USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Groton historical series. A collection of papers relating to the history of the town of Groton, Massachusetts, Vol III > Part 18
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Judge Prescott was an excellent classical scholar and well versed in law, but unfortunately he had a harsh temper, which rendered him unpopular, and was in a large measure the cause of many of his troubles and misfortunes. On February I, 1821, he was impeached by the House of Representatives for misconduct and maladministration in his office as Judge of Probate ; and on April 18, the Senate met as a Court of Im- peachment, and tried him on fifteen articles, of which he was found guilty as to Articles III. and XII. By the casting vote of the President of the Senate there was a tie as to Article II.
For the convenience of a few persons interested in such matters, I herewith give a bibliographical account of the trial : -
In the Senate, February 9, 1821, it was ordered that the Clerk cause to be printed fifty copies of the articles of impeach- ment preferred by the House of Representatives, "together with the respondent's answer, when it shall be made -and the rules adopted by the Court of impeachment to be observed on the trial." (Manuscript Journal of the Senate, XI.I. 225.) These were to be delivered, one copy each to the members of the Court, one copy to each manager appointed by the
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House, and three copies to the respondent or his counsel, and the remainder to be kept by the Clerk to await further orders. The copy in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society bears the autograph of Josiah Quincy, the Speaker of the House, and has the following title : -
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Court of Impeachment for the Trial of James Prescott, Esquire, Judge of Probate, &c. for the County of Middlesex, on Articles of Impeachment, presented against him, by the Representatives of the People of Massachu- setts, for Misconduct and Mal-administration in Office. Boston : Russell and Gardner, Printers. 1821. 4to. pp. 33.
According to the " Boston Daily Advertiser," April 16, a day before the opening of the Court of Impeachment by ad- journment : " The Judge filed his answer to the charges about ten days since, and copies of it are printed for the use of the members of the Court." This answer signed by him became a part of the quarto pamphlet (pages 14-32), and was also printed separately with a title as follows : -
Answers to the Articles of Impeachment against the Judge of Probate for the County of Middlesex. Boston : Printed by Ezra Lincoln. 1821. Svo. pp. 32.
After the trial a full report was published with the title given below : -
Report of the Trial by Impeachment of James Prescott, Esquire, Judge of Probate of Wills, &c. for the County of Middlesex, for Misconduct and Maladministration in office, before the Senate of Massachusetts, in the year 1821. With an Appendix, containing an account of former impeachments in the same State. By Octavius Pickering and William Howard Gardiner, of the Suffolk Bar. Bos- ton : Published at the Office of the Daily Advertiser. 1821. 8vo. pp. 225 (1).
On April 28 it was ordered by the Senate that copies of this Trial be purchased by the Clerk and furnished to the members. At the same time it was ordered by the House that the Clerk procure for each member a copy, " provided.
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any report thereof shall be speedily published which in the opinion of the speaker of this House shall appear to be faith- ful and correct and charged at a reasonable price." In the " Boston Daily Advertiser," April 30, a statement to the same effect is made ; and it would seem from this that the Ad- vertiser report was procured for the members of the llouse and Senate. The following extracts from the Advertiser of April 20 and 23, respectively, relate to this publication : -
This Court yesterday proceeded in the important trial now pend- ing before them. . . . We have diligently attended the course of this important trial, for the purpose of obtaining as accurate a re- port of it as possible, for publication. - In this difficult undertaking we have the assistance of two learned friends, who will make every exertion to render the report as perfect as possible. - We had in- tended to publish it in the Daily Advertiser, but it would not be proper to publish any report of the evidence while the trial is pend- ing, and it is likely to extend to too great length to admit of its being published in the paper, after the trial is finished. We are therefore driven to the necessity of publishing it only in a pamph- let. This will be issued from the press as soon as possible after the trial is closed. [April 20.]
It will be recollected that we some time since announced an in- tention to publish a regular report of this trial in our paper. In pursuance of this intention, we made every provision in our power for obtaining a correct report. But on more full consideration, and after having taken notes of the first day's proceedings, we came to the conviction that it would be totally impracticable. [April 23.]
TIMOTHY BIGELOW was the eldest son of Colonel Timothy and Anna (Andrews) Bigelow, and born at Worcester, on April 30, 1767. He was fitted for Harvard College under the tuition of Benjamin Lincoln and of the celebrated Samuel Dexter, then a law-student at Worcester. He graduated with high rank at Cambridge in the Class of 1786, and entered at once upon the study of his profession in the office of Levi Lincoln, the elder. Admitted to the bar in the year 1789, he began the practice of law at Groton, living at that time in the dwelling then occupied by Converse Richardson, and used as a public house, where he also had his office. The
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dwelling was situated on the south side of what is now Elm Street, near the corner of Pleasant Street, though it was moved away in the autumn of 1860, to a lot near the head of the old Jenkins road, discontinued on April 6, 1885. It is said that he sat in his office six weeks without taking a fee, and then received a pistareen. On September 3, 1791, he was married to Lucy, daughter of Dr. Oliver and Lydia (Bald- win) Prescott, who was born on March 13, 1771. After his marriage he removed to the house standing, until the summer of 1875, between Governor Boutwell's dwelling and Mrs. Graves's. An account of this house is given in the first vol- ume of the Historical Series (No. XVI. pages 1-9), under the heading " An Okl House, and Some of its Occupants."
Mr. Bigelow soon acquired a wide reputation and a large practice, by no means confined to Middlesex County. Many young men came to Groton in order to study law in his office, and not a few of them afterward became eminent in their profession. At the same period Samuel Dana, Jr., was another noted lawyer of Groton, whose sketch follows the present one. These two men became the leaders of the Middlesex bar, and they also tried many cases in Essex, Worcester, and Suffolk Counties, as well as in New Hamp- shire. They were retained in most of the important cases in this neighborhood, and generally on opposite sides. They were both military men, and each one commanded a militia company made up of his own political party. Mr. Bigelow was a prominent Federalist, and the captain of the South Company ; while Mr. Dana was equally prominent as a Democrat, and the captain of the North Company. They had offices in the same building, in fact on opposite sides of the same entry, and, in politics as well as at the bar, they were usually pitted against each other, yet in social life they were the best of friends.
Mr. Bigelow took an active part in politics, and for many years was a member of the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives, chosen first by the town of Groton, and afterward by the town of Medford, where he was then living. During thirteen years he represented Groton in the House, and
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during twelve years he represented Medford in the same body; and he was the Speaker for thirteen years, the longest term of service in that capacity ever held by one person. He was filling this position at the time when the Act was passed, on June 19, 1819, separating the District of Maine from the State of Massachusetts, and consequently the last Speaker of the united Legislatures of the District and the Commonwealth. He was a delegate to that famous political assembly in 1814, known as the Hartford Conven- tion, and also a member of the Executive Council in the year 1820. He was one of the founders of Groton Academy, and an original member of the Board of Trustees.
Amid the engrossing duties of his profession Mr. Bigelow found time for occasional literary work. While living at Groton he delivered the Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, July 21, 1796; a Funeral Oration on Samuel Dana, - at one time minister of Groton and after- ward a lawyer, - before the Benevolent Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, at Amherst, New Hampshire, April 4, 1798; and a Eulogy on Washington before the Columbian Lodge of Masons, at Boston, February II, ISoo, - which addresses have been printed. In the year 1806 he removed to Medford, where he died on May 18, 1821, at the age of fifty-four years. See the "Columbian Centinel," May 19, 1821, for a tribute to his memory, written by the editor, Major Benjamin Russell, a friend of forty years' standing. The late Reverend Andrew Bigelow, D.D., and the late Honorable John Prescott Bigelow, Secretary of the Com- monwealth, were his sons.
Among the young men who studied law in Mr. Bigelow's office were the following : -
John Harris, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Hamp- shire; Thomas Rice, of Winslow, Maine, Member of Congress ; John Locke, of Ashby, Member of Congress; Joseph Locke, Judge of the Police Court of Lowell for thirteen years ; John Leighton Tuttle, of Concord; Asahel Stearns, University Professor of Law in the Harvard Law School; John Varnum, of Haverhill, Member of Congress ; Loammi Baldwin, who
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afterward became a distinguished civil engineer ; John Park Little, of Gorham, Maine ; Tyler Bigelow, of Watertown ; Luther Lawrence, of Groton, and afterward of Lowell, where he died while Mayor of the city, April 17, 1839 ; Nathaniel Shattuck, of Amherst, New Hampshire ; John Stuart, of Newburyport ; Augustus Peabody, of Boston ; and Abraham Moore, of Groton.
SAMUEL DANA was the second son of the Reverend Samuel and Anna (Kenrick) Dana, and born at Groton, on June 26, 1767. lle studied law in the office of the Honorable John Lowell, Judge of the United States District Court, and about the year 1789 he began the practice of the profession in his native town. On December 5, 1795, he was married to Rebecca, daughter of Charles and Rebecca (Minot) Barrett, of New Ipswich, New Hampshire ; and they had a family of eight children.
Mr. Dana soon took a high position in the community, and exerted a wide influence in the neighborhood. He had a large and successful practice at the bar, and many young men came to Groton in order to study law under his tuition. In a "Memoir of the late Hon. Samuel Dana, by his son, James Dana" (Cambridge, 1877), it is said : -
Mr. Dana's reputation attracted many students, to whom he was accustomed to give lectures on the law and its practice. Many of his pupils were leading men in their day. These gentlemen made quite an addition to the cultivated society of the town. No list of his students has been preserved ; but it is known that among them were the Hon. Willard Hall, Judge of the United States District Court in Delaware, recently deceased, and the late Hon. William Merchant Richardson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Mr. Richardson practised in Groton for some years, - part of the time as law partner with Mr. Dana, - and while residing in Groton was Representative in Congress for Middlesex (page 7).
Among his other students were Abijah Bigelow, of Leo- minster, Member of Congress ; Luther Fitch, of Groton, ane afterward of Portland, Maine, where he was Judge of the Mu-
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nicipal Court ; James Lewis, of Pepperell ; Samuel Emerson Smith, Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Maine, and Governor of that State; and John Wright, of Groton and Lowell.
Mr. Dana was among the carly friends and benefactors of Groton Academy, and a member of the original Board of Trustees. He was the first postmaster of the town, and always one of the foremost in public enterprises. The post- office was established on September 29, 1800, but no mail was delivered at the office until the last week in November. Occasionally, when the Reverend Dr. Chaplin, the minister of the town, owing to illness, was unable to officiate in the pulpit, Mr. Dana would be asked to supply his place and read a sermon, which he did with great acceptance to the congregation.
Mr. Dana was chosen a member of the General Court during the years 1803, 1825-1827 ; he was also a member of the State Senate during the years 1805-1812 and 1817, and President of that body during the years 1807, 1811, and 1812. On October 14, 1811, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, which position he held for nine years. He was a Member of Congress during 1814 and 1815, and a Presidential Elector in 1820, when the Electoral College cast its vote on December 7 of that year, in favor of James Monroe for President. Together with Luther Lawrence, Esq., he represented the town in the Convention for altering the Constitution of Massachusetts, which met on November 15, 1820. On May 10, 1825, he was appointed by Lieutenant-Governor Morton one of the Commissioners, on the part of the Commonwealth, to run the line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Judge Dana died at Charlestown, on November 20, 1835, aged 68 years ; and his wife Rebecca, at Groton, on May 11, 1834, aged 54 years. His younger sister Mehitable Bowen Dana was the wife of the Honorable Samuel Bell, Governor of New Hampshire, and the mother of the Honorable Samuel Dana Bell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of New Hampshire ; of the Honorable James Bell, United States
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Senator from the same State; and of the late Dr. Luther V Bell, of Somerville, Massachusetts.
WILLIAM MERCHANT RICHARDSON was the eldest son of Captain Daniel and Sarah (Merchant) Richardson, and born at Pelham, New Hampshire, on January 4, 1774. He gradu- ated at Harvard College in the Class of 1797, and imme- diately afterward obtained a situation as Assistant Preceptor of Leicester Academy, which place, owing to ill health, he was obliged to give up at the end of a year. He then went home to his father's farm in Pelham, where he tarried until he regained his strength, and soon afterward accepted the preceptorship of Groton Academy, -a position that had already been held by two of his classmates, Asahel Stearns and Leonard Mellen, who subsequently became lawyers as well as himself. He entered upon his new duties as Pre- ceptor in 1799, and taught in the Academy during four years.
On October 7, 1799, Mr. Richardson was married to Betsey, daughter of Jesse Smith, of Pelham; and they had seven children, of whom six lived to grow up and were married.
While still engaged in the active work of teaching, he began the study of his chosen profession in the office of Judge Samuel Dana, of Groton, and was admitted to the bar at the June term of the Middlesex Court in 1804. Just before this time he had given up his position as preceptor of the Academy ; and he now entered into a partnership with Judge Dana, and this relation continued as long as he remained at Groton. On July 4, 1801, he delivered an address, in commemoration of the Anniversary of American Independence, which was afterward "published at the re- quest of the Committee of Arrangement." In July, 1804, he was appointed postmaster of the town, which office he held until January, 1812. On November 5, 1810, he was chosen a representative to Congress, and later, on November 2, 1812, again chosen, thus serving two terms in that body.
In the year isty he removed to Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire, and in 1816 he became the Chief Justice of the
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Superior Court of Judicature of that State, which office he continued to hold, with great credit to himself and with satisfaction to the public, until the day of his death. With him began the first published reports of judicial decisions, and his opinions extend through the first nine volumes of New Hampshire Reports. As a judge he was noted for the quickness of his apprehension, his ready application of the principles of common law, and his strict integrity. It has been said that he did more for the jurisprudence of his na- tive State than was ever accomplished by any other judge. He had a fondness for poetry, and in early life often in- dulged in writing poems on various occasions. He also possessed a fine taste for music, and played on the bass- viol, and he used to sing with his family at the domestic fireside. In the year 1819 he removed from Portsmouth to Chester in the same State, and while living there, in No- vember, 1831, with others he organized the Chester Musical Society, which was duly incorporated by the Legislature. Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1827.
Judge Richardson died at his farm in Chester, on March 15, 1838, deeply lamented by a loving family and by a wide circle of personal and professional friends. A sermon was preached at his funeral, on March 26, by the Reverend Jonathan Clement, of Chester, and subsequently printed ; and a Sketch of his Life, written by the Honorable Charles Henry Bell, then a very young man, was published during the year following his death.
CALEB BUTLER was a son of Caleb and Rebekah (Frost) Butler, and born at Pelham, New Hampshire, on September 13, 1776. He was the third son and the fifth child in a fam- ily of eleven children. In the year 1794 he attended the academy at Pelham, then kept by Daniel Hardy, where he re- mained less than a year; and afterward for a few weeks he went to another academy in a neighboring town. With the exception of his subsequent studies at home, which he pursued under the guidance of Preceptor Hardy, this was his sole prep-
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aration for college. He passed a successful examination at Dartmouth, and joined the Freshman class of that institution, in February, 1797, during their second term. While at college he taught district schools in the winter time, - then a common practice among students. He graduated in the Class of 1800, with the highest honors, on which occasion he delivered a salutatory oration in Latin. During the succeeding year he remained at Hanover, teaching the Indian Charity School, which was then connected with the college. In February, 1802, he became preceptor of Groton Academy, and continued as such until August, 1810, when he gave it up for an inter- val of two years; in 1812, resuming his former position, he held it until 1815, making his term of service in all nearly twelve years. While preceptor in 1807 he was chosen a Trustee of the institution, and held the office till his resigna- tion in 1836, a period of twenty-nine years. Teaching was an occupation congenial to his tastes, and his success in the calling was distinguished. At the Academy Jubilee, July 12, 1854, he was a conspicuous personage, and received special attention from his former scholars.
On August 22, 1804, he was married to Clarissa, daughter of Parker and Dorcas (Brown) Varnum, of Dracut; and they had a family of eight children, of whom Mrs. Francis Augustus Brooks, of Boston, is now the sole survivor. Ilis wife was born at Dracut, on January 27, 1782, and died at Groton, on Sep- tember 5, 1862.
While still teaching at the Academy he began the study of law in the office of the Honorable Luther Lawrence at Groton, and was admitted to the bar of Middlesex County on March 18, 1814. His subsequent practice was more in drawing up legal papers and settling estates than in attendance at the courts. Ilis charges were always moderate, and many a widow and orphan had reason to be grateful to him for ser- vices wholly unrequited.
On March 7, 1815, Mr. Butler was chosen town-clerk, which office he held for three years; and on March 3, 1823, he was again chosen, and continued in the position for ten years more. On July 1, 1826, he succeeded Major James
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Lewis as postmaster of the town, and remained as such, to the entire satisfaction of the public, until January 15, 1839, when he was removed for political heresy. Before he was commissioned as postmaster himself, for eight years he had performed most of the duties of the office, during Major Lewis's term of service. Upon the change in the administration of the National Government, he was reinstated in the same office, on April 15, 1841. Hle continued to hold the position until December 21, 1846, when he was again removed for political reasons. Mr. Butler was a most obliging man, and his re- moval was received by the public with general regret. During his two terms he filled the office for more than eighteen years, - a longer period of time than has fallen to the lot of any other postmaster of the town. In 1825 he was appointed Surveyor, on the part of the Commonwealth, to establish the boundary line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. On May 4, 1829, he was chosen a representative to the Gen- eral Court; but he declined the office, and William Livermore was sent in his place. On July 12, 1826, he was appointed Chairman of Commissioners of Highways for Middlesex County. The title of this board was soon afterward changed to County Commissioners, and he continued as Chairman for fifteen years.
Mr. Butler died, on October 7, 1854, at Groton, where his name is now perpetuated by three schools kept in the High School building, known respectively as the Butler Grammar, the Butler Intermediate, and the Butler Primary. There is also a Caleb Butler Lodge of Free Masons at Ayer, formerly a part of Groton.
Mr. Butler was the author of a " History of the Town of Groton, including Pepperell and Shirley" (Boston, 1848), and of several Masonic addresses and historical pamphlets. Under a Resolve of the Legislature, passed on March 1, 1830, he made a Map of Groton, which was published by the town, in the spring of 1832. He also wrote an account of the total eclipse of the sun, June 16, 1806, which appeared in " The Medical and Agricultural Register for the years 1806 and 1807" (Boston ), pages 122-125. He was a member of the
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New England Historic Genealogical Society, and contributed an account of his branch of the Butler family to the quarterly Register (II. 355, III. 73, 353), published under the auspices of that Society. A sketch of his life appears in the " Me- moriał Biographies " (II. 266-279), from which some of the facts contained in this notice are gathered.
TIMOTHY FULLER was a son of the Reverend Timothy and Sarah (Williams) Fuller, and born at Chilmark, on July 1I, 1778. He graduated at Harvard College in the Class of ISOI, and studied law in the office of the Honorable Levi Lincoln, the elder, at Worcester. His parents had ten chil- dren, -- five boys and five girls, -and all the sons became lawyers. On May 28, 1809, Timothy was married to Mar- garet, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Jones | Wyzer) Crane, of Canton ; and they had seven children.
Mr. Fuller was admitted to the bar during the October term of the Court of Common Pleas, 1804, in Boston, where he at once opened an office in Court Street. With the ex- ception of one year, his name appears in the annual direc- tories from 1805 to 1833, where he is put down as a counsellor. Soon after his marriage he bought a dwelling-house in Cam- bridgeport, where his children were born and brought up. While a resident of Cambridge, he was chosen, on April 5, 1813, a member of the State Senate, and re-chosen during the following three years. On November 4, 1816, he was chosen, as the Democratic candidate, a member of Congress, and re- chosen during the following four terms, making a service of ten years in that capacity. After his retirement from Con- gress he was elected, on May 2, 1825, a member of the Massa- chusetts House of Representatives, of which body he became the Speaker for that year ; and he was again elected, on May 7, 1827, and May 11, 1831, for those two years a member of the House. He also served as one of the Executive Council for the civil year ending May, 1829.
In June, 1833, Mr. Fuller removed from Cambridge to Groton, where he bought an estate of fifty acres. Attributing his own success in life largely to the habits of industry ac-
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quired by an early experience on a farm, he was desirous to subject his boys to the same hardening process. He was pre- viously familiar with the town, as his eldest child, Margaret, had been a pupil for two years in Miss Susan Prescott's School for Young Ladies, and he had then been impressed with the natural attractions of the place. In the Sketch of "Chaplain Fuller " (Boston, 1863), by his brother Richard Frederic Fuller, the author writes : --
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