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 54
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But he was not a mere lawyer, in whose veins ran ink and whose skin was parchment. He was fond of literature and of dis- coursing upon his favorite authors, and was a genial companion and a most worthy man.
He married, in 1847, Jane M., daughter of Otis Batchelder, and left no children.
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EDWARD DEAN RAND.
Son of Hamlin and Harriet (Sprague) Rand ; born, Bath, December 26, 1821 ; Wesleyan University, 1841 ; practiced, Littleton, Lisbon, and Concord ; died, Lisbon, January 14, 1885.
The Rand brothers had lawyer's blood in their veins, being descended, through their mother, from Alden Sprague of Haver-
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hill, an eminent jurist and advocate. Edward was prepared for college at Kimball Union Academy, and after his graduation he proceeded to New Orleans, Louisiana, and was engaged in in- struction there, and also studied law in the office of the noted Judah P. Benjamin. Admitted in 1846, he spent the succeeding nine years in practice in that city. While there he exhibited his principle and moral courage by refusing to fight a duel to which he was challenged by some enraged fire-eater. It really demanded more boldness to decline an invitation to the field than to incur the risks of the combat, in the state of public feeling which then prevailed in that community. The affair had a strange termina- tion. The challenger afterwards, when in a state of intoxication, wounded Mr. Rand by a shot in the back, but subsequently on his deathbed repented of his violence, and sent him a friendly message.
In 1855 Mr. Rand returned to New Hampshire, and entered into a law partnership with his brother, Charles W. Rand, at Lit- tleton. In 1860 Edward removed to Lisbon, but without dissolv- ing their business connection.
. In 1874 Edward D. Rand was appointed by Governor Weston, on the reorganization of the judiciary, a Judge of the new Circuit Court. He held his seat only two years, when a political revolu- tion put an end to the tribunal. While upon the bench he was diligent and conscientious in the performance of every official duty, and presided with honesty and fairness and dignity. One noted case which came before him was that of Joseph Le Page, a stoutly contested trial for murder, in which Judge Rand's mastery of the French language, acquired during his residence in New Orleans, was of much service, the accused being unfamiliar with English.
After quitting the bench he remained in Concord for two or three years, chiefly employed at the law terms before legislative committees and the like. He then returned to Lisbon, and re- sumed his practice there. It rapidly became extended and valu- able. His high personal qualities, his gift of eloquent speech, his fidelity to his engagements, all combined to give him a profes- sional place among the very foremost, and his services were secured in most of the important causes arising in his vicinity.
Judge Rand was peculiarly skillful and happy in the difficult art of addressing courts and juries. He was a scholar ; his sen-
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tences were well moulded and his words fitly chosen. He made every point clear and each shred of evidence tell for all it was worth. He had, too, no little of that mysterious fire which warms whole masses of men, which makes them listen to feeling rather than to reason, and often carries conviction where logic fails.
He was frequently called upon to address public assemblies, and was one of the most acceptable and interesting speakers of his section. No man was more felicitous than he in the little speeches of welcome and congratulation and the like, requiring a light touch and educated taste, of which so many are called for in our time. In social life he was a most agreeable companion, with a keen sense of the humorous. He used to tell with much gusto an anecdote of Counselor B., a brother practitioner in a neighbor- ing town, noted for his caustic humor and vigorous expression. Judge Rand was employed against him in a "road case." When the hearing came on before the commissioners, it was found that the parties and counsel must be taken out several miles for a " view." Judge Rand had his own comfortable carriage, but observed that his opponent was provided by his clients with no better vehicle than a common wagon with unyielding springs and a wooden seat. Counselor B., who was verging on threescore, looked with dismay on his intended conveyance. Judge Rand immediately proposed to him to take a seat beside himself, an offer which was accepted with evident relief. As the counselor settled himself on the comfortably cushioned seat, he remarked apologetically to the Judge : "I find I can't stand being hell- pestled round as I could five and twenty years ago!"
Though Judge Rand is said to have had a fondness for the sports of the gun and the fishing-rod, his chief recreation was in the pursuits of literature. He was a student of belles-lettres and familiar with the works of the best authors, and was himself the author of many compositions in prose and verse, not a few of which appeared in the periodicals of the day. Since his decease the Lisbon Library Association, of which he had been the presi- dent, have issued a beautiful memorial volume of his addresses, essays, and poems.
Judge Rand was married, November 10, 1856, to Joan H., daughter of Truman Stevens of Littleton. They had one daughter.
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EDWARD RANDOLPH.
Son of Dr. Edmund and Deborah (Master) Randolph; born, Canterbury, Eng- land, July, 1632 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died, Accomac, Virginia (?), 1703.
Edward Randolph was admitted a student at law in Gray's Inn, London, November 12, 1650. He was sent to this country by the Lords of Trade in England in 1676, through the influence prob- ably of Robert Tufton Mason, with whom he was connected by marriage, to report upon the state of the colonies ; and visited the towns of New Hampshire, endeavoring to persuade the people to acknowledge Mason's title to the lands. In 1679 he came here again, to bring over the commission of John Cutt as governor of the province. He then received the appointment of collector of customs, surveyor, and searcher for New England. By Governor Cranfield he was made attorney-general of this province, and obsequiously performed his mandates and those of Mason, much to the oppression and indignation of the people. He was a mem- ber of the council of Governor Andros, became one of his chief supporters, and upon his fall in 1689 was imprisoned and sent to England.
He returned to this country in 1691 with the appointment of collector of general customs in all the English provinces in North America, and held the position till his death.
He was arbitrary in his methods, and has been styled the " evil genius of New England." He was a faithful servant of his king and of his provincial representatives, a stanch upholder of the claims of his kinsman Mason, and a stout partisan of the English church, all which circumstances brought him the dislike of the colonists. But he successfully exerted his interest with the Earl of Clarendon for the pardon of Edward Gove, sentenced to death for high treason in resisting Cranfield's authority, and during the later years of his stay in this country he administered his authority in a manner which provoked no censure, so far as appears.
Randolph was three times married ; first, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Gibbon ; she died in 1679, leaving three or four daugh- ters ; second, to Grace Grenville ; and third to Mrs. Sarah Platt, who bore him one daughter.
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JONATHAN RAWSON.
Son of Rev. Grindall and Desire (Thacher) Rawson ; born, Yarmouth, Massachusetts, 1759 ; admitted, 1785 (?) ; practiced, Nottingham and Dover ; died, Dover, May 17, 1794.
In youth, Mr. Rawson served some time as a subordinate officer in the Revolutionary army. After the close of the war he studied law with Peter Green of Concord. For a short time he practiced in Nottingham, and then removed to Dover. In 1789 he and Charles Clapham were chosen attorneys for that town, but Raw- son is said to have been fonder of amusement and light reading than of the law. While he lived in Nottingham he delivered an oration commemorating the capture of General Burgoyne and his army, and he was also the author of a number of political essays published in the newspapers. He had a liking for military mat- ters ; served as aid to Governor Sullivan in 1788, and in 1793 published in an octavo volume extracts from the writings of emi- nent martial authorities entitled, " A Compendium of Military Duty." Mr. Rawson has been described as a man of genius and of eloquence, but in his habits he was deliberate and " easy- going ; " and it was told that on one occasion, as he was riding on horseback, with John P. Hale of Rochester for his companion, - who was as active and impulsive as Rawson was the opposite, - Rawson's horse fell, bringing his rider's leg under him, and lay upon it. Hale dismounted in a trice and hurried to the rescue. " Don't be hasty, brother Hale," exclaimed the phlegmatic Raw- son ; "your impetuosity, I am afraid, will be the ruin of you."
Mr. Rawson's habits were ill calculated to bring him legal busi- ness ; he had little ambition to shine in his profession or to accu- mulate property. Towards the close of his brief life he fell into intemperance and idleness, and his health became ruined. Upon his death, as a compliment to his military character, he was buried under arms.
His wife, who survived him, was a daughter of Captain Gage of Dover, and he left one son.
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OSSIAN RAY.
Son of George and Hannah (Greene) Ray ; born, Hinesburg, Vermont, December 13, 1835 ; admitted, 1857 ; practiced, Lancaster ; died there, Janu- ary 28, 1892.
Mr. Ray's boyhood was passed in Irasburg, Vermont. He worked upon the farm in summer, and attended the district school in winter. As he grew older he became a student several terms in the Irasburg Academy, and later in that of Derby, Vermont, where he partially fitted himself for college. By the advice of Jesse Cooper, a leading lawyer of Irasburg, he entered that gentle- man's office as a student. In 1854 he went to Lancaster, to assist in closing up the law business of Saunders W. Cooper, and ap- pears to have made that place his home ever afterwards. He taught school by day and studied law in the evenings, formed a wide acquaintance among the people, and showed his promise by the trial of justice cases.
In January, 1857, he began regularly to practice in Lancaster, and also attended the courts in Essex County, Vermont. His diligent study and early acquired experience prepared him to grapple at once with the work of a wide and various practice, and he was successful from the beginning. Before he had been half a dozen years at the bar he was employed in a large part of the cases of importance in both States, and during the whole period of his practice he preserved a leading position. The chief railroad and other corporations of his section secured his services by gen- eral retainers, and he was not seldom called into other counties and into the federal courts to take charge of causes there. For the ten years from 1862 to 1872 he was solicitor of Coos County.
His political career began with his representation of Lancaster in the state legislature in 1868 and 1869, where his abilities were recognized by his assignment to the head of the principal com- mittees. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conven- tion in 1872, and was appointed United States attorney for the district of New Hampshire in 1879. This office he resigned in December, 1880, upon being nominated as a candidate for repre- sentative in Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Evarts W. Farr. He was elected for the fractional term, and re- elected to the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses, and was a diligent, progressive, and influential member.
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After quitting Congress he returned to the practice of the law. He had never learned to spare himself, and did not feel that he had fulfilled his duty so long as aught remained undone that lay within his power. His assiduous application and prolonged men- tal strain at length seriously threatened his health, and he was in- duced to make a trip to Europe for relief. But it was not in his nature to relax his efforts in his professional work. He perse- vered in attending to his trials in the courts as long as he had the physical power to do so. And it was not till the bow too long bent had lost its elasticity, and the last shaft was shot, that he succumbed.
Mr. Ray's natural endowments adapted him peculiarly for the legal profession. Quick of apprehension, retentive of memory, with a zeal for his adopted cause that never flagged, and a san- guine faith in its justice that never faltered, he was a counselor to hearten the timid suitor and to rejoice the soul of the conten- tious. Work in his calling was play to him. He never shirked the heaviest amount of labor to make a point clearer or stronger. He never would admit a defeat. His resources were endless. If the verdict was against him to-day, to-morrow saw him well on the way to a new hearing. So long as the law afforded him the glimmer of a chance of retrieval, he never relaxed his exertions or lost his lope.
In the work of the court-room he was dexterous. He im- pressed all with his perfect confidence in the righteousness of his cause. He ever kept the sympathy on his side. His arguments were the spontaneous outpouring of his feelings rather than the elaborations of the midnight oil, and were powerfully effective.
He was the very impersonation of energy. It shone forth in his every look and movement. There was a ring in his voice and a sparkle in his eye that no amount of labor or discouragement could repress.
His reading led him far outside of Blackstone and Chitty. His house was well filled with the works of general literature, and he solaced the leisure that his daily duties allowed him by the perusal of books that improve the mind and gratify the taste.
He was conspicuously single-hearted, free from all deception or duplicity. His words were not intended to conceal his thoughts ; he was always fair, square, and aboveboard.
Unselfishness was one of his notable characteristics. Every
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call, uttered or silent, for help for others, he was quick to heed. Generous of his purse as of his services, he was a true brother to all in want or trouble. No better citizen, neighbor, friend, was left behind, when Ossian Ray quitted the world.
He was twice married ; first, March 2, 1856, to Alice A., daughter of Henry Fling of West Stewartstown ; second, to Mrs. Sallie Emery (Small) Burnside, who, with a son and a daughter by each marriage, survived him.
JOSEPH RAYN.
This was a creature of Governor Cranfield, and though not an educated lawyer, served his master's purpose as attorney-general to prosecute, in 1683-84, an information against the Rev. Josiah Moody, for refusing to obey the arbitrary mandate of Cranfield to administer to him and his companions the sacrament of the Lord's Supper after the manner of the Church of England. Rayn's conduct of the trial was domineering and scandalous. He served the interests of Cranfield and Mason also in the capacity of sheriff and provost marshal, but his subserviency at length excited their contempt, and for some act of negligence the gov- ernor gave him a severe caning, after which his name disappeared from the history of the province.
TIMOTHY REED.
Son of Rev. Samuel and Hannah (Shaw) Reed ; born, Warwick, Massachu- setts, July 10, 1793 ; Williams College, 1812 ; practiced, Winchester ; died, Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1855.
Mr. Reed studied his profession with his cousin, John Reed of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and came to Winchester to practice about 1820. In May, 1821, he was admitted in Cheshire County as a counselor of the Superior Court. He probably did not remain in Winchester more than six or eight years, when he removed to Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and became a partner of his law preceptor there for several years. The appointment of clerk of the courts being conferred upon him, he made his home thenceforth in Barnstable. He held also, at various times after- wards, the offices of register of Deeds, register of Probate, and bank cashier.
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Mr. Reed is described as a genial, pleasant gentleman, and is understood to have been a lawyer of some ability.
He was married, about the time of his coming to Winchester, to Susan D. Kinsley of Brattleborough, Vermont, and had two daughters, born in the former town.
JOHN ADAMS RICHARDSON.
Son of Captain Joseph and Sarah (Hanson) Richardson ; born, Durham, No- vember 18, 1797 ; Dartmouth College, 1819 ; admitted, 1823 ; practiced, Dur- ham ; died there, August 25, 1877.
Mr. Richardson was a teacher in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1819 and 1820, and read law with John Varnum of that place. He began practice immediately after his admission in his native town, and there passed his life. He was a very social, gentle- manly man, of easy disposition, and with no fondness for the quarrelsome side of his calling. If one of his causes was to be stubbornly contested, he usually called in the aid of Daniel M. Christie to breast the shock of the opposition. But he had a respectable business, which he conducted respectably. He was something of a reader, but in other directions than in the law. In 1846 he was clerk of the state Senate, but by reason of a. change in the political complexion of that body was not reelected. In the later years of his life he was president of the Bar Asso- ciation of Strafford County.
He married, first, in 1829, Marcia A., daughter of Hon. Alex- ander Rice of Kittery, Maine; and second, in 1835, Mrs. Frances J., daughter of Hon. Daniel Farrand of Burlington, Vermont, and widow of Rev. Thomas J. Murdock.
THOMAS RICE.
About the time when James Thom quitted Exeter for London- derry, in 1816, Thomas Rice appeared in the town and succeeded to his law office. He may have been the graduate of that name from Yale College in 1803; but that has not been ascertained. He had but little practice, and lived in the town only a year or two. He appears to have been an accomplished musician, and opened a singing-school in Exeter, and is said also to have given lessons on the violin.
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When he left Exeter he went to Hampton, where he died, " a poor but honorable man," as it was said.
SAMUEL RICE.
Born, c. 1771 ; practiced, Lebanon and Enfield ; died, Lowell, Massachu- setts, October 10, 1839.
The birthplace and parentage of this gentleman have not been ascertained. He is said to have studied his profession with Fred- eric A. Sumner of Charlestown, and to have begun practice at Lebanon in 1804. About 1814 he removed to Enfield and re- mained there fifteen years, and then returned to Lebanon. In 1836 he left the State and resided in Lowell, Massachusetts, but did not practice there.
Mr. Rice is represented to have been a man of more than ordi- nary ability, but fleshy and somewhat indolent. He had a fund of humor, and liked to sit and tell stories to his visitors, rather than to put his office in order, and keep it swept clean.
His wife was a smart woman, and no doubt sometimes took her husband to task for his lax ways. One day after she had been giving him a piece of her mind, a neighbor inquired for his family. "Very well, indeed," was the reply, "except Mrs. Rice. She has had a bad breaking out about the mouth this morning !"
Having a case to try in which a man of not the highest reputa- tion was to be an important witness, Mr. Rice interrogated him in advance, and was quite well satisfied with his answers. On the day of the hearing, he called the witness with a confident air, but found that he had experienced a remarkable failure of memory, so that his testimony was wholly for the advantage of the opposite party.
" How did you come here this morning ?" inquired Rice. "I rode down with Squire W." (the opposing counsel), was the answer. "It is all accounted for," observed Rice.
Mr. Rice died at the age of sixty-eight. He left a son and four daughters.
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AMASA ROBERTS.
Son of Ephraim and Hannah (Roberts) Roberts ; born, Farmington, March 2, 1814 ; Dartmouth College, 1838 ; practiced, Dover ; died there, May 8, 1877.
Mr. Roberts was a student at law in the office of Charles W. Woodman of Dover, and made his home in that place thereafter. He was town clerk from 1853 to 1856, and register of Probate for the county from 1867 to 1870. His practice was chiefly confined to the work of his office, and he appeared seldom in trials in the courts. He had antiquarian tastes, and was familiar with the ancient records of Dover.
He never married.
JOHN SWIFT ROBY.
Son of Dr. Joseph and Lucy (Park) Roby ; born, Charlestown, August 31, 1808 ; practiced, Lancaster ; died there, January 16, 1857.
Mr. Roby was educated at the Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield, remaining there from 1827 to 1829. He was regularly prepared for the legal profession, but is said not to have under- taken the practice of the law until some years after he was ad- mitted, being employed in the mean time in trade. He settled first in Littleton, but afterwards went to Lancaster, and there, for about the last ten years of his life, practiced law, as a partner of Saunders W. Cooper. His work was confined to the office, and he did not appear in court. From 1849 to 1855 he was recorder of deeds for Coos County, and he is said also to have held at some time the appointment of deputy sheriff and various town offices.
Though not noted as a lawyer, he appears to have been a man of some prominence, and to have stood well in the community where he dwelt.
ARTEMAS ROGERS.
Son of Josiah Rogers ; born, Billerica, Massachusetts, May 12, 1790 ; Har- vard College, 1809 ; admitted, 1814 ; practiced, Henniker ; died, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1865.
Mr. Rogers studied his profession with Joseph Locke of Biller- ica, Massachusetts, and at the Litchfield Law School, Connecticut,
a
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and settled in practice in Henniker as early as 1817. He was representative of the town in the legislature in 1823, 1824, and 1826, the first solicitor in the county of Merrimac, and an officer in the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of Free Masons. He caused the defeat of a bill proposed in the legislature for the exemption of certain property from attachment by moving an amendment to exempt also six barrels of cider and a horse and chaise for each debtor. The injudicious friends of the bill eagerly adopted the amendment, which of course killed the proposition.
Mr. Rogers was a good lawyer and a useful man. He sold out his business and property in 1832 to Samuel Smith, and removed to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where in 1835 he met with a serious loss by the destruction of his office and much of its contents by fire. In 1837 he changed his residence to Holyoke, Massachusetts.
He married, November 25, 1813, Lydia, daughter of Thomas Richardson of Billerica, Massachusetts, and had ten children.
ARTHUR ROGERS.
Son of Major Robert and Elizabeth (Browne) Rogers ; born, c. 1770 ; prac- ticed, Concord, Barrington, Pembroke, and Plymouth ; died, Portsmouth, c. 1841.
This son of the famous Ranger was probably quite well edu- cated, and studied for the bar with John Sullivan of Durhanı, and with his cousin, Edward St. Loe Livermore of Concord, in which town he opened an office in 1793. He removed the next year to Barrington, and in 1797 to Pembroke. About the year 1800 he went to Plymouth for two or three years, and then returned to Pembroke.
His mother had been divorced from her husband in 1778, and afterwards married John Roche, an Irish shipmaster, who lived with her in her house in Concord till his death in 1811. She sur- vived him about a year, and her son, the subject of this notice, then removed to Concord and occupied the place until 1832, when he went to Portsmouth. The latter part of his life he did not attempt to practice law ; in fact, it is said that he was so exceed- ingly indiscreet and ignorant of his profession that he was unsafe to intrust with business.
Under the blandest manners he was suspected of concealing a tyrannical disposition. One day a neighbor, while passing his
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house in Concord, heard a terrible din inside. He knocked at the door, and Rogers appeared. "What's the matter ?" inquired the neighbor. "Nothing, sir," replied Rogers, polite as Chester- field. " But I heard a terrible outcry, and loud shouting just now in your house." " Oh," replied Rogers in the smoothest tones, "I was just reading Mrs. Rogers a little Greek ; that's all."
His wife was Margaret Furness of Portsmouth, and they had six sons and a daughter.
CHARLES RAMSAY ROGERS.
Son of Charles and Pamelia (Ramsay) Rogers ; born, Orford, August 25, 1823 ; admitted, 1847 ; practiced, Barnstead ; died, Burlingame, Kansas, No- vember 20, 1883.
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