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 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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
He took early to politics. His party was chosen before he left college, and he addressed a great political assemblage while he was yet an undergraduate. Here, too, he was a manly opponent. He believed in the doctrines of his party, but not in unfair meth- ods. He was chosen to the state Senate in 1856 and 1857, and was a candidate for Congress at three elections, but his party was in a minority. To the constitutional convention of 1876 he was chosen by the concurrence of all parties of his townsmen.
The winters of the last few years of his life he spent in part away from his home, in Boston or in Plymouth.
He was married on his twenty-third birthday to Clementine E. Hayes of Orford. She was his devoted nurse in his various ill- nesses, and survived him. They had no children.
JOSEPH BURROWS.
Son of Joseph and Rachel (Blaisdell) Burrows ; born, Lebanon, Maine, Au- gust 24, 1813 ; practiced, Effingham, Holderness, and Plymouth ; died, Plym- outh, April 5, 1885.
Mr. Burrows' education was acquired in the common schools and from private study. He had a strong desire for a liberal education, prepared himself for college, and put by his scanty earnings to pay the expenses of his four years' course ; but the illness of his younger brother frustrated his plans. With the generosity which he manifested towards his father in later life, he devoted his savings to the relief of the sufferer.
Mr. Burrows studied his profession in the office of Josiah Dearborn in Effingham, and at the Harvard Law School. After his admission to the bar he practiced first at Effingham until 1844, then at Holderness (now Ashland) for fourteen years, and the rest of his life at Plymouth. In each of those places he was
229
ALPHABETICALLY.
chosen to local offices, and after his removal to Plymouth he was a representative in the legislature in 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874, and a member of the executive council in 1878-79. He was for some time a member of the board of education, and a trustee of the State Normal School. Dartmouth College gave him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1874.
Mr. Burrows possessed a good legal mind, was industrious and persevering, and his name is associated in the judicial Reports with several actions of more than usual consequence.
In his legal work he was careful and thorough. His belief in his client and his cause was implicit, and called forth his best efforts and the whole of his resources. He had the faculty of stating a case lucidly and strongly. He was a positive, outspoken man, of very decided opinions, and never slow to defend them. He had his likes and his dislikes, but he had a kind heart at bottom. If he showed some of the foibles, he showed also much of the strength of a self-made man. His practical good sense, his general information gained by much reading, his powers of conversation and genial humor, are pleasantly remembered by all who associated with him.
His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Josiah Dearborn of Effingham. She bore him six children, of whom five outlived him.
His oldest son, Joseph M. Burrows, follows the profession of his father.
CHARLES W. BURT.
Son of Willard and Martha (Wood) Burt ; born, Westmoreland, November 6, 1820 ; practiced, Colebrook ; died, Detroit, Michigan, April 11, 1859.
Mr. Burt was a student in Mount Cæsar and Lebanon acade- mies, and for two years in the Norwich (Vermont) University, and maintained a high rank in his classes. He studied law in the office of Levi Chamberlain of Keene. After his admission in Cheshire County, he proceeded to Colebrook, and established him- self in practice in 1848. He continued there six years, and then went to Detroit, Michigan. In that city, in 1855, he formed a law partnership with A. B. Maynard, which lasted through the remainder of Mr. Burt's short life.
His surviving partner describes him as of decided ability, and
230
DECEASED LAWYERS
of the best repute for legal learning and capacity and for purity and uprightness of character. At a meeting of the Bar of De- troit he was eulogized by several of the leading members as an untiring student, a lawyer of sound judgment, and of growing, solid reputation.
He married in January, 1854, Julia, daughter of Horace Loo- mis of Colebrook. She died in Detroit, Michigan.
JAMES DEARBORN BUTLER.
Son of Hon. James H. and Mary Hersey (Dearborn) Butler ; born, Not- tingham, November 9, 1842 ; Harvard College, 1864 ; admitted, 1867 ; prac- ticed, Portsmouth ; died, Nottingham, November 13, 1877.
Mr. Butler was prepared for college at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied law in Portsmouth with John S. H. Frink, whose office-mate he became after his entrance to the bar. In his short professional experience, though he performed his part in the varied work of the office, he never grew to that fondness for his calling which induces men to forsake their amusements and other pursuits in order to make it their one chief object. His abilities, however, were excellent. His entire professional life little exceeded the term of eight years, for the shattered condition of his health led him to pass his last year or two at the home of his father in Nottingham.
He was married, June 16, 1869, to Sarah Hersey, daughter of John O. Cilley of Nottingham, and left two children.
JOSIAH BUTLER.
Son of Nehemiah and Lydia (Wood) Butler ; born, Pelham, December 4, 1779 ; Harvard College, 1803 ; practiced, Pelham and Deerfield ; died, Deer- field, October 29, 1854.
Mr. Butler attended the academies at Londonderry and at At- kinson, and completed his preparation for college under the in- struction of William M. Richardson, afterwards Chief Justice. He began the study of the law in Amherst in the office of Clifton Clagett. There he remained but a short time, when he went to Virginia, and spent three years in that State, teaching an academy, and reading law in the offices of Governor Cabot and of Jacob Kinney. Having been admitted to practice in Virginia, he
231
ALPHABETICALLY.
returned in 1807 to New Hampshire, and set up his office in his native town. During the two years that he continued there, he was chosen to represent his townsmen in the state legislature, but he found Pelham an unfavorable place for one of his profession, and in 1809 removed to Deerfield.
In 1810 he was commissioned sheriff of Rockingham County, but his service was cut short in 1814 in an extraordinary way. In 1813, upon a political change in the State, the old Superior Court was abolished, and a new Supreme Court established in its stead. The effect was to indirectly oust the former judges from office, and a new bench was appointed. The old judges and the party to which they belonged contended that the establishment of the new court did not and constitutionally could not abrogate the former court, or deprive its judges of their position. Accordingly the judges attended at the terms fixed by law, and for a time attempted to keep up the semblance of the departed court. The new clerks, however, and the parties and juries, generally adhered to the new establishment. Two of the sheriffs, Benjamin Pierce of Hillsborough County, and Josiah Butler of Rockingham, stood up for the old judges, and obeyed their orders. For doing this, they were at the next session of the legislature removed from their offices by address. The party to which they belonged natu- rally regarded them as political martyrs, and upon its return to power handsomely provided for them both.
In 1815 and 1816 Mr. Butler was chosen a representative in the legislature, and in 1816 was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1817 he was elected a representative in the Congress of the United States, and continued such by successive elections for six years. In 1825 he was commissioned a justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and occupied the position eight years, when the court was abolished. He then returned to prac- tice at the bar, and also attended to the cultivation of his farm. He was subsequently appointed postmaster of South Deerfield, and retained that office to the time of his death.
Judge Butler was a man of good, but not extraordinary abili- ties. He was not distinguished as an advocate, though he argued causes to some extent, and while in Congress made some speeches. He had studied his profession diligently, and was an excellent practicing lawyer. His business for many years was extensive, and carefully and successfully attended to. In the performance
232
DECEASED LAWYERS
of his legislative duties he fully met the expectations and won the approbation of his party friends. He was an upright and just judge. He is said also to have had uncommon facility in writing for the press.
His wife was Hannah, daughter of Richard Jenness of Deer- field. They were married in 1811, and had nine children. Two of their sons became lawyers in other States.
NEHEMIAH BUTLER.
Born, Pelham, February 22, 1824; admitted, 1848 ; practiced, Boscawen; died there, August 10, 1883.
Mr. Butler acquired his education at the academies in Derry and in Pembroke. His law studies he prosecuted in the office of Asa Fowler of Concord, and at the Harvard Law School. Settling in the village of Fishersville, in Boscawen, in the spring of 1848, he remained there in successful practice till November, 1852, when he was appointed clerk of the courts in Merrimac County, and changed his residence to Concord. In 1860, on account of the condition of his health, he resigned the clerkship, and resumed his practice in Fishersville. In 1862, and again in 1865, he was elected a county commissioner, serving six years in the office. Upon the decease of Jonas D. Sleeper in 1868, he for the second time filled the position of county clerk for a year. In 1869 and 1870 he represented Boscawen in the state legislature; and in 1876 was commissioned Judge of Probate, and continued to dis- charge the duties of that office as long as he lived.
Judge Butler was a very good lawyer, not brilliant, but a solid, judicious, careful man. He was not ambitious to become a leader at the bar. His business, for the place where he lived, was a very good one. As a public officer his conduct left nothing to be desired. " As careful and trustworthy as Judge Butler," was the highest commendation among all who knew him.
His wife was Mary M., daughter of Richard Gage of Boscawen. They were married in 1849, and had six children, of whom three outlived their father.
233
ALPHABETICALLY.
ERASMUS BUTTERFIELD.
Son of Isaac and Hannah (Chamberlain) Butterfield ; born, Westmoreland, January 24, 1769 ; Dartmouth College, 1792 ; practiced, Westmoreland, Marl- borough, Fitzwilliam, and Keene ; died, Westmoreland, December 27, 1828.
Mr. Butterfield was admitted an attorney of the Court of Com- mon Pleas in the county of Cheshire, September, 1795, and probably entered into practice there soon afterward. As early as 1803 he removed to Marlborough, and a year later to Fitzwilliam, and remained there till 1808 or 1809. In 1811 he was living in Keene, but in 1814 had returned to Marlborough, where he passed the most of his remaining years. From his changes of residence it would appear that he could not have been anchored by his business to any single locality. The historian of Fitzwilliam inti- mates that he suffered a lack of popularity among the common people from the extent to which he maintained the dignity of his profession, but we learn that he was chosen a representative in the legislature from that town in 1807. He was not specially distinguished as a lawyer, so far as is shown by record or tra- dition.
His wife was Esther, daughter of Phillips Sweetser of Marl- borough. They were married in 1803, and had nine children.
SAMUEL BUTTERFIELD.
Born, Goffstown, December, 1791 ; admitted, 1816 ; practiced, Epping, Andover, and Concord ; died, Concord, July 4, 1860.
Mr. Butterfield studied his profession with Thomas Jameson and Josiah Forsaith of Goffstown, Levi Woodbury of Frances- town, and John Harris of Hopkinton, and was admitted to the bar at Amherst " on motion of Benjamin Champney in the name of all the attorneys practicing in that court," as the record states. In 1817 he commenced to practice in Epping, and remained there, with the exception, perhaps, of a short interval at Goffstown, until 1823, when he established himself in Andover. He left Andover in the latter part of November, 1855, after a residence there of about thirty-two years, and moved to Concord. He was postmaster of Andover during the administration of Jackson and Van Buren, representative in the state legislature in 1846 and
234
DECEASED LAWYERS
1847; and member of the executive council in 1851 and 1852. When the State Capital Bank of Concord was organized in 1853, Mr. Butterfield was chosen its president, and so remained as long as he lived.
He was a man of great energy and industry. He married young, and before he reached the age of twenty-five was left a widower with three children, and this before he had acquired his profession. But he never lost an opportunity to add to his re- sources, in traffic or speculation, and even had the magical power, not common to lawyers at least, of making the cultivation of the soil yield him profitable returns. To accomplish this he did not neglect the old adage, however, but day after day, in spite of an inherited liability to rheumatism, put his own hands to the plough. He seems to have been a veritable Midas, for he drew gold from a stage line in which he was concerned, and was a late investor in eastern lands, which he could not sell again, but which afterwards proved highly remunerative.
Mr. Butterfield was not a lawyer of wide reading, but had the principles of jurisprudence well defined in his mind. He was a clear-headed and safe adviser. He had few causes in the trial courts, and was not gifted with the faculty of speech-making; but on occasion he pronounced a terse, pointed statement, that was as effective as an oration. As a draftsman of legal instru- ments he excelled.
He was married three times ; first, in 1810, to Nancy M. Vose of Francestown ; second, in 1835, to Mary B. Ware of Pomfret, Vermont ; and third, in 1854, to Anna Maria Abbot of Charles- town, Massachusetts. By his first two marriages he had children. Two of his sons became lawyers.
WILLIAM BUTTERFIELD.
Son of Samuel and Nancy (Vose) Butterfield ; born, Goffstown, September 18, 1815 ; Dartmouth College, 1836 ; practiced, Gilmanton and Nashua ; died, Concord, February 1, 1884.
Although Mr. Butterfield won the chief success of his life in the field of political journalism, he began his career at the bar. After leaving college he was one year in the office of his father in Andover, and two years in that of D. F. Cook, Maumee City, Ohio, in which State he was admitted an attorney in July, 1839.
235
ALPHABETICALLY.
On April 1, 1840, he began practice at the Iron Works village in Gilmanton. Two years afterwards he removed to Lowell, Massa- chusetts, and edited the Lowell " Advertiser " until the 1st of Janu- ary, 1844; then returning to Gilmanton he resumed practice at " the Corner " until April, 1846. But he preferred the vocation of an editor to that of a lawyer, and having by numerous contributions to the press satisfied himself that he could depend on his pen for a livelihood, he purchased the "Gazette " newspaper at Nashua, and there fixed his abode for some seven months. On the fourth day of August, 1846, Henry H. Carroll, the proprietor of the " New Hampshire Patriot " at Concord, died, and that newspaper was sold to Mr. Butterfield, who assumed the editorial charge of it in the succeeding December. This was then the principal organ of the Democratic party of New Hampshire, and the con- trol of it gave Mr. Butterfield a leading position in the State. It demanded abilities of a high order to conduct the paper to the general satisfaction of his party, great prudence and careful con- sideration of many interests, but he passed through the ordeal successfully.
In 1845 he was chosen assistant secretary of the state Senate ; from 1847 to 1855 state printer jointly with John M. Hill. His connection with the "New Hampshire Patriot " ceased in 1873. The next year, on his party succeeding to power in the State, he was made Secretary of State. In 1878 he was appointed a mem- ber of the State Board of Equalization, and in 1879 auditor of public printer's accounts, and he was kept in both positions until the day of his death.
Mr. Butterfield married, December 31, 1844, Rosamond M., daughter of Findlay W. Robinson of Gilmanton, and left three sons.
CHARLES HUTCHINS BUTTERS.
Son of Thomas and Theodate (Drake) Butters ; born, Canterbury, Janu- ary 29, 1818 ; Dartmouth College, 1837 ; practiced, Pittsfield and Concord ; died, Pittsfield, May 13, 1860.
Mr. Butters began the study of the law with Ira Perley in Concord, then engaged for a time in teaching at Petersburg, Vir- ginia, and elsewhere, and afterwards entered the office of Messrs. Hayes and Cogswell in South Berwick, Maine, to complete his
236
DECEASED LAWYERS
preliminary term. In 1843 he was received as the partner of Moses Norris, Jr., then in practice in Pittsfield. He resided in that place until 1853, and then after a few months in Meredith removed to Concord, which continued to be his place of business ever afterwards. From Pittsfield he was chosen a representative in the legislatures of 1850 and 1851, and a delegate to the con- stitutional convention of 1850.
He was bright, able, and popular. He had many of the quali- ties of a first-rate lawyer, quickness of apprehension, keenness of discrimination, a wide mental grasp, and sound reasoning powers. A distinguished judge remarked of him: " As a young man he had one of the best and clearest legal minds I ever knew, and was a very good advocate." Nothing appeared necessary to in- sure him a place among the distinguished men of his time, but steady application to the labors of his profession. But the ease with which he turned off work tended to disincline him to habits of regular industry, and a taste for convivial indulgence began to undermine his usefulness and standing. This increased upon him until his untimely death.
He was married at Manchester, December 10, 1845, to Julia Ann Hunt, adopted daughter of Amasa Trescott of Dover.
TIMOTHY CALL.
Son of Moses and Mehitable (Jackman) Call ; born, Boscawen, February 13, 1763 ; Dartmouth College, 1790 ; practiced, Gilmanton and Moulton- borough ; died, Lake Champlain, July, 1804.
Mr. Call began business as an attorney in Gilmanton in 1793. In that town and in Moultonborough he remained until 1801. From the accounts that have come down to us, he was indicted and convicted in 1802 for passing counterfeit money. How he was enabled to be at large two years afterwards is not known ; but the " Farmer's Cabinet " of July 31, 1804, contained this notice : " Drowned, on the west side of Lake Champlain, the noted Timo- thy Call, of money-making memory."
He was married to a lady named Cleveland, of Connecticut.
237
ALPHABETICALLY.
EDMUND CARLETON.
Son of Dr. Edmund and Joanna (Coffin) Carleton ; born, Haverhill Octo- ber 29, 1797; Dartmouth College, 1822 ; practiced, Haverhill and Littleton ; died, Littleton, March 11, 1882.
Mr. Carleton was prepared for college at the Haverhill acad- emy. After taking his bachelor's degree he was tutor a year in a gentleman's family in Washington, District of Columbia, and studied law two years in Virginia and one with Joseph Bell of Haverhill. His first practice was in Haverhill in 1826, about a year; then he moved to Littleton. On account of the delicacy of his health, he could do little beyond a collecting business. He was a good lawyer and a cautious and exceedingly deliberate counselor, averse to litigation, preferring to reconcile differences without recourse to the law.
After some years he engaged in the business of lumbering, as better, suited to his health, but he was never very successful in it, and finally made shipwreck of his property in the White Moun- tains Railroad.
He was a practically religious man and an early abolitionist. His house was a refuge for fugitives from slavery to free Canada. Later he was a Free Soil candidate for Congress, but unsuccess- fully. He was a prominent citizen, widely known throughout northern New Hampshire, not simply in his legal capacity but as a business man and a philanthropist.
In the year 1836 he married Mary K., daughter of Thomas Coffin of Boscawen, and became the father of seven children.
HARVEY CARLETON.
Son of Rodolphus Carleton ; born, Winchester, 1810 ; admitted, 1840 ; practiced, Chesterfield, Keene, and Winchester ; died, Winchester, December 20, 1885.
Mr. Carleton's father was a cloth-dresser, and his grandfather was of Coleraine, Massachusetts. He himself received a good academical education ; then turned his attention to the study of the law, in Keene, and was admitted in Cheshire County. The next fourteen years he practiced his profession in Chesterfield. In 1854, the last year of his stay in that town, he held the office of school commissioner for the county. The next year he trans-
238
DECEASED LAWYERS
ferred his residence to Keene, and remained in practice there almost twenty years. He went to Winchester to reside, upon receiving the appointment of Judge of Probate in 1874. For two years he filled the office, after which he did little or no profes- sional business, but lived very quietly upon his farm.
He never belonged to the order of hustling lawyers, but had the respect of the community as a well-intentioned and upright man.
JOHN P. CARR, JR.
Son of John P. and Emily A. (Cochran) Carr ; born, Enfield, May 1, 1845 ; admitted, 1867 ; practiced, Andover ; died, Tipton, Missouri, July 12, 1874.
Mr. Carr acquired his education at the Union Academy in Canaan and the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, and read law with John M. Shirley at Andover, whose partner in practice he became. His connection with Mr. Shirley continued until he removed to Missouri in May or June, 1869. In the brief period of his professional life in this State his qualities could have been known to but few; but Mr. Shirley, in his impulsive, warm- hearted way, wrote of him as follows: " As a scholar he was not above the average, but his perception of principles was nice ; his practical judgment excellent ; his business capacity great ; and his industry and energy knew no bounds. He was free from bad habits, and thoroughly upright, with a high sense of honor. A devoted husband and father and a true friend, he was always ready to stand by those he loved, regardless of consequences to himself. With a high ambition in his profession ' he pulled on the bit till his tireless energy slew him.'"
Mr. Carr was married in May, 1869, to Jennie H. Ayers of Canterbury. They had two children, one of whom, a son, sur- vived his father.
PHILIP CARRIGAIN.
Son of Dr. Philip and Elizabeth (Clough) Carrigain ; born, Concord, Feb- ruary 20, 1772 ; Dartmouth College, 1794 ; practiced, Concord, Epsom, and Chichester ; died, Concord, March 16, 1842.
Mr. Carrigain's commencement part at his graduation from col- lege was a poem on agriculture, which was considered so meritori- ous that it was printed in the "Columbian Centinel " and other
239
ALPHABETICALLY.
papers of the time. He read law in the office of Arthur Liver- more of Holderness, and began practice in his native town. His engaging personal qualities, his reputation for talents and learn- ing, his gift of bright speech and easy versification, his readiness to take part in all festive occasions, all combined to surround him with popularity. No political, agricultural, or social gathering was complete without his presence. A toast, a speech, and a poem were always ready in his prolific brain. He complimented the ladies, flattered the farmers, and won the plaudits of all. For years he was a constant attendant at all convivial occasions.
In 1805 and the three following years he was chosen Secretary of State. In 1806 he was one of an " association of gentlemen " who carried on a newspaper in Concord called the " American Pa- triot ; " the same which, at a later date, under the title of the " New Hampshire Patriot," and under the editorship of Isaac Hill, won for itself an unexampled political influence throughout the State. In 1821 and the two succeeding years he was clerk of the state Senate. The principal work by which Mr. Carrigain will be remembered, however, is probably the map of the State of New Hampshire, issued by him by authority of the legislature in 1816. The surveys of some of the towns were made by incompetent persons, and it required ingenuity if not actual force to fit them perfectly together. But the map when completed was a great improvement over any preceding one, and was for that day a most creditable performance. Mr. Carrigain's convivial tastes and diversified pursuits did not conduce to his success in his profes- sion. He gained his early popularity cheaply, and as time went by his law office became less and less inviting. He looked to other employments for a livelihood, until it was too late for him to become a thorough lawyer. As years went by he saw others far less bountifully endowed by nature than himself, by sheer plodding outstripping him in the race. It was the old story of the hare and the tortoise. He tried several places which he thought afforded better openings for a legal practitioner, Loudon, Chichester, and Epsom, between 1822 and 1836, but returned in the latter year to Concord, and there spent the remainder of his days in rather reduced circumstances. He had partaken gayly of the foam and sparkle of life, but the dregs were tasteless and uninviting. He was never married. The friends of his better days erected his tombstone.
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.