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 47
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Poor Moore's deterioration and unfortunate end are attributed to a bitter disappointment which he had experienced. He was deeply enamored of a young lady living in the southwestern part of the State, and employed a supposed friend to acquaint her with
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his feelings. The emissary proved false, and the lady thereby became lost to her admirer. This is supposed to have rendered Moore reckless and tired of life.
HORACE S. MOORE.
What has been learned of the brief career of this gentleman may be told in a few words. He was a son of William Moore, and was born in Chelsea, Vermont. He was admitted to the bar in Orange County, Vermont, January 13, 1864, came to Went- worth to practice in 1868, and died there after a residence of about three years.
LUTHER SULLIVAN MORRILL.
Son of Luther M. and Louisa M. (Osgood) Morrill ; born, Concord, July 13, 1844 ; Dartmouth College, 1865; admitted, 1868 ; practiced, Concord ; died there, March 18, 1892.
Mr. Morrill's precollegiate education was gained in the public schools of Concord, and in that city he studied the law in the office of John Y. Mugridge. In 1869 and 1870 he was assistant clerk of the state Senate, and the two succeeding years clerk. From November, 1869, until 1875, he was clerk of the Superior Court of Judicature, and from 1876 to 1882 of the Supreme Judicial Court. From 1877 to 1882 he was the special police justice of Concord. He relinquished the offices in 1882 to give his time to the practice of the law.
For several years afterwards he was actively concerned in the fire insurance business in the State, as president of the Phenix Mutual Company, as one of the executive committee of the Capital Company, and as vice-president of the Underwriters' Association. In 1886 he served in the lower house of the state legislature. In the several official stations which he occupied he acquitted himself with fidelity and credit.
He was united in marriage, November 26, 1872, to Agnes, daughter of Dr. Charles P. Gage of Concord. She, with a son and a daughter, survived him.
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LEWIS R. MORRIS.
Son of Park and Sophia (Morse) Morris ; born, West Fairlee, Vermont, 1816 ; admitted, 1847 ; practiced, Haverhill and Lebanon ; died, Lebanon, 1876.
Educated in the common schools and in the academy at New- bury, Vermont, Mr. Morris read law in the office of J. W. D. Parker of Bradford in the same State, and of Nathan B. Felton of Haverhill. In the latter place he was admitted. He had given much attention to mathematics and was a proficient in surveying. In 1849 he settled in Bradford, Vermont, and practiced there and also in Haverhill to some extent. Being a man of no little public spirit, he undertook in 1852 the publication of a newspaper devoted to agriculture, but for want of support it was suspended before the end of a single year.
In 1854 he established himself at White River Junction, and there remained, attending to legal business on both sides of the Connecticut, until 1862, when he removed to Lebanon. He is said not to have been a brilliant lawyer, but to have given much attention to current literature, which he read extensively.
His wife was Lucinda B., daughter of Captain Ellis Bliss of Bradford, Vermont.
CHARLES ROBERT MORRISON.
Son of William and Stira (Young) Morrison ; born, Bath, January 22, 1819 ; admitted, 1842 ; practiced, Bath, Haverhill, Nashua, Manchester, and Concord ; died, Concord, September 15, 1893.
At Newbury Seminary, Vermont, young Morrison fitted him- self for college by studying three springs and autumns, while he taught school in the winters, and worked in the hayfield in the summers. In 1839 he was admitted a student in the law office of Goodall and Woods in Bath, and upon receiving his attorney's certificate, became the partner of Mr. Goodall. In 1845 he removed to Haverhill, and practiced there till he was appointed a Judge of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, August 4, 1851. Four years afterwards, by a change of the courts, he lost his office, and resumed practice in Nashua. When the great Civil War opened, he tendered his services to the governor, and received the
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commission of adjutant to the Eleventh Regiment of New Hamp- shire Volunteers. He was two years in the military service, and was a faithful and courageous officer, having been repeatedly wounded in battle. In 1864 he resigned, and fixed his residence in Manchester.
In the course of the following seven years he prepared and issued a Digest of the New Hampshire Reports, Town Officer, Justice and Sheriff, Probate Directory, and Digest of School Laws ; and later, Proofs of Christ's Resurrection. At the end of twelve years Judge Morrison left Manchester for Concord. He remained in the exercise of his profession until his death.
He was an accurate, studious lawyer, better adapted, however, to the desk than to the forum. His Digest and other less pre- tending, but convenient and useful works, indicate his careful and exact legal knowledge and training. He was industrious and con- scientious, though naturally somewhat critical and captious, which detracted from his usefulness on the bench, and interfered with his employment in the trial of causes. With an abundance of energy and pluck, he was inclined to be " grouty," and was some- times not easy to get on with. But he was honest, true to his trusts, and meant always to do right. His force of character, his professional learning and ability, and his unblemished integrity won him the respect of all thinking men.
He was married, December 22, 1842, to Susan, daughter of Solomon Fitch of Littleton.
GEORGE WASHINGTON MORRISON.
Son of James and Martha (Pelton) Morrison ; born, Fairlee, Vermont, October 16, 1809 ; admitted, 1835 ; practiced, Manchester ; died there, De- cember 21, 1888.
The son of a farmer in narrow circumstances, it was in the com- mon schools and the academy at Thetford, Vermont, that Mr. Morrison had his only instruction before entering the office of Simeon Short, with whom and with Presbury West, Jr., both of Thetford, he acquired his preparation for admission to the Orange County bar. He sought through three or four States for a prom- ising place for settling, and chose Manchester, then just entering upon its marvelous growth. From that time forth he was identi- fied with the place. In 1856 a fire destroyed his property, but
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not his energy or confidence. As the business of the town grew, so did his practice, until it reached the front rank in point of extent and importance. For twenty-five years he was at the head of a large law firm, scarcely if at all rivaled in the State, and encountered in court the best jury lawyers in his section, - Frank- lin Pierce, Charles G. Atherton, Benjamin M. Farley, Daniel Clark, and the like. It has been estimated that he tried one third more cases during his career than any other lawyer who ever lived in the State. Of course he was a verdict winner of the highest repute. He did not disdain help to influence the jury from any source. Acquaintanceship, political affiliation, cajolery, catering to prejudice, in short, any of the artifices to captivate the sympathy and favor of jurors, it is alleged that he never hesitated to use for their full worth. But these of course were not his chief weapons. He was strong in statement, adroit in explanation, logi- cal in argument, earnest in persuasion. Nothing disturbed his self-possession. The most unexpected and damaging evidence left him as cool as it found him. His smile was confident, while his remarkable judgment rapidly reconstructed his case on new and impregnable lines.
Mr. Atherton, after an unsuccessful tilt with him in 1850, expressed his opinion of him in these terms : "He began practice under three disadvantages, ill health, defective education, and poverty ; but nothing in the court-room escaped him. He is self- reliant, his examination of witnesses is thorough and exhaustive, his perceptions are clear, his arguments logical and condensed, he has a wonderful faculty of seizing the strong points and putting them to the jury. He now stands at the head of the bar. I have never seen a man I was more afraid of as a lawyer."
Mr. Morrison was a representative in the legislature five years between 1840 and 1850, an active and influential member, and two years chairman of the committee on the judiciary. The pro- vision in the city charter of Portsmouth making the wards towns was his, and though at first opposed as unconstitutional by a man as able as Daniel M. Christie, was acquiesced in by him after the lucid demonstration of Mr. Morrison.
He was solicitor of Hillsborough County from 1845 to 1849, and a representative in the Thirty-First and Thirty-Third Con- gresses of the United States. He supported the measures of the Democratic party, until the Kansas-Nebraska bill came up. That
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encountered his uncompromising opposition. His speech against it was thought the ablest that the question called forth.
After forty years' experience in the courts, his waning health and strength rendered him not unwilling to lay aside his armor and to retire from the arena. He died, not from active disease, but from nature's decay.
He was married, November 5, 1838, to Maria Louisa Fitch of Thetford, Vermont.
SAMUEL MORSE.
Son of Hon. John and Hannah (Adams) Morse ; born, Dublin, February 7, 1784 ; Dartmouth College, 1811 ; admitted, 1815 ; practiced, Croydon ; died there, January 1, 1865.
Mr. Morse studied law with Samuel Dakin of Jaffrey, Jonathan Barnes of Tolland, Vermont, and George B. Upham of Clare- mont. He commenced practice in Croydon in 1815. In 1834 he represented the town in the legislature, and in 1850 was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. He was well grounded in the elements of the law, was possessed of a well- balanced judgment, and was true to his employers. No prac- titioner in his county in his prime made more entries in court than he; and his reputation for entire honesty gained him much influence with juries and with the people at large.
About the year 1830, in order to secure a debt, he took pos- session of a woolen factory, and in attempting to superintend it he was so unfortunate as to lose most of the property that he had gained. Later, however, by inheritance and by professional labor, he regained a moderate competence. For the last thirty years of his life he was a farmer as well as a lawyer.
He was slow of speech but determined in action. Sometimes he indulged in a dry, quaint humor. In a land suit his opponent boastingly said he cared little for the value of the land, and would give the other party a part of it, if he needed it. . Mr. Morse in reply gravely likened the proposal to that of Satan, when he offered to the Saviour all the kingdoms of the earth, and did not own a rod of one of them !
Mr. Morse's benevolent disposition cannot better be illustrated than by the statement of the lawyer from whom most of the fore- going particulars were learned : " I remember his kindness to me when I was a barefooted boy, and I always loved him."
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He married, September 16, 1827, Chloe C., daughter of Dr. Reuben Carroll of Croydon, and had one daughter.
WILLIAM SAXTON MORTON.
Born, Roxbury, Massachusetts, September 22, 1809 ; Harvard College, 1831 ; practiced, Amherst ; died, Quincy, Massachusetts, September 21, 1871.
The subject of this notice read law in the office of Sidney Bart- lett of Boston, Massachusetts, and finished his studies with Ham- ilton E. Perkins of Hopkinton in 1839. Admitted as an attorney, he began practice in the office of Perley Dodge of Amherst the same year.
Mr. Dodge described him as "a young man of brilliant talents, more inclined to practice with the fish-hook and shot-gun than to pore over. the musty volumes of Blackstone and Coke." Being born to fortune, and having no liking for the legal vocation, when he left Amherst for Quincy, Massachusetts, after about two years, he sought a different occupation. He became engaged there in fire insurance and other corporations ; he was mainly influential in establishing the Quincy Fire Insurance Company, and the bank at Quincy. He maintained a yacht, and had a lodge on the sea- shore, - luxuries that few lawyers of New Hampshire certainly could afford from the avails of their practice.
He married, October 30, 1839, Mary J. W. Grimes, a niece of Judge Levi Woodbury, and had six children.
EDWARD SMITH MOULTON.
Son of Simon and Lydia (Moulton) Moulton ; born, Moultonborough, June 5, 1823 ; practiced, Meredith ; died there, November 4, 1855.
Mr. Moulton, with no more than a common academical educa- tion, prepared himself for the legal profession in the office of Samuel Emerson of Moultonborough, and in Boston, Massachu- setts, and about 1850 began to practice in the village of Meredith. He was of " more than ordinary ability, level-headed, industrious, painstaking, conscientious." He prepared his cases thoroughly, and tried them well for one of so little experience. He was a man of promise, with a prospect of becoming a leader. He was also active in church work. It was indicative of the standing he
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had attained in his brief period of practice that he received shortly before his decease the appointment of solicitor of his county.
His wife, married in 1852, was Sarah Hidden of Tamworth. They had one son, who died in infancy.
OLIFF CECIL MOULTON.
Son of Hon. Lewman G. Moulton ; born, Ossipee, c. 1848 ; admitted, 1870 ; practiced, Ossipee ; died there, January 29, 1875.
With a good education, and the professional knowledge ac- quired during the prescribed course of study completed in the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1870, Mr. Moulton started in practice in Ossipee. In 1874 he received the appointment of solicitor of Carroll County, and a prosperous future appeared clear before him, when his career was suddenly cut short by a mortal disease.
JOHN YOUNG MUGRIDGE.
Son of Benning and Nancy (Chase) Mugridge ; born, Meredith (now La- conia), April 15, 1832 ; admitted, 1854; practiced, Concord ; died there, April 14, 1884.
Mr. Mugridge was fitted to enter college at the academy in Gilford, and then began the study of the law with Thomas J. Whipple of Laconia. He completed it with Asa Fowler of Con- cord, and in that place engaged in practice.
He was city solicitor of Concord from 1861 to 1868; represen- tative in the legislature in 1862, 1863, and 1875; state senator in 1868 and 1869; and in the latter year president of the Senate.
He had the advantage of a fine personal appearance, a pleas- ant, resonant voice, and a frank, cordial manner. His popularity was universal. He has been described as " one of the best all- round lawyers " of his time, and had a wonderful capacity for work. It is stated that he was engaged in more jury cases in his own and other counties than any other practitioner in the State. In most of the important trials occurring in the central portion of New Hampshire, he took a leading part, and was prominently known as counsel in railroad cases of magnitude. He was held in no less esteem by his brethren of the bar than by laymen, so honorable were his dealings, and so indisputable was his profes-
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sional eminence. He fought his forensic battles fairly, and met the emergencies of a trial with ready skill and power. And when the contest was over, whether victor or vanquished, he flaunted no triumph and harbored no malice.
The younger men regarded him as their representative and champion, and rejoiced in his successes. But the prodigious vitality of the man was at length sapped by his untiring labors, and the sudden close of his career brought a shock to the com- munity, to whom he had seemed the embodiment of strength, mental and physical.
He was married, December 31, 1857, to Maria G., daughter of Dr. Leonard Eaton of Warren. She, with their two children, survived him.
JOHN MUZZEY.
Son of John and Hannah Muzzey ; born, Dublin, September 3, 1778 ; prac- ticed, New Ipswich ; died, Middlebury, Vermont, January 28, 1813.
Very little information respecting this gentleman is accessible. He fitted himself for the legal profession in Boston, Massachu- setts, it is believed, and about the year 1810 or earlier was in practice in New Ipswich, but not for a long time. He is said also to have practiced in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, perhaps before he came to New Ipswich. The tradition also is that his standing as a lawyer was high, for the time when he lived.
He married, about the year 1800, Nancy, the youngest daughter of Rev. Stephen Farrar of New Ipswich, and became the father of seven children.
MOSES LEAVITT NEAL.
Son of John Neal ; born, Hampton, 1767 ; Harvard College, 1785 ; ad- mitted, 1793 ; practiced, Londonderry, Rochester, and Dover ; died, Dover, November 25, 1829.
Young Neal was quick to learn, and entered Dartmouth Col- lege at the age of fourteen. At the close of his sophomore year he migrated to Harvard. After his graduation he was engaged for five years in teaching; then studied law with John Prentice at Londonderry. He practiced in that town three years, in Rochester about ten years, and in 1806 took up his residence in Dover, where for a while he kept a select school. In 1809 he was
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chosen clerk of the state House of Representatives, and was annually reelected until 1828, with the exception of two years. In 1816 he was appointed register of deeds for Strafford County, and continued to hold the office till his death. He was said to be diffident of his legal abilities, and not sorry to obtain a place which gave him a permanent support.
Mr. Neal was a keen politician, and favored the war of 1812. Having a knack at versification, he found employment for his pen in ridiculing his political opponents. Some specimens of his style are given in notices of his contemporaries, in this work. He published other poems, also, one under the remarkable title of " Minimaltasperus," in 1786 ; another called " the Presbyteriad," in pamphlet form, in 1797 ; but they are inaccessible at this day.
He excelled as a classical teacher. He was improvident, and not seldom in pecuniary straits. In his family relations he was affectionate and kind, and in his intercourse with others was affable and obliging. But his ways of life did not tend to foster habits of sincerity and truthfulness. One day, when he was inveighing with much virulence against a brother lawyer, the latter suddenly appeared. Neal's manner changed in an instant. Holding out his hand to the new-comer, he exclaimed in the heartiest manner, " Ah, my good old Christian friend, how glad I am to see you ! "
He was married, first, in 1793, to a daughter of John Prentice of Londonderry. After her decease he married, in 1820, Sarah Forbish. He had a numerous family of children.
JOHN NELSON.
Son of Jonathan and Martha (Folsom) Nelson ; born, Exeter, January 4, 1778 ; Dartmouth College, 1803 ; admitted, 1806 ; practiced, Haverhill ; died there, May 3, 1838.
Mr. Nelson qualified himself for the bar under Charles Marsh of Woodstock, Vermont, and Peter O. Thatcher of Boston, Mas- sachusetts, and established himself in Haverhill. From his youth he exhibited superior intellectual powers, but he lacked the physi- cal stamina to bear the exhausting labors of the court-room, nor was his voice adequate to the work. But he has been described as " nearly as good a lawyer as Joseph Bell," who was at the head of the bar in Grafton County. He was a man of few 34
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words, but as a counselor was much trusted, and he held many town offices. Of pure life and character, he was outspoken in his hostility to negro slavery, at a time when the avowal of such sentiments required some moral courage, even in New England. He wore the blue coat and bright buttons which are associated with the memory of more than one man of note, and this dress, together with his measured step, probably gained him the sobri- quet of " Admiral," by which he was commonly designated.
Mr. Nelson married, in 1810, Susannah, daughter of General Ebenezer Brewster of Hanover. She lived but a short time, and he took for his second wife Lois B., daughter of John Leverett of Windsor, Vermont. They had sixteen children, of whom eleven reached maturity. One of their sons, Thomas Leverett Nelson, followed the profession of his father, and at least five of the daughters became wives of lawyers.
SETH NEWCOMB.
Son of Hon. Daniel and Sarah (Stearns) Newcomb ; born, Keene, October 20, 1786 ; Harvard College, 1804 ; practiced, Keene ; died there, October 31, 1811.
This was a son of Judge Newcomb. He probably commenced his law studies with his father immediately after his graduation. As he was admitted to the Superior Court in 1809, he must have been an attorney of the Common Pleas two years before that time. The inscription upon his tombstone declares that his short life was active, but too much devoted to the world, and that severe and long-continued sickness led him to a full conviction of the truth of our holy religion, and to humility and penitence. He was but twenty-five years old.
CHRISTOPHER G. NEWTON.
Son of Erastus and Betsey (Beckwith) Newton ; born, Newport, January : 15, 1803 ; Middlebury College, 1827 ; practiced, Washington ; died, Lawrence, Massachusetts, February 15, 1871.
The boyhood of Mr. Newton, like that of many of the lawyers of the State, was spent in farming. He prepared himself for the bar with his uncle, Hubbard Newton of Newport, and about the year 1835 entered into practice in Washington. There he resided
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twelve or fifteen years, and then removed to Lawrence, Massachu- setts, where he remained until his death.
He was married, June 9, 1835, to Harriet Hubbard of Wash- ington, and had a son and a daughter.
HUBBARD NEWTON.
Son of Christopher and Mary (Giles) Newton ; born, Newport, January 1, 1780 ; Dartmouth College, 1804 ; practiced, Newport, Amherst, and Clare- mont ; died, Newport, February 15, 1847.
Mr. Newton accomplished his law studies in the office of Samuel Bell of Francestown, and began to practice at Newport in 1806. After a stay there of thirty years, he removed to Amherst and succeeded to the business of Edmund Parker, who had just changed his residence to Nashua. Amherst remained his home, however, but five years, when he went back to Newport, and resided there the rest of his life, with the exception of two years, when he maintained an office in Claremont as a partner of his son, William F. Newton.
He enjoyed a fair share of professional business, and for a large part of his life gave considerable time to the pursuit of. agriculture also. In 1830 he, in connection with his son, Charles H. E. Newton, established a weekly newspaper in Newport, which had a life of three years.
Mr. Newton represented Newport in the legislatures of 1814 and 1815, and was moderator of the town for seven years. He was deeply interested in the subject of education, acted upon the school committee, and was an originator and trustee of the New- port Academy. He was one of the earliest advocates of total abstinence, and delivered numerous addresses on this and other subjects, and also contributed articles for many years to the news- paper press. He was a member of the Congregational church.
Mr. Newton was married, in 1802, to Abigail, daughter of David Lyon of Newport. They had eight children, one a lawyer.
THOMAS NEWTON.
Mr. Newton is presumed to have been born in England in 1659 or 1660, received his education there, and came to this country in 1688, in which year he was sworn as an attorney in Boston,
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Massachusetts. First receiving the appointment of comptroller of customs, he was afterwards, in May, 1692, made "attorney of their majesties " to prosecute the witchcraft cases in the special tribunal which was created for that purpose. Some months later he acted as secretary of the province of New Hampshire for less than a year. He practiced somewhat in the courts here, subse- quently, but it is doubtful if he was ever domiciled in this prov- ince. His death occurred in Boston, May 28, 1721, while he was deputy judge of the Court of Admiralty, and attorney-gen- eral of Massachusetts. He was much esteemed for his high professional and personal character.
ARTHUR FITZROY LIVINGSTON NORRIS.
Son of Captain True and Olive (Prescott) Norris ; born, Pittsfield, March 17, 1821 ; Dartmouth College, 1845 ; admitted, 1846 ; practiced, Pittsfield and Concord ; died, Concord, November 1, 1889.
Mr. Norris pursued his ante-collegiate studies at the academy in Pittsfield, read law with his uncle, Moses Norris, in the same town, and practiced there from 1846 to 1854. In the latter . year he went to Lowell, Massachusetts, and there lived till 1861. For the next fifteen years he was a part of the time in Boston and a part in Lynn, Massachusetts, engaged assiduously in his profes- sion. In 1876 he returned to New Hampshire, opened his office in Concord, and continued his residence there as long as he lived, with the exception of a year or two which he spent in Pittsfield.
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