USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 33
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WILLIAM ATWOOD was appointed judge of admiralty October 28, 1701, having Mas- sachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and the Jerseys within his jurisdiction.
ROGER MOMPESSON Was appointed judge of admiralty in April, 1703.
JOHN MENZIES was appointed judge of admiralty in 1715. He was born in Scotland in 1650 and settled in Roxbury, and died in Boston, September 20, 1728.
CHAMBERS RUSSELL, son of Daniel, was a judge on the bench of the Superior Court from 1752 to 1766. He was born in Charlestown in 1713, and graduated at Harvard in 1731. He was appointed a judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Mid- dlesex county in 1747 and held that position until he was promoted to the Superior Court. In 1747 he was appointed judge of the Admiralty Court and held the office until his death, which occurred at Guilford, England, November 24, 1767.
GEORGE CRADOCK was deputy judge of admiralty, resigning in 1766, and died July 1, 1771.
WILLIAM REED was appointed judge of admiralty in July, 1766. He was also ap- pointed in 1770 judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk county, and in 1775 judge of the Superior Court of Judicature.
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WILLIAM BOLLAN was born in England, and studied law in Massachusetts with Rob- ert Auchmuty. He was advocate-general of the Court of Admiralty. He married a daughter of Governor Shirley, and died in England in 1776.
JOHN VALENTINE was an attorney in Boston, and held the office of advocate-general of admiralty at the time of his death in 1724.
WILLIAM SHIRLEY was born in Preston, England, in 1693, and was educated to the law. He came to Boston in 1734 and practiced his profession until 1741, when he was appointed governor of the Province, a position which he held until 1756. He was commander-in-chief of the British forces in America and planned the expedition against Cape Breton in 1745. In 1759 he was made lieutenant-general. He was trans- *ferred from the government of Massachusetts to that of one of the Bahama Islands, but returned to Massachusetts and settled in Roxbury, where he died March 24, 1771. He was during the early part of his residence in Boston advocate-general of admi- ralty.
ANDREW LANE, a Boston attorney, died April 13, 1747.
JAMES OTIS, jr., son of Col. James and Mary Allyne Otis, was born in Barnstable, Mass., February 5, 1725, and graduated at Harvard in 1743. He studied law in Bos- ton with Jeremiah Gridley and finished his studies in Plymouth, where he was ad- mitted to the bar, and practiced until 1750, when he removed to Boston. His sister Mercy married James Warren, of Plymouth. Not long after his arrival in Boston he was appointed advocate-general of admiralty, an office which he resigned in 1761, in which year he made his memorable speech against writs of assistance. In the same year he was chosen representative from Boston, and in 1766 speaker of the House. In 1769 he was assaulted by John Robinson, one of the commissioners of customs, whom he had denounced in an article in the Gazette, and so seriously injured that not long after his mind became deranged and he retired from public life to Andover. where he was killed by lightning May 29, 1783. He married in 1755 Ruth Cunning- ham.
SAMUEL SWIFT, an attorney of Boston, graduated at Harvard in 1735, and was a barrister in 1768.
JOHN OVERING was a successful Boston attorney, who was chosen by the House of Representatives attorney-general in 1722, and again in 1728. He held office until 1733, and was again chosen in 1739-40-41-43, and annually afterwards until his death, November 24, 1748.
JOHN READ, born about 1677, graduated at Harvard in 1697, and studied divinity. After preaching acceptably for a time he studied law, and was admitted to the bar about 1720. He was chosen attorney-general in 1723-33-34-35, and was chosen to the General Court in 1738 and several succeeding years, the first lawyer chosen to that body. He was also several years a member of the Council, and was one of the legal counsel for the Province in its contest with Rhode Island concerning the boundary line. He was probably the ablest lawyer in Massachusetts before the Rev- olution. He died February 7, 1749.
JEREMIAH GRIDLEY was born about 1705, and graduated at Harvard in 1725. He was chosen attorney-general in 1742, and was appointed in 1761 to the same office by the governor and Council. Before entering the profession he studied divinity and
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taught a Boston school. His residence was in Brookline, from which town he was a representative some years. In 1761 he acted as king's attorney in defending the writs of assistance, with his former pupil James Otis against him. He held the office of attorney-general until his death, which occurred September , 1767.
JAMES OTIs, sr., son of John and Mercy (Bacon) Otis, was born in Barnstable, Mass,, in 1702, and became an eminent lawyer. In 1748 he was appointed attorney-general and held the office one year, and in 1760-61 he was speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. In 1764 he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas and judge of probate for Barnstable county. He married Mary, daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Wethersfield, and James Otis, the patriot, was his son. He died in November, 1778.
JOSEPH HEARNE, a Boston attorney, died in Boston, December 26, 1728, aged nearly seventy years.
WELDON, a Boston attorney, committed suicide in London in 1734.
JOSEPH ST. LAWRENCE, an attorney from Ireland, was admitted to the Superior Court in 1737, and opened an office in Boston.
JOHN LOWELL, son of Rev. John Lowell, was born in Newbury, Mass., June 17, 1743, and graduated at Harvard in 1760. He studied law with Oxenbridge Thacher, and was admitted to the bar in 1962. He began practice in Newburyport, but in 1777 removed to Boston. In 1776 he was a representative from Newburyport and in 1778 from Boston. He was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1780, member of Congress in 1783, judge of the Court of Appeals from 1783 to 1789, judge of the United States District Court for Massachusetts 1789-1801, chief justice of the Circuit Court for Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island in 1801, until the law creating the court was repealed in 1802. He died in Roxbury, May 6, 1802. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1792.
JOHN LOWELL, son of the above, was born in Newburyport, October 6, 1769, and graduated at Harvard in 1786. He studied law in Boston with his father, and at a meeting of the Suffolk bar July 21, 1789, it was voted that he be " recommended to the Court of Common Pleas the present term for the oath of an attorney of that court." He went to Europe in 1803 and after his return he devoted himself chiefly to literary pursuits. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts General Hospital, of the Boston Atheneum, the Provident Institution for Savings, and the Hospital Life Insurance Company. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1814, and died March 12, 1840.
ABEL WILLARD was born in Lancaster, Mass., in January, 1732, and graduated at Harvard in 1752. He studied law in Boston with Benjamin Pratt, and was admitted to the bar in 1755. He practiced in Lancaster until the Revolution, when he removed to Boston. In 1776 he went to Halifax, and in 1978 was proscribed and banished. He died in England in 1781. He married Eliza, daughter of Rev. Daniel Rogers, who died in Boston in 1815.
JAMES PUTNAM was born in Danvers, Mass., in 1725, and graduated at Harvard in 1746. He studied law with Edmund Trowbridge, and after admission to the bar set- tled in Worcester in 1749, practicing also in Suffolk county. He went to England in 1776 and in 1778 was proscribed and banished. In 1784 he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and died at St. Johns in 1789.
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JOHN A. BOLLES, son of Rev. Matthew Bolles, was born in Ashford, Conn., April 17, 1809, and graduated at Brown University in 1829. He was admitted to the bar in Boston in April, 1833, and practiced there. In 1843 he was secretary of the Com- monwealth, in 1852 a member of the Harbor and Back Bay Commission. He enlisted in July, 1861, and from 1862 to 1865 was judge advocate on the staff of his brother-in- law, General John A. Dix. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers in 1865 and naval solicitor. He died at Washington, D. C., May 11, 1818. He married, November 11, 1834, Catherine Hartwell, daugher of Colonel Timothy Dix.
CHARLES H. BLOOD, son of Hiram A. and Mary M. (Person) Blood, was born in Fitchburg, Mass., December 10, 1857, and graduated at Harvard in 1879. He studied law in New Bedford in the office of Marston & Cobb, and at the Boston University Law School, and was admitted to the Bristol county bar in August, 1882. He is special justice of the Police Court of Fitchburg, where he has his residence.
GEORGE RICHARD BLINN, son of John F. and Susan L. Blinn, was born in Charles- town, Mass., July 11, 1859, and graduated at Harvard in 1885. He studied law in Boston with George Z. Adams, and was admitted to the Suffolk county bar February 2, 1887. He married Clara A. Pollard at South Newmarket, N. H., June 6, 1886, and resides in Bedford, Mass.
WILLIAM P. BLAKE, son of Edward and Mary J. (Dehon) Blake, was born in Dor- chester, July 23, 1846, and graduated at Harvard in 1866. He studied law at the Harvard Law School and in Boston in the office of Hutchins & Wheeler, and was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar in September, 1869. He was associated in the practice of law with his father until his father's death in 1873.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, son of John Quincy and Louisa (Johnson) Adams, was born in Boston, August 18, 1807, and graduated at Harvard in 1825. While a youth he was with his father, then minister at St. Petersburg, and in 1815 accompanied him to England in his mission to the Court of St. James. He returned home in 1817 and fitted for college. After graduating he studied law in the office of Daniel Web- ster in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in January, 1829. He was rep- resentative from 1831 to 1834 and senator from 1835 to 1837. He was nominated at Buffalo in 1848 by the Free Soil Party for the vice-presidency, on a ticket with Mar- tin Van Buren for president, and from 1859 to 1861 was a member of Congress. From March, 1861, to February, 1868, he was minister to England, and by his wise and skillful diplomacy rendered his country an inestimable service. He married in 1829 a daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, of Boston, and died in Boston, November 21, 1886. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1864.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, son of the above, was born in Boston, September 22, 1833, and graduated at Harvard in 1853. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar July ?, 1856. He was representative from Quincy in 1866, 1869 and 1870, and in 1867 and 1871 was the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He is at present a member of the corporation of Harvard, to which position he was chosen in 1877.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, jr., brother of the above, was born in Boston, May 27, 1835, and graduated at Harvard in 1856. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar May 17, 1858, and served through the war, being mustered out in July, 1865, as brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1869 he was appointed a member of the Board
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of Railroad Commissioners of Massachusetts, and in that position exhibited sulc marked ability as led to his election in 1884 as president of the Union Pacific Rail- road. Since his retirement from that office one of his most marked efforts is the ad- dress delivered on the Fourth of July, 1892, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the town of Quincy.
BROOKS ADAMS, brother of the above, was born in Quincy, Mass., June 24, 1848, and graduated at Harvard in 1870. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar April 10, 1873, and is the author of the "Emancipation of Massachusetts."
GEORGE EVERETT ADAMS Was born in Keene, N. H., in 1840, and when a child went to Chicago. He fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and.graduated at Har- vard in 1860. He graduated at the Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Suffolk bar August 19, 1865. He settled in Chicago and has been a member of the Illinois Senate, and was a member of Congress from the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict of Illinois from 1883 to 1891. He is president of the Chicago Harvard Club and the Union League Club, and was at the last election chosen an overseer of Harvard.
CHARLES DAY ADAMS, son of George and Angelina (Day) Adams, was born in Wor- cester, July 28, 1851, and graduated at Harvard in 1873. He studied law with Oren S. Knapp in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar February 27, 1875. He was associated in business with Mr. Knapp until Mr. Knapp's death, and now, while prac- ticing in Boston, resides in Woburn, where he is a special justice of the Fourth East- ern Middlesex District Court.
CHARLES FREDERICK ADAMS, son of Charles Frederick and Caroline Hesselrigge (Walter) Adams, was born in Boston, February 3, 1824, and graduated at Harvard in 1843. He studied law at the Harvard Law School and in Boston in the office of Charles G. Loring, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar July 24, 1846. In 1849, on account of ill health, he made a voyage to California, the Sandwich Islands and China, returning after thirteen months' absence and resuming the practice of law. He died . of consumption at Boston, December 30, 1856.
NATHANIEL PRENTISS BANKS was born in Waltham, Mass., January 30, 1816. In his youth he worked in the mill of which his father was superintendent and learned the machinist's trade, so mingling study with his labor as enabled him to secure a posi- tion as editor first of a paper in Waltham and then in Lowell. He then studied law and after his admission to the bar he was sent to the Legislature from Waltham in 1849, and in 1851 and 1852 was speaker of the House of Representatives. The writer has a distinct recollection of the bearing and methods of twenty-four speakers of the House as far back and including Thomas Kinnicut in 1843, and he has no hesitation in expressing the opinion that not one of them all equaled Mr. Banks in readiness to grasp situations, in coolness, promptness in decision and general parliamentary skill. He was an ideal speaker and not a few presiding officers have remembered with profit lessons learned from him while in the speaker's chair. In 1853 he was a mem- ber and the president of the State Constitutional Convention, and then member of Congress from 1853 to 1857. In 1855 he was chosen speaker of the National House of Representatives on the 133d ballot, after a contest during which his bearing was remarkable for its sagacity and wisdom. In 1857 he was chosen by the Republican party governor of Massachusetts, and twice re-elected, serving until January, 1861.
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After leaving the executive chair he was chosen president of the Illinois Central Rail- road, but he had hardly entered his new office before the war broke out, when he of- fered his services to the government and was commissioned major-general May 16, 1861. So much may be found elsewhere concerning his career, it will be unnecessary to follow it in this register. He resigned his commission in 1864, and in that year was again chosen to Congress, continuing in service, with the exception of one Con- gress, until 1877. On his retirement from Congress he was appointed United States marshal for Massachusetts, and not receiving a reappointment to that office from President Cleveland, was again chosen to Congress, and finally retired from public life in 1890. He still resides in Waltham.
ANSON BURLINGAME, son of a farmer, was born in New Berlin, N. Y., November 14, 1820, and when three years old removed with his parents to a farm in Seneca county, Ohio, where he lived ten years. In 1833 he removed to Detroit and after two years to a farm at Branch, Mich. In 1837 he entered the University of Michigan, and in 1843 entered the Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1846, and was admitted to the bar in Middlesex county in September, 1846. During the presidential cani- paign of 1844 at a meeting of the Young Men's Whig Club, of which Charles Francis Adams was president, held in a small hall in Schollay's building, which stood in the center of Schollay Square, Mr. Burlingame made his first speech. The writer was present and remembers well the favorable impression which his somewhat florid oratory made on the audience. After that at political meetings he was often called out and his speeches were frequent. He began practice in Boston, but his business soon yielded to the demand of politics and he entered almost at once on a public career. In the campaign of 1848 he was an active worker and speaker in the Free Soil party, and again the writer was with him in organizing meetings in Faneuil Hall and other places. In 1849 he went to Europe, and in 1850 was a member of the State Senate. In 1853 he was chosen a delegate from Northboro' to the State Constitutional Convention, though living in Cambridge, and in 1854 was chosen member of Con- gress by the Know-Nothing party. He was re-elected in 1856 and 1858, and in 1861 . was appointed minister to Austria. The Austrian government refused to receive him on account of his advocacy of Hungarian independence and of the recognition of Sardinia as a first class power. He was then sent minister to China, returning home in 1867, and again resuming his official duties after a short vacation. In 1867, when retiring from the Chinese embassy, he was appointed by the Chinese government a special envoy to the United States and the European powers for the purpose of ne- gotiating treaties. Having accomplished his mission in the United States he pro- ceeded in 1868 to England, and afterwards to France, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Prussia, where, with the exception of France, his duties were successfully per- formed, finally reaching St. Petersburg in 1870, where he died on the 23d of February, 1871. He married a daughter of Isaac Livermore, of Cambridge.
WILLIAM CRANCH, so11 of Richard and Mary (Smith) Cranch, was born in Wey- mouth, Mass., July 17, 1769, and graduated at Harvard in 1787, receiving in 1829 the the degree of LL.D. He studied law with Thomas Dawes, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in July, 1790. He removed to Washington, D. C., in 1794 and in 1801 President John Adams appointed him assistant judge of the Circuit Court of the Dis- trict of Columbia, of which court he became chief justice in 1805, serving until his
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death September 1, 1855. Ile published nine volumes of reports of the United States Supreme Court, and six volumes of reports of the Circuit Court of the District of Co- lumbia.
LUTHER STEARNS CUSHING was born in Lunenburg, Mass., June 22, 1803, and grad- uated at the Harvard Law School in 1826. He was admitted to the bar in Middlesex county in March, 1827. He was several years editor of The Jurist and Law Maga- zine, from 1832 to 1834 was clerk of the House of Representatives, and represent- ative in 1844. From 1844 to 1848 he was judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and from 1848 to 1853 reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, editing during that period twelve volumes, beginning with the Suffolk and Nantucket terin of 1848 and ending with the Suffolk term in November, 1853. He is more popularly known as the author of "A Manual of Parliamentary Practice," the " Elements of the Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies," and " Rules of Proceeding and Debates in De- liberate Assemblies."
THOMAS CUSHING, son of Thomas, was born in Boston, March 24, 1725, and grad- uated at Harvard in 1744, receiving the degree of LL. D. in 1785. He was represent- ative, speaker of the House, member of the Provincial Congress, and judge of the Common Pleas and Probate for the county of Suffolk. He was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts from 1779 to his death, which occurred February 28, 1788.
BENJAMIN F. HALLETT, son of Benjamin, was born in Barnstable, December 2, 1797, and graduated at Brown University in 1816. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar and practiced in Boston. He was a prominent Democrat after the decline of the Anti- Masonic party to which he belonged, He was appointed district attorney for Massa- chusetts by President Pierce in 1853. He died in Boston, September 30, 1862.
SAMUEL HUBBARD was born in Boston, June 2, 1785, and graduated at Yale in 1802. He studied law in Boston with Charles Jackson and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in April, 1806. He practiced in Biddeford, Me., until 1810, when he returned to Boston and became associated with Mr. Jackson, his former teacher. He was judge of the Supreme Judicial Court from 1842 to 1847, and received in 1842 the degree of LL. D. from Harvard. He died in Boston, December 24, 1847.
SAMUEL LORENZO KNAPP was born in Newburyport, January 19, 1783, and gradu- ated at Dartmouth in 1804. He was admitted to the bar in Essex county in 1807. He was a representative, commander of a regiment of militia during the war of 1812, editor in Boston of various newspapers and magazines between 1824 and 1827, re- sumed the practice of law in New York, and died at Hopkinton, Mass., July 8, 1838. He was the author of "Lives of Eminent Lawyers, Statesmen, and Men of Letters," and was a profuse writer on other subjects.
JOHN LATHROP, son of Rev. John, was born in Boston, January 13, 1772, and grad- uated at Harvard in 1789. He studied law with John Lowell and Christopher Gore in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar. After practicing in Dedham a short time he returned to Boston, and after an unsuccessful career at the bar went to India in 1799, returning in 1809. He then taught school, delivered lectures, con- tributed to the newspapers and pronounced several orations. He finally secured a place in the Post-office Department in Washington, and died at Georgetown, D. C., January 30, 1820. He married in 1793 a daughter of Joseph Pierce of Boston.
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JOHN LEVERETT, grandson of the governor, was born in Boston, August 25, 1662, and graduated at Harvard in 1680. He was an educated lawyer, speaker of the Provincial Legislature in 1700, judge of the Superior Court of Judicature from 1702 to 1708, judge of probate, and the successor of Samuel Willard as president of Har- vard College in 1707. He died May 3, 1724.
EDWARD ST. LOE LIVERMORE Was an attorney in Boston in 1812. He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., April 5, 1762, was United States attorney, member of Congress from 1806 to 1812, and a judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire from 1797 to to 1199. After taking up his residence in Boston he delivered the Fourth of July oration there in 1813, and died at Lowell, September 22, 1832.
GRENVILLE MELLEN, son of Chief Justice Prentiss Mellen, was born in Biddeford, Me., and graduated at Harvard in 1818. He practiced law in Portland and North Yarmouth, Me., but moved to Boston and was admitted to the Suffolk bar February 1, 1834. He devoted himself more to literature than to law and published a number of poems. He died in New York, September 5, 1841.
DAVID HALL RICE was born in Penn Van, N. Y., May 6, 1841, and graduated at Syracuse University. After admission to the bar he went south and practiced until 1868. In 1869 he opened an office in Lowell, Mass., and subsequently in Boston. At the recent election, November 8, 1892, he was chosen a member of the Executive Council. His residence is in Brookline.
ARTEMAS WARD, son of General Artemas, was born in Shrewsbury, Mass., January 9, 1762, and graduated at Harvard in 1783. He practiced in Shrewsbury until 1809, when he removed to Boston. He was a representative, member of the Executive Council and member of Congress from 1813 to 1817. May 11, 1819, he was appointed judge of the Boston Court of Common Pleas, and when that court was abolished, February 14, 1821, he was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the Commonwealth, established at the same date, and served until he resigned in 1839. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1842, and died in Boston, October 7, 1847.
ROYALL TYLER was born in Boston, July 18, 1757, and graduated at Harvard in 1776. He studied law with John Adams and was recommended by the Suffolk bar, July 18, 1780, for admission to practice in the Court of Common Pleas. In 1790 he removed to Guilford, Vt., and in 1794 was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont, being promoted to chief justice in 1800. Previous to his appointment as chief justice he indulged in the recreation of writing dramas, among which may be mentioned "Contrast," a comedy, the first American play ever acted on a regular stage; "May Day, or New York in an Uproar;" "The Georgia Spec, or Land in the Moon," and the " Algerine Captive." In 1809 he published two volumes of "Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Vermont." He died at Brattleboro', Vt., August 16, 1826.
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