History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 22

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

USA > Maine > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland Co., Maine > Part 22

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 (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1760, on the establishment of the county of Cumber- land, he was appointed the first sheriff, and held the office till 1768, when William Tyng was appointed. In 1770 he was raised to the beneh of the Common Pleas, and contin- ued in office until the Revolution. He was a large pro- prietor in Falmouth and in Standish, which for several years was called " Pearsontown," it having been granted to him and several others who were engaged in the Louisbourg expedition. He owned large property in Portland, which he left to his heirs. He died June 5, 1778, aged eighty- one. Ilis wife was Sarah Titeomb, a sister of Col. Moses Titcomb, who was killed at Ticonderoga in 1755, by whom he had six daughters and no sons. One of his daughters -Lois-married Joshua Freeman in 1750; she died March 21, 1813. Another daughter-Eunice-married Rev. Samuel Deane, April 3, 1766, and died in 1812. Sarah married Daniel Dole, and Ann married Benjamin Titcomb.

CHAPTER XVI.

BENCH AND BAR-(Continued).

Association of Members of the Bar-Discussion of Legal Reforms- Sketeties of Members of the Bench and Bar from 1783 to 1808.

THE excitement which existed against lawyers and the courts to an alarming extent in Massachusetts in 1785, and some years after, was not much felt here; the Shays rebel- lion had no advocates in this part of the country. A pre- judice, however, did prevail against the profession, which was concentrated and carried into the Legislature in 1790, by John Gardiner, of Pownalboro', a barrister at law. IIe introduced a resolution in January of that year, that the

* Willis' ttistory of Portland.

CUMBERLAND BENCH AND BAR.

House would resolve itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration " the present state of the law and its professors in the commonwealth." Ile prefaced his resolution by some able and spirited remarks, which he subsequently enforced and illustrated, against lawyers and what he termed abuses of the law, some of which were merely imaginary. Ile objected to the association of mem- bers of the bar and the formation of bar rules, the modes of taxing, eost, and other practices which he termed illegal and unwarrantable usurpations. He thought the law ought to be simplified, that many customs had erept in from the English law which should be eradieated ; his desire was to thrust in the knife and remove entirely all those customs which he and others considered grievances. While the subjeet was before the Legislature, Mr. Gardiner, in the heat of debate and in a highly excited state of feeling, east many aspersions upon lawyers, which had a tendency to bring the whole elass into disrepute and encourage the unfounded prejudice which existed against them outside. He had not, however, many supporters in the house; the bills which he introduced were rejected by large majorities ; the one to annihilate special pleading was debated with great earnestness, and the late Chief Justice Parsons op- posed it with a power that could not be resisted. Mr. Gardiner was severely handled in the newspapers, and treated in a manner altogether unworthy of an age of free inquiry. The editor of a Boston paper was tried in 1791 for a gross libel upon him, but was acquitted ; the defense seenied to be that Mr. Gardiner had rather courted abuse in the cause of reform than avoided it, and was not there- fore to be protected from a storm which he had invited. The effect of this attempt to array the community against one elass of citizens was on the whole to establish the eharae- ter of the profession, which numbered among its members some of the most learned, virtuous, and patriotie individ- uals of the country, upon a more firm foundation in publie favor than it had before enjoyed.

At this time Judge Parsons drew from Mr. Gardiner the following eulogium : "This erroneous opinion of the gentlemen of the profession here was taken from a mere dictum of the late Mr. Gridley, who, though a mighty pomp- ous man, was a man of considerable learning and abilities, in learning and genius, however, almost infinitely inferior to that great giant of learning and genius, the law member from Newburyport." Mr. Parsons was then but forty years old. Mr. Gardiner had been educated in England, and practiced law in the island of St. Christopher ; he came to Boston after the Revolution, and soon after moved to Pownalboro', in the neighborhood of which he had an here- ditary estate. He was lost by the upsetting of a packet in which he was going to Boston, in 1793 or 1794. He left one daughter, who married James Lithgow.

Joseph Thomas, born in Pembroke, Mass., a graduate of Harvard College in 1786, eame to Portland, and took charge of the grammar school, and afterwards studied law with his uncle, Daniel Davis, and was admitted to the Cumberland bar in May, 1792. He went to Kennebunk, where he practiced till his death, Jan. 20, 1830.

Samuel Thateher graduated at Harvard College in 1793, at the age of seventeen. Ile studied law in the office of

Jonathan Fay, at Concord, Mass., was admitted in 1798, and came to Maine and opened an office at New Gloucester, then half-shire with Portland. In October of the next year he removed to Warren, Me.

Moses Gill, a nephew of Lieutenant-Governor Gill, with whom he was prepared for his profession, was a gradn- ate of Harvard in 1784, and commenced practice in New Gloucester in 1796. After a practice of about two years he became dissipated in his habits, returned to Massachu- setts, and died there in 1832.

Peter O. Alden, a graduate of Brown University in 1792, was admitted to the Cumberland bar in March, 1797. Ilis business for a time was very good, but it soon declined, and, after some success in commercial pursuits, the restric- tions prior to the war of 1812 caused him to become em- barrassed, and the latter portion of his life was embittered by disappointment and poverty. He died in 1843, at the age of seventy-three years.

In 1789 Salmon Chase and Samuel Cooper Johonnot eame to Portland to practice law, and were both admitted at the October term of the Common Pleas that year.

Mr. Chase was son of Samuel Chase, of Cornish, N. H .; he graduated at Dartmouth College in 1785. Ile eon- tinued in practice here, rising gradually to the first rank in his profession, until his death, Aug. 10, 1806, aged forty- five years. Mr. Chase was distinguished rather for sound judgment and accurate research than as an eloquent advo- eate ; he was a safe counselor, and the interests of his elients were never neglected by him. He died much regretted by the community of which he had been an active and useful member.

Mr. Johonnot was grandson of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Boston ; he graduated at Harvard College in 1783, and completed his education in France and Geneva. He studied law with Governor Sullivan, who was much attached to him, and introduced him to the bar. Ile re- mained abroad long enough to part with all his American manners and feelings, and although he returned a good scholar and highly-polished man, he was unfitted altogether for the practice of his profession among his countrymen. He spoke the modern languages fluently, was full of wit, vivacity, and satire, and an extremely pleasant companion. In 1791 his satirical talent having involved him in a bitter quarrel with the principal men of the town, he found it necessary for his own comfort and safety to make a basty departure. He went to Boston, and soon after embarked for Demerara, where he was appointed American consul in 1793, and accumulated a handsome estate in the commission business.

In 1790, William Symmes, who had been previously ad- mitted to the bar in Essex County, came to Portland to prae- tiee law. Ile was a son of Rev. Mr. Symmes, of Andover, and a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1780. Mr. Symmes was a member of the convention of Massachusetts which adopted the Constitution of the United States, and, although warmly opposed to that instrument on taking his seat, he had the good sense to yield his opinion to the able and enlightened arguments which distinguished that illus- trious body. He was an able lawyer and advocate, and a man of much personal pomposity. He died Jan. 7, 1807. a bachelor, aged forty-five.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

The next attorney who was admitted to the bar and set- tled in Portland was John Bagley, son of John Bagley, and a native of the place. He was indeed the first native of the town or State who was admitted to practice in this county. Ile did not, however, continue long at the bar. He was followed by James D. Hopkins, who was admitted in 1797 ; George E. Vanghan, son of William Vanghan, who was admitted in 1798, and was a successful practitioner.

The next year, 1799, came Isaac Parker, late chief jus- tice of Massachusetts, from Castine, and entered at once upon a large and profitable practice, to which he was emi- nently entitled by his urbanity, his erudition, and his elo- quence as an advocate. Mr. Parker was born in Boston in 1768, and graduated at Harvard in 1786. He was twice elected to Congress from the eastern district of Maine, and while a member in 1799 was appointed by President Adams marshal of Maiue, which office he held till 1803, when he was removed by President Jefferson. On the 22d of February, 1800, he pronounced an eloquent eulogy at Portland on the death of Gen. Washington. In December, 1805, he was elected to the bench of the Supreme Court, and the next year removed to Boston. In 1814 he was ap- pointed successor to Chief Justice Sewall. He died in July, 1830, universally lamented.

Chief Justice Parker was descended from John Parker, who came from Biddeford, England, and settled at the mouth of the Saco River, and afterwards entered largely into land speculation at the mouth of the Kennebec. The son of the first John and the great-great-grandfather of the chief justice was born in Saco in 1635, was driven by Indian hostilities in 1689 from his large possessions on the Ken- nebec and sought refuge at Fort Loyal, where he and his son James were killed when the fort was taken in May, 1690. Ilis eldest son, Daniel, moved to Charlestown, Mass., where he died in 1694, leaving a son, Isaac, who was grandfather of the chief justice.

In 1800 there were nine lawyers in the county, viz., John Frothingham, Daniel Davis, William Symmes, Salmon Chase, James D. Hopkins, George E. Vaughan, Peter O. Alden, of Brunswick, and Ezekiel Whitman, of New Gloucester. To these should be added William Widgery, who practiced law many years in New Gloucester, in opposition to the bar rules, and became judge of the Common l'leas, under the goverment of Massachusetts. Few men saw more of the world or figured in a greater variety of ways. He went very poor to New Gloucester before the Revolution. During the war, or part of it, he was lieutenant of a priva- teer commanded by Nathaniel Thompson, in which he dis- played the remarkable perseverance which characterized his after-life. He was a member of the convention of Massa- chusetts which adopted the Constitution of the United States, and strenuously opposed that instrument in numer- ous speeches. Ile was chosen Senator in 1794, and fre- quently Representative to the General Court, and was also elected to Congress. After his removal to Portland he en- gaged in navigation, and for a time commanded one of his own vessels, which, on one occasion, by his superior sagacity and shrewdness, he saved from the hands of the British. lle accumulated a large estate, which he left to his heirs in 1822.

James D. Hopkins was born at Axminster, England, in 1773. and was the son of Thomas Hopkins, a merchant, who came to Falmouth from England in 1784. Ile studied law with Daniel Davis, of Portland, then the most brilliant lawyer at the bar of Maine, and was admitted in 1797. Although not a college graduate he was a thorough student and well informed and able in his profession, being an adroit special pleader and skilled in the laws of real estate. IIe practiced here successfully till his death, June 17, 1840. Ilis first wife was Mary, daughter of John Bagley, of Port- land, whom he married Dee. 18, 1801. She died in about three months afterwards. In December, 1804, he married for his second wife, Dorcas, a daughter of Capt. Daniel Tucker, of Portland, by whom he had three daughters.

Mr. Hopkins had a younger brother, Thomas Hopkins, who read law with him, and a few months with Judge Wilde, of Hallowell, and was admitted to the bar of Cum- berland County in 1805. He commenced practice in Bridgton, where he remained about a year, and then, in ill health, removed to Portland, where he died in 1807.

In 1801, Stephen Longfellow was admitted to the bar of this county, and continued in successful practice in Portland till his death, in 1849. Mr. Longfellow was born in Gor- ham, Me., March 23, 1776. He was descended in the fourth generation from William Longfellow, the first of the name who came to this country and settled in the Beyfield Parish, in the old town of Newbury, and who married there, in 1678, Anne Sewall. His father, grandfather, and great- grandfather were all named Stephen, the name being de- rived from Stephen Dummer, the father of Jane Dummer, the first William Longfellow's wife. His grandfather, the first of the name who came to Maine, graduated at Harvard in 1742, and came to Falmouth as the grammar-school master in 1745. He was fifteen years grammar-school master, twenty-three years parish clerk, twenty-two years town clerk, and fifteen years register of probate and clerk of the Judicial Courts, several of which offices he held at the same time. Ilis son Stephen held the office of judge of the court of Common Pleas, and died much respected in 1824. The grandfather died in 1790.

The subject of this notice was a graduate of Ilarvard College, which he entered at the age of eighteen. He studied law with Salmon Chase, of Portland, and was ad- mitted to practice in 1801. He was a man of excellent character and good abilities as a lawyer. In 1823-24 he was Representative from this district in Congress ; in 1826 he represented Portland in the State Legislature ; in 1828 was made Doctor of Laws by Bowdoin College; and in 1833 was president of the Maine Historical Society. IIe died Aug. 3, 1849, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

Barrett Potter, for twenty-five years judge of probate in this county, was born in Lebanon, Conn., March 8, 1777, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1796, studied law at Northfield, Mass., and was admitted to the bar in 1801. In the same year he opened a law-office in North Yarmouth, where he continued to practice till March, 1805, when he removed to Gorham and remained till June, 1806, at which date, upon the solicitation of Salmon Chase, Esq., he moved to Portland, and entered into partnership with the latter- named gentleman. The death of Mr. Chase, in August

CUMBERLAND BENCH AND BAR.

following, left Mr. Potter in possession of a lucrative busi- ness, which, by his own added abilities and popularity, was rapidly increased. In 1819, Mr. Potter was chosen a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts, and in 1820, when the new State of Maine was formed, he was chosen the first Senator from Cumberland County. In 1822 he was appointed judge of probate as the successor of Judge Parris, who had been chosen Governor of the State. Judge Potter held the office a quarter of a century, and retired in 1847, at the age of seventy. He married, in 1809, Ann Titcomb, daughter of Hon. Woodbury Storer, of Portland, by whom he had three daughters, of whom Mary married the poet Longfellow, and Ann married Peter Thacher, Esq., an attorney-at-law of Rockland, Me.

William B. Sewall studied law in the office of Judge Isaac Parker, of Portland. He graduated at Harvard in 1803, in the class with Rev. Dr. Edward Payson, James Savage, Prof. John Farrer, and others of no less brilliant reputation. Several of these came to Portland to study law, as the place at that time presented great inducements, on account of the legal talent centred here; and among these was William B. Sewall. He says, " When I went to Portland, in December, 1803, the students in Judge Par- ker's office were Samuel D. Freeman, John Wadsworth, and James Savage. Freeman was for the most part with his father in office business, and Wadsworth was absent considerably from ill health, part of the time at Washing- ton, his father being Representative from Cumberland. In 1804, Abram Eustis was added to our number; and not long afterwards Samuel Bryant, a nephew of Maj. Weeks, began his term of five years. We were all dispersed by the appointment of Judge Parker to the Supreme Court in February, 1806." Eustis went to Boston, and was com- missioned captain in the United States Artillery ; Bryant afterwards went into business ; Wadsworth was admitted to the bar, and had an office in Portland in 1809; he after- wards moved to Hiram, where he died in 1860. Mr. Sew- all adds, " Horatio Southgate, James C. Jewett, and Wood- bury Storer, Jr., were, I think, admitted before I went to Portland. Bray came from Connecticut, and was a short time in Symmes' office before being allowed to practice in this State; he was in practice, when I first came, in Kel- logg's building."

For a short time after the appointment of Judge Parker to the bench, Mr. Sewall was in the office of Prentiss Mel- len, but he completed his studies with Livermore, in New- buryport, and was there admitted to the Common Pleas. He came back to Portland, opened an office, and was ad- mitted to the Supreme Court in Cumberland County. Ile was afterwards a partner with Prentiss Mellen, the latter having so large an outside practice, where he was retained on important cases, as to make a partner in the office necessary.

Mr. Sewall was an able lawyer and a man of fine literary abilities. He contributed many interesting articles to the old Portland Gazette, when it was edited by Mr. Isaac Adams, over the signature of " Pilgrim," and with Judge Bourne, of Kennebunk, prepared the first " Maine Regis- ter," issued in 1820. He had a great fondness for wathe- matics, and at the time of receiving his first degree at

Harvard Commencement was assigned " Exercises in Math- ematics and Astronomy," with two other classmates,-Na- than Parker and Daniel Swan.

In 1819, on the death of his first wife, Mr. Sewall re- tired to the old homestead at Kennebunk, where he re- mained till 1823, when he returned to Portland and took charge of the editorial department of the Advertiser, add- ing to it during his management the semi-weekly edition. IIe returned permanently to Kennebunk in 1837.

Judge Nathan Weston, who began the practice of law at New Gloucester, on the removal of Judge Whitman to Portland, was born in Augusta, July 27, 1782, was educated at Hallowell Academy and Dartmouth College, studied law with George Blake, United States district attorney, in Boston, and was admitted to the bar of Suffolk in 1806. He at first opened a law office at Augusta, but in the spring of 1807 removed to New Gloucester, where he remained till 1810, being elected to the Legislature in 1808. In 1809 he married a daughter of Judge Daniel Cony, of Augusta, and the next year went there to reside perma- nently.

In 1811, under the famous " gerrymandering" of the Common Pleas into Circuit Courts, Mr. Weston was ap- pointed chief justice of the second circuit. He discharged the duties of the office with dignity and ability till 1820, when on the organization of the new State he was appointed one of the justices of the Supreme Court, and in October, 1834, was made chief justice in the place of Prentiss Mellen, whose constitutional time had expired. lle retired from the bench in October, 1841, and was succeeded by Chief Justice Whitman.

Judge Weston's career was one of eminent success. Though he was called to the bench young and with scarcely three years' practice at the bar, he acquitted himself with honor and credit, and retired with the esteem and confi- dence of his countrymen.

Nicholas Emery, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Maine, was born in Exeter, N. H., Sept. 4, 1776, and at the age of twelve became a student in the famous Phillips Academy in his native town. Here he first became acquainted with the future great statesman, Daniel Webster, who then came a young man from his home somewhat rustic, and entered the school as a student. The appearance of Mr. Webster at that time-tall and rather ungainly, elad in a suit of motley homespun, his brows shaggy, and his large head covered with a mass of black, unshorn hair-excited the ridicule of some of the young gentlemen students, who, had they known their subject, might have been proud of half the brains which he pos- sessed. Mr. Webster was too sensitive to endure being made sport of, and was abont to retire from the school, when Mr. Emery, perceiving what was in him, took him under his patronage, persuaded him to remain, and for some time, it is said, gave him private lessons. From that time forward a friendship grew up between Emery and Webster which lasted through life. The last time Mr. Webster visited Portland he spoke of his friend, Judge Emery, as a man of great capabilities, who had never fulfilled his destiny, although the career of Mr. Emery as a lawyer and judge had been one of more than ordinary success.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

Mr. Emery graduated at Dartmouth College in 1795, studied law with St. Loe Livermore, at Portsmouth, N. II., and was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1798. He began practice at Parsonsfield, whence he removed to Port- land, in 1807. In the autumn of the same year he married Ann T., daughter of Governor Gilman, of New Hampshire, a lady of high accomplishments and excellent character. In 1831, Mr. Emery was appointed to fill the place of Judge Weston on the bench of the Supreme Court of Maine. Ile faithfully and promptly discharged the duties of his appointed station for the constitutional term of seven years, when he resumed the practice of his profession. It is not too much to say that he was distinguished both as an advocate and counselor. His decisions as judge are found in the eighth volume of the Maine Reports, from the twelfth to the nineteenth inclusive. On the admission

1820, at which time he was Senator in Congress from Massachusetts.

Ezekiel Whitman was born at Bridgewater, Mass., in 1776; graduated at Brown University in 1795. On his admission to the bar he practiced law at Turner, in that part of Cumberland now forming the county of Oxford, and was the only lawyer in that part of the country. He moved in a few months to New Gloucester, and, as we have seen, to Portland in 1806. Ile was appointed chief justice of the Common Pleas in 1822, being then Representative in Congress from the Cumberland district.

Simon Greenleaf was born at Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 5, 1783; died at Cambridge, Oct. 6, 1853; studied law with Hon Ezekiel Whitman at New Gloucester; was a lawyer at Standish, 1806, at Gray, 1807. Removed to Portland, 1818; to Cambridge, 1833; was Representative

CHIEF JUSTICE PRENTISS MELLEN.

of the State, he was sent as the first representative from Portland. At his death, Aug. 24, 1861, he was, with the exception of Judge Whitman, then living, the oldest member of the Cumberland bar.

In 1806, Prentiss Mellen moved here from Biddeford, and Ezekiel Whitman from New Gloucester, and were fol- lowed by Samuel Fessenden and Simon Greenleaf (a coterie of distinguished lawyers), who had commeneed practice in the smaller towns.

Mr. Mellen was born at Sterling, Mass., in October, 1764, and graduated at Harvard in 1784. He practiced law a few months in his native town, and two years in Bridge- water, when, by the advice of Judge Thacher, he removed to Biddeford, and both there and at Portland he had a very large practice, which extended into every county in Maine. lle was the first chief justice of this State, appointed in

in Maine Legislature in 1820; Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court, 1820-32 ; Royal Professor of Law at Har- vard, 1833-45 ; Dane Professor of Law, 1845-48; Emeri- tus Professor, 1848 till his death. He was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1853, and received his degree of A. M. from Bowdoin College in 1817, and LL.D. from Harvard in 1834, and Amherst in 1845.

Woodbury Storer was born in Portland, July 12, 1783. ITis father came from Wells to Portland before the Revolu- tion. Ile combined in his veins the blood of the Dudleys, the Hills, the Woodburys, and the Langdons,-all famous for their patriotism and heroie qualities in the early Indian wars, and in the later struggle for independence. Mr. Storer received his early education at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. 11., then the highest seminary of its kind in the United States. Hle entered in 1789, and two years later began the

CUMBERLAND BENCII AND BAR.

study of law with William Symmes, of Portland. He had the advantage of the society of such fellow-students as Thomas E. Ilale ( who died in Castine), William Freeman (son of Judge Samnel Freeman), James Savage, General Eustis (of Boston ), William B. Sewall ( of York ), Edward Payson (then preceptor of the Academy ), Horatio South- gate, James C. Jewett, Samuel Deane Freeman ( brother of William ), and John Wadsworth,-all graduates of Harvard College, except three. They had been attracted here as students by the reputation of Mr. Symmes, Chief Justice Parker, Daniel Davis, and Salmon Chase.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 22

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780