USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive and Biographical Record of Bristol County, Massachusetts (Volume 2) > Part 3
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The association was incorporated March 31, 1887. At the first meet- . ing, held January 1, 1887, Arba Lincoln was elected temporary clerk. A code of by-laws was prepared and adopted on the 24th of January. The first board of officers was composed as follows: President, James M. Morton; vice president, Jonathan M. Wood; treasurer, Arba N. Lincoln; executive council, Henry K. Braley, Milton Reed, John W. Cummings, James F. Jackson, H. A. Dubuque; secretary, John J. McDonough.
It was largely through the efforts of this association that Fall River now has a beautiful and costly court house, the site of which was se- lected by the association and recommended to the County Commission- ers. On the 14th of December, 1887, a fee bill was adopted, which has been of great benefit to the members of the bar. In September, 1890, Mr. Morton resigned the presidency of the association, and Jonathan M. Wood was elected on the 5th of the following February; Milton Reed was the second incumbent of the office of vice-president, succeed- ing Mr. Wood when he was elected president.
On the 22d of January, 1891, the association adopted a resolution recommending the appointment by the governor of Henry K. Braley to fill the vacancy on the bench of the Superior Court, caused by the promotion of Judge Lathrop to the bench of the Supreme Court. A committee of seven members was appointed to wait on the governor and urge the appointment; success attended these efforts, and a dinner was subsequently tendered Mr. Braley in Boston.
On the 14th of October, 1893, John J. DcDonough resigned the office of secretary and was succeeded by Arthur S. Phillips, who still holds the position. The officers of 1894 were as follows: President, Jonathan M. Wood; vice-president, Milton Reed; secretary, Arthur S. Phillips; treasurer, Arba N. Lincoln. At the death of Mr. Wood the office of president was left vacant. Otherwise the present officers are as above named. The association has been conspicuously identified with the
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establishment of an excellent law library in the new court house, while its influence upon the bar at large has been salutary and elevating in a marked degree.
New Bedford Bar Association .- This association was organized April 16, 1894. The first officers chosen were as follows: President, E. L. Barney; secretary, F. A. Milliken, who still holds the office. Upon the death of Mr. Barney, Alanson Borden was elected president. The first vice-president was Charles W. Clifford, who is still in the office; treasurer, Lemuel Le Baron Holmes. Council, Thomas M. Stetson, William W. Crapo, Alanson Borden, Hosea M. Knowlton, Lemuel T. Wilcox, William C. Parker and Emanuel Sullivan.
On the 6th of May, 1895, the association established a fee bill. As an organization it has been instrumental during its brief existence in procuring the passage of the act of 1894, chapter 423, establishing a law library in New Bedford, which is now located in the court house and is supported by a county appropriation of $1,000 a year. The library comprises about 2,000 volumes. The association was instru- mental also in procuring full length portraits of Chief Justice Lincoln F. Brighamn, Timothy G. Coffin and John H. Clifford, which are now in the Supreme Court room.
Court Houses, Houses of Correction, Jails, etc .- The first measures for providing Bristol county with a court house and jail were adopted in "his Majesty's Court of General Sessions of the Peace, begun and held at Taunton," on the 9th day of December, 1746. On that occasion the following orders were recorded:
Ordered by the Court that the School House in Taunton shall be for the present impressed for a Gaol and that Samuel Leonard, John Godfrey and Samuel White, Esqrs., be a committee to see that the said School House be made as secure as may be for the safe custody of all persons that may be committed thereto with the utmost dispatch, and that Seth Williams the second shall take care to secure the two prison- ers now in custody and all others that shall be committed in the meantime.
Ordered by the Court that Seth Williams, George Leonard, Samuel Leonard, John Godfrey, and Samuel White, Esqrs., be a committee to look out a suitable place for the standing of a Gaol and County House in the town of Taunton, & know what the land for erecting said houses on may be purchased for and make report of their doings thereon at the adjournment of this Court.
This committee found what they believed to be a suitable site for the buildings, which was described in their report made on the second Tuesday in January, 1747, as " towards the upper end of the old Train- ing Field a little below where they used to dig gravel and is to be
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sixty foot square." The report further stated " that the most suitable place for setting a Gaol and Gaol House be on the land of Samuel White and Mr. Simeon Tisdale at a place near the spring (so-called), adjoin- ing to the way that leads from said Tisdale's to Mr. Crossman's grist mill." The report was approved and accepted and John Foster, Syl- vester Richmond, jr., and John Godfrey were appointed a committee "to provide materials and build a County house and Gaol and Gaol keeper's house with suitable dispatch." These buildings were de- scribed in the order as follows:
The Gaol to be thirty foot long and fourteen foot wide two story high and four - teen foot stud, to be studded with sawed stuff of six inches thick to be framed close together with a chimney in the middle suitable for a Gaol. The house of the prison keeper to be seventeen foot wide and twenty-three foot long, two story high besides the entry between the Gaol and dwelling house and to be fourteen foot stud with a suitable chimney and cellar.
On the 28th of January, 1747, George Leonard, Ephraim Leonard and John Foster, esqrs., were appointed a committee to receive deeds from the proprietors of Taunton. ' In the court records of June, 1747, is found the following :
Upon the Court's receiving a subscription of many of the inhabitants of the Town of Taunton, amounting in the whole to the sum of nine hundred twenty-two pounds, fifteen shillings, old tenor, from the subscribers' committee, for building a Court House, ordered that the same shall be accepted, and that the committee appointed by this court shall be joined with the aforesaid committee of the subscribers in build- ing the Court house as projected by the subscribers, and what further may be sub- scribed on the land given by the proprietors and inhabitants of the Town of Taunton, and as has been accepted by the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, holden at Taunton, by adjournment in January last.
The site thus chosen for the court house was land considerably in front of the site of the third court house, and that for the jail was land in rear of the site of the Bristol County Bank building. That this first court house was not a very substantial building is shown by an order made at the October term of 1753, which directed Seth Williams " to endeavor to secure the roof of the county house from leaking, by cov- ering the heads of the posts with sheet lead given for that purpose, or by any other way or means that may be effectual for the purpose afore- said." At that time it appears that the structure was not wholly com- pleted, for at the March term of 1754, Seth Williams, George Leonard and Zephaniah Leonard were appointed a committee " to finish the court house in Taunton and arch the court chamber overhead, fix the
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justices' seats on the north side of the chamber, and lath and plaster the same and alter the stairs, if the committee shall think best." This court house was occupied until 1772.
A court order of December 17, 1771, directed as follows:
That a court house be built, to be forty-eight feet square and twenty-four feet post, and George Leonard, jr., Benjamin Williams, Robert Treat Paine and Daniel Leonard, Esquires, or either two of them, are appointed a committee to proceed and erect a court house and to dispose of the now standing court house by sale thereof or by taking it down and disposing of the timber.
A town meeting was called to act upon the proposition of granting twenty feet more of land on the rear of the original site, and the grant was made. The committee then proceeded to erect the second court house, removing the old building across the street to the head of what is now Court street; there it was occupied as a dwelling for a time and was finally removed to Leonard street. The second court house was occupied for its purpose until 1826, when it was removed to Court street and became a tenement. On the site was erected the third court house, of brick, by Abieser Dean, in 1827. This was used for court purposes until its recent removal to Court street, leaving the site vacant for the erection of the present splendid granite structure, the corner stone of which was laid with Masonic ceremony on June 30, 1892.'
Under the court orders relative to a place of confinement for prison- ers, before mentioned, an order was made at the August court of 1749, "that eleven hundred pounds, old tenor, be paid to the committee for the gaol to enable them to complete and finish it." At the September term of 1751, the following order was made:
Ordered, that the committee for the jail deliver to the sheriff or to his order, the northwest room below and room above it and the southwest room below and room above it and the southeast room above, with one-half of the cellar under the other part of the house, together with the yard fenced in for the prison yard, and that the southwest room below and above with the southeast room above are determined for and shall be known to be his Majesty's Jail in Taunton in and for the County of Bristol and that the northwest room, below and above, with the liberty of using the stairs, be for the use of the keeper of said Jail, during the Court's pleasure.
At the December term of that year it was ordered "that the north-
" There was a one-story brick "county building," so called, occupying about forty feet in length, in the rear of the second wooden court house, used as a registry building, where Colonel George Leonard, Dr. William Baylies, Hon. Francis Baylies, Capt. D. G. W. Cobb, and James Williams, the father and son, had their offices, which was taken down when the brick court house was built .- Emery's History of Taunton, p. 588.
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east room below and room above it, with the southeast room below, adjoining to the Jail and under the same roof be for the House of Cor- rection for the County of Bristol, till the further order of the Court." At the June term of 1753, George Leonard, Timothy Fales and Samuel White were appointed a committee to "endeavor the more thorough strengthening and securing the Gaol, that, if possible, prisoners may not be able to make their escape by reason of insufficiency thereof."
This jail, with such minor improvements as may have been made during the period, was used until 1785. In that year the court ordered the erection of a new jail and the Legislature authorized a county tax of $1,500 for the purpose. The second jail was built on the site of the first one; it was not very well adapted to its purpose and was in use only to 1817, when, on the second Monday in June, the Court of Com- mon Pleas, sitting in Taunton, ordered the erection of a stone jail. Seth Washburn and Apollos Tobey were appointed a committee to superin. tend "the business of its erection." The site is described in the deed (signed January 30, 1818) as "near Cobb's Slitting Mill." This jail was probably completed in 1819 or 1820. Gilbert Briggs, of Dighton, had charge of the stone work and Abiezer Dean 2d, of Taunton, the wood work. Abiezer Dean 1st was the first jailer and held the position until his death in 1826; he was succeeded by his son Abiezer for three years and he by another son, Joseph, until 1836; Jacob L. Porter to 1841; Elias A. Morse to 1854; Isaac G. Carrier to his death in 1886, when, on February 8, the sheriff, Andrew R. Wright, took the place. The stone jail stood at the junction of what are now Washington and Court streets, and was in use until 1873, when the present edifice was erected.
Previous to the completion of the court house in New Bedford all of the local judicial proceedings were held in the old market building, or town hall, on Second street, used in recent years as a police station. In June, 1828 (the same year in which New Bedford was made a half- shire town of Bristol county) the county commissioners purchased a piece of land belonging to the estate of Abraham Russell, with an area of about an acre and a half, for a site for the public buildings. It is the ground on which the old part of the present jail and house of cor- rection are situated, and at that time fulfilled the stipulated require- ments of being far enough "removed from the bustle and noise of the village, and yet sufficiently central for the general convenience of those having business at court."
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The first structure erected on this site was a stone jail, which was completed and ready for occupancy on Monday, October 5, 1829. This jail was very substantially constructed upon plans embodying the best and safest arrangements for confinement of prisoners then employed in similar institutions. There were thirty-two cells for solitary confine. ment, with apartments for imprisonment of debtors, accommodations for keeper, etc. The yard was inclosed with a high wall, and within the inclosure prisoners were to some extent employed. The appropria- tion for building the jail was $13,236.30.
The New Bedford court house was not completed until 1831, and with the exception of interior improvements, remains the same as when built.
The courts of Bristol county were held in Taunton and New Bedford until 1877. On the 19th of March of that year, as before stated, the justices of the Superior Court were authorized by statute to adjourn certain of the established terms of that court from Taunton or New Bedford to Fall River. To provide accommodations for such courts the county commissioners made the necessary arrangements to occupy a large hall, with adjoining apartments in the new Borden block, which were suitably fitted up and furnished. The court room thus provided was admirably adapted to its purpose and occupied more than ten years. The first session of the court held in Fall River was on June 27, 1877, Hon. P. Emory Aldrich presiding, and was devoted wholly to the dedi- cation ceremonies of the new court rooms. Addresses appropriate to the occasion were delivered by several members of the bar, and a re- sponse was made by the presiding judge.
The present splendid court house in Fall River was erected partly through the efforts of the Bar Association and leading citizens of the city, who secured the passage of a law in 1887, authorizing the County Commissioners to build a new court house at a total cost not exceeding $100,000. In 1888 this sum was increased to $175,000, to which was subsequently added an appropriation of $50,000. The site purchased was the former Richard Borden homestead, fronting 303 feet on North Main street. The building was commenced in 1889, the corner stone being laid on the 8th of August of that year, with appropriate cere- monies. It is of granite backed with brick and is 110 feet in length, 80 feet wide at the ends and 55 wide in the central part. The building contains the court room on the second floor, 48 by 56 feet in dimen- sions, apartments for the clerk of the courts, the grand jury, district
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attorney, witnesses, etc., and in the basement are six substantially constructed cells. On the third floor is the library room, reading rooms, etc. This court house is remarkably well adapted to its pur- poses, and is an honor to' the progressive city.
The corner stone of the present splendid court house in Taunton was laid June 30, 1892. The building stands on the site of the former court house, which was removed to its present site fronting on Court street . and in rear of the new building. To enlarge the site for the new struc- turc, land adjoining the old site was condemned by the County Commis- sioners under authority of chapter 259, act of 1889. Opposition to this action by owners of the land caused delay; but on September 21, 1891, the contract for the erection of the building was awarded to Beattie & Wilcox, of Fall River, at $198,950. The dedication of the completed court house took place on March 4, 1895. The building is a fine example of architecture, is constructed of granite, its interior perfectly adapted to its purposes, making it one of the noteworthy court build- ings of the State.
PERSONAL NOTES.
In the brief notes in these pages upon the lives of many prominent members of the judiciary and the bar of Bristol county, the editors have not attempted the impracticable task of giving adequate or merited biog- raphies of the many deceased men of eminence in the profession. The list is intended merely as a record for reference, with such few words of comment upon the characteristics of the men as are permissible in the allotted space. Among them were men who would have been distin- guished in any walk of life, who have left imperishable records of honor- able labor on the bench, or of brilliant success in the legal arena and the political field. It is clear from even these brief and imperfect records that the bench and bar of Bristol county, in far past years, was of high character and composed of men of eminent qualities, great average learn . ing in their profession, and natural talents that enabled them to attain high station.'
It is quite definitely settled that the first lawyer in practice in Taun-
1Comment is frequently heard from lawyers, and particularly from the older ones, upon the general high character and ability of the members of the bar in early years, when compared with those of the present day. Such comparisons are, in fact, wholly unjust to the local bench and bar of these times. The legal profession as a whole has stendily advanced in all respects-in charac- ter, in ability, in courtesy, and in general citizenship; the same is true of the medical profession and of men following other walks in life. Such advancement is the natural outcome of progress- ive civilization, and it would be deplorable were it otherwise.
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ton was Samuel White. He was born in Weymouth, Mass., April 2, 1710, and graduated from Harvard College in 1731. He soon afterward received the appointment of sheriff and during his term gave diligent attention to the study of law. About 1739 he appeared in Taunton as a practitioner, and from that time forward the record of his life shows that he was equal to every demand of his profession. In 1744 he was commissioned a justice of the peace for Bristol county, and when Taun- ton became the county seat, in 1746, he was appointed king's attorney of the Court of Sessions, which office he retained until his death. Out- side of his profession he was prominent in public affairs, and served from 1740 to 1753, from 1756 to 1759, and in 1764-5 as representative, and was a member of the Governor's Council in 1767-69. His death took place March 20, 1769.
Robert Treat Paine was a colleague of Mr. White and attained high professional distinction. He was born in Boston March 12, 1731, and graduated from Harvard in 1749. After some years spent in teaching and travel he began the study of law in 1755 and was admitted to the bar in 1757. He began practice in Boston, but removed to Taunton in 1761, and soon his great mental endowment, his profound knowledge of the law, and his thoroughness in practice brought him a large busi- ness. In 1770 the prosecution of Captain Preston and others for the Boston massacre was conducted by him with great ability. With the breaking out of the Revolution he warmly espoused the cause of the colonists and won immortality as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1779 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention and was a member of the committee which prepared the draft of the constitution. In 1777, upon the acceptance of the consti- tution, he was made the first attorney general of the State, an office which he retained thirteen years, when he was appointed one of the justices of the Superior Court; this high office he held fourteen years and resigned. He was a delegate to the first Congress in 1774, and was afterwards repeatedly elected to that office. In 1777 he took a seat in the Legislature by vote of both houses, and many other high positions were tendered him, in all of which he demonstrated his pos- session of the highest qualifications.
Upon the death of Samuel White the court appointed Daniel Leonard king's attorney. This man is described by John Adams as " a scholar, a lawyer, and an orator, according to the standard of those days. As a member of the House of Representatives, even down to the year 1770,
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he made the most ardent speeches in that House against Great Britain, and in favor of the colonies. His popularity became alarming. . Not another lawyer in the province, of whatever age, reputation, or station, presumed to ride in a coach or chariot." As against this opin- ion it is recorded that later in life Mr. Leonard became a decided loy- alist; this rendered him unpopular in Taunton and he removed to Boston. In 1776 he went to England and was appointed chief justice of Bermuda; there he died June 27, 1829.
Seth Padelford, LL.D., was a leading member of the early Bristol county bar and a native of Taunton, were he was born in December, 1751. He graduated at Yale College in 1770. He at once turned his attention to the study of law, probably with Timothy Ruggles, of Hardwick, as Mr. Padelford began practice in that place. He opened an office in Taunton early in the Revolutionary period, 1775-6. He espoused the cause of the colonists and in 1776 was appointed attorney- general of the county (an office now known as district attorney). In 1777 he purchased the homestead formerly occupied by Daniel Leon- ard. In 1783 he was appointed county treasurer, and in 1794 was ap- pointed judge of probate, which offce he held sixteen years and until his death in 1810. He was very highly esteemed as a member of the bar.
Marcus Morton, LL.D., was one of the most distinguished citizens of the Commonwealth. He was born in Freetown, Mass., February 19, 1784. He graduated from Brown University in 1804, and began the practice of law in Taunton in 1707. Besides gaining prompt recog- nition at the bar, he gave considerable attention to politics, adhering to Democracy during his life. In 1811-12 he served as clerk of the State Senate. From 1817 to 1821 he was a member of congress and shared in discussing the Missouri Compromise. In 1823 he was a member of the Executive Council. In 1824 he was elected lieutenant- governor and re-elected. In the same year he was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court and took his seat July 5, 1825. He was elected governor by the people in 1839 and by the Legislature in 1842. On May 1, 1845, he was made collector of the port of Boston, holding the office four years. He evinced active sympathy with the Free Soil movement in 1848, and in 1853 was a delegate to the Constitutiona1 Convention. In 1858 he was again sent to the Legislature. In all of these public stations Governor Morton found eminent favor in the eyes of his fellow citizens and discharged his many duties with honor to
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himself and for the welfare of the Commonwealth. For several years he was one of the overseers of Harvard University. His death took place on Februay 6, 1864.
Nathaniel Morton, son of Gov. Marcus Morton, was born December 3, 1821, in Taunton, and died February 12, 1856, giving only about ten years of his short life to the profession which he honored. He gradu- ated from Brown University in 1840 and from the Harvard Law School in 1843. Beginning practice in his native town, he soon attained high rank. It was said of him by one who knew him well, that he " had in its strictest sense a legal mind. He grasped the essential points of a case instinctively and presented them with a smooth, easy, insinuating address that was exceedingly effective." His early death took from the Bristol county bar one whose future was most promising.
James Brown was born in Swansea, September 19, 1828, and after obtaining an academic education, entered Brown University and grad- uated in the class of 1850. In college he was an intimate friend and room mate of John S. Brayton, of Fall River. Mr. Brown was admitted to the bar in 1852. He was honored by his fellow citizens with a seat in both houses of the Legislature, and afterwards served honorably in the war of the Rebellion, coming out with rank of major. His profes sional life in Taunton extended over a period of more than forty years, and he was numbered among the more successful in his profession. He died February 19, 1893.
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