Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1, Part 1

Author: Chamberlain, Mellen, 1821-1900; Watts, Jenny C. (Jenny Chamberlain); Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918; Massachusetts Historical Society
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Boston : Printed for the Massachusetts Historical Society
Number of Pages: 762


USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1 > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65


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Gc 974.402 C419c v.1 1247277 18. it


M. L.


GENEALOGY COLLECTION


Mary Lovering Holman


"A Ship is a Breath of Romance That Carries us Miles Away And a Book is a Ship of Fancy That can Sail on Any Day""


1


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00085 1284


Gc 974. C419 v.1 124'


A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY


OF


CHELSEA


1 1 1


Committee of Publication CHARLES F. ADAMS CHARLES C. SMITH HENRY W. HAYNES


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015


https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto01cham_1


Mellin Chamberlam


C


A


DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF


CHELSEA


INCLUDING THE BOSTON PRECINCTS OF WINNISIMMET RUMNEY MARSH, AND PULLEN POINT


1624-1824


COLLECTED AND ARRANGED, WITH NOTES BY


MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN


IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I


BOSTON PRINTED FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1908


THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.


4


4


1247277 CONTENTS


PAGE


ILLUSTRATIONS ix


PREFATORY NOTE, BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION . xi MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN, BY HENRY W. HAYNES xvii


CHAPTER I


INTRODUCTION


1


CHAPTER II


THE PLANTERS AT WINNISIMMET


6


Appendix. Samuel Maverick


13


CHAPTER III


SAMUEL MAVERICK'S PALISADE HOUSE 20


Appendix 1. Maverick's Place of Residence 28


Appendix 2. Early houses at Chelsea


Appendix 3. Samuel Maverick and Dixy Bull . 33


Appendix 4. Will of Elias Maverick 38


36


Appendix 5. Maverick's Descendants 42


Appendix 6. The Brintnall Family 46


Appendix 7. Jonathan Green 53


Appendix 8.


Dyke and Dam at Island-End River .


55


Appendix 9. Location of the Maverick Ferry Landing 57


CHAPTER IV


THE INDIANS AT WINNISIMMET


60


Appendix. Their Places of Abode


70


CHAPTER V


INDIAN DEEDS


72


Goodspeed-


7.50 (200)


vi


CONTENTS


CHAPTER VI


PAGE


ALLOTMENTS OF LAND . 81


Appendix 1. The Great Allotments 123


Appendix


2. Houses on the Pratt Estate 134


Appendix 3. Way and Ireland 137


Appendix 4. The Pratt Family


140


Appendix 5. The Cheever Family 150


Appendix 6. The Newgate Farm


165


Appendix 7. Simeon Stoddard's Fenee 171


Appendix 8. Cogan and Doolittle . 173


Appendix 9. Cogan and Floyd . 178


Appendix 10. James Bill 193


Appendix 11. The Tuttle Farms


201


Appendix 12. The Cole, Hasey, and Lewis Farms . 230


Appendix 13. The Sale Farm 254


Appendix 14. Deane Winthrop 262


Appendix 15. Samuel Bennett's Farm 267


Appendix 16.


Malden Owners of Land in Chelsea .


293


CHAPTER VII


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S ESTATES AT WINNISIMMET 294


Appendix 1. Lieutenant John Smith


319


Appendix 2. Comparative Value of the Bellingham Farms 321


Appendix 3. Inventory of Edward Watts and Will of


Rebeca Watts 323


Appendix 4. Letters of John Tudor 334


Appendix 5. The Watts Family


Appendix 6. Henry Howell Williams 338


Appendix 7. The Eustace Family . 365


363


Appendix 8. The Cary Family 369


Appendix 9. Stephen Kent . 374


Appendix 10. The Senter Family 378


Appendix 11. Farm of Daniel Watts 387


Appendix 12. List of Plans 391


CHAPTER VIII


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S WILL .


393


vii


CONTENTS


CHAPTER IX


PAGE


CONTEST FOR THE BELLINGHAM ESTATES BEGINS . 420


Appendix 1. Inventory of Richard Bellingham 427


Appendix 2. Suit of John Blake 429


Appendix 3. Suits of Oxenbridge and Smith 438


CHAPTER X


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S WILL BEFORE THE GENERAL


COURT ·


441


Appendix. Suits of Nicholas Rice 451 ·


CHAPTER XI


RICHARD WHARTON SUES FOR HIS SERVICES 464


Appendix 1. Hammond vs. Bellingham 472


Appendix 2.


Wharton vs. Stoddard and Ranger


479


Appendix 3.


Wharton vs. Eustace


481


Appendix 4.


Bellingham vs. Eustace


482


Appendix 5. Thomson vs. Eustace 489


CHAPTER XII


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S ESTATE BY DESCENT


495


Appendix. The Marriage Settlement


502


CHAPTER XIII


THE BELLINGHAM WILL CASE REOPENED


528


Appendix. Appeal of Rev. James Allen


540


CHAPTER XIV


SUITS FOR THE BELLINGHAM ESTATES RESUMED 544


Appendix 1. Pembroke and Hiller Suits . 551


Appendix 2. Watts and Townsend Suits .


559


viii


CONTENTS


CHAPTER XV


PAGE


THE CLERGY OF BOSTON MAKE AN ADDRESS TO THE GEN-


ERAL COURT 572


CHAPTER XVI


A LONG TRUCE


576


Appendix. Letters of Joseph Hiller and Elizabeth Bellingham 579


CHAPTER XVII


THE BELLINGHAM WILL IN TOWN MEETING 581


Appendix 1. Col. Thomas Goldthwait . 602


Appendix 2. Allen vs. Eustaee 610


Appendix 3. Danforth vs. Sargent et al. .


614


CHAPTER XVIII


THE END NEAR: THOMPSON SUES FOR THE EUSTIS FARM . 623


Appendix. Writ of Execution . 633


CHAPTER XIX


CAPTAIN ROBERT KEAYNE'S ESTATE IN RUMNEY MARSH . 635 Appendix 1. The Chamberlain Family of Rumney Marsh 651


Appendix 2. Colonel Nicholas Paige


656


Appendix 3. The Tenants on the Farm


663


ILLUSTRATIONS


Portrait of Mellen Chamberlain .


PAGE


Frontispiece


House of Mellen Chamberlain xix


Boston Harbor in 1711 . 1


Yeamans House


96


Deane Winthrop House .


121


Pratt House


134


Map of Winthrop and Plan of Bill Farm


193


Bellingham Farms


294


Portraits of Samuel Cary and his Wife . 310


Cary House .


311


Carter House


318


Portrait of Thomas Goldthwait 602


Chelsea in 1739


668


PREFATORY NOTE


A MONG the papers left by Judge Chamberlain is one headed " Memoranda for a Preface," at the beginning of which he says, " These Memoranda, written at different times, doubtless contain much irrelevant and repetitious matter, and will require careful revision." He then unfolds his well- known views as to the genesis of the Massachusetts town, end- ing with the suggestion, "Perhaps the greater part of the foregoing, instead of belonging to the Preface, would with some modification more properly form part of the Introductory Chapter." As the views thus presented are much more clearly and forcefully stated by him in two papers printed in the Proceedings of the Historical Society,1 it has not seemed de- sirable to reproduce them here. Of much greater interest and value is the account which he gives of the circumstances that led him to undertake the preparation of a History of Chelsea and of the method pursued by him. "In 1876," he says, " the City Council of Chelsea asked me to prepare a history of the municipality, as other towns were doing, as a centennial memorial. . .. I was then heavily weighted by public duties which left little time for other work, and I was not inclined to accept the invitation ; but as one long resident in the city, with some participation in its municipal affairs, and often a recipient of its honors, I could not refuse without the most cogent reason. . . . Accordingly I looked into the books most likely to contain the results of previous investigations, and found a few pages. I asked at the City Hall for the old town files ; there was not a scrap. With like result I sought his- torical papers in the old garrets in Revere; but the oldest inhabitant could not suggest new fields of investigation. I knew that for the first hundred years the territory which was incorporated as Chelsea was merely an outlying precinct of


1 " The New Historical School," in 2 Proceedings, v. 265-278; "The Genesis of the Massachusetts Town," ibid., vii. 214-242.


xii


PREFATORY NOTE


Boston, without municipal life of its own; and that for the second hundred years, as well as for the first, its largest pro- prietors were mainly non-residents whose genealogies would not be required. These circumstances were not promising for the production of a work of value or interest; but, lessening as they did the prospective labor of writing a History of Chelsea, they made a refusal to undertake it more difficult. Under these circumstances I undertook the work, and seldom have I made a more serious mistake. For though with small expectations, yet as something proper to be done, I began an examination of the archives at the State House, and had not proceeded far before discovering material which compelled me to search page by page the two hundred volumes of State Papers, as well as the Boston Town Records, not then printed, the records of the Suffolk Courts, the Registry of Deeds, and the Probate Office. The results amazed me, not only by the mass and value of the materials which I found, but even more by the fact that I had committed myself to a work requiring years for its completion.


" Not only new materials, but new subjects for Chelsea his- tory, were discovered. No one had ever supposed that the first settlement in the upper bay was made at Winnisimmet, instead of Noddle's Island, and that it was there that Samuel Maverick palisaded his house in 1625. But when I learned this it made necessary a reconsideration of the mooted ques- tion of the first settlement of Boston harbor.


" The learned editors of Sewall's diary, warranted by the record, had said that Governor Bellingham's will, in which he devised his estates at Winnisimmet for pious uses, was set aside by the General Court in 1676; but this proceeding, far from being the end, was near the beginning of a contest which raged for one hundred and fourteen years, and was finally settled in 1787, before Judge Increase Sumner, whose notes, rescued from a paper mill, gave the only clue then discovered to the history of a case which was the subject of an opinion by William Cowper, afterward Lord Chancellor of England, and of a decision of Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.


" At Winnisimmet was the northerly terminus of the first ferry from Boston, and the beginning of the first county road in Massachusetts, and perhaps both were the first on the west-


-


xiii


PREFATORY NOTE


ern continent. These facts give distinction to Winnisimmet, and made it imperative to trace their history.


" From the Winnisimmet shores of Chelsea Creek, in May, 1775, British and American parties met in conflict in an attempt by order of General Ward to remove the live stock from Hog and Noddle's islands. This was the second mili- tary engagement at the opening of the Revolutionary War. From Winnisimmet was observed in flank the movements of the British at Bunker Hill, and during the siege of Boston sev- eral companies had barracks there.


" Finally, the records of the Rumney Marsh church during the very able pastorates of Thomas Cheever, Phillips Payson, and Joseph Tuckerman are of more than ordinary value, and these I have thought it best to present in their most authentic form.


" Much of this material, though not all, I had collected in the intervals of official duties, and for its preservation I printed it in the weekly issues of the Chelsea ' Telegraph and Pioneer,' the first of the articles appearing Nov. 20, 1880, and the eighty-first and last July 14, 1883. At first my embarrass- ment was in the meagreness of material, which led me to print in full every document I found. But when the mass of these, by frequent additions (which have not yet ceased), became embarrassing a new question arose, how to treat these docu- ments. . . . I have finally decided to print in full every im- portant paper, and to call the result ' A Documentary History of Chelsea, with Notes,' and have followed this course in respect even to the voluminous documents of the Bellingham will case. With some experience as a reporter of legal de- cisions, I reduced several of the cases to the form in which they usually appear in the volumes of Judicial Reports when all matters not essential to the legal understanding of the case are omitted. This is doubtless best for the bar, - indeed, it is the only practicable course; but for those who desire to trace the crude and tentative progress of jurisprudence in Massachusetts, nothing could be more worthless. Besides, the merely formal parts of documents - the recitals, the descrip- tions of persons, and the names of witnesses - often give facts of great value not always conveniently preserved in foot- notes. Again, the plan I have adopted treats for the first time, and is not likely to be repeated, the course of judicial


.


xiv


PREFATORY NOTE


proceedings in a series of important cases in the Massachu- setts Courts, of the Colony, Province, and Commonwealth. It is true that the records are incomplete. Some things needed to complete them still clude the most thorough search; but it is to be hoped that many will yet come to light from the least probable sources. .


" With these views of the requirements of a town history - at least, the history of Chelsea - I had, in 1892, so far com- pleted my work, as I thought, that I informed the Council and requested that the publication should be begun, having little doubt of my ability to keep in advance of the press until the work should be finished; but while the City Council was con- sidering the matter the greater part of the old town files, with many papers of the Bellingham will cases, which had long been sought for in vain, were unexpectedly found in a house remote from Chelsea in which they had lain for more than a hundred years, having been carried thither by a former town elerk on his removal to that place. He was also executor of one of those who succeeded to the Bellingham estates. At first I hoped that I might be able to introduce this new matter into the text, or add it as notes, and thus avoid rewriting the work; but this was found to be impracticable, and now (November, 1897) I am still reconstructing and rewriting the greater part of it. As I may not live to complete this History, I leave these memoranda 2 of my connection with a work which has taken more time than I anticipated, and prevented my under- taking more than one book much more to my taste. But on the whole, perhaps, I ought to regret neither the time nor the labor I have bestowed on it, even though I may not live to complete it, sinee the history of Chelsea presents some facts of unusual interest, which are not likely to have been dis-


2 As bearing on these "memoranda," the following extract from the will of Judge Chamberlain is explicit: -


" To the Massachusetts Historical Society I give my incompleted manu- script (typewritten) history of Chelsea with the ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans, engravings, photographs and materials used in the preparation of said history and may be useful in its completion, with the copyright of said history, and the profits from the sale thereof. I hope to communicate to said society in a separate paper my views in respect to the completion of said history; but lest I fail to do so, I will say here that I wish to have the manuscript placed in the hands of a thoroughly competent person for completion and revision, to whom I give the largest discretion in respect to omissions, condensation, changes and additions."


XV


PREFATORY NOTE


covered by any one without my opportunities, some of which have been purely accidental. ...


" It was not my original intention to bring the History down to a later period than that of the organization of the Win- nisimmet Co., say about 1833, leaving the history of the town after North Chelsea was set off and the history of the city after its incorporation to another. And I should have treated the history of Winthrop more fully, if I had not hoped that this would be undertaken as a separate work by another hand. . . .


" Documents purporting to be complete in all cases follow their originals where I have had access to them, but in many cases they exist only in copies made by those who followed the orthography, punctuation, and abbreviations peculiar to their own times. Town and Church records, so far as I give them, are exact copies, with these exceptions that from the latter I have omitted baptisms and deaths, which are given in the Appendix, and from both I have omitted the words 'It was voted,' and connected the sentences by semicolons." 3


The circumstances under which Judge Chamberlain's manu- script was bequeathed to the Historical Society, and its pub- lication undertaken, are fully stated in the Memoir of him in this volume.


In the preparation of the copy for the press the first twenty- seven chapters and the lists of town officers and inscriptions in the burying-ground, as well as Sections VI. and VII. in the General Appendix, were assigned to Miss Jenny C. Watts, a graduate of Radcliffe College; and the remaining chapters and the other parts of the General Appendix to Mr. William R. Cutter, librarian of the Woburn Public Library, and author of a History of Arlington. Matter added by either of them is enclosed in brackets; but, in accordance with the manifest desire of the author, as set forth in his will and his instruc- tions to the Society, the committee of the Society to which the material was entrusted has exercised a much wider latitude both of investigation and development of the subject matter


3 In printing these extracts from Judge Chamberlain's rough draught or " Memoranda for a Preface," the Committee have made such omissions and such verbal corrections as they believe he would himself have made in a final revision, but they have preserved its statements and opinions as he left them.


xvi


PREFATORY NOTE


in the case of the earlier than of the later period dealt with. This course was dictated by considerations too obvious to call for any detailed statement or explanation, and the wide dis- eretion explicitly left with the Society by Judge Chamberlain makes unnecessary any justification of the course thus pur- sued. The Index has been prepared by Rev. T. Frank Waters, of Ipswich, author of "Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony."


It cannot be doubted that if Judge Chamberlain's health and strength had permitted him to make a final revision of his manuscript, his History of Chelsea would have approached much more nearly to the high ideal which he set before him- self; but it is not believed that he would have essentially modified his opinions, or changed his statement of fact except in so far as they would necessarily have been affected by the coming to light of documents supposed to have been lost or the discovery of new historical material.


CHARLES F. ADAMS. CHARLES C. SMITH. HENRY W. HAYNES.


MEMOIR


OF


MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN.


BY HENRY W. HAYNES. 1 .


MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN was born in Pembroke, New Hamp- shire, June 4, 1821, the second of the five children of Moses and Mary (Foster) Chamberlain. The earliest known ances- tor of the family was Jacob Chamberlain, born about 1690, according to the inscription upon his gravestone in Rumney Marslı (now Revere), Massachusetts, where he died in 1734. He married, in 1714, Abigail, daughter of William Hasey, of Rumney Marsh. Mary Foster was the daughter of Rev. Abiel Foster, of Canterbury, New Hampshire, a descendant of John Rogers, the fifth President of Harvard College, and of Governor Thomas Dudley. Moses Chamberlain was a farmer, who also carried on the business of a country shopkeeper. The son helped his father in both occupations, attending the district schools of the town, and later the Academy in Pen- broke, until his fifteenth year, when the family removed to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1836. For the next four years he pursued the studies preparatory for college at the Literary Institute of that place, continuing to assist his father and teaching district schools in the winter. In 1840 he entered Dartmouth College, and graduated, in 1844, with a class in which were included an unusual number of men who after- wards attained distinction. During his college course he taught school three winters in Danvers, Massachusetts. His college rank was sufficiently high for him to be chosen into the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter of the college. All his life long he looked back with gratitude to his Dartmouth training, and ever cherished a warm affection for his classmates, which was fully reciprocated by them. His college on its part 1 Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d Series, vol. xx. pp. 119-146.


xviii


MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN


regarded him as a worthy son, and bestowed upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1885; and his fellow alumni twice called upon him to be their spokesman in expressing their admiration for Dartmouth's greatest son, Daniel Webster, - at a dinner in 1882, and at the dedication of his statue in 1886. In May, 1844, a little before bis graduation, Mr. Chamberlain was chosen principal of the high school at Brattleborough, Vermont, and there he remained imtil late in 1846. In an " Address at the Dedication of the Brooks Library Building, at Brattleborough, Vermont, Jami- ary 25, 1887," he gives a charming account of his life as a teacher, and of the town and its society, which at that time included a notable number of cultivated citizens and summer visitors of distinction, especially drawn thither by the estab- lishment of one of the earliest " Water Cures " in this country. From Brattleborough he entered the Dane Law School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the late autumn of 1846. He was soon made the Librarian, and remained there for two years, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1848. He himself says that this "situation brought him into official relations to the college, and afforded him social privileges, which otherwise he could not have had." Among the most valued of these he regarded the opportunity of passing some months in the capacity of private tutor in the family of Chan- cellor Kent at Kent Place, Summit, New Jersey. In January, 1849, he was admitted to the bar in Boston, and opened a law office on Washington Street, which he shared with the late John S. Holmes. Later he removed to No. 35 Court Street, where the late Seth Webb was his office companion, and after Webb the present writer shared the office with him from 1856 to 1867. On June 6, 1849, he was married to Martha Ann, daughter of Colonel Jesse Putnam, of Danvers, Massachu- setts, whose acquaintance he had made during his terms of school teaching in that town, in his college course. In a let- ter to his father, written from the Law School at Cambridge, October 3, 1848, he says : -


" I intended to have entered my profession about this time, but the retirement of the old professors brought on new ones, who knew nothing of the affairs of the school, and they insisted upon my staying this term, which I agreed to do for three hundred dollars extra. . . . On the first of January I shall have seven hundred and thirty dollars


-


30.9


Home of. Hellen Chamberlain Chicken


xix


MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN


in pocket. If there is any such thing as luck in the world, I have had it. True, I have worked like a dog and lived like a miser. . . . I have arranged to get married, and suppose that my money will carry us to January, 1850. when the purse will be empty. At twenty-eight one may get married, and it becomes a matter of necessity, when one has lived so long alone as I have. But notwithstanding the apparent rash- ness of this step I have no fear. My life will be insured, so that in case I should be taken away, Martha will not be left destitute, and that's all I care about. But I will not anticipate that. Ten years unassisted toil have given me strength and power to do and to dare. You will gather from what I write that I am in excellent spirits ; I am so."


-


His anticipations were fully realized ; his marriage brought him at once into a large and agreeable family circle, and his professional earnings proved sufficient for their modest wants. He soon began to secure a considerable office business, to which was added a fair share of court practice, and he also reported court business for the " Boston Advertiser." But his main occupation was that of a conveyancer. Two or three large farms in Chelsea began to be cut up for building pur- poses about this time, and the Winnisimmet Land Company concluded to sell all of its extensive holdings. Mr. Cham- berlain began a thorough study of the titles to all the real estate in Chelsea, and his knowledge became so extensive that hardly a land title could be passed in that community without consulting him. The results of his investigations were con -- signed to twelve large folio volumes, which by his last will: were bequeathed to the city of Chelsea and have been placed in its Public Library.


Immediately upon their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain went to live in Chelsea. After several changes of residence he built a comfortable house, pleasantly situated on Washing- ton Avenue, upon the western slope of Powderhorn Hill, with ample grounds in the rear in which to cultivate fruits and flowers. There he passed the remainder of his life. Mrs. Chamberlain died suddenly, April 25, 1887, leaving no chil- dren. Their union was a signally happy one, and from her loss he never recovered. Their home was the centre of muchi intellectual life, at which for many years gathered weekly a class of young people of both sexes for the study, under his guidance, of English and American literature. In his later


XX


MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN


years Mr. Chamberlain was in the habit of passing a portion of every summer at Boar's Head, Hampton Beach, where he was accustomed to meet a congenial company of friends, of whom the late Governor and Mrs. Charles H. Bell, of New Hamp- shire, and our associate member Rev. Dr. Slafter, were among his most intimate companions.


Soon after his establishment in Chelsca Mr. Chamberlain began to be called upon by his fellow citizens for various sorts of public service, as school committee man, selectman, alder- man, on the organization of the city, in 1857, and for six years as City Solicitor. In 1858-1859 he was chosen a Representa- tive to the General Court from the Thirteenth Suffolk District, and was made a member of the special committee on the Re- vision of the Statutes. In 1863-1864 he was elected to the State Senate, and during the latter year was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Those who served with him in the legislature were accustomed to speak of his public services as of great value, and to esteem his powers as a debater as of a high order. He was an excellent public speaker, logical and impressive, while his remarkable memory readily supplied him with an abundance of illustrations to enforce and enliven his arguments, and his tall and erect figure, his dignified bearing, and his strong and commanding countenance lent additional energy to his words.




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