USA > New Hampshire > The bench and bar of New Hampshire : including biographical notices of deceased judges of the highest court, and lawyers of the province and state, and a list of names of those now living > Part 10
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spect. He was always to be found among the foremost of those interested in promoting the interests, prosperity, and progress, physical, intellectual, and moral, of the city of his residence. His example and influence were ever for good.
He was united in marriage, October 28, 1829, with Betsey W., daughter of Nathaniel Lord of Kennebunkport, Maine. She left a son and a daughter, the latter the wife of Joseph B. Walker, Esq., of Concord. His second wife was Elizabeth W., daughter of Rev. Abraham Burnham of Pembroke, who survived her husband ; their two children had died previously.
LEONARD WILCOX. J. 1838-1840 ; 1848-1850.
Son of Jeduthun and Sarah (Fisk) Wilcox ; born, Hanover, January 29, 1799 ; Dartmouth College, 1817 ; practiced, Orford ; died there, June 18, 1850.
Mr. Wilcox's father removed, while Leonard was a child, to Orford, so that his boyhood was spent there. He was a lad of promise and forward in his studies, graduating from college at the age of eighteen, with high rank as a scholar. It is supposed that his father took the charge of his legal education, and he began practice in Orford, probably in 1820. In his professional career he did not disappoint the expectations which his friends had formed. He was diligent in study, exact in his knowledge, and had the judgment which enabled him wisely to apply the principles of the law to the facts of his cases. He possessed sagacity and practical common - sense, and unquestioned in- tegrity, also. With such qualities he could not but command ample employment at the bar, though his modesty and diffidence in his own powers retarded his advancement. He did not excel as an advocate ; he lacked fluency and power of voice; but in the preparation of causes for hearing, the marshaling of evi- dence, and the array of authorities he was invaluable. The court of revision knew his worth, and appreciated his opinions.
He held decided though not extreme political opinions, and was a representative in the legislature from Orford for seven years. So highly were his legislative abilities esteemed that in March, 1842, on the resignation by Franklin Pierce of his seat in the Senate of the United States, Governor Hubbard appointed Judge Wilcox to the vacancy ; and upon the meeting of the legislature
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in the succeeding June, he was elected to fill out the unexpired term, which ended in March, 1843.
Before this, on June 25, 1838, he had received the appointment of Justice of the Superior Court, but by reason of illness had resigned the office, September 29, 1840. His health having been reestablished he was again placed upon the bench, first as Circuit Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, in December, 1847, and afterwards as Judge of the Superior Court, June 26, 1848. He died in the latter office, when he had scarcely reached the confine of age.
His mind was eminently judicial. The entire absence of pas- sion or prejudice, the conscientious desire to decide justly, the care- ful examination and wide learning of Judge Wilcox combined to give his opinions great weight. He was courteous in his treat- ment of the gentlemen of the bar, patient in hearing and deliber- ate in deciding, and had the warm friendship and esteem of his associates on the bench, and the respect of the community.
It was a pleasant trait of his character, referred to in the address of William H. Duncan on the presentation of the resolu- tions of the bar upon the death of Judge Wilcox, that he was always ready to help and counsel and encourage his juniors of the profession. His last illness was painful, and his death unex- pected, but he was not unprepared, having the strength and con- solation of firm religious convictions.
Judge Wilcox was married, first, to Almira, daughter of Sam- uel Morey, September 12, 1819 ; and after her death to Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Mann, October 10, 1833. He had chil- dren by both marriages. His three sons were graduates of Dart- mouth College, and lawyers. The eldest, Samuel M. Wilcox, practiced for some years in this State.
JOHN JAMES GILCHRIST, LL. D.
J. 1840-1849. C. J. 1849-1855.
Son of Captain James and Susanna (Wyman) Gilchrist ; born, Medford, Massachusetts, February 16, 1809 ; Harvard College, 1828 ; admitted, 1831 ; practiced, Charlestown ; died, Washington, District of Columbia, April 29, 1858.
On the paternal side Judge Gilchrist was of Scottish descent. His father was a shipmaster, who, having acquired a competence,
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retired, while his son was yet young, to spend the evening of life on a farm which he purchased in Charlestown. There the future judge received his early education, much of it under the instruction of the Rev. Dr. Crosby, the village clergyman. In college young Gilchrist won many friends by his sterling qualities, and without being over-ambitious to excel, maintained a good rank, especially in certain studies congenial to his tastes, and was noted as a great reader.
He commenced the study of the law with the eccentric William Briggs of Charlestown, and then passed into the Harvard Law School, and there gained a comprehensive view of the field of jurisprudence. As soon as he was admitted to the bar he became a partner of Henry Hubbard of Charlestown, and so was intro- duced immediately into an extensive practice. He did not fail to avail himself of the opportunity to become familiar with the vari- ous legal and business requirements of a large country office, and his professional progress was rapid. Though he probably never had any special political aspirations, he was chosen in 1836 and 1837 a representative in the legislature of the State ; and in 1838 he received the useful if not conspicuous appointment of register of Probate.1 4
In 1840, after a legal experience of only nine years, he was honored with the commission of associate Justice of the Superior Court. As he could not have been generally known throughout the State, his appointment must have occasioned surprise, but those who had watched his progress felt confident that he had in him the making of a first-rate judge. He resolved from the start to make the judgeship his life work, and entered upon all needful preparations therefor. He provided himself with an ample law library, and made the best use of it. The decisions of the high- est court of New Hampshire were indexed only in the twelve vol-
1 He also acted awhile as county solicitor, and from that experience, perhaps, derived his belief that criminal laws were made in order to be put in force, and not to be set aside by a weak sympathy. At a term of the court in Rockingham, which Judge Gilchrist afterwards held, three men were convicted of state prison offenses. Two of them went into court for sentence before the other, who perhaps flattered himself that the Judge was a soft- hearted weakling. If so, however, he was speedily disillusioned, for on the return of his companions he inquired what was their sentence. "Five years each " (the extent of the law), was the answer. "Five years," returned he, in an injured tone. " Well, that Gilchryst is a sonker !"
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umes of Reports then published ; Judge Gilchrist within a few years served himself and the profession alike, by classifying them in the excellent " Digest " which bears his name.
His natural fitness and his acquired qualifications for his new position, together with his fixed purpose to succeed, made him in no long time a popular judge with his associates and the public. He made an especially favorable impression when sitting at Nisi Prius. His manner on the bench was such as to conciliate the good-will of all, and to inspire confidence. His temper was mild, and he never permitted it to be ruffled. If any heat was gen- erated by the friction of a trial, it never reached the bench. He treated the members of the bar with politeness and attention. No one of them went away sorrowful from the conviction that his case had not had a fair consideration by the judge.
Although Judge Gilchrist probably never ranked with the great masters of legal lore in the extent of his acquirements, he was yet well versed in the learning of his profession, and con- tributed well to maintain the standing which the courts of the State had acquired under such eminent jurists as Smith and Richardson and Parker. And when in 1848 the latter resigned the office of Chief Justice, Judge Gilchrist was with the general approval made his successor.
The incidents in the life of a judicial officer in full work are not of a character to give general interest to his biography, and there is little more to tell of Judge Gilchrist's connection with the New Hampshire court except that he devoted himself after his elevation with equal if not increased diligence to the little-varying round of his duties. In 1855 the Congress of the United States created a new tribunal, the Court of Claims. President Pierce, who well knew the peculiar qualities of Judge Gilchrist, at once appointed him as the first Chief Justice of that court. The duties of the position, of course, required his removal to the national capital, and there were spent the remaining three years of his life. He possessed peculiarly the temperament and experience to fit him for inaugurating a new judicatory and set- ting it in successful operation, and it is believed that the satisfac- tory establishment and continuance of the Court of Claims was in no small measure due to the fortunate choice of its first presiding officer.
Besides his qualifications as a magistrate, he was fond of
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letters, with scholarly tastes and an extensive acquaintance with the literature of his own and foreign countries. His disposition was social and genial, and his sense of humor combined with it to make him a most agreeable and entertaining companion. In all his instincts and habits he was a thorough gentleman, urbane, hospitable, and high-minded.
He was the recipient of the degree of Doctor of Laws from two colleges, Dartmouth in 1852, and Harvard in 1856.
He was married, August 25, 1836, to Sarah Dean, daughter of Hon. Henry Hubbard of Charlestown. They had two children, a daughter and a son.
ANDREW SALTER WOODS, LL. D. J. 1840-1855. C. J. 1855.
Son of Andrew and Isabella (Jameson) Woods ; born, Bath, June 2, 1803 ; Dartmouth College, 1825; admitted, 1828 ; practiced, Bath ; died there, June 20, 1863.
Judge Woods was of North-of-Ireland stock, his father having emigrated from the County of Antrim to this country ; and the son exhibited many of the traits of character which distinguish the Scotch-Irish. He was the first native of Bath to enter the legal profession. After graduating from college, he read law in the office of Ira Goodall of Bath, and when admitted, became his partner in practice. They remained in that connection twelve years, and acquired a business that in extent and emoluments could hardly have been exceeded in the State. The habit of doing busi- ness on credit that then prevailed, and the importance of prior attachments of property, led to a multitude of failures, and an infinity of suits. The office of Goodall and Woods was known far and wide, and was resorted to from a large circle of country. It is said that a light used to be kept in it through the night, that men in haste to secure their demands might be accommodated at all hours; and that two thousand court writs were made in the office in a single year.
The junior partner became noted as not only a first-rate man of business, but as a careful, knowing lawyer, whose matured opinions it was safe to rely upon. It is not supposed that he was a great student ; certainly he had little time for that after his admission. But he was well grounded in the elements of the law ; 7
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he had the faculty of accurate discrimination and of careful delib- eration ; and he was rarely mistaken in his judgment. As a practitioner in court, he was thoroughly well prepared in the law and the facts. He made no show, but the balance of judgments was always in his favor. He was little pretentious as an advocate, but he knew exactly the strength of his case, and he put it in its most effective logical form. He had none of the little arts of coaxing verdicts out of the prejudices or ignorance of jurors. He treated " the twelve " like men of reason and sense, and no doubt found his account in it.
After twelve years of practice at the bar, he was in 1840 made an associate Justice of the Superior Court, with the general appro- bation of the profession. His conduct as a judge was in all par- ticulars' worthy of the position. He was even-tempered, patient, impartial, upright. It is within the knowledge of the writer that his bearing in a hearing at chambers impressed several gentlemen of high position from another State with singular admiration. Few of our judges have given more general satisfaction than he. He was strict in the execution of his duties, and he expected like fidelity from all others. Though he undoubtedly made pretty broad distinctions in his private estimates of men, he treated them all with strict fairness in his official dealings. When a new point was presented to him, his habit was to hear attentively the discussion of counsel upon it before making his decision, and his power of nice discrimination and of sound judgment usually ena- bled him to decide it aright. It was rare that verdicts found in his court were disturbed for faulty rulings or instructions of the judge.
When the office of Chief Justice was vacated in 1855 by the resignation of Judge Gilchrist to enter the Court of Claims, Judge Woods was advanced to the position, and filled it with ability and to the general acceptance. But with the change of political preponderance in the State, which took place later the same year, came the inevitable alteration of the courts, which legis- lated the new Chief Justice out of office. It is said to have been a blow to him, a sensitive and high-spirited man ; but there is no reason to believe that it was aimed especially at him. The change would have been made, whoever of his party had been at the head of the court.
He returned to the bar and resumed his practice in Bath with
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success up to the time when the insidious disease which termi- nated his life incapacitated him for further labor.
Judge Woods valued property, and held firmly to the doctrine that the laborer is worthy of his hire ; but he was a man of the strictest integrity and trustworthiness, and all knew and felt it. Others of our judges have had greater literary qualifications and more extensive acquaintance with the study of jurisprudence than he, but perhaps few, if any, of them understood better the spirit of the common law, or could make a truer application of its principles to the facts before him.
His college, in recognition of his eminence as a jurist, bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1852.
Judge Woods was married, January 7, 1830, to Eliza, daughter of Hon. James Hutchins of Bath. They had three daughters and two sons, one of whom, Edward Woods, studied the profession of his father.
IRA ALLEN EASTMAN, LL. D.
J. 1849-1859.
Son of Captain Stephen and Hannah (Page) Eastman ; born, Gilmanton, January 1, 1809 ; Dartmouth College, 1829 ; practiced, Gilmanton, Concord, and Manchester ; died, Manchester, March 21, 1881.
Shortly after his graduation at the age of twenty, Mr. Eastman entered upon his course of law study with John Willard in Troy, New York, and in that place he made his début in 1832 as a practitioner. In 1834 he returned to his native town, and re- sided there the ensuing nineteen years. A large proportion of that time he was in public office. In 1835 he was chosen clerk of the state Senate ; but as for some cause he did not appear, Asa Fowler was chosen in his stead. In 1836 he was a representative of Gilmanton in the General Court, and was reelected the two years succeeding, in both of which he occupied the Speaker's chair. He was appointed register of Probate in 1839 and served four years, when he resigned, on being elected to the Congress of the United States. He was in Congress four years. In 1844 he was commissioned a Circuit Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and after five years' experience in that capacity, was promoted to be a Justice of the Superior Court, the highest legal tribunal of the State. His judicial service was terminated by his resignation in 1859.
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Judge Eastman removed to Concord in 1853, and in 1858 to Manchester. After quitting the bench he established a partner- ship in the practice of the law with his son-in-law, David Cross of Manchester, and for some time kept an office in that city and in Concord. He continued in active business until about ten years before his decease. His residence was in Manchester during the latter portion of his life.
In 1863 he was the candidate of his party for the governorship of the State, and in 1866 for the United States senatorship, but in neither case was his party in the majority.
Judge Eastman's natural powers were good, though they could hardly be called brilliant, but they were thoroughly well trained and cultivated. He was an industrious and attentive student of the law, and prompt and trusty in accomplishing the business put into his hands. He had the advantage of a fine person, being considered, when he was Speaker of the House, the handsomest man in that body. His treatment of others was uniformly polite. He never betrayed by speech or look any annoyance or irritabil- ity. His evenness of disposition well adapted him to the strug- gles of the forum, where loss of temper puts the advocate to a disadvantage and often leads to the loss of a cause; and was of equal importance to him in the performance of his judicial func- tions, by enabling him to preserve that mental balance which is essential to ministers in the temple of justice. His industry and familiarity with legal principles are evidenced by the large num- ber of well-considered opinions from his pen, which are found in the pages of the state Reports.
As a politician he was honorable and never failed to meet the just expectations of his party, and in all the relations of life his conduct was irreproachable. In 1858 he received the degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth College, and the following year he was chosen a trustee of the institution, and acted as such up to the time of his decease.
He married Jane, daughter of John N. Quackenbush of Albany, New York, who together with their daughter, the wife of Judge David Cross of Manchester, survived him.
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SAMUEL DANA BELL, LL. D. J. 1849-1859. C. J. 1859-1864.
Son of Hon. Samuel and Mehitabel B. (Dana) Bell ; born, Francestown, Oc- tober 9, 1798 ; Harvard College, 1816 ; admitted, 1819 ; practiced, Meredith, Chester, Exeter, Concord, and Manchester ; died, Manchester, July 31, 1868.
Mr. Bell, after taking his collegiate degree, lost no time in qualifying himself for the profession of his father and his mater- nal grandfather, Samuel Dana of Amherst, in the office of George Sullivan of Exeter. In 1819 he became an attorney, and went first for a few months to Meredith, but decided afterwards to establish himself in Chester. In 1823 he was commissioned so- licitor for Rockingham County, and in 1825 and 1826 was chosen a representative in the legislature. In 1827 and the two suc- ceeding years he was a commissioner for the revision of certain of the statutes of the State. In 1828 and 1829 he was clerk of the House of Representatives, and in 1828 was reappointed so- licitor, but declined the office.
One of the last criminal actions which he prosecuted was against the robbers of the Exeter Bank, in 1828. The president of the bank was Judge Jeremiah Smith, who was so much pleased with the efficient and methodical style in which the government's case was conducted, that he invited Mr. Bell to take up his resi- dence in Exeter, offering him the post of cashier of the bank, which it was supposed would not oblige him to give up his hold upon the law. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Bell made Exeter his home from early in 1829 to the latter part of 1836. But he found that his profession admitted of no divided allegiance, and removed to Concord to devote his entire time to it. Shortly after this it became evident that the powerfully supported manu- facturing interests of Manchester would soon render that place a chief point of business in the State, and Mr. Bell, on being appointed the general attorney of the great corporation which controlled the land and water power there, removed his residence thither in 1839. He continued, in that place also, the general prac- tice of his profession. His interest in the progress and develop- ment of Manchester was of the greatest use to the rapidly grow- ing town. He foresaw the wants which an enlarged population and extended business would generate, and by his advice they
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were seasonably provided for. No citizen did more than he to implant in the town the germs of all that was needed to trans- form the factory village into a populous and influential city.
In 1840 the need of a thorough revision of the state statutes led to the appointment of three eminent lawyers to perform that service, viz., Joel Parker, Samuel D. Bell, and Charles J. Fox. The laborious official duties of Judge Parker devolved most of the work of the commission upon the other two members, and Mr. Bell has paid a high tribute to the diligence and capacity displayed by Mr. Fox therein. It is well known, however, that Mr. Bell was also untiring in his labors to forward and perfect the work. Their recommendations were in substance adopted in 1842, and constituted what was known as the " Revised Statutes." The changes in the old enactments were in some respects quite radical, many outgrown articles were lopped away, and new and needed provisions introduced. The phraseology of the entire body of the statutes was recast in a uniform style. No such thorough treatment had been given to the legislation of the State before ; and it has served as a model for all subsequent revisions.1
Manchester adopted her city charter in 1846, and Mr. Bell was commissioned the first Judge of her Police Court, a post which he accepted, doubtless, to give it character, and to fix its operations upon a correct basis. Two years later he received the appoint- ment of Circuit Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1849 that of associate Justice of the Superior Court. The latter position he continued to occupy during the next ten years, and in 1859 he was preferred to the office of Chief Justice, which he filled until his resignation in 1864. Though he declined all, even the most tempting and least burdensome retainers, thenceforth, he responded to the call of the State in 1865, which placed him at the head of another board of commissioners to revise the statutes. He attended to that duty with his accustomed promptitude and
1 The changes introduced in the Revised Statutes led Mr. Bell to prepare a manual for justices of the peace and other officers, entitled the "Justice and Sheriff." It contained a great variety of forms and precedents, carefully framed, and pruned of much unnecessary verbiage, and was indispensable to the practicing lawyer. Several editions have been published, and the work is still in universal use.
Mr. Fox prepared a similar volume for the use of officers of towns. A sec- ond edition, called for after Mr. Fox's decease, was revised and improved by Mr. Bell.
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zeal, and the result of the labors of the commission appeared in 1867 under the title of the "General Statutes." This was the last of his public services.
Judge Bell had naturally extraordinary powers of mind and memory, and cultivated them assiduously his life through. He was a diligent student in college, at the bar, and on the bench. In the law he was not content with the mastery of our own system of jurisprudence alone, but made himself acquainted with the various codes of other times and countries. But his studies were by no means limited to the law. He acquired a vast store of know- ledge of mechanics, of chemistry, and of the various branches of natural history. Many anecdotes are told of his readiness in the application of his learning to the needs of every-day life. The value of such acquisitions to a general lawyer, and to a judge upon the bench, is obviously incalculable.
Judge Bell's tastes led him to give much time to early history, and particularly to that of his own State. Few of our anti- quaries, if any, had acquired so full, intimate, and exact a know- ledge as he of the circumstances attending the discovery and first settlement of our coast, and of the character and conduct of the settlers and their successors in the early generations. His re- searches into the character of the courts and the administration of justice in New Hampshire were particularly thorough, pursued as they were principally by a perusal of the original records in the several counties. It was hoped that he would have prepared a judicial history of New Hampshire, and thus have preserved his invaluable collections for posterity ; but his span of life was too short. He communicated, however, to our state publications val- uable articles which were the fruits of his careful research,1 and left many memoranda and excerpts from which much assistance has been derived for the present work.
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