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 53
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In 1856 he published a full and elaborate "History of Man- chester," which contained also a large amount of information upon the history of the province, and respecting the aborigines, of whose traditions and language he had made a special study. Ten years later he prepared for publication in the Reports of the Adjutant-General, a military history of New Hampshire, a very useful compilation. Judge Potter was a vice-president of the New
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Hampshire Historical Society three years, and delivered an ad- dress at its annual meeting in 1851. He was instrumental in forming the Amoskeag Veterans, a military corps d'élite, and was its first commander.
He was united in marriage, in 1832, to Clara A., daughter of John Underwood of Portsmouth. She died in 1854, leaving him' three children; and he was again married, in 1856, to Frances M., daughter of General John McNeil of Hillsborough.
JOHN PRAY.
It is not known that Mr. Pray, who acted many years in the courts as an attorney, had any regular apprenticeship to the law. In the inventory of his effects there are some indications that his original occupation was that of a saddler. But he held various offices in Portsmouth, between 1718 and 1731, and in the latter year his name first appeared on the dockets of the court. He continued in practice from that time well up to the close of his life, which took place about the last of the year 1742.
THOMAS MOSES PRAY.
Son of Dr. Thomas J. W. and Sarah E. (Wheeler) Pray ; born, Dover, March 21, 1857 ; Bowdoin College, 1878 ; admitted, 1882 ; practiced, Dover ; died there, September 8, 1887.
This promising young lawyer was prepared for college in the public schools of Dover, and was a scholar of unusual excellence. He studied law with Frank Hobbs and John Kivel, both of Dover, and at Harvard Law School, and opened his office in his na- tive city.
He began his political career while still a law student, as a representative in the legislature of 1881, and was reelected in 1883. Though the youngest member he made his mark there, as a man of character and force. In 1885 and 1886 he was city solicitor, and performed his duties ably and satisfactorily.
Well adapted to professional life, popular and successful, he was naturally expected to fill a prominent place in the future, when he was attacked by the disease which terminated his exist- ence on earth.
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JOHN PRENTICE.
Born, Cambridge, Massachusetts, c. 1747; Harvard College, 1766 ; prac- ticed, Londonderry ; died there, May 18, 1808.
The mother of Mr. Prentice is said to have been a sweeper of the college buildings to earn the means to pay her son's collegi- ate expenses. He studied law with Samuel Livermore at London- derry, and subsequently settled in that town. But before that he lived awhile in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and subscribed the address of the loyalists of that place to Governor Hutchinson, May 25, 1774. The great offense which these addresses gave to the Whigs of the time induced some of the signers to recant ; among them Prentice, who ate his words in the following vigorous style : -
" Whereas I, the subscriber, signed an address to the late Gov- ernor Hutchinson, I wish the devil had had said address before I had seen it. Marblehead, October 24, 1774.
JOHN PRENTICE."
And on his arrival in Londonderry, in June, 1775, he issued a fuller retraction of the sentiment of the address.
A tradition exists of his reception by the Scotch-Irish inhab- itants of Londonderry, which is more probably true of his prede- cessor, Samuel Livermore. The people stoutly objected to the introduction of a lawyer into their town, and warned him not to persist in the attempt. He proposed to settle the question by " trial of battle," which seemed to them reasonable, and they produced their champion, a mighty bruiser. But the lawyer took his blows so manfully, and gave him such a pommeling in return, that all objections were withdrawn, and he was duly admitted to the citizenship of the town.
During the Revolution, law practice languished, but after the restoration of peace, Mr. Prentice, whose native powers were con- siderable, and whose knowledge of his profession was sufficient for his day, began to take his place among the lawyers of note. He was chosen a representative in the legislature for thirteen years, beginning in 1785 and ending in 1805. Seven years he occupied the chair of the Speaker. In 1787 he was given the commission of attorney-general, and held it till 1793. In 1798 he
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was tendered a judgeship of the Superior Court, but declined it. For twenty years he was regarded as a leading and a formidable man in the court-room and in the halls of legislation. He was not, however, a learned lawyer nor a student, and his powers had never been curbed by discipline. He was passionate and extrava- gant in assertion, a creature of impulse. He boasted of raising in his garden a melon as large as a barrel, and of digging out a pine stump that produced twenty-five cords of wood. He was so angry at a part of his crop of hay being wet by three successive rains before he could get it into his barn, that he ordered his men to burn it in the field. He complained of a stone wall that he had employed a man to build for him, that it would never stand a heavy dew. "Why," said he, " I saw a robin alight on it yester- day, and when he flew away he knocked down nineteen rods of it at one kick."
In an action which he brought, the defendant's counsel caused to be entered a suggestion of the death of the plaintiff. Prentice protested to the court that the entry was not true. The Judge remarked, mischievously, "The records of the court cannot lie." " Can't they !" vociferated Prentice. "I tell your Honor that my client is alive and well, and if your Honor's records say that he is dead, they do lie like h -. "
But in spite of his want of balance, his heart had its tender side. He harbored no malice. After his spleen had first vented itself, he was not vindictive. He was a good neighbor, and was well liked by his Scotch-Irish townsmen. He was a kind parent, almost to the point of over-indulgence of his children. The death of his mother, to whom he owed everything, caused him an illness which kept him for days in his bed. "She was one of the best of mothers," he said, " and I loved her tenderly. No woman ever possessed a sweeter disposition, or discharged the duties of her station with more prudence or greater fidelity."
In 1775 he married Ruth, daughter of Dr. Lemon of Marble- head, Massachusetts, whose dowry enabled him to become the proprietor of a fine house and farm in Londonderry. She died in 1791, and he married Tabitha, daughter of Judge Nathaniel P. Sargent of Haverhill, Massachusetts. By each of his wives he had eight children.
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JOHN JAMES PRENTISS.
Son of John and Azuba (Towne) Prentiss ; born, Mont Vernon, 1818 ; admitted, 1837 ; practiced, Merrimac, Henniker, and Claremont ; died, Chi- cago, Illinois, 1890.
This gentleman attended the Kimball Union Academy in 1829 and 1830, and was a student in Dartmouth College from 1830 to 1833, but did not take his degree. He read law with Edmund Parker of Amherst and Benjamin M. Farley of Hollis, and was apparently admitted an attorney before he reached his majority. In Merrimac, where he first started in practice, he remained but six weeks ; then removing to Henniker, he made his home there about five years, and in 1842 settled in Claremont. He was appointed postmaster in Claremont in 1849, and elected a rep- resentative in the legislature in 1854 and 1855, in the latter of which years he was chosen Speaker of the House. Judge Fowler pronounced him one of the best presiding officers he ever knew. As a lawyer, though respectable, he was entitled to less praise.
In 1882 he changed his domicile to Chicago, Illinois, and spent the rest of his life there.
He was married, December 7, 1837, to Mary Ann, daughter of Hon. Edmund Parker of Amherst, and had a son and perhaps other children.
EZRA PRESCOTT.
Son of David and Dolly (Wright) Prescott ; born, Westford, Massachusetts, March 17, 1781; practiced, Francestown, Greenfield, and Amherst ; died, Amherst, September 28, 1845.
It is supposed that Mr. Prescott received his literary and legal education in Massachusetts, and that he practiced his profession there before coming to this State. He was admitted to the bar in New Hampshire in October, 1815, and the same year settled in Francestown. Continuing there till 1824, he then removed to Greenfield, and raised his sign over the office which had been occupied by General James Miller. He received the commission of postmaster and held it till 1828. In that year he was elected register of deeds, and removed to Amherst, the county seat. Rotation in office not being the fashion of that day, especially in
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the office which he filled satisfactorily, he remained register until 1840. He then resumed the practice of his profession during the remainder of his life.
His wife was Elizabeth Hardy, and they had no children.
GEORGE WASHINGTON PRESCOTT.
Son of Henry and Mary (Newmarch) Prescott ; born, Kittery, Maine, Janu- ary 8, 1776 ; Dartmouth College, 1795 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, March 17, 1817.
Mr. Prescott qualified himself for admission to the bar under the instruction of Theophilus Parsons of Newburyport and of William Prescott of Boston. He practiced, first, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and afterwards removed to Portsmouth, probably as early as 1805. He delivered an oration in that town, July 4, 1808, which was published.
He is said to have settled in Portsmouth by the desire of Gov- ernor Langdon. Those were high party times, and the leading lawyers of Portsmouth being Federalists, the governor, who was a staunch Republican, wanted a legal adviser of his own political faith. The story goes that Prescott was found hardly a match for Webster and Mason, and that Langdon took his protégé to task for suffering his Federal opponents to get the advantage of him. "Why, if I were you," urged the governor, whose notion of the literature of the bar was rather limited, "I'd study the statutes till I got every word of them by heart, before I would allow those fellows to beat me." Mr. Prescott took part actively in the war of 1812, and as a captain in the army was present, under General Harrison, at the battle of Tippecanoe.
After the war was ended he quitted military life, and returned to his profession in Portsmouth. He was a practitioner of respec- tability. In 1814 he received the appointment of clerk of the United States District Court of New Hampshire, and in 1816 he was made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and died while holding that office.
Mr. Prescott was twice married. His first wife was Abigail, daughter of Colonel Pierse Long of Portsmouth. After her death he married Mary Grafton, of Boston, Massachusetts, August 15, 1804. By this marriage he had seven children.
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SAMUEL PRESCOTT.
Son of John and Martha (Abbott) Prescott ; born, Westford, Massachu- setts, January 8, 1782 ; Harvard College, 1799 ; practiced, Chesterfield and Keene ; died, Keene, November 13, 1813.
Mr. Prescott was employed after his graduation as a teacher for about three years, and had charge of the grammar school in Keene in 1801 and 1802. He subsequently prepared himself for the bar and was admitted as an attorney, probably in 1804; and as a counselor of the Superior Court in May, 1806. He first set- tled in Chesterfield for a couple of years, and then removed to Keene in 1806 or 1807. Not long afterwards he went in com- pany with his father-in-law, Moses Johnson, to western New York, but returned subsequently to Keene. He was but thirty-one years of age at his decease.
He was married in 1805 to Frances Johnson of Keene, and left a son and a daughter.
JOHN PRESTON.
Son of Dr. John and Elizabeth (Champney) Preston ; born, New Ipswich, April 12, 1802 ; Harvard College, 1823 ; practiced, New Ipswich ; died there, March 5, 1867.
The father and paternal grandfather of Mr. Preston were physicians ; his maternal grandfather was a lawyer, and he chose the profession of the latter, studying in the office of George F. Farley of New Ipswich, and in that of Samuel Hubbard of Bos- ton, Massachusetts. He began to practice in Townsend, Massa- chusetts, in 1828, but after three years returned to his native town. The residue of his life he passed there, in the general and successful practice of the law, varied with official duties, of which many fell to his share. He held at different times all the chief offices of the town. He was representative in the legislature from 1833 to 1838, from 1843 to 1847, and in 1851 and 1852. He was a state senator in 1848 and 1849. Upon the establishment of the New Ipswich Savings Bank he became its treasurer, and continued so till his decease. He was many years secretary and treasurer of the New Ipswich Academy, and the last twelve years of his life a trustee of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane.
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Moreover, he was a progressive farmer, delighting in his choice stock, and a reformer, an original anti-slavery partisan, and an advocate of temperance.
He had all the courage of his convictions, and, being a fluent and ready speaker, he impressed his views forcibly upon those about him.
The people of New Ipswich who knew him intimately declared their appreciation of his virtues by recording upon the books of the town resolutions expressive of their grief at his decease, and commending his worthy example to the imitation of the young men who were to succeed him.
Mr. Preston's wife was Elizabeth Smith French, whom he mar- ried at Townsend, Massachusetts, in October, 1828. They had seven children, of whom one, William A. Preston, belongs to the profession of his father.
CHARLES LEWIS PUTNAM.
Son of John and Mary (Converse) Putnam ; born, Chesterfield, September 10, 1810; Dartmouth College, 1830; admitted, 1833 ; practiced, Claremont and Keene ; died, Worcester, Massachusetts, July 17, 1877.
Mr. Putnam acquired his preparation for college at the acad- emy in his native town. After his graduation he studied in the offices of Joel Parker at Keene, and George B. Upham at Clare- mont, and was admitted in Cheshire County in 1833. Although he held himself out as a lawyer for a few years, and had a limited amount of practice, yet he never gave close attention to his pro- fession, but was principally engaged in the business of insurance. He resided in Claremont from 1838 to 1840; then removed to Keene, where he remained till 1846, and held the office of post- master from 1841 to 1845; and finally settled in Worcester, Mas- sachusetts.
There he became successively secretary of the Merchants' and Farmers' Insurance Company ; vice-president of the state United Life Insurance Company, and president of the Bay State Insur- ance Company. He was also commissioner of insurance for Massachusetts, and a representative from Worcester in the legis- lature. He was a gentleman of high standing, and possessed unusually agreeable social qualities.
His wife was Dorothy, daughter of Samuel Flagg of Worcester,
a
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and their daughter married Colonel John D. Washburn, a lawyer, of that city.
JOHN ALVIN PUTNEY.
Son of John and Sally (Batchelder) Putney ; born, Concord, August 23, 1833 ; Dartmouth College, 1856 ; admitted, 1858 ; practiced, Plymouth and Concord ; died, Memphis, Tennessee, 1865.
Mr. Putney read law partly in Concord and partly in Portland, Maine, with General Samuel Fessenden, and entered into practice in Plymouth in 1858. Remaining there but two years, he re- turned for a short time to Concord, and then removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was at the breaking out of the Rebellion. He was loyal to the old flag, and served as quartermaster of a regiment of Kentucky volunteers. At the close of the war he returned to Memphis, and there died soon afterwards.
He married, in 1856, Lucinda L., daughter of Harrison Roberts of Warner; and second, in 1860, Celia Bowers of Louisville, Kentucky.
SAMUEL DALTON QUARLES.
Son of Samuel J. and Sarah S. (Dalton) Quarles ; born, Ossipee, Janu- ary 16, 1833 ; admitted, 1861 ; practiced, Ossipee ; died there, November 23, 1889.
Mr. Quarles was educated at the Phillips Exeter and other academies, and at the Michigan University, where he pursued a special course of a year. He began the study of the law in the office of Luther D. Sawyer of Ossipee, and while there received the appointment of school commissioner for Carroll County, which he resigned soon after he was admitted an attorney, in order to enter the volunteer army in defense of the Union.
He enlisted a company and went to the front as its captain, in the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment. In the battle at Spotsyl- vania, Virginia, he received a severe and painful wound, which kept him five months from the field. On his return to duty he was mustered as major of the regiment, and at a later date was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel. He was a gallant soldier and an exact disciplinarian, but courteous and impartial, and was valued alike by those above and below him in his military rank.
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Upon the termination of the war he returned home to his pro- fession. He was familiar with the principles of the law, and in natural fitness for practice he was excelled by few. Diligent in the preparation of his causes, he exhibited uncommon fertility of resources in every emergency that confronted him.
From 1869 to 1871 he served as railroad commissioner, and had he been ambitious for public office, might have aspired to almost any position in the gift of the people, but he preferred the prac- tice of his profession and a private station. His upright charac- ter and amiable qualities surrounded him with clients and friends.
He married S. Augusta, daughter of Moses P. Brown, Novem- ber 26, 1866, and left children.
JOSIAH QUINCY.
Son of Samuel and - (Hatch) Quincy ; born, Lenox, Massachusetts, March 7, 1793 ; admitted, 1815 ; practiced, Rumney ; died there, January 19, 1875.
Mr. Quincy's father was a lawyer, who had been reduced to narrow circumstances, so that the son in his childhood literally ate the bread of poverty. While a boy he underwent a severe attack of scarlet fever, which caused a lameness in one leg, so that he was obliged throughout his life to use a crutch. Being thus unfitted for manual labor, he eagerly sought for an education. By the aid of friends he obtained sufficient means to enable him to study for the legal profession in the office of Samuel Jones of Stockbridge, whence he obtained admission to the bar. He thus early learned the value of money, - a lesson that he never forgot.
By the invitation of a connection in Rumney, he settled in that town in 1816. His pecuniary success was immediate. In one year he gained enough to enable him to pay a debt of $200 for his law tuition, and to clear $2,000 in addition to his expenses. By far the largest part of the business which yielded so speedy and ample a return consisted of suits brought on demands that were not contested. The number of his justice writs averaged forty a month ; and his court writs in proportion.
His indomitable zeal in the pursuit of gain brought him in a few years the reputation of being a hard, grasping man, though it is not known that his methods differed from those of a great pro-
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portion of his professional brethren at that time. He was simply more successful than they. But his success was by no means all in the direction of money-making. He was soon recognized as a shrewd, energetic, laborious, and persistent manager of contested causes, as well as an advocate of no ordinary power. In 1822 he was engaged in conducting the impeachment of Edward Evans, Judge of Probate for Grafton County, before the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and thus had the opportunity to exhibit his talents in a wider field. In 1824 and 1825 he served in the legislature, and acquired the reputation of a ready debater and sagacious partisan. He was again a representative in 1837 and the three succeeding years, in 1850, and in 1859 and 1860. In 1841 and 1842 he was a state senator, and was chosen president of the Senate in both years. In his portion of the State he was for many years the leading man of his party. But he was a patriot before all, and when the first gun of the Rebellion was fired, he declared his unyielding adhesion to the Union.
In religion Mr. Quincy was a member of the Baptist denomina- tion, and was the president of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Academical and Theological Institution. For a num- ber of years he gave close attention to its affairs, and contributed liberally of his means to its support.
Of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad he may fairly be called the father. He was from 1844 sixteen years president of the corporation, and he spared no time nor pains to make the project a success. The difficulties were many, but he surmounted them all. The railroad, chiefly through his efforts, was finished to and across the Connecticut River, and the work was complete.
Mr. Quincy lived to become an old man, and an accident late in life rendered him almost incapable of walking. But he kept up his interest in his business, and attended at the terms of the courts, not in the court-room, but at his rooms in the hotel. He never " lost his grip " mentally, or even physically. His hand- writing is said to have remained to the last as firm and legible as in his middle life.
He owed his success chiefly to his unceasing diligence. He was not a bookish man, though he kept himself au courant with the principles and decisions of his profession. He was rather a stu- dent of men and affairs. He did not go through life with his eyes shut ; on the contrary, his observation was keen and inclu-
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sive. He knew the feelings and prejudices of the people, and could judge well how juries would be affected by any line of conduct. As he had a great dislike of failure, he would not push his causes to trial unless he felt quite sure of winning them, but brought the parties to some terms of compromise. He was very successful in the accumulation of property. For many years he was a partner in a mercantile business and a bank director, both of which positions were valuable adjuncts to his law practice. In his later years he had many retainers in railroad cases. His pro- fessional practice was the mainstay of his prosperity.
He was three times married ; first, April 5, 1819, to Mary Grace, daughter of Jabez H. Weld of Plymouth ; second, Octo- ber 20, 1845, to Harriet Tufts of Rumney ; and third, June 11, 1868, to Mrs. Mary H. Dix of Woburn, Massachusetts, who survived him. By his first marriage he had two sons and two daughters ; by his last, one daughter.
IRA ALLEN RAMSAY.
Son of Robert Ramsay ; born, Wheelock, Vermont, August 14, 1827 ; admitted, 1853 ; practiced, Colebrook ; died, St. Paul, Minnesota, November 7, 1871.
Mr. Ramsay's early education was obtained in the common schools. Up to the age of twenty-three he was employed in various occupations ; then he prepared himself for the law in the office of Jesse Cooper of Irasburg, Vermont, and in Boston, Mas- sachusetts. He began practice at Guildhall, Vermont, in 1853. Two years later he moved to Colebrook, where he continued twelve years, and then emigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota. A man. of great energy and with entire confidence in his own powers, he built up a large business in the vicinity where he lived, on both sides of the Connecticut, and tried many causes. When he quitted New Hampshire he took away a very considerable property.
In his new home, however, he was less successful. He lost his health there, and survived his change of habitation but a few years.
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CHARLES WHITE RAND.
Son of Hamlin and Harriet (Sprague) Rand ; born, Bath, July 5, 1819 ; Wesleyan University, 1841 ; practiced, Littleton ; died there, August 3, 1874.
Mr. Rand's preparation for college was acquired at Kimball Union Academy. He was a student at law in the office of Henry A. Bellows of Littleton and at the Harvard Law School, and began to practice at Littleton in 1847. In 1856 he was com- missioned solicitor for the county of Grafton and served as such until 1861, in which year he was appointed district attorney of the United States. The latter office he retained through the ad- ministration of President Lincoln, and nearly through that of his successor.
During the first year of his practice he was the partner of John Farr of Littleton ; afterwards he was associated in business with his brother, Edward D. Rand. In 1860 Edward changed his place of residence to Lisbon, while Charles continued at Littleton, but their business connection remained unbroken.
Charles W. Rand was a careful, well-read, painstaking practi- tioner, and looked especially after the pleadings, the briefs, and the strictly legal work of the firm, leaving his brother to do the arguing and manage the trials. Each was the better fitted for the department which he undertook. Charles's remark to a brother member of the bar, that he thought every lawyer should carefully re-read Chitty's Pleadings once every year, indicates his thor- oughness in the fundamentals of his profession.
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