USA > Maine > York County > History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 20
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JAMES SULLIVAN.
James Sullivan was among the most prominent and widely-known lawyers of this county. He was born in Berwick in 1744, studied law with his brother John, in Durham, New Hampshire, and opened an office in George- town, on the Kennebec, in 1767. He remained there but two years, when he removed to Biddeford. He was a very active and influential Whig at the outbreak of the Revolu- tion, and from its commencement to the close of his life, in 1808, was constantly in official stations, as member of the Provincial and Continental Congresses, member of the Legislature, commissary of troops, judge of the Superior Court, attorney-general, commissioner of the United States, and Governor of Massachusetts. He died Dec. 10, 1808. Amidst all these multiplied duties, he found time to engage largely in literary labors, as the historian of Maine, a con- tributor to the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, of which he was a prime mover and the first pres- ident, and, as a politician, to the public press. No man of his time was more full of active and successful labor than this accomplished lawyer and able advocate.
At a meeting of gentlemen from several towns, held in Falmouth, Nov. 4, 1775, at Col. Tyng's house, Col. Mitchell moderator, " Mr. James Sullivan was chosen
commander-in-chief of the militia and other companies now in pay in the province." " Voted, that four persons be appointed to assist Mr. Sullivan. Voted, that Col. Mitchell be second in command ; Col. Fogg, third." Mr. Sullivan was then but thirty-one years old.
The following characteristic language is from a letter by him to Samuel Freeman, then in the Provincial Congress, Jan. 21, 1776 :
" I am surprised the militia bill is where you mention in your last. I fear our country will owe its destruction to the squeamishness of our General Court. Bold and manly strides are necessary in war ; what is done amiss in war may be set right in time of peace."
"No lawyer," says Willis, " was thought better able than he to com- pete with the able jurists of Massachusetts ; and he and Parsons were very often engaged on opposite sides of a controversy, when the con- flict was severe, aud in a high degree interesting. Their strong an- tagonism in politics also gave a zest to their encounters; which, how- ever, from men of such superior intellect, were generally courteous and respectful. On one occasion Sullivan became much excited in a cause in which he was opposed by Parsous, and exclaimed, 'I thank God, I never took a bribe from any man.' Parsons coolly replied, ' I thank God, I uever met a man who dared offer me one.'"
It has been said that Governor Sullivan, when engaged in the examination of aged witnesses in court, would often lead his inquiries into a historical line, in order to extraet information which would enable him to accumulate mate- rials for his " History of Maine."
Biographies of these distinguished men have recently been published in extended form,-that of Parsons, by his son, the Professor of Law at Harvard, and that of Sulli- van by his grandson, Mr. Amory, of Boston.
The three brothers, John, Ebenezer, and James Sulli- van, were all distinguished men. They possessed ability, wit, and astuteness, which they inherited from both father and mother, who were natives of Ireland, and settled in this county in 1723. The father, William Sullivan, was a highly-educated man, well skilled in classical literature, and a teacher of the classies. Ile died in Berwick, in 1796, at the age of one hundred and four years. The son, John, after trying his hand at sea, studied law in the office of Mr. Livermore, of Portsmouth, commenced practice in New Market, New Hampshire, whence he soon moved to Dur- ham, where he occupied a high position as a lawyer, gen- eral, member of Congress, attorney-general, and President of New Hampshire, and died, aged fifty-four, in 1795.
William Symmes, a famous lawyer of Portland, fre- quently attended the courts in York. In the course of a trial in an action of trespass concerning a lot of boards, Symmes, in his formal, dignified manner, spoke of the " sanctity" of this pile of lumber. Ebenezer Sullivan and other members of the bar were amused with the use of the word in that connection, and Sullivan wrote an impromptu nearly as follows :
" Moses of old, who led the Jewish race, Forbid but one, and that the holy place ; Even God himself forbade that wood or stone Should have the homage due to Him alone ; But Symmes, with wisdom greater than divine, Finds sanctity in boards and slabs of pine."
It was very common for the wits of the bar at that time to amuse themselves in writing squibs and bon mots during the tedious processes of trials.
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CUSTOMS OF THE EARLY COURTS.
It was the custom among the early members of the courts while on the circuits to have evening gatherings, at which the favorite beverages of the day, flip and punch, were freely circulated ; and the gay seasons were often pro- tracted through the long hours of the night. On these occasions they frequently held mock courts, in which one of their number was appointed judge, and trials took place for breaches of good fellowship, or some imaginary offenses. On one of these occasions, in York County, Mr. Lowell, afterwards United States judge, arrived during the session of the court at Biddeford, and tying his horse at the door of the tavern, went in to seek lodgings. But the landlord being unable to accommodate him, he was obliged to obtain other quarters, and inadvertently left his horse all night at the door where he was first hitched. This was considered in the mock court a high offense, for which he was called to answer; the landlord was also placed on trial for the neglect of the horse. David Farnham was appointed judge. After a long hearing and argument, the landlord was fined a bowl of good punch for his neglect, and Lowell was fined twice as much for suffering the poor animal to remain all night at the door. The sentence was carried into imme- diate execution. Mr. Lowell, born in Newbury, in 1743, became a distinguished judge of the United States Court, and father of the no less distinguished sons, John, Francis C., and Charles Lowell. He died in 1802 .*
" On another occasion, Noah Emery was accused of call- ing High-Sheriff Leighton a fool. For this weighty offense he was brought before the court, and the allegation being proved, the court, taking into consideration the circum- stances of the offense, ordered Emery to pay one pipe of tobacco, and the sheriff to pay one mug of flip for de- serving the appellation. The equity of this admirable institution will be at once perceived in the exact justice that was measured out to both parties, the penalties always inuring to the benefit of the company, of which both ac- cuser and accused were partakers."
JUDGE THACHER.
The successor of Mr. Sullivan at Biddeford was George Thacher, a descendant from Anthony Thacher, who came to this country in 1633. Mr. Thacher was born at Yar- mouth, Cape Cod, April 12, 1754. His father was Peter Thacher, and his mother a danghter of George Lewis, of Barnstable. He graduated at Harvard in 1776, and pur- sued what was then a common path from college to the bar, that of school-teaching, while preparing for his profes- sion. He studied law with Shearjashub Bourne, of Barn- stable, and commenced practice in York in 1780 or 1781. In 1782 he removed to Biddeford, where the greater part of his life was spent. In 1788, Mr. Thacher was elected a member of the old Congress ; on the adoption of the Con- stitution of the United States, Maine was constituted one district, and he was elected the first representative from Maine in the new Congress. He held the office by succes- sive elections till 1801, when, on being appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, he resigned his
seat. He was the only representative from Maine till 1793, when it became entitled to three representatives, and Peleg Wadsworth, of Portland, and Henry Dearborn, of Gardiner, were chosen as his colleagues.
While in Congress Judge Thacher took an active part in the important debates of the times, and his speeches were able and forcible, and rendered peculiarly effective by his masterly wit and satire. The anecdote of the challenge sent to him while in Congress is familiar. A member had offered a proposition that the coin to be issued from the mint should bear the figure of an eagle. Mr. Thacher, by way of banter, offered an amendment, that the effigy should be a goose, for the old bird, said he, could be represented upon the large pieces, while the goslings would be suitable for the small ones. This he sustained in a humorous speech, which kept the House in a merry mood; he alluded to the fact that Rome had once been saved from the barbarians by the cackling of geese. The mover of the bill, assuming that this was an attempt to insult him, sent a challenge. Mr. Thacher told the bearer that he had no right to hazard his life on such chances, but would write to his wife, and if she consented he would accept the chal- lenge. But as a compromise, he proposed that his figure might be marked on a barn-door, and if the challenger, standing at the proper distance, hit it, he would acknowl- edge himself shot. The gentleman's friends finding they could do nothing with Mr. Thacher, abandoned the matter.
Judge Thacher was a sound and acute lawyer, and a good general scholar. He carried to the bench a mind well stored with legal principles, and a memory always ready to furnish, from its ample stores, authority for unre- ported cases and fitting illustrations from observation and general literature. His integrity and impartiality were never questioned, though his manner upon the bench was not always pleasant. He was a man of genial temper in private life, of agreeable social habits, and remarkable con- versational powers. Judge Thacher married, July 20, 1784, Mary, daughter of Samuel Phillips Savage, of Weston, Mass., by whom he had five sons and five daugh- ters, all of whom but one daughter survived him. Of the sons, George and Samuel Phillips Savage were educated for the bar, and, after many years' practice, are both dead. In his domestic relations Judge Thacher was a kind and indulgent husband and father, and his dwelling of peaceful enjoyment and generous hospitality. He continued upon the bench until January, 1824, and died in April of that year.
DUDLEY HUBBARD.
Dudley Hubbard was the first regularly educated lawyer who settled in South Berwick. He was born in Ipswich, Mass., March 3, 1763, and was probably descended from Col. Nathaniel Hubbard. He graduated at Harvard Col- lege, in the class of 1786, with Timothy Bigelow, Alden Bradford, and Chief Justice Parker. On leaving college he immediately commenced the study of his profession with Daniel Davis, of Portland; was admitted to the bar in Cumberland County in 1789, and established himself in that part of Berwick which, in 1814, was incorporated as South Berwick. This was a beautiful and prosperous vil- lage, containing an unusual number of well-educated and
# Lawyers and Courts of Maine, p. 102.
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cultivated persons. Ebenezer Sullivan, a brother of John and James, was then in practice there. He was brilliant and eloquent, like his brothers, but irregular and desultory in his habits. He had served in the army of the Revolu- tion, and was captain of one of the two companies raised in South Berwick at the beginning of the war. He after- wards commanded a force on the western frontier in sub- duing the Indians.
Mr. Hubbard soon rose to prominence in his profession, many of his clients being from Boston, with which Ber- wick was much connected in trade. He was for many years the leading lawyer of the York bar, and occasionally practiced in other counties. Being a very eloquent advo- cate, and uniting with a fine personal appearance, a pleasing address and dignified manners, he was soon introduced to an extensive and lucrative practice. His large business and standing at the bar drew numerous students to his office, among whom were some who became prominent in sub- sequent years,-such as Edward P. Hayman, Benjamin Greene, George W. Wallingford, William A. Hayes, Wil- liam Lambert, and Ether Shepley, late chief justice of Maine.
The following anecdote is related of Mr. Hubbard and Judge Dana, of Fryeburg. On the first appearance of the latter in York County court, near the close of the last cen- tury, he took a letter of introduction to Mr. Hubbard. But he seemed to him so formal and distant in his de- meanor that he did not present the letter. Dana met there his classmate, Judge Nicholas Emery, who had just estab- lished himself at Parsonsfield, and was also attending his first term. As they were jogging on together towards home, on horseback, Dana told Emery about his letter to Hubbard. Emery replied that he also had a similar letter which he had declined presenting for the same reason. This shows how the reputation and dignity of Mr. Hub- bard overawed these modest young men. At that period the intercourse between the older and younger members of the bar was much less free than at the present day.
Mr. Hubbard's fine conversational powers and agreeable address gave him the entrée into the best society, not only at home, but in Portsmouth, Boston, and Montreal, where he went occasionally to visit his wife's friends. In consequence of a style of living and social entertainment beyond his income or means, he became later in life em- barrassed and despondent, and his cares pressing upon him, were supposed to have shortened his days. He died sud- denly, April 26, 1816, at the age of fifty-three.
Mr. Hubbard married Olive Dame, of Trois Rivières, Canada, a lady of great personal beauty and accomplish- ments, who survived her husband but a few years. She was educated at a convent in Montreal. They left one daughter, who married Benjamin Nason, of South Berwick, and the daughter of the latter is the wife of Edward E. Bourne, Jr., of Kennebunk, son of Judge Edward E. Bourne.
GEORGE STACY.
George Stacy, another member of the York bar, was con- temporary with Mr. Hubbard. He, too, was a native of Ipswich, born in 1764, and graduated at Harvard College in 1784. After being admitted to the bar he established
himself at Biddeford about 1789, where his career as an attorney was short, owing to some social irregularity which obliged him to make a sudden departure from the place. He was afterwards consul at the Isle of France, and died at St. Mary, Georgia, in 1808.
PRENTISS MELLEN.
Prentiss Mellen, the distinguished chief justice of Maine, became a practitioner of law at Biddeford in July, 1792. He was the eighth of nine children of Rev. John Mellen, of Sterling, Mass., and was born in that town Oct. II, 1764. His mother was Rebecca Prentiss, daughter of Rev. John Prentiss, of Lancaster. His eldest brother, Henry, and himself were fitted for college by their father, who was a graduate of Harvard in 1741, and entered Harvard to- gether in 1780, from which they took their degree in 1784, in the same class with John Abbott, Silas Lee, and others of future distinction. For a year after graduating, Mr. Mellen was a private tutor in the family of Joseph Otis, at Barnstable, where he pursued his legal studies in the office of Shearjashub Bourne, and was admitted to the bar in Taunton in 1788. On that occasion, in conformity with an ancient custom, he treated the court and bar to half a pail of punch. His own version of the treat was as follows: " According to the fashion of that day, on the great oc- casion, I treated the judges and all the lawyers with about half a pail of punch, which treating aforesaid was com- monly called the ' colt's tail.'"
Mr. Mellen, after practicing in Bridgewater till November, 1791, was induced to remove the next year to Biddeford through the influence of his firm and constant friend, Judge Thacher, who was then representative in Congress. Here he commenced that career of successful and honorable practice which placed him at the head of the bar in Maine, and at the head of the highest judicial tribunal of the State. His beginning in Biddeford was of the most humble kind, and may give an idea of what professional men had to endure in that day. "I opened," he said, " my office in one of old Squire Hooper's front chambers, in which were then arranged three beds and half a table and one chair. My clients had the privilege of sitting on some of the beds. In this room I slept, as did also sundry travelers, frequently, the house being a tavern." The population of Biddeford did not then exceed eleven hundred, and that of the whole county, which embraced a large part of Oxford, was about twenty-eight thousand,-all served by three attorneys, viz., Dudley Hubbard, of Berwick, and Messrs. Thacher and Mellen, of Biddeford. There was then one term of the Common Pleas Court held at Biddeford, and one term of the Supreme Court at York for the year in this county, and que term of the Supreme Court in each of the counties of Cumberland and Lincoln for jury trials, which was all the favor the highest judicial tribunal was then permitted to ex- tend to the district of Maine. The law term for Maine was held in Boston, and the records kept there. Governor Sulli- van, who had practiced here, had removed to Boston, and at the time of which we are speaking was attorney-general of Massachusetts.
From 1804 till his appointment as chief justice in 1820, Mr. Mellen practiced in every county in the State, and was
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engaged in every prominent cause. In 1806, his practice in Cumberland County becoming extensive, he removed to Portland, where he met able and accomplished rivals in such men as Hopkins, Symmes, Davis, Chase, and Whitman ; but he was the peer of the best legal talent of the State. " His most constant opponent," said Professor Greenleaf, " was Judge Wilde : their forensic warfare, adopted by tacit consent, was to place the cause on its merits, produce all the facts, and fight the battle in open field."
The life of Mr. Mellen was not entirely absorbed by his profession. In 1808, '9, and '17 he was chosen a mem- ber of the Executive Council of Massachusetts, and in 1817 an elector at large for President. In 1817, while he held the office of councillor, he was chosen a senator from Mas- sachusetts in Congress, with Harrison Gray Otis as his colleague. This situation he held till Maine was organ- ized as a State, when, July 20th, he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, receiving the same year the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from both Harvard and Bowdoin Colleges.
He continued to discharge the laborious duties of chief justice with singular fidelity and ability until October, 1834, when, having attained the age of seventy, he became constitutionally disqualified for the office. His able decis- ions and eminent labors in contributing to the first eleven volumes of the Maine Reports are no small share of the services he rendered to the jurisprudence of his country. Says a late biographer,-
" Never were strict integrity, nor a more earnest desire to render exact justice in every case, carried to the bench, and no judge ever performed his duties more conscientiously."
During the two years from 1838 to 1840 he was at the head of a commission appointed by the executive to codify the public statutes of the State, the whole of which was completed under his supervision, embracing one hundred and seventy-eight chapters under twelve titles. This was adopted by the Legislature, and constituted the first volume of the Revised Statutes. This labor was the last public service of his long and useful life. He died on the last day of the year 1840, aged seventy-six years.
The Cumberland Bar erected a solid and durable marble monument to his memory, with suitable inscriptions, in the cemetery at Portland, over his remains.
His six children by his marriage with Miss Sally Hud- son, of Hartford, were all born in Biddeford. His oldest son, Grenville, a graduate of Harvard, 1818, is well known as a literary man and poet. He died in 1841. Ilis son Frederick graduated at Bowdoin in 1825, and became an artist. He died in 1834. His daughters are also de- ceased.
EDWARD P. HAYMAN.
Edward Payne Hayman was a lawyer of South Berwick, who studied in the office of Dudley Hubbard, and was ad- mitted to the York bar in November, 1769. In 1800 he was elected clerk of the Senate of Massachusetts. The same year he was appointed assistant clerk of the Supreme Court, and the next year one the clerks of the Circuit Court, an office which embraced also the county of Essex, and which he held till the organization of the new govern- ment of Maine, in 1820, the duties of which he promptly
and faithfully discharged. He returned to his profession on leaving the office; but was summoned from it in 1823, to assume the duties of cashier of the South Berwick Bank, incorporated that year, an office which he held till the time of his death, Dec. 25, 1831.
Mr. Hayman was born in Boston, Feb. 22, 1771, the second son of Capt. William Hayman. He was a well-read and able lawyer, exceedingly methodical and exact in all his labors and practice. He married, in 1809, Sarah, a daughter of Rev. John Thompson, of South Berwick, and had several children, who survived him. As clerk of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, he has been spoken of as " a model in that department of life," and also in " fidelity to all his trusts."
CYRUS KING.
Cyrus King was the son of Richard King, of Scarbor- ough, by his second wife, Mary, a daughter of Samuel Blake, of York. He was born in Scarborough, Sept. 6, 1772. His father was an eminent citizen of that town, to which he moved in 1746, from Watertown, Mass., where he had been engaged in commercial business, which he also carried on extensively in Scarborough, accumulating a large fortune, which is still enjoyed by some of his descendants. No family in the State has been so productive of distin- tinguished persons as this. The oldest son by his first wife, Isabella Bragdon, of York, Rufus King, was eminent and prominent in the civil history of the country, from the time of his graduation at Harvard, in 1717, to his death in 1829. The own brother of Cyrus, William King, of Bath, was the first Governor of Maine, and held numerous other offices of high trust under the State and general gov- ernments, which he ably discharged. The women of this family were the Doric mothers of children of much ability and usefulness. Mary married Dr. Robert Southgate, whose numerous family were conspicuous in the early part of this century ; Paulina married Dr. Allen Potter; and Dorcas married Joseph Leland, of Saco ; and their blood flows through many channels, inspiring energy and use- fulness.
Cyrus King was the fourth son and youngest child of Richard, and was two and a half years old when his father died ; but his mother lived to watch over and guide the expanding faculties of her son, and to enjoy the honors which he acquired. She died in 1816.
Mr. King was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, at Andover, and entered Columbia College, New York, in 1790, from which he graduated with the highest honors of his class. He commenced the study of law with his brother Rufus, in New York, who was then a senator in Congress, and ou his being appointed ambassador to Eng- land, he accompanied him as his private secretary. He remained abroad one year, and returning, completed his legal studies in the office of Chief Justice Mellen, at Bid- deford, and was admitted to the bar in 1797.
We cannot better portray the opening career of Mr. King than by adopting the language of Mr. Folsom in his " History of Saco and Biddeford":
"Possessing brilliant and highly-enltivated powers of mind, united with habits of patient and zealous application, Mr. King soon rose to eminence in the profession. As an advocate he was unrivaled; his
Hohner
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style of speaking was elevated and commanding, rich in the higher graces of polished oratory, and at the same time argumentative and convincing. Ilis addresses were more like an impetuous torrent than a smooth and gentle stream.
" His ardent temperament and impetuosity as an advocate some- times carried him, in his addresses to a court and jury, beyond the limits preserihed in some of Hamlet's instructions to the players."
But he was a sound lawyer and a safe counselor.
At the height of party feeling growing out of the dec- laration of war under Mr. Madison's administration, Mr. King was elected in 1812 to the Thirteenth Congress, the representative of the York District, as successor to Col. Richard Cutts, who had held the office from 1800; and he was re-elected for the next term. He was an ardent and zealous member of the Federal party, and entered into all their measures in opposition to the war with the same heartiness and vehemence which characterized his impas- sioned addresses at the bar. He took a very active part in the debates through the four years that he held a seat in Congress, and at times rose to a height of eloquence rarely surpassed in that body. Henry Clay was Speaker during the whole period. The Federalists, though in a small minority, had great ability among their representatives, and it is said that none displayed the graces and force of oratory, or commanded more attention, thau Mr. King. Among the latest of his addresses in the House was a speech on the repeal of the internal duties: he spoke on the 19th of February, 1817, at considerable length and with great fervor. He returned home at the close of the session, March 3d, and died suddenly at Saco, April 25th, deeply lamented by all who knew him.
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