USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 54
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town, where they were employed in the Custom House service. His brother married a daughter of Jeremiah Pote in 1772, and with his father and father- in-law abandoned the country in the revolution. David married Miss Russell, a niece of Thomas Russell, by whom he left two children, a son and a daughter ; the daughter married Capt. Samuel Waite. The following brief sketch is from the pen of Daniel Davis, Esq., the eldest of the surviving lawyers who practiced in Maine. "All I know about David Wyer, I have heard from the late Gov. Sullivan and some of his contemporaries, who were refugees from Falmouth, and who returned after the peace of 1783. By these I have been informed that he was a high-minded, sterling fellow, of strong talents, an able and elo- quent advocate, and extremely independent in his opinions and character. He and the late Judge Bradbury were always antagonists in their professional ca- reer, and as there was great difference in the two gentlemen, I have heard many anecdotes of them which would not be proper for the public eye. Brad- bury was always grave and judicious, and had great influence with the court and jury. Wyer was full of wit and vivacity; this contrast frequently gave birth to scenes in the forum very much to the amusement of their mutual friends."
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Falmouth in 1775, although but twenty-five years old, and took an active part in the measures adopted by the whigs dur- ing his residence here. He moved to Newbury in the lat- ter part of 1775.
After the death of Mr. Wyer, Mr. Bradbury was the only attorney in the county until October term, 1778, when John Frothingham was admitted to practice in the Common Pleas. The latter was soon left alone by the removal of Mr. Bradbury to Newburyport in 1779. The business at that time was ex- ceedingly small, so much so that Mr. Frothingham was induced to unite with his practice the charge of a school, which he kept several years after the revolution. The whole number of en- tries in 1778 was but nineteen ; in 1779, twenty-six ; and in 1780, twenty. In March term, 1780, Mr. Frothingham was appointed by the court, attorney for the State in this county ; . he continued in practice, enjoying the confidence of his clients and friends, until he was appointed a judge of the Common Pleas in 1804.1
The next lawyer who ventured here was Royal Tyler, son
1 Mr. Frothingham was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1750, the son of Deacon John Frothingham and a descendant of the first emigrant of the name to Charlestown, William Frothingham, and graduated at Harvard College in 1771. He kept a school in Greenland, New Hampshire, a short time before he came here. He held many important offices, and faithfully discharged all their duties to the satisfaction of the public. He was inspector of the excise for the District of Maine, secretary of Bowdoin College on its first organization, representative from the town in 1786, town clerk, thirty-four years clerk of the first parish, twelve years register of probate, and eight years judge of the Com- mon Pleas. In the latter part of his life he was deprived of his sight, but bore his affliction with great patience. In 1784, he married Martha May of Boston who still survives ; by her he had a large family of children, four of whom sur- vived him. He died February 8, 1826, aged seventy-six, leaving to his poster- ity the well merited reputation of an amiable, honest, and excellent man. His children living in 1864 are, John, a respected merchant in Montreal, born in 1787 ; Lucretia, widow of Franklin Tinkham, and Abigail, wife of Dr. Ray, the distinguished superintendent of the Butler Asylum, all of whom have children ; the others died without issue.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of a gentleman of the same name in Boston, who was one of the King's counselors, and active in the first stages of the rev- olution ; he graduated at Harvard College in 1776, and came here in 1779. He kept an office in Middle street, near the head of Plum street, but continued only about two years. During his practice he commenced an action against an officer of a privateer then lying in the harbor, and went with the sheriff to arrest him ; but the officer not liking the process, turned upon the deputy and attorney, carried them both to sea, and landed them at Townsend or Boothbay.1
The next attorney who established himself here was Daniel
1 Mr. Tyler afterward became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont. - See Willis's Law and Lawyers of Maine.
As we are leaving the history of the ante-revolutionary lawyers, we cannot omit one anecdote preserved by Judge Sewall, illustrative of the manners of those days. It was the custom, as I have before observed, for the mem- bers of the court and bar at the close of the session to hold special courts at the tavern, which were made the occasion of festivity and wit. At one of those seasons when the Inferior Court was held at Biddeford, Hill, Sparahawk, Jor- dan, and Moulton being on the bench, the court sat at the public house of one Ladd, there being no court house in that town. The late Judge Lowell of New- buryport, arrived on Monday evening to attend the court, and called upon land- lord Ladd to accommodate him during the session. Ladd told him his house was full and he could not accommodate him. Mr. Lowell was obliged to seek lodgings elsewhere, but supposing Mr. Ladd would take care of his horse, if he could not receive him, left him tied at the post in front of the house. It so happened that the horse was overlooked and remained tied at the post, where Mr. Lowell left him, all night. On Friday evening a special court was held at Ladd's for the hearing and determining of small causes of omission and commis- sion that had occurred during the week. Daniel Farnham, Esq., was appointed judge ; among other causes landlord Ladd was called upon to answer his neg- lect in not taking care of Mr. Lowell's horse, and for suffering him to stand all night at the door of his tavern. The fact was not denied, but in excuse he said he had told Mr. Lowell that he could not give him entertainment, as his house was full before he applied, and he did not recollect that Mr. Lowell, when he went away, said anything about his horse. Upon this evidence the judge or- dered the landlord to pay a single bowl of good punch for his neglect in not taking proper care of the horse, and that Mr. Lowell should pay twice as much for suffering the poor animal to remain all night at the door. The sentence was carried into immediate execution for the benefit of the company convened.
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Davis, who started from Boston on horseback, the world all before him, to seek some promising place in which to commence practice ; he arrived and fixed his abode here in the autumn of 1782. At this time there were but five lawyers in Maine beside Mr. Davis, viz., George Thatcher, who then lived in York, but next year moved to Biddeford, John Frothingham of this town, Timothy Langdon of Wiscasset, Roland Cushing, youngest brother of Judge William Cushing, at Old Pownal- borough, and William Lithgow at Georgetown. Mr. Davis continued in practice here until 1804, when he removed to Boston. He was an eloquent and popular advocate, and had an extensive practice. He died at Cambridge, October 27, 1835, having held the office of solicitor until near the time of his death.1
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 Shay's rebellion had no advocates in this part of the country. A prejudice however did prevail against the profession, which was concentrated and carried into the legislature in 1790, by John Gardiner of Pow- nalborough, a barrister at law. He introduced a resolution in
1 Mr. Thatcher continued to reside at Biddeford until his death in 1824. He graduated at Harvard College in 1776, and Mr. Cushing in 1768. Mr. Lithgow and Mr. Davis were not liberally educated. In 1778, Mr. Langdon was appointed by the Provincial Congress judge of the Maritime Court for the District of Maine. Mr. Cushing died in 1789. Mr Davis was appointed in 1796 with William Shep- perd and Nathan Dane, commissioners to treat with the eastern Indians, and the same year succeeded William Lithgow in the office of United States attor- . ney for this District. He was repeatedly chosen representative by the town, and senator by the county to the legislature of Massachusetts, and while he was senator, in 1801, he received the appointment of solicitor general of Massachu- setts, which he held until 1832, when that with the office of attorney general was abolished. In 1786, Mr. Davis married, at Quebec, Miss Louisa Freeman, by whom he had a large family of children, one of whom is the distinguished naval officer, Charles H. Davis, who entered the navy in 1823, and is now a rear admiral and chief of Bureau of Navigation. His eldest daughter married the Hon. William Minot of Boston.
1
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
January of that year, that the house would resolve itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration "the pres- ent state of the law and its professors in the Commonwealth." He prefaced his resolution by some able and spirited remarks which he subsequently enforced and illustrated, against law- yers and what he termed abuses of the law, some of which were merely imaginary. He objected to the association of members of the bar, and the formation of bar rules, the modes of taxing cost and other practices which he termed illegal and unwarrantable usurpations. He thought the law ought to be simplified, that many customs had crept in from the Eng- lish law which should be eradicated ; his desire was to thrust in the knife and remove entirely all those customs which he and others considered grievances. While the subject was be- fore the legislature, Mr. Gardiner, in the heat of debate and in a highly excited state of feeling, cast many aspersions upon lawyers, which had a tendency to bring the whole class into disrepute and encourage the unfounded prejudice which existed against them out of doors. He had not however many sup- porters in the house; the bills which he introduced were rejected by large majorities ; the one to annihilate special plead- ing was debated with great earnestness, and the late Chief Justice Parsons opposed it with a power that could not be re- sisted.1 Mr. Gardiner was severely handled in the newspapers and treated in a manner altogether unworthy of an age of free
1 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 pompous 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 England and Wales, and was made attorney general of the island of St. Christopher; he came to Boston after the revolution, and soon moved to Pownalborough in the neigh- borhood of which he had an hereditary estate. He was lost by the upsetting of a packet in which he was going to Boston in 1793.
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inquiry. The editor of a Boston paper was tried in 1791 for a gross libel upon him, but was acquitted ; the defense seemed to be that Mr. Gardner had rather courted abuse in the cause of reform than avoided it, and was not therefore to be protected from a storm which he had invited. The effect of this attempt to array the community against one class of citizens, was on the whole to establish the character of the profession, which numbered among its members some of the most learned, vir- tuous, and patriotic individuals of the country, upon a more firm foundation in public favor than it had before enjoyed. Mr. Gardiner, son of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, was born in Bos- ton in 1731, received his legal education at the Inner Temple, London ; was a zealous whig; married Margaret Harris, a Welch lady in Wales, by whom he left three children, Ann married to James N. Lithgow, Louisa married to Col. Edward Williams of Augusta, and Rev. John S. John, the celebrated scholar and rector of Trinity Church, Boston. Mr. Gardiner was very learned and very eccentric ; he occasionally appeared in the courts of Maine and always in his barrister's robe .- See more at large in Willis's Law and Lawyers of Maine, p. 117, etc.
In 1789 Salmon Chase and Samuel Cooper Johonnot came to this town to practice law, and were both admitted at the October term of the Common Pleas in that year.' The next 1 Mr. Chase was son of Samuel Chase of Cornish, New Hampshire, born in 1761, he graduated at Dartmouth College in 1785. He continued in practice here, rising gradually to the first rank in his profession, until his death, August 10, 1806, aged forty-five years. Mr. Chase was distinguished rather for sound judgment and accurate research than as an eloquent advocate; he was a safe counselor, and the interests of his clients were never neglected by him. He died much regretted by the community of which he had been an active and useful member. He left two children, George and Elizabeth. George died un- married in 1819; Elizabeth married Dr. Howard of Boston, and died in 1864.
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 Gov. Sullivan, who was much attached to him and introduced him to the bar. He remained abroad long enough to part with
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
year came William Symmes, who had been previously admitted to the bar in Essex county. He was the son of the Rev. Wm. Symmes of Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard College in 1780. Mr. Symmes was 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 illustrious body. Mr. Symmes was a good lawyer and an elo- quent advocate ; he stood among the first at the bar in this State, and added to the qualities of a lawyer the charms of a well cultivated classical taste. For some time he carried on a correspondence with his intimate friend, the late Dudley Atkins Tyng, purely on law subjects, in which numerous ques- tions of interest to the profession were learnedly discussed.1
The next attorney who was admitted to the bar and settled here, was John Bagley, son of John Bagley of this town. He was the first native of the town or of the State who was admit- ted to the practice in this county ; he did not continue long at the bar, and after engaging in commerce a short time, died unmarried.2 He was followed by James D. Hopkins, who was
1 Mr. Symmes died January 7, 1807, aged forty-five ; he was never married. It may be said of him as Mr. Gardiner said of Gridley, "he was a mighty pom- pous man." But his manners were courteous and refined.
2 The following are the names of the other native sons of the town who have been admitted to the bar in this county, viz., George Bradbury, Woodbury Storer, William Freeman, John Wadsworth, Samuel D. Freeman, Charles S.
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 pro- fession 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 hasty departure the same year. He went to Boston and soon after embarked for Demarara, where he was appointed American consul in 1793, and accumulated a handsome estate in the commission business. He died in 1806.
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admitted in 1797, and continued in practice to the time of his death, June 17, 1840.1 George E. Vaughan, son of William Vaughan of this town, was admitted in 1798; the next year Isaac Parker, late chief justice of Massachusetts, moved here from Castine and entered at once upon a full and profitable practice to which he was entitled by his urbanity as a man, and his eloquence as an advocate, as much as to his attainments in judicial science.2
1 Mr. Hopkins was born at Axminster, Eng., in 1773, the son of Thomas Hopkins, a merchant, who came to this town from England in 1784. He was a well read and learned lawyer, was an acute special pleader, and for many years had a large practice. He prepared a work on insurance which remains in MS., proof of his industry and ability. The publication of the treatises of Judge Duer and Mr. Phillips, discouraged Mr. Hopkins in putting his work to press. He died in 1840.
2 Mr. Parker was born in Boston in 1768, and graduated at Harvard College in 1786 ; after his admission to the bar he established himself at Castine, where he soon attained an extensive practice and a deservedly high reputation. He was twice elected representative to Congress from the eastern district in this State, and in 1799, while a member, was appointed by President Adams, marshal of Maine, which office he held until February, 1803, when he was removed by Presi- dent Jefferson. February 22, 1800, he pronounced an eulogy at Portland, on the death of General Washington. In December, 1805, he was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court, and the next year moved to Boston. In 1814 he was ap- pointed successor to Chief Justice Sewall, and died in July, 1830, universally lamented. He was descended from John Parker, who came from Biddeford in England, and settled at the mouth of Saco river, and who afterward made large speculations in land at the mouth of the Kennebec. The son of the first John
Daveis, John Mussey, Nathaniel Deering, John P. Boyd, John Neal, Nathan Cummings, William Boyd, George Jewett, John D. Kinsman, William Paine, Stephen Longfellow, Jr., William H. Codman, Bellamy Storer, James Brooks, Edward Fox, Edward H. Daveis, George E. B. Jackson, Daniel W. Fessenden, Na- than Webb, Samnel J. Anderson, Frederic Fox, Henry Jewett, Edward Thomas, Charles W. Goddard, Charles B. Merrill, Edward P. Sherwood, Geo. A. Thomas, Henry Willis, Joseph A. Ware, James D. Fessenden, William C. TenBroeck, Jo- seph D. Howard, Frederick E. Shaw, William H. Fessenden, Edward M. Rand, with several others, numbering in all forty-eight. Of these ten are dead, nine- teen retired from practice, and the remaining nineteen continue in business at the bar, here and in other places.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
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, all of whom lived at Portland but the two last.1
In 1801, Stephen Longfellow was admitted to the bar and continued in successful practice in this town until his death in 1849; he was born in Gorham, March 23, 1774, and gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1798. He entered at once into an extensive and profitable practice, which continued many years, until by overtasking his powers he was prostrated by disease. In 1804 he married Zilpah, a daughter of Gen. Wadsworth, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. The eldest surviving son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, will long per- petuate the name by the sweetness of his poetry. Mr. Long-
1 Perhaps William Widgery ought not to be omitted from this catalogue ; he practiced law many years in New Gloucester, against the opposition of the bar and bar rules, and finally became a judge of the Common Pleas, under the gov- ernment of Massachusetts. Few men "have seen more of this great world" than Mr. Widgery, nor figured in a greater variety of scenes. He went very poor to New Gloucester before the revolution ; during the war, or part of it, he was lieutenant of a privateer, commanded by Nathaniel Thompson, in which he displayed the same perseverance that characterized his after life. He was a member of the Convention of Massachusetts, which adopted the Constitution of the United States, and strenuously opposed that instrument in numerous speeches. He was chosen senatof in 1794, and frequently representative to the General Court; he was also elected a member of the twelfth Congress in April, 1811. After his removal to this town, he engaged in navigation, and for a time com- manded one of his own vessels, which on one occasion, by his superior sagacity and shrewdness, he saved from the fangs of the British orders in council. He accumulated a large estate, which he left to his heirs in 1822.
and the great-great-grandfather of the chief justice was born in Saco in 1635; driven by Indian hostilities in 1689 from his large possessions on the Kennebec, he sought refuge at Fort Loyal in this town, where he and his son James were killed when the fort was taken in May, 1690. His eldest son, Daniel, moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he died in 1694, aged twenty-seven, leaving a son, Isaac, who was grandfather of the subject of this notice.
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fellow died August 3, 1849. In 1806, Prentiss Mellen moved here from Biddeford, and Ezekiel Whitman from New Glou- cester, and were followed by Samuel Fessenden and Simon Greenleaf, all of them distinguished lawyers, who had com- menced practice in the country.1 I have not room here to speak
1 Mr. Mellen was born at Sterling, Massachusetts, in October, 1764, and grad- uated at Harvard College in 1784; he practiced law a few months in his native town, and two years in Bridgewater, when he moved to Biddeford by advice of the late Judge Thatcher, and both there and in this town, he had a very ex- tensive practice which extended into every county in Maine; he was appointed first chief justice of the State in 1820, at which time he was senator in Congress from Massachusetts. He died in 1840. Mr. Whitman was born at Bridgewater in Massachusetts, in March, 1776, and graduated at Brown University in 1795. On his admission to the bar, he practiced law at Turner, in that part of Cumber - land 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 in 1806, to this town. He was appointed chief justice of the Common Pleas in 1822, being then representative to Congress from Cumberland district, and chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1841. Mr. Greenleaf was appointed professor of law at Harvard College in April, 1833. He died in 1853, aged seventy years.
Chief Justice Mellen retired from the bench in October, 1834, at the age of seventy, that being then the constitutional limit of the office. He discharged the duties of the office with singular fidelity and ability. The best evidence of his learning and skill is contained in the first eleven volumes of the Maine Re- ports. In these volumes his elaborate and carefully drawn opinions occupy a large space and illustrate the most important parts of our legal system. He sur- vived this event six years, during a portion of which, he was at the head of a commission appointed by the Executive to revise and modify the public statutes of the State. He died on the last day of the year 1840, full of honors, of years, and of the respect of his fellow-men.
Judge Whitman was elected to Congress for four terms in 1808, 1816, 1819, and 1821 ; he was a member of the Executive council of Massachusetts in 1815 and 1816. In December, 1841, after a distinguished service on the bench of the Common Pleas for nineteen years, he was appointed chief justice of the Su- preme Court of Maine, and held the office to near the close of the constitutional term of seven years, when he resigned the position in the seventy-third year of his age, and retired to private life. In the office of judge, which he held for nearly twenty-seven years, he devoted the best powers of his clear and well bal- anced mind to the faithful and impartial administration of justice ; and no judge has ever left the bench with a clearer record. His opinions, contained in nine
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of these and other lawyers of the Cumberland Bar, as their merits deserved, but must refer to my more copious work on the "Law and Lawyers of Maine." The number of practicing attorneys in town in 1812 was nineteen, and in the county, forty-three ; in 1831 there were fifty-seven in the county, of whom thirty-three resided in Portland. In 1840 the number in the State was four hundred and thirty-seven, of whom sixty- six belonged to the Cumberland Bar. In 1850 the number in the State was five hundred and twenty-nine, of whom sixty- five resided in Portland .. The bar of this county since the revolution, has furnished two chief justices of the Supreme Court, Mellen and Whitman ; six associate justices of the Supreme Court, Preble, Parris, Emery, Howard, Fox, Bar-
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