at the Suffolk bar in all that constitutes a learned and skilled practitioner. His duties called him not infrequently to Washington, where he was regarded as one of the ablest members of the bar from New England. In 1853 he published "The Science of Government as Exhibited in the Institutions of the United States of America,"--a course of lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston. In private life Mr. Goodrich was genial and warm-hearted. He married, March 11, 1827, Miss Harriet N. Shattuck, of Portsmouth, who survived him. Levi Woodbury was the son of the Hon. Peter Woodbury, and born at Francistown, on the 22d of December, 1789. He was of the eldest Massa- chusetts stock, being descended from John Woodbury, who emigrated from Somersetshire in England in the year 1624, and was one of the original settlers of Beverly, Mass. Peter Woodbury removed from Beverly to Fran- cistown in 1773. His son Levi entered Dartmouth College in October, 1805. After his graduation with honor in 1809, in September of that year he began the study of law at Litchfield, Conn., pursuing it at Boston, Exeter, and Francistown, and in September, 1812, commenced practice in his native village. He soon attained a high rank at the bar, with all, extensive business. His first public service was upon his election as clerk of the Senate of New Hampshire in June, 1816. In December of the same year he received the appointment of judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and in the discharge of the duties of this position were seen the inherent force of his abilities, aided by his constant and never-ceasing habits of application. In June; 1819, he married Elizabeth W. Clapp, of Portland, Me., and removing to Portsmouth soon after, except when absent on public duties resided in that city. In March, 1823, he was chosen governor of New Hampshire, and re-elected in 1824. In 1825 he was chosen one of the representatives from Portsmouth in the Legislature, and elected speaker upon the assembling of the House of Representatives. This was his first seat in any deliberative assembly; but his knowledge of parliamentary law, aided by his dignity and urbanity of manner, served to enable him to fill the office in a commendable manner. At the same session he was elected a senator in the Congress of the United States. His senatorial term was completed in March, 1831, and in that month he was chosen state senator from his district, but before the Legislature assembled he was, in May, 1831, appointed secretary of the navy, and resigned the senatorship in June 4th of that year, and served till June 30, 1834, in the secretaryship. In July, 1834, Governor Woodbury was appointed secretary of the treasury, and served until the election of General Harrison to the presidency. He was again elected a senator in Congress for the term of six years, com- mencing March 4, 1841. He served until November, 1845. During that year President Polk had tendered Governor Woodbury the embassy to the Court of St. James, but the appointment, for domestic reasons, was declined. Upon the death of Mr. Justice Story, Mr. Woodbury was commissioned an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and after Page 53 subsequently entering upon the duties of this high office continued therein until his death, which occurred September 4, 1851. Judge Woodbury, in the various public positions he was so constantly called to fill, showed himself abundantly capable for the discharge of their duties. As a legislator he was painstaking and industrious, as a judge studious and indefatigable in his labors, and as a cabinet minister compre- hensive and yet exact in his knowledge of details. His life was one of uninter- rupted work, and his death at the age of sixty-one deprived the country of an upright judge and an eminent public man. Of his children, his only son, Charles Levi Woodbury, was a prominent lawyer in practice in Boston. One daughter was the wife of Hon. Montgomery Blair, who was postmaster- general under President Lincoln, and another was the wife of Capt. Gustavus V. Fox, formerly of the United States navy, who rendered to the country such signal service by his practical knowledge as assistant secretary during the late war. William Henry Young Hockett.--One of the last survivors of a school of lawyers who were at the bar when Jeremiah Mason and Daniel Webster appeared of counsel in important causes was William Henry Young Hackett, who, at the ripe age of seventy-eight, died at Portsmouth, August 9, 1878, after a continuous practice of more than fifty-two years in duration. Mr. Hackett was born at Gilmanton, N. H., September 24, 1800. His ancestor was Capt. William Hackett, of Salisbury, Mass. After receiving an educa- tion at Gilmanton Academy, Mr. Hackett studied law in his native town and at Sanbornton Square. In April, 1822, he came to Portsmouth, and entered the office of Ichabod Bartlett. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1826, and soon acquired a good practice, which he steadily main- tained up to the time of his decease. He tried many cases to the jury, was retained of counsel by corporations, and later in life was largely employed in the management of trust estates. He had an instinctive knowledge of how to apply legal principles, and a knowledge, too, of human nature. As a counselor, though he warmly espoused the cause of his client, he was prudent and inclined to discourage litigation. He had an excellent memory, and knew what had been decided in the New Hampshire courts and in those of the New England States generally; but he is not to be termed a learned lawyer. He favored the extension of equity practice in New Hamp- shire, and he lived long enough to see some of his views in this regard adopted. In 1859 he declined a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court. Portsmouth sent him repeatedly to the Legislature, where he rendered important service as chairman of the judiciary and on other committees. In 1861 he was chosen president of the Senate, of which body he had been assistant clerk in 1824 and clerk in 1828. He was eminently successful in the management of a bank. As early as 1827 he was made director of the Piscataqua Bank. When the Piscataqua Exchange Bank was organized in 1845 he became president, and held that office till 1863, when the bank became the First National Bank of Portsmouth, the presidency of which he assumed and held till his death. He was also president of the Piscataqua Savings-Bank, as well as a director in railroad and other corporations. Page 54 Mr. Hackett had some literary accomplishments, and excelled in writing brief biographies. A memoir of Andrew Halliburton, and a sketch of Charles W. Brewster, author of "Rambles about Portsmouth" (the latter being prefixed to the second series of that work), are from his pen. All his life long Mr. Hackett was public-spirited and devoted to the interests of the town. His name has thus been identified with the history of Portsmouth for more than half a century. A memoir of Mr. Hackett (written by his Son Frank W.) was privately printed in 1879, and a Copy sent to various libraries in New England. Albert Ruyter Hatch was born in Greenland on the l0th day of October, 1817. He entered Bowdoin College when quite young, and graduated in 1837. The late Governor John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts, was one of his classmates. He immediately came to Portsmouth, and pursued the study of law with the late Ichabod Bartlett, who was then known all over the state as a great lawyer. Here Mr. Hatch, under the direct oversight of Colonel Bartlett, saw a great deal of practice and hard work, and here he laid the foundation of those habits of industry and close attention to his chosen profession which for the past quarter of a century have made him one of the foremost lawyers of our state and a model practitioner. In 1841 he was admitted to the bar, and was soon in active practice. In 1847 and 1848 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Portsmouth, then a town, and in 1848 was appointed solicitor for the county of Rockingham, and also clerk of the United States Court for New Hampshire. Mr. Hatch was in no sense a politician. He was a democrat from principle, and could never yield his convictions of duty for the sake of policy or of temporary advantage. He preferred to be right rather than hold office. Had the democratic party been in power in this state he would have been a governor and a senator, but though his party was unable to bestow upon him the honors he deserved, it never ceased to respect and esteem him, and his advice and counsel were always heeded. In 1864 he was a candidate for presidential elector, and in 1868 he was a member of the Democratic National Convention. In 1873 his extensive law practice, which had steadily increased, required all his attention, and he resigned his position as clerk of the United States Court, having held it for twenty-five years. He then began to devote him- self wholly to his profession, to which he was so firmly attached, but his friends urged him to accept again an election to the Legislature, and against his own judgment he was induced to yield to them, and that year he was a member of the House, and being again a member in 1874 he was elected speaker, which position he filled under very trying circumstances to the general acceptance of all. He was again a member in 1875 and also in 1876. At the same time he was a member of the Board of Aldermen and of the High School Committee of this city, and taking a deep interest in city and school affairs he was scarcely ever absent from their meetings. He was a hard worker everywhere he was placed. The various Masonic bodies of which he was a member also received a share of his time and Page 55 attention, and he soon found himself overwhelmed under the accumulating burdens imposed upon him. He was an active member of all the Masonic bodies, and to show the esteem in which he was held among them it is only necessary to say that he was elected and served as commander of De Witt Clinton Commandery of Knights Templar for twenty-five successive years. He was a director of the Portsmouth and Dover Railroad, the Ports- mouth Bridge Company, and the Athenaeum, and was held in great esteem by his associate directors. He was a vestryman and prominent member of the Episcopal Church of this city, and one of the trustees of the new Christ's Church, in the erection of which he was greatly interested, and to which he gave much time. In public life no man ever accused him of fraud, wrong, or dishonor. As a lawyer he was learned, ready, fortified at every point, quick to perceive and quick to apply, and of incomparable industry. He was ever true to his client, and no man employed him who did not receive the benefit of every faculty that he possessed as well as having every point in his case presented in the best shape. As a scholar he was superior, and his knowledge of books and the best literature was remarkable. He had a large miscellaneous library of the choicest works, and his studious habits and retentive memory had made him familiar with its contents. In social life he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Digni- fied in his bearing, he may have appeared to those who did not know him well cold and indifferent, but to those who really knew him he was a delight- ful companion, a man to whom one could not fail to be attached, and from whom one always parted with reluctance. He had many friends, and those who could call him a friend had no need to go farther to find the truest friend that ever drew breath. He died March 5, 1882. Samuel Cushman was born in Hebron, Me., July 21, 1783. His father was Job Cushman, a descendant from Robert Cushman, who joined the Plymouth colony in 1612. After an academic education, he studied law under the tuition of John Holmes, of Alford, Me., and was admitted to the York County bar in 1807, and began practice of the law in Maine, where he was a postmaster during Madison's administration. In May, 1812, Mr. Cushman was married to Maria J., daughter of John Salter, of Ports- mouth, and in 1816 he removed to that place, where he resided up to the time of his death, May 22, 1851. He filled numerous municipal positions in Portsmouth between the year 1824 and the time of his death. He was for five years county treasurer, and for two years a member of the Executive Council. He was a member of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses from New Hampshire, in the years 1835 to 1839, was postmaster under the Van Buren administration, and navy agent from 1845 to 1849. In March, 1850, he was appointed police justice of the City of Portsmouth, being the first magistrate under the new city charter. This office he held up to the date of his death. Mr. Cushman was at one time associated in the practice of the law with the late Charles B. Goodrich. He was con- scientious in his profession. He discouraged litigation, and oftentimes filled Page 56 the position of pacificator rather than that of advocate. He was noted for his urbanity of manner, his kindness of heart, and his undeviating integrity. The foregoing are sketches of lawyers who have been prominent in profession or political position. There were many of them of perhaps less celebrity as lawyers, but of whom we can only make mention; of them were R. Cutts Shannon, clerk of the Federal Courts from May 1, 1804, to 1814; Leverett Hubbard, at one time judge, who died in 1793; Samuel Hale; Oliver Whipple, who at one time lived in Maine; George Pierce, who died after a short practice; John Hale; Henry S. Langdon, afterwards a bank cashier; George W. Prescott, clerk of the United States Courts from 1814 to March, 1817, and who died in 1817; Isaac Lyman, who also prac- ticed in York; John P. Lord, in practice from 1809 to 1819; Thomas L. Elwyn, who practiced but little from 1813 to 1816; James Smith, Jr., who lived in Portsmouth and Newington, and was more or less in practice from 1820 to 1869; Hampden Cutts, who removed to Hanland, Vt.; Ichabod Bartlett Claggett, son of William Claggett, who graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with Ichabod Bartlett, and died March 12, 1861; Horace Webster, son of Hon. Samuel Webster, of Barnstead, who graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with Albert R. Hatch, and died August 7, 1867, and John Scribner Jenness, son of Richard Jenness, who graduated at Harvard College, was a student in the office of Ichabod Bartlett, practiced a few years in Portsmouth, removed to New York, and died in Portsmouth, August 10, 1879; John Hatch, S. W. Emery, and John W. Kelly. ATKINSON John Kelly.--Atkinson's only lawyer was John Kelly. He was a native of the neighboring town of Plaistow, the son of Deacon Simeon Kelly, and was born July 22, 1796. He was educated at Atkinson and Exeter academies. and at Amherst College, where he graduated in 1825. He began the prac- tice of the law in Plaistow in 1829. In 1832 he took the charge of the Atkinson Academy, and retained it till 1838; thence he removed to Derry, and was principal of the Adams Female Academy for nearly four years. In 1841 he removed to Chester, and resumed the practice of his profession until 1845, when he returned to Atkinson, and there resided until his death, in January, 1877. Mr. Kelly was a lawyer of good capacity, but had none of the enthusiasm for his profession that would have led him into the contests of the courts. He preferred teaching, and was a good deal employed, especially in later life, as a land surveyor, in which he greatly excelled. He was a genial man, fond of social intercourse, and possessed a fund of entertaining anec- dotes. He was also passionately fond of music, and entered into the spirit of it with his whole soul. Honest and upright in all his dealings, he deserved and won the sincere respect and trust of the community. CHESTER John Porter, a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1787, practiced law in Chester from 1790 to 1793, and then removed to Canada. Page 57 Arthur Livermore was the second lawyer of Chester. He was the son of Judge Samuel Livermore, and was born in Londonderry about the year 1766, came to Chester about 1793, and remained there not far from five years. He was a representative from Chester in the General Court in 1794 and 1795, and was appointed solicitor for the County of Rockingham in 1796. In the latter part of 1798 he was made a justice of the Superior Court, and about that titne removed to Holderness, to which place his subsequent history belongs. He held other important offices, civil and judicial, and died July 1, 1853, at the age of eighty-seven. Judge Livemore's mental endowments were of a high order, and must have been so regarded by his contemporaries to have placed him in the positions of trust and responsibility in which a large share of his active life was spent. And this is the more apparent from the fact that his manners were not of a popular character, and he took little pains to ingratiate himself with the people. He was a man of keen wit and quick temper, but he was honest, and endeavored to discharge his official duties acceptably. He belonged to a family which long took a distinguished part in public affairs in the state. Daniel French was born in Epping, February 22, 1769, a son of Gould French, a farmer there. He received his education at Phillips' Exeter Academy, and after studying law with Hon. W. K. Atkinson commenced practice at Deerfield, but after two years removed to Chester, as successor to Arthur Livermore on his appointment to the bench. In June, 1808, he was appointed solicitor of the county, and in February, 1812, was com- missioned attorney-general of the state, which office he resigned in 1815. He held the office of postmaster thirty-two years, from 1807 to 1839. In addition to his legal pursuits he took considerable interest in agriculture. Mr. French was a man of talents and ample professional learning, and manifested no small share of skill and tact in the management of his busi- ness. He was faithful to the interest of his clients, even to the extent, as was the fashion of his time, of being sometimes pretty sharp to his adver- saries. He was the father of a large and most respectable family of children. Amos Kent was born at Kent's Island, in Newbury, Mass., in October, 1774. He was fitted for college in part under the celebrated Master Moody, of Byfield Academy, and graduated at Harvard College in 1795. He read law with Hon. William Gordon, and was admitted to the bar in 1798. The next year he opened an office in Chester, where he continued to reside until his death in 1834. Mr. Kent was gifted with a fine personal appearance and excellent powers of mind. He is said to have been a good counselor, but was not successful as an advocate. He was much fonder of active, outdoor employments than of the practice of his profession. A born athlete, he was much given to rough, boisterous sports, shooting matches, etc. He had some aptitude for political life, and was chosen to the State Senate in the years 1814 and 1815. But he gave much more time to his farm and to the promotion of agriculture than was good for his law business or profitable to his pocket. Samuel Bell was the son of Ron. John Bell, of Londonderry, where he was born February 9, 1770. Re was employed upon his father's farm until Page 58 the age of eighteen, and then commenced his classical studies. Afterwards he attended the academy at New Ipswich, under the tuition of Hon. John Hubbard. From Dartmouth College he received his bachelor's degree in 1793, and then pursued his law studies under the direction of Hon. Samuel Dana, of Amherst, whose daughter he subsequently married. He rose early to distinction in his profession. In 1796 he began practice in Francestown, and in 1812 he removed to Chester, which afterwards was his home. A large part of his life he passed in public employment. In 1804 he became a representative in the State Legislature, and the two following years was speaker of the House. In 1807 he received the appointment of attorney-general of the state, but the salary attached to the office at that time was so inadequate that he declined it. In 1807 and 1808 he was a member of the State Senate, and both years president of that body. In 1816 he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, and so continued till 1819, when he resigned the place to accept the office of governor of the state, which he held by successive elections until 1823. So fully were the people satisfied of his ability and integrity that on his fourth election to the gubernatorial chair he received in a vote of nearly twenty-four thousand all but about one thousand of the whole number of ballots cast. While he held the office of governor, Bowdoin College con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Upon quitting the office of governor Mr. Bell was elected to the United States Senate for six years, and upon the expiration of that term re-elected for a like term. Upon leaving his seat in the Senate he retired from public life, and passed his remaining years upon his farm in Chester, where he died December 23, 1850. Mr. Bell was a man of good natural powers, cultivated with diligence, and accompanied by scrupulous integrity. The long-continued and honorable public positions conferred upon him are the best proof of the confidence reposed by his fellow-citizens in his honesty and capacity. He was a tall, erect, and slender man, of a naturally delicate constitution, which he forti- fied by exercise and temperance. His manners were dignified and impressive. His professional learning was ample, and his judgment in public affairs was regarded as peculiarly sound. It was he to whom Mr. Webster, just before he delivered his celebrated reply to Hayne, applied to know if the sentiments which he proposed to enunciate in that speech were in accord with the views of his party at the North. Senator Bell assured him that they were. "Then, by the blessing of God," replied Mr. Webster, "the country shall know my views of the Constitution before this day is over." Samuel Dana Bell was the son of Hon. Samuel Bell, and was born Octo- ber 9, 1798. He graduated from Havard College in the class of 1816, read law in the office of Hon. George Sullivan in Exeter, and commenced practice in 1820. He lived in Chester from 1820 to 1830, and thence removed to Exeter, where he held the office of cashier of the Exeter Bank till 1836, and in 1839 he established himself in the growing town of Manchester, and there remained until his decease, July 31, 1868. While a resident in Chester he twice represented that town in the General Court, and in 1823 was appointed solicitor for Rockingham County, which Page 59 office he filled until 1828. In 1830 he was appointed one of the commis- sioners to revise the statutes of the state, and afterwards received a similar appointment in 1842, and again in 1867. He was commissioned a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1848, and justice of the Superior Court in 1849. He held the latter position till 1859, when he was elevated to the chief justiceship, which office he resigned in 1864. In 1854 he received from Dartmouth College the degree of Doctor of Laws. Judge Bell possessed a sound understanding and unwearied patience and industry. He acquired not merely the learning of his profession in a degree rarely surpassed, but he made himself thoroughly conversant with every branch of useful knowledge. It was difficult to broach a subject of prac- tical importance which he had not studied and had not at his tongue's end. It was a common remark of those who met with him that his information was inexhaustible. He was notably instrumental in promoting education, good order, and good morals in Manchester, which he saw grow up from a village to a large and populous city. He was the professional counsel and adviser of the great companies that built up the place; his recommendations were always heeded by them, and were productive of much advantage. Judge Bell was deeply interested in historical studies, and contributed some valuable papers on the early persons and events of New Hampshire. He was a constant and stanch supporter of the New Hampshire Historical Society, of which he held the office of president, and collected much material for the work upon the history of the courts and bar of the province and state. David Pillsbury, son of Benjamin Pillsbury, was born at Raymond, February 17, 1802, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1827, studied law with Hon. Henry Hubbard and Hon. Samuel D. Bell, and began practice in Chester in 1830, and remained there till 1854, when he removed to Con- cord, where he died May 25, 1862. He was representative two years from Chester in the Legislature of the state, and was police judge of Concord. He had a taste for military affairs, and rose to the rank of major-general of the militia. He was a man of fair talents, of industry, and of considerable learn- ing in his profession, but lacked acquaintance with human nature, and though he prepared his causes carefully, was very liable to be out-generaled before a jury. He was a bachelor, and was sometimes made the butt of waggery, as is not unfrequently the case with those in like forlorn circum- stances. Moody Kent was born in Newbury, Mass., in the year 1779, graduated at Harvard College in 1801, read law with Hon. William Gordon and Hon. C. H. Atherton, of Amherst, was admitted to the bar in 1804, and the same year settled in practice in Deerfield. He remained there until 1809, when he removed to Concord, in which place and in Pembroke he spent most of the remainder of his life. He died unmarried February 1, 1866, leaving the bulk of his large fortune to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane. Mr. Kent acquired scholarship and great general information, and was Page 60 industrious, methodical, and sagacious. He was a sound lawyer, but did not practice for many of the later years of his life, his time being occupied by the care of his large property. DEERFIELD Phineas Howe was a native of Hopkinton and the son of Deacon Jotham Howe. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, in the class of 1798, and afterwards was a teacher in Deerfield for five years, studied law, and opened an office for a short time in Weare, but returned to Deerfield in 1805, and continued in the practice of his profession there until 1809, when he returned to Weare. He is believed to have lived afterwards in Maine, and in the State of New York, where he died. He is understood to have shown capacity and some literary taste. Jesse Merrill was a native of Atkinson and a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1806. He studied law and was admitted in 1812, and com- menced practice in Deerfield immediately, but remained there but a short time. He lived afterwards in Bradford, Vt., and died there in 1864, at the age of seventy-five. Josiah Butler was a son of Nehemiah Butler, of Pelham, and was born there December 4, 1779. Re graduated from Harvard College in 1803, and pursued the study of the law under the direction of Hon. Clifton Clagett, and afterwards in the State of Virginia, where he was admitted to practice in 1807. He then returned to his native town and pursued his profession there until 1809, when he removed to Deerfield. He began his political life the same year as representative in the State Legislature from Pelham. In 1810 he was appointed sheriff of Rockingham County, but in 1813, when the opposite political party attained the ascendency, he was removed by address from the office. This loss was naturally well made up to him by his political friends when they afterwards came into power. He was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1815 and 1816 he was chosen a representative from Deerfield to the State Legislature, and in 1817 he was elected a representative in the Congress of the United States, where he continued by successive re-elections until 1823. In 1825 he was appointed an associate justice of the State Court of Common Pleas, and held the office until 1833, when the courts were remodeled, and after- wards he received the commission of postmaster of Deerfield, which he con- tinued to hold until his death, October 29, 1854. Judge Butler was possessed of superior abilities and of honest purposes; he was true to his party, of unquestioned integrity and usefulness. As a lawyer he was attentive to his business, faithful, industrious, and persever- ing. As a citizen he is spoken of in terms of the highest commendation by those who knew him best. Frederic H. Davis was a native of Boston, and was said to have been educated at the Roman Catholic College in Baltimore. He practiced in Salem in 1815, and came to Deerfield the next year, but remained only a year or two. David Steele, Jr., was a native of Peterborough, and graduated from Page 61 Dartmouth College in 1815. After reading law with Hon. James Wilson; he commenced practice in Deerfield in 1818, but remained only a short time, removing to Gaffstown, where he passed the residue of his life. Josiah Houghton studied law at the Connecticut Law School and in the office of Hon. Boswell Stevens, of Pembroke, and on being admitted to the bar in 1820 set up practice in Deerfield, where he died in 1833. He was a respectable practitioner and an estimable citizen. His death was the result of excitement and exposure, caused by the search for a child who had strayed away from his home. Ira St. Clair was born in New Hampton, August 9, 1796, read law with Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, and S. C. Lyford, Esq., of Gilford, and began practice in his native town in 1824. The next year he changed his residence to Deerfield, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1848 he received the appointment of judge of probate for the county of Rockingham, and held it until 1857. He was a lawyer of competent learn- ing, with a good deal of old-fashioned prudence and caution, and was in many ways well fitted for the responsible office which he held. His character was excellent, and he was much respected by the community. He died April 5, 1875. Horatio Gates Cilley was a Son of Hon. Horatio G. Cilley, of Deerfield, and was born November 26, 1805. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1826, and pursued his law studies under the direction of Hon. George Sullivan, commencing his professional life in Deerfield in 1830. He was a lawyer of respectable learning and capacity, and was chosen a representa- tive of Deerfield in the General Court for the years 1851 and 1852. Not long afterwards he left the state and removed to Lewiston, Me., where he passed the remainder of his life. His death occurred March 13, 1874. DERRY John Porter was born in Bridgewater, Mass., February 26, 1776. He completed his college course at Dartmouth in 1803, and studied law with Aaron Hutchinson, Esq., of Lebanon, and in 1806 began to practice in Derry (then Londonderry). He represented that town in the State Legis- lature for five years, and the town of Derry for ten years. He was also a member of one of the commissions to revise the statutes of the state. Mr. Porter's education and capacity were quite above the average, and he was esteemed an able and learned counselor. He was engaged in many contested causes in the courts, though he lacked confidence in his powers as an advocate, and the most important of them were argued to the jury by other counsel. He gained the confidence of the community in an unusual degree, and there is no doubt that he conducted his legal business with prudence and uncommon skill, and was faithful to the interests of his clients. He was a tall, impressive-looking man, deliberate in movement and speech. but with a thorough appreciation of all that was bright and humorous. James Thom was born in Londonderry, August 14, 1784, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1805, studied his profession with Hon. George Sulli- van, and was admitted an attorney in 1808, making Exeter his first resi- Page 62 dence. While there he edited a paper called The Constitutionalist, besides attending to his law business. In 1815 he changed his residence to his native town, and remained there till his death, November 27, 1852. He was a representative in the Legislature for several years, and took a lead- ing part therein. About 1828 he was instrumental in obtaining the charter of a bank in Derry, and became its cashier, after which he gave little time to his profession. He was a bright, ready man, of popular manners, and sang a good song in the old-fashioned convivial assemblies of the bar. He was public-spirited and took much interest in every movement for the benefit of his town. Few men have passed through life with the more general esteem and regard of all parties than Mr. Thorn. David Aiken Gregg, a native of Londonderry, was born March 12, 1788, and died at Derry, May 15, 1866. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1811, and began the practice of law in Londonderry in 1814, removed to Salem in 1817, and returned to Londonderry in 1820. In 1832 he was representative in the State Legislature, and state senator in 1840 and 1841. He was also postmaster of Derry, and register of probate from 1842 to 1847, during which time he resided in Exeter. Mr. Gregg manifested no little of the sagacity and wit which character- ized his Scotch-Irish ancestors. He was never largely engaged in the courts, but conducted a quiet, useful business to the satisfaction of those who employed him. Thornton Betton, a son of Hon. Silas Betton, was born in Salem in the year 1800, and died there September 1, 1841. He graduated from Dart- mouth College in 1820, studied law with James Thorn, Esq., and set up in his profession in Salem, from which town he was sent as representative to the General Court for two or three years. In 1830 he changed his resi- dence to Derry, and that town also he represented in the Legislature. Mr. Betton possessed talents, and during his rather brief career made something of a figure. It is believed, however, that his judgment and bal- ance were not equal to his enterprise. Edward Pinkerton Parker, son of Rev. Edward L. Parker, was born in Londonderry, April 18, 1816. Graduating from Dartmouth College in 1836, he taught in the Pinkerton Academy and studied law for two years, and was admitted to practice in 1839, establishing himself in Derry. From 1843 to 1847 he was principal of the Adams Female Academy there, and then removed to Merrimac, where he formed a connection in business with Hon. James U. Parker. In 1853 he bade adieu to the law and engaged in manufacturing. He died in Merrimac. Joseph A. Gregg was the son of Hon. David A. Gregg, of Derry. He studied law in his father's office, and commenced practice in Derry about 1842. In 1850 he was a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state, and the youngest of that body. He was a man of promising talents, and had he been spared gave every indication of rising to eminence. He died September 9, 1854, at the early age of thirty-one. An obituary notice mentions the fact of his holding the office of postmaster, and being one of the prominent and enterprising citizens of his town. Page 63 John Porter, Jr., was a son of John Porter, Esq., of Londonderry. He studied law under the direction of his father, and entered practice in 1837 at Bedford as the partner of Jonas B. Bowman, Esq. Two years after- wards they removed to Manchester. Mr. Porter at a later date entered into trade in Manchester. Afterwards, about 1858, he returned to Derry and resumed his law practice. He was irregular in his habits, and his law business dwindled, and at length, without notice to his friends, he went to Enfield and joined himself to the Society of Shakers there. He became a leading member of the sect, and was for several years engaged as their business agent, acquitting himself quite to their satisfaction. He died among them in 1875. EPPING William Plumer filled no small space in the legal and political history of the state. His native place was Newbury, Mass., where he was born June 25, 1859, but when he was but nine years of age his father, Samuel Plumer, became a citizen of Epping, in this state, where his son ever after- wards resided. William attended the schools of the neighborhood while assisting his father on the farm until he was seventeen, after which he had no instructor except while acquiring his legal education. But he was a great reader, and had an active mind and a retentive memory. His first essay in life was as a preacher of the Baptist denomination when he was just reaching his majority; but before long his opinions changed, and he resolved to study law. His instructors were Hon. Joshua Atherton, of Amherst, and Hon. John Prentice, of Londonderry, though he gave little credit to the latter. Mr. Plumer was admitted to practice in 1787, having previously served in the office of selectman of Epping and representative in the State Legis- lature. The latter office he held for eight years, and was speaker in 1791 and 1797. In 1798 he received the commission of solicitor for Rocking- ham County. In June, 1802, he was chosen to fill the vacancy in the Senate of the United States caused by the resignation of James Sheafe, and held this seat until March, 1807. He was chosen a State Senator in 1810 and 1811, and presided over the Senate both of those years. He was elected governor of the state in 1812, and again in 1816, 1817, and 1818. This was the end of his public service, though he survived until December 23, 1850. For the remainder of his life he lived in retirement on his farm, surrounded by his family, and deriving great enjoyment from his large and well-selected library and from his literary labors. He wrote and published various essays of a historical, practical character, and prepared and left in manuscript a series of valuable biographical sketches of Americans of note of his own and earlier times. These would have been given to the public had not the various biographical dictionaries and works of a similar character occupied so fully the field of his labors. As a lawyer Governor Plumer was diligent, careful, and sagacious. He won his laurels among no mean competitors, the bar of Rockingham and Page 64 Stratford Counties during the period of his active practice containing some of the foremost lawyers of their time in the country. In all the relations of life he was respected, even by those whose sympathies were, by reason of political disagreement, turned most widely in other directions. William Plumer, Jr., son of the preceding, was born in Epping, Febru- ary 9, 1789, was a student in Phillips' Exeter Academy and in Harvard College, whose diploma he received in l809. He completed his legal studies under the tuition of his father in 1812, and was admitted to the bar, but he never could be styled an active practitioner. He was essentially a student, and was far more interested in literary work and in public questions than in the pursuits of his profession. In 1816 he was appointed United States commissioner of loans for the State of New Hampshire, and as such resided in Portsmouth for above a year, and until the office was abolished. In 1818 he was chosen a repre- sentative in the State Legislature, and the same year was elected a repre- sentative in the Congress of the United States, where he remained by suc- cessive re-elections for six years. In 1824 he was chosen, on the part of the New Hampshire Senate, United States Senator, but the House failed to concur. In 1827 and 1828 he was a member of the New Hampshire Senate, and in 1827 he declined the appointment of United States district attorney. After this Mr. Plumer appeared seldom in public, though he occasionally took part in popular meetings and on occasions of unusual interest. He lived in much domestic happiness at his home in Epping, and employed himself in reading and in literary composition. Several poems of his were published, and others privately printed for distribution among his many friends. He also prepared a valuable biography of his father. His last public labors were in the State Constitutional Convention of 1850-51, and he died three years later, September 18, 1854. Hiram Osgood was a native of Loudon, and commenced the law busi- ness in Epping about 1823. After remaining there about a dozen years, during which time he sustained a highly respectable character, he emigrated to Michigan, where he died in 1840. Enoch Bartlett was a son of Hon. Bradbury Bartlett, of Nottingham, and commenced practice in Epping about 1845, but remained there only a couple of years before he went to Lawrence, Mass., and opened an office. He was quite a successful practitioner, and was elected mayor of the city, but died in 1855. James McMurphy was a partner of the preceding, and continued in busi- ness in Epping after Mr. Bartlett's departure until his death, about 1855. Mr. McMurphy was a man of decided ability, had gained a respectable posi- tion as a lawyer, and was a growing man at the time of his decease, which occurred while he was only in middle age. (chapter continued.)