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 37
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He was endowed with uncommon intellectual faculties and ex- ecutive force, and was a lawyer of learning and ability, but his physical powers were slender, and he was nervous and irritable to
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an extent that sometimes impaired his usefulness. While he was holding a court in one of the northern counties, he was much annoyed by the coughing that proceeded from some of the specta- tors. He referred to it again and again, with increasing asperity, until at length he directed the sheriff to remove the next man who coughed from the court-room. As might be expected, this peremptory order had a marvelous effect in stilling the audience. That evening a stranger appeared at the village hotel, afflicted with an incessant cough. "I can tell you how you can cure that," said a bystander ; "you just go down to the court house, and there is a little wizened-faced judge there who'll put a stop to that cough of yours in less than five minutes, - a sure cure !"
Judge Gove joined to his ability and learning, complete honesty and much independence. He was highly conscientious and, sen- sible that his feelings sometimes prompted him to swerve a little from the perpendicular, he strove to correct the variation as best he could. Of two legal firms who frequently appeared in his court, it used to be said that if he leaned in favor of one, at one term, he would endeavor to make it up by befriending the other at the next. On the whole, however, in spite of his idiosyncrasy, it must be admitted that Judge Gove left behind him a most creditable record of efficiency and useful service.
He married Mary K., daughter of Ziba Gay of Nashua, Septem- ber 22, 1844. He left no children.
JESSE AUGUSTUS GOVE.
Son of Squire and Dolly (Atwood) Gove ; born, Weare, December 5, 1824 ; admitted, 1851 ; practiced, Concord ; killed, Gaines' Mill, Virginia, June 27, 1862.
Mr. Gove was educated at the Norwich University, Vermont, and served as a lieutenant in the Ninth Regiment of United States Infantry in the Mexican war. He studied law with Pierce and Minot of Concord, and was admitted to practice in Merrimac County. From 1850 to 1855 he was deputy Secretary of State, and then, having a decidedly military taste, was commissioned a captain in the regular army. He was stationed in Utah until the great civil war opened, when he was put in command of the Twenty-Second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. He took part in the engagements in Virginia under McClellan, until the battle in which he received his fatal wound.
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He was a brave and accomplished soldier, and a man greatly esteemed.
His wife was Maria L., daughter of Robert Sherburn of Con- cord. They had two children.
JOHN GOVE.
Son of Dr. Jonathan and Mary (Hubbard) Gove ; born, New Boston, Feb- ruary 17, 1771 ; Dartmouth College, 1793 ; practiced, Goffstown ; died, Chil- licothe, Ohio, 1802.
Mr. Gove studied his profession with William Gordon of Am- herst, and was admitted an attorney in 1796. He was the first lawyer to settle in Goffstown, and remained there from 1797 till 1802, when he left under a cloud, it is said, and removed to Chillicothe, Ohio.
He never married.
GILBERT A. GRANT.
This gentleman, understood to have been a native and a mem- ber of the bar of Vermont, came to Newmarket in 1842, and practiced there about three years. He was a bright man, full of humor, and famous for his stories, which he told with an inim- itable Yankee drawl and accent. He had no great success in the law, and removed soon to Brooklyn, New York, and thence to California, where he was elected to the state Senate, and lived but a few years.
His wife, whose maiden name was Aiken, died while he lived in Newmarket, leaving him with a young daughter.
STEPHEN GRANT.
Son of Michael and Phebe (Wyman) Grant ; born, Alstead, 1775 ; Dart- mouth College, 1800 ; admitted, 1803 (?) ; practiced, Plymouth, Sandwich, and Sanbornton ; died, Plymouth, August 1, 1845.
This was one of those eccentrics whom no description can describe ; they must be known to be appreciated. He was "a fellow of infinite humor," whose droll and extravagant sayings raised many a laugh among his contemporaries, though they seem comparatively tame and lifeless when reduced to the chilling medium of print.
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Mr. Grant was in college with Daniel Webster. Occasionally some good-humored banter passed between them, a bit of which has been handed down by tradition. Grant was hopelessly cross- eyed, and Webster's complexion, according to General Stark, could hardly be darkened by gunpowder. "Do you see straight to-day ? " asked Webster of Grant. "Yes; I believe I can tell a white man from a negro," was the reply. "I think your sight is improving, then," was Webster's retort.
Years after they left college, they met at some festive gathering of the bar. When the hour for merriment had arrived, Mr. Webster amused the company with an account of the first appear- ance of Grant when on his way to college, tugging up the hill into Hanover, with a saddle on his back that he had stripped from the old horse which his father had furnished him for the journey, but which he had turned loose near Mink Brook to die, though he prudently determined to save the saddle. But the laugh which this picture elicited was not long against Grant, for he retorted with a description of Webster on his entrance into Hanover, dressed in a blue jean jacket and corduroy trousers far too short to reach his stockingless feet, and inquiring if anybody could tell him the way to " Moor's Indian Charity School !"
Mr. Grant appears to have practiced at Plymouth from 1806 above twenty years ; then at Sandwich several years ; afterwards in Sanbornton for a time, and finally to have returned to Plym- outh. It is said, too, that he went to Wentworth to live at one time, but did not stay there long. Being asked the reason of his leaving the place so soon, he replied that "in fact there was not room, there; the hills came down all around so close together that there was no space to turn round in. A little shoemaker moved in and set up business there, but when he tried to pull out his wax ends, he hit both his elbows against the hills ! "
This erratic genius, notwithstanding his bright natural parts and his advantages of education, appears never to have attained any distinction in his profession. He probably lacked those hab- its of application which alone insure the highest success to the followers of the stern taskmistress of the law.
In his later years he met with much domestic affliction, in the death of two daughters, and of his wife. Her maiden name was Mary Parker.
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GARDNER GREEN.
This was one of four brothers who engaged in the profession of the law in this State. He studied with his brother, Peter Green of Concord, and went into practice in Loudon before the year 1793, but remained there only a short time. He was afterwards heard of in Canada, where he was tried for some infraction of the law. He was drowned in crossing Lake Champlain.
He married Deborah Boynton, July 25, 1793.
NATHANIEL GREEN.
Son of Nathaniel Green ; born, Worcester (?), Massachusetts ; practiced, Boscawen, Warner, and Hopkinton ; died, Virginia, c. 1812.
Mr. Green was a brother of the preceding. He studied in the office of his brother, Peter Green of Concord, and is supposed to have begun practice in Boscawen as early as 1785. In 1795 he opened an office in Warner, but remained there only a year or two. He engaged also in trade, but without much success, and when in 1798 Congress authorized the raising of a provisional army, in anticipation of hostilities with France, he received a commission . as captain therein. He appears to have had literary pretensions, and published a Fourth of July oration. The later years of his life he was in reduced circumstances, and in 1811 went to Vir- ginia, where his death soon after occurred.
He married, in 1785, Ruth, daughter of Samuel Fowler of Boscawen. They had at least six children ; of whom two of the sons, Nathaniel and Charles G. Greene, became noted for their literary and journalistic abilities.
PETER GREEN.
Son of Nathaniel Green ; born, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1746 ; practiced, Concord ; died there, March 27, 1798.
This was the first lawyer of Concord. His father is said to have been a barber. He studied law in Londonderry, under the direction of Samuel Livermore, and opened his office in Concord in 1767.
Up to the time of the Revolution he is described as very suc-
1
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cessful in business, but the war naturally put a serious check upon legal proceedings. This may have been in part the occasion of Mr. Green's want of sympathy with the cause of the people. In March, 1777, the inhabitants of Concord passed a vote that Peter Green and other persons named be advertised in the public prints as enemies of the United States of America, and that Colonel Gordon Hutchins apply to the Court of Judicature of the State "to dismiss Peter Green, Esq., from all business hence- forth and forever." About the same time Mr. Green narrowly escaped having his house demolished by a concourse of Sons of Liberty. On the 9th of June following he and others were ar- rested by order of the Committee of Safety on suspicion of con- spiring against the liberties of the State, and brought before the legislature then in session. A joint committee of both Houses reported that the prisoners should be committed to close jail for safe keeping. On the 12th of June Mr. Green was liberated from actual confinement on giving bond for "the liberty of the yard," and on the 11th of July he was brought before the Committee of Safety, and voluntarily took the oath of allegiance to the State, and was discharged from custody.
It is probable that he yielded with tolerable grace to the inev- itable, and that after the surrender of Burgoyne he fully ac- quiesced in the new government ; for apparently he never quite lost the confidence of his fellow-citizens, but resumed his law prac- tice after the war, and was chosen representative to the General Court in 1785 and 1789; senator in 1787, 1789, and 1790; and councilor in 1788. He was also appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment of Light-horse in 1785, and colonel of the same in 1787.
It was said of Mr. Green, with truth, that he was " conspicu- ous in his time ;" he gave the tone to the fashionable society in the place of his residence, and was a liberal and public-spirited citizen. He is recorded in Bouton's history as the proprietor of the second chaise that was introduced into Concord; and in 1790 his name was set down for the sum of $100 on a subscription for erecting a building for the accommodation of the General Court, the whole amount of which was but $555.
Toward the close of his life, however, he yielded to that fatal habit of all times, and of his time especially, of too free indul- gence in intoxicating drink. Some time before his death he
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quitted the practice of the law, and went with his family to Boston, where he opened a boarding-house, but returned in a short time to Concord, and died there.
His standing in his earlier and better days may be inferred from his marriages. He had two wives, both belonging to fami- lies of education and position ; the one, whom he married in 1770, was Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel John Bulkley of Groton, Massachusetts, who was the mother of two children, and lived but a few years ; the other, Rebecca, daughter of Rev. John Mellen of Sterling, Massachusetts, and a sister of Chief Justice Mellen of Maine. She survived her husband about two years, and left five of her six children.
ELBRIDGE FLAGG GREENOUGH.
Son of John and Nancy (Foster) Greenough ; born, Canterbury, February 3, 1808 ; Dartmouth College, 1828 ; practiced, Salisbury ; died, Nauseon, Ohio, 1875.
Mr. Greenough studied law with Ezekiel Webster and Richard Fletcher at Salisbury, and Ebenezer Greenough at Sudbury, Pennsylvania, where he was admitted, and practiced six years. In 1842 he came to Salisbury, and was in trade there, and in the exercise of his profession, until 1860. In that year he removed to Nauseon, Ohio. He was not particularly distinguished in the law, so far as has been learned.
He was married, June 14, 1848, to Elizabeth R., daughter of Moses Eastman of Salisbury.
DAVID AIKEN GREGG.
Son of Joseph and Susannah (Aiken) Gregg ; born, Londonderry, March 12, 1788 ; Dartmouth College, 1811 ; practiced, Londonderry and Derry ; .. died, Derry, May 15, 1866.
Mr. Gregg studied law with Samuel C. Allen of Northfield, Massachusetts, and was admitted and established himself in an office in Derry in 1814. In 1817 he removed to New Salem, Massachusetts, but probably not finding encouragement there equal to his expectations, he returned in 1820 to Derry.
He represented Derry in the legislature of 1832, and in 1835 was appointed postmaster. In 1840 and 1841 he was chosen a
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member of the state Senate, and in January 1842, obtained the appointment of register of Probate, which he held for five years, meanwhile residing in Exeter. In 1847 he returned to Derry.
Mr. Gregg was a man of respectable talents and learning, and as a practitioner and in his official capacity gave satisfaction to all concerned. Though possessed of little quickness or readiness, he was by no means deficient in the sense of humor or the power of enjoying it. He was an assiduous gatherer of the dry sayings and pungent repartees with which the traditions of the early inhabitants of Londonderry abounded, and used to repeat them with deliberate unction.
He was three times married ; first, October 23, 1817, to Martha Hunt, daughter of Samuel C. Allen of Northfield, Massachusetts ; second, March 28, 1844, to Lydia, daughter of Hon. George Sul- livan of Exeter ; and last, June 22, 1852, to Charlotte, daughter of Samuel Butler of Pelham. By his first marriage he had a son who became a lawyer.
JOSEPH ALLEN GREGG.
Son of Hon. David A. and Martha H. (Allen) Gregg ; born, Derry, 1822 ; admitted, 1842 ; practiced, Derry ; died there, September 9, 1854.
Mr. Gregg was educated in the town of his birth, and studied law there in the office of his father. He was postmaster of Derry, and the youngest member of the state constitutional con- vention of 1850. He was a man of good intellect, and gave every indication of gaining distinction in his profession, had his life been prolonged.
SOLON GROUT.
This gentleman is reported to have come to New Hampshire from Brattleborough, Vermont, and to have acquired his profes- sional training under Willis Lyman of Hartford, in that State. He practiced in Lebanon a year or more, and then in 1832 re- moved to Hanover, where he was for a while a partner in practice with Mills Olcott. In 1835 he left Hanover and returned to Vermont, and died in Bellows Falls.
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WILLIAM HENRY HACKETT.
Son of Hon. William H. Y. and Olive (Pickering) Hackett ; born, Ports- mouth, December 6, 1827 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, September 24, 1891.
Mr. Hackett fitted himself for the bar in his father's office in Portsmouth. He was a man of many capabilities, and though al- ways retaining his hold upon the law, never was a slave to it. He was twenty years clerk of the United States Circuit Court, and commissioner ; a director in the First National Bank, and clerk of the Concord and Portsmouth, and Eastern (New Hampshire) rail- roads ; a journalist, ready at short notice to meet calls for literary and historical contributions to the press ; a trustee of estates, which he managed with prudence and method. He inherited from his father quickness of apprehension and promptness in action. His wits never went wool-gathering. His legal knowledge was for practical use ; he wanted to "fire and fall back." He had ready speech, and the gift of making his points briefly and forcibly. His cases in the courts were well looked after, and he took care that his clients' executions and his own fees were promptly col- lected.
During the great Rebellion Mr. Hackett took a somewhat prominent part in politics, and after serving in both branches of the city council of Portsmouth, was a member of the state legisla- ture in 1864 and 1865, and afterwards in 1871.
His wife was Mary Wells Healey of Hampton Falls. They were married December 4, 1851, and of their two children the son, Wallace Hackett, is a member of the bar.
WILLIAM HENRY YOUNG HACKETT.
Son of Allen and Mary (Young) Hackett ; born, Gilmanton, September 24, 1800 ; admitted, 1826 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, August 9, 1878.
Mr. Hackett when a lad attended the Gilmanton Academy, and presumably prepared himself for entrance to college. He had seen and heard Ichabod Bartlett, and, fascinated by his brilliant talents, fixed upon the law for his calling, and Bartlett for his master. He proceeded to Portsmouth, became his student, and
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supported himself by teaching while he accomplished his five years of legal reading. In 1826 he began practice in Ports- mouth.
He bought bank stocks as soon as he gained the means, and became in 1827 a director of the Piscataqua Bank, and so contin- ued as long as it existed. By the desire of Secretary Chase he organized the First National Bank of Portsmouth, - the first in the country, it is claimed, - and was its president through life. He was also an officer of two savings banks.
His law practice was, however, his chief interest. He was punctually in his office. Quick of apprehension, full of resources, conversant with human nature, and of great practical sense, he was a wise counselor. Without being a great student, he was usually right in his law. He held briefs against the best prac- titioners in the state and federal courts, and not to his disad- vantage. He was a ready and fluent speaker, with an apparent fairness, that impressed his audience favorably. He was spon- taneous, witty, and always interesting.
Until 1850 the state of parties in Portsmouth did not admit of Mr. Hackett's election to political office. In that and the two following years, and in 1857 and 1860, he was chosen a represen- tative in the General Court. In 1861 and 1862 he was a state senator, and in the latter year president of the Senate. In 1867, 1868, and 1869 he was again in the House. He was a valuable legislator, and an important adviser and spokesman of his party.
He was long a member of the State Historical Society, and five years president thereof ; and gave no little attention to historical and antiquarian subjects. He prepared introductory memoirs to the writings of Andrew Halliburton, and to Brewster's " Rambles about Portsmouth ; " and wrote obituary notices of many citizens of note, for the public journals. In the Memoir of Mr. Hackett by his younger son, a few excellent specimens of his composition are included.
He had always something apposite to say. In the midst of one of his addresses to the jury, the chair of the presiding judge gave way and let his Honor down to the floor. Mr. Hackett remarked that it was fortunate for his client that it was the judge, and not his counsel, who had " broken down."
He once brought a suit in behalf of a landlord against a de- linquent tenant named Parent. He opened his case to the jury
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by the remark that his client had come to the conclusion that it was high time that the defendant should change his name (pay- rent) or his habits ; but as he had done neither, it only remained to try what the law would do.
Mr. Hackett's chirography had been very beautiful in his youth, but in later life he wrote rapidly and with less care. A member of the bar whose handwriting was notoriously bad, on being taken to task by Mr. Hackett for its illegibility, declared that it was fully as readable as Mr. Hackett's. "The difference is," replied the latter, "that my hand looks as if I had once learned to write, and yours looks as if you never had !"
Mr. Hackett practiced the virtues that our fathers prized, and was rewarded by abundance and a happy old age, with the gen- eral esteem.
He was joined in marriage, June 21, 1826, to Olive, daughter of Joseph W. Pickering of Portsmouth, and they lived to cele- brate their golden wedding. Of their three children, the two sons became lawyers.
SAMUEL HAINES.
Son of Samuel and Hannah (Johnson) Haines ; born, Canterbury, May 30, 1780 ; Dartmouth College, 1803 ; practiced, Sanbornton and Portsmouth ; died, Providence, Rhode Island, August 13, 1825.
Mr. Haines studied law in the office of Fisk and Clegg of New York city, and began to practice in Sanbornton about 1807. In 1808 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the army of the United States, and served two or three years. He then appeared in Portsmouth, and made application to be admitted a counselor of the Superior Court. He practiced in Portsmouth for a year or two, and then went to Alabama and pursued his profession there. His death occurred while he was on his way to or from a visit to his friends in New England.
He delivered an oration on Independence day at Sanbornton in 1808, and another on the 4th of March, 1809, at Portsmouth, both of which were printed. He also published in 1812 a letter in vindication of himself against certain charges of Captain John B. Walbach.
He was high-spirited and probably contentious, and seems to have been strangely ignorant of the practice of our courts. In a
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cause which he was bringing to trial the clerk reminded him of the jury fee. He inquired what it was, and on being told took out the money and offered it to the foreman of the jury.
He was married, May 22, 1809, to Eliza, daughter of Nathaniel Gookin of Portsmouth.
DAVID HALE.
Son of David and Hannah (Emerson) Hale ; born, Alstead, 1783 ; admitted, 1811 ; practiced, Newport ; died there, October, 1822.
This gentleman was an older brother of Salma Hale of Keene, and possessed a full share of the talent which has so often accom- panied the name. Though he had not a collegiate education, his native thirst for knowledge and assiduous application enabled him to take rank with the best informed. He studied his profession with James H. Bingham in his native town, and chose Newport as his residence. There he continued to practice law during the nine remaining years of his life. He was a diligent reader and student of useful books, in company with his wife, who became afterwards known as Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, the distinguished authoress. Mr. Hale made many friends, and especially among the Masonic fra- ternity, of which he was a valued member.
He was married, October 23, 1813, to Sarah Josepha, daughter of Gordon Buell. They had five children.
JOHN HALE.
Son of Major Samuel Hale ; born, Portsmouth, 1762 ; Harvard College, 1779 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, July 13, 1796.
The father of the subject of this sketch, well known as " Master Hale," a classical teacher of high repute, an officer in the expedi- tion against Louisburg in 1745, and later in life a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, directed the studies of his forward son, who completed his collegiate course when he was but seventeen. The college authorities employed him as tutor from 1781 to 1786. Meanwhile he improved his time in the study of the law under John Pickering of Portsmouth, so that he was qualified for admis- sion in 1787. During the reminding nine years of his life he devoted himself assiduously to his profession. He prepared for publication the "Statement of the cause of the McClary owners
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v. Doane et al.," in 1795, which was the earliest case of conflict of jurisdiction between the courts of New Hampshire and of the United States.
His earthly career was terminated before he reached his thirty- fourth year. As was justly written by Jonathan Mitchell Sewall in his epitaph on Hale, his talents and virtues
" A noble harvest gave, yet promised more."
He was never married.
JOHN PARKER HALE.
Son of Samuel and Lydia (Parker) Hale ; born, Portsmouth, February 19, 1775 ; practiced, Portsmouth, Barrington, and Rochester ; died, Rochester, October 15, 1819.
Receiving his early education in the excellent schools of Ports- mouth, and at the expense of his uncle, " Sheriff " John Parker, Mr. Hale went for his legal training into the office of his kins- man, John Hale. He was ready for practice soon after he at- tained his majority, and for a year or two tried his fortune in Portsmouth, then for a short time in Barrington, but settled down about the year 1801 in Rochester.
It was not in him to be what we call a hard-working lawyer. He was of quick, impulsive feelings, and a ready wit. His powers were all at his immediate command. He was fairly well grounded in the principles of the law, but had no taste for the study of its minutiæ. He was the master of a very effective, off- hand oratory. His voice and manner were agreeable, his wit was keen, he knew human nature well, and was able to adapt his appeals to the exact level of his audience. He probably did quite as much business in court as out of it, for he was a favorite leader. It was not uncommon for him to be summoned to the front in a contested cause at the very moment of going to trial. The names of the parties and the nature of the action he learned from the writ as it was read by his junior, the facts lie took from the open- ing statement to the jury, and thus he went through the trial with as little hesitation, and perhaps with as much success, as if he had been training for months for the contest. Causes were tried more " upon their merits," as the phrase is, in his day, and depended little upon technicalities. Hence the want of prepara-
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