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 56
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He left a widow, three sons, and a. daughter.
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WILLIAM SAWYER.
Son of Nathaniel and Jerusha (Flint) Sawyer ; born, Westminster, Mas- sachusetts, October 26, 1774 ; Harvard College, 1800; admitted, 1803 ; practiced, Wakefield ; died there, July 5, 1860.
Mr. Sawyer, being the son of a farmer in moderate circum- stances, taught schools in his vacations to pay his college expenses. He studied law with Henry Mellen of Dover, and made his life- long home in Wakefield, where he was in the active practice of his profession over a quarter of a century. He was well read, saga- cious, and practical; not distinguished as an advocate, but still employed in not a few important contested causes. The business of collecting debts was then the chief reliance of country attor- neys, and the letting of money on note or bond and mortgage their method of investment. Mr. Sawyer was skillful and vigilant, and acquired reputation and property. In his causes that came to trial he usually had the assistance of Daniel Webster or Jeremiah Mason, preferring the former because " he could see through a case more quickly," though considering the latter the greater lawyer.
He was a man of a high sense of personal dignity. In an alter- cation with a pettifogger in open court, the latter accused him of falsehood. Sawyer instantly seized him by the throat and flung him on the floor. The other, meanwhile, cried lustily for the pro- tection of the court. "No court, short of that of heaven, shall protect a man who insults me with a charge of falsehood!" shouted Sawyer.
His integrity and moral character were without a blemish. He was known as an " honest lawyer," and he merited the title. For many years he was chosen annually the president of the bar in his county. His kindly feelings and generosity made him abundant and strong friends. It is related of him that a brother lawyer who had become embarrassed in his circumstances was tempted to decamp from his creditors and thus bring ruin upon his reputa- tion. Mr. Sawyer, suspecting his intention, dissuaded him from the step, and lent him money to tide over his difficulties and enable him to recover himself.
He married, about the year 1804, Mary, daughter of Captain Hopley Yeaton of Portsmouth, who bore him three sons and two daughters.
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STEPHEN SCALES.
Son of Rev. James Scales ; born, Concord, October 16, 1741 ; Harvard Col- lege, 1763 ; practiced, Concord ; died, Chelmsford, Massachusetts, November 5, 1772.
Mr. Scales was a tutor in Harvard College from 1767 to 1770. Edmund Trowbridge and Francis Dana were his instructors in the law, and he commenced practice in his native town in 1770 or 1771, being the second lawyer of Concord, apparently. After a short time he removed his residence to Chelmsford, Massachu- setts, where he seems to have gained the warmest friends. A stone marks the spot of his burial in that town, on which is a Latin inscription, concluding with these lines from Horace : -
" O, mi_amice, Vitæ summa brevis ; spem nos vetat inchoare longam ; Jam' et premit nox."
ALBERT SMITH SCOTT.
Son of William and Phylinda (Crossfield) Scott ; born, Peterborough, May 8, 1824 ; admitted, 1859 ; practiced, Jaffrey and Peterborough ; died, Peter- borough, 1877.
Fitted for college at the academy in Hancock and at the Phil- lips Exeter Academy, Mr. Scott entered Dartmouth College in 1845, but by reason of the death of his father he was obliged to leave it at the end of his sophomore year. For a time afterwards he was employed in teaching, and then returned to his native place and commenced the study of medicine with Professor Albert Smith; but finding it not to his liking, became a student of the law in the office of Messrs. Dearborn and Cheney of Peterborough. He began to practice law in the East village of Jaffrey in 1861, but returned to Peterborough in a short time, and there built up a valuable practice and acquired a high position in his profession. He continued in the practice of law throughout his life, with the exception of a few years when he was cashier of the First National Bank of Peterborough.
He was the representative of his town in 1855, 1857, 1866, and 1867, and was chosen councilor in 1875 and 1876. Dartmouth College gave him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1868; and he
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was appointed a trustee of the Agricultural College in 1877, the year of his death.
He was distinguished for his public spirit, being always ready to serve the community, as well as for his kindness of heart, his social virtues, and his sound principles.
He married Anna, daughter of Abial Sawyer of Peterborough, November 25, 1851, by whom he had three children.
SAMUEL SELDEN.
Son of Joseph and Susanna (Smith) Selden ; born, West Hartford, Con- necticut, 1781 (?) ; Dartmouth College, 1805 ; practiced, Lebanon ; died, Liberty, Michigan, 1868.
This gentleman studied his profession with Aaron Hutchinson of Lebanon, and settled in practice there as early as 1809. He remained twenty years, and then removed to Royalton, Vermont, and took charge of a farm. In 1836 he sold his farm and emi- grated to Liberty, Jackson County, Michigan, being one of the earliest settlers in that region. During the remainder of his life he was chiefly engaged in farming.
While an inhabitant of Lebanon he was selectman in 1815, 1816, and 1817, representative in 1816, 1817, and 1824, and mod- erator from 1822 to 1830. Apparently he was no enthusiast in his profession. He delighted in the open air, and worked in his field bareheaded and barefooted. He was a confirmed disciple of Izaak Walton, and waded the brooks and streams in pursuit of the wary trout. He is described as short and stout in person, and jolly in his disposition, full of fun, and always ready with a good story.
His first wife, married June, 1811, was Louisa, daughter of Major Jabez Parkhurst of Royalton, Vermont ; after her death he married Fanny, her sister.
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JONATHAN MITCHELL SEWALL.
Son of Mitchell and Elizabeth (Price) Sewall ; born, Salem, Massachusetts, 1748 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, March 29, 1808.
The parents of Mr. Sewall died in his childhood, and he was apprenticed to mercantile business. On approaching manhood he was compelled, by the weakness resulting from fever, to visit
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Spain, and while there met with such heroic medical treatment that he never fairly recovered from the effects of it. Returning home, he studied law with his cousin, Jonathan Sewall of Boston, Massachusetts, and with John Pickering of Portsmouth. In 1773 he was appointed by Governor Wentworth register of Pro- bate for Grafton County, and major in the militia, but soon re- turned to his profession in Portsmouth. He was probably a fairly well-read lawyer, and his talents and eloquence made amends for all other defects. He was frequently employed in defending criminals, and rarely lost a verdict. In 1778 he might have been attorney-general, but he declined the office, on account of his repugnance to the duties of public prosecutor. His practice was rather productive of reputation than of pecuniary returns, however, so that in later life he was somewhat straitened in his circumstances.
It is as a poet, however, more than as a lawyer, that Sewall will be remembered. He was the author of the couplet, -
"No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours,"
which belongs to the household words of our literature. His song of " War and Washington " was heard round the camp- fires of the Revolution. At a later period he produced a versi- fication of Washington's "Farewell Address," and a metrical parody on Elwyn's "Letter to a Federalist." He delivered a Fourth of July address in 1788, a eulogy on Washington in 1800, and published a volume of verse in 1801. It was perhaps the timeliness, as much as the inspiration, of his poems that gave them their popularity.
Mr. Sewall's health suffered as he increased in years ; and to relieve his nervousness and hypochondria, he resorted to stimu- lating beverages, which of course only afforded temporary allevia- tion, although they fixed upon him habits that he never overcame. But his friends loved him none the less, and appear never to have lost respect for him. The lady who became his second wife, when remonstrated with on her engagement to a man of his habits, re- plied, "I would rather marry Mr. Sewall drunk than any other man sober." One who inspired such sentiments could never have been regarded as a victim of sensuality.
He had two wives ; the latter of them was Sarah March. He had several daughters, who outlived him.
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CHARLES BURNHAM SHACKFORD.
Son of Major Samuel B. and Martha (?) (Hale) Shackford ; born, Bar- rington, December, 1840 ; Bowdoin College, 1863; practiced, Conway and Dover ; died, Dover, January 2, 1881.
Mr. Shackford prepared himself for the bar in the office of Samuel M. Wheeler of Dover. In 1864 and 1865 he was the assistant clerk, and in 1866 and 1867 the clerk, of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He is said also to have held the appointment of clerk of the Municipal Court of Boston, Massachusetts. About 1870 his name appears as a practitioner of the law in Conway, where his father had for many years been living. In 1873 he established himself in Dover. Three years afterwards he was commissioned solicitor for the county of Strafford, and he was elected to the same office in 1878 and in 1880.
In all his business relations, public and private, he is described as diligent, attentive, and trustworthy, - a faithful official, a sound , and able lawyer, and a good citizen and true man.
It was a singular coincidence, worthy of the attention of psy- chologists, that in his last hours he expressed his conviction that his father, then in Chelsea, Massachusetts, was dying, though he had no information of the fact. It proved that at that very time his father was breathing his last, his death preceding that of his son by about six hours only.
Mr. Shackford married, in 1868, Caroline, daughter of Moses A. Cartland of Lee, and had two sons and a daughter.
CUTT SHANNON.
Son of Nathaniel and Abigail (Vaughan) Shannon ; born, Portsmouth, Au- gust 17, 1717 ; practiced, Dover and Portsmouth ; died, Portsmouth, December 12, 1763.
Mr. Shannon's maternal grandfather was William Vaughan, a royal councilor, and Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the province. The grandson, after acquiring his education under private instructors in Portsmouth, was admitted an attorney about 1739, and for some years practiced his profession in Dover. He was chosen to various town offices in Portsmouth, but filled no
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important official station. He had no liking for his profession, but probably was somewhat employed as counsel, conveyancer, and the like. He was apparently in easy circumstances, and left at his death a gold watch, silver plate, a slave, books appraised at sixty pounds, and the inventory of his estate aggregated £13,953 old tenor.
He was married, December 3, 1741, to Mary, daughter of Lieutenant-Governor George Vaughan. They had seven children, of whom the eldest was a lawyer.
RICHARD CUTTS SHANNON.
Son of Cutt and Mary (Vaughan) Shannon ; born, Portsmouth, May 9, 1743 ; died, Newcastle, April 7, 1821.
This gentleman was a pupil of the celebrated Master Hale of Portsmouth, and at a suitable age went into a counting-room in Portsmouth, to receive a mercantile training. This was in accord- ance with the desire of his father. But he had a strong liking for the law, and after some years studied that profession with Samuel Livermore in Portsmouth. He was chosen one of the attorneys of the town in 1774, but the next year removed to Hollis. Many of his associates in Portsmouth being loyalists, he did not sympathize with the sons of liberty in the early part of the Revolution, and found himself in 1777 the inmate of the jail at Exeter, with others of like sentiments. In order to procure his enlargement, he was compelled to give bond for his good behavior, etc. There is reason to believe that he experienced a decided change of sentiments after his incarceration, for in 1782 and in 1783 he was chosen by the patriotic citizens of Hollis to represent them in the state legislature.
Governor Plumer relates that in 1784 William Coleman, after- wards the distinguished editor of the New York " Evening Post," went to Hollis with the intention of studying law with Mr. Shan- non, and found him an easy, good-natured man, but not above mediocrity as a scholar and lawyer, and with but a mere apology for a library.
Mr. Shannon left Hollis for Amherst, where he received a jus- tice's commission in 1785, was living in Raby, now Brookline, in 1791, and returned to Portsmouth in 1794. Though he was cer- tainly not remarkable for acuteness, if we may credit tradition,
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yet he obtained a fair share of business, and through Governor Langdon's influence received, in 1804, the appointment of clerk of the Circuit and District Court of the United States. He resigned the office in 1814.
It seems he was noted as what is called a "good liver." Daniel Webster, while he was a resident of Portsmouth, amus- ingly hit off this peculiarity in a good-natured epitaph which he wrote for Shannon : -
" Natus consumere fruges, Frugibus consumptis, Hic jacet R. C. S."
His wife was Elizabeth Ruggles of Boston, Massachusetts, and he was the father of ten children.
AMOS BLANCHARD SHATTUCK.
Son of Brooks and - (Peavey) Shattuck ; born, Lowell, Massachusetts, June 24, 1834 ; Williams College, 1856 ; admitted, 1857 ; practiced, Manches- ter ; died near Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 17, 1862.
Mr. Shattuck was fitted for college at the academy in Frances- town. He studied law in the office of Daniel Clark of Manches- ter, and began practice in Manchester with every prospect of success. But when the war of the Rebellion broke out, and call after call was made upon the patriotism of the young men of the North, he could not remain quietly at home, while it was in his power to render service in the field. When the Eleventh Regi- ment of New Hampshire Volunteers was organized, he was mus- tered into the military service of the United States as captain of Company E. Leaving his young wife and child, he proceeded with the regiment to the front. Three months from the time they left New Hampshire, they were confronted with the rebel troops, intrenched on Marye's Heights opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, and, with a courage and resolution that won them the warmest praise of the commanding general, advanced through the "fire infernal," and for hours held the slope beneath the enemy's line, which was simply impregnable.
Among the one hundred and ninety casualties of the regiment on that terrible day, Captain Shattuck was wounded ; at first it was thought not fatally, but in four days afterwards he breathed
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his last, - " an excellent officer and much esteemed man," as the record runs.
He was married, January 26, 1859, to Caroline O., daughter of Elihu Stevens of Manchester, and left one son.
NATHANIEL SHATTUCK.
Son of Nathaniel and Catharine (Andrews) Shattuck ; born, Temple, Feb- ruary 27, 1774 ; Dartmouth College, 1801 ; practiced, Milford, Amherst, and Mason ; died, Concord, Massachusetts, September 1, 1864.
Mr. Shattuck studied law with Benjamin J. Gilbert of Hano- ver and Timothy Bigelow of Groton, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1804. The same year he began practice in Milford, and in a few years removed to Amherst, where he lived till 1830 ; after which he made several changes of residence, being at one time in Brookline, afterwards in Mason, then in Lynn, Massachusetts, and, it is believed, in other places.
He was a man of some capacity, and apparently had a fair share of business and of the confidence of his townsmen at Amherst, until he was so injudicious as to engage in bringing a large number of petty suits against Charles H. Atherton and other stockholders of the suspended Hillsborough bank upon the small bills issued by that institution, claiming that they were personally liable under the law. The actions were regarded as vexatious, and were held to be unfounded; and the costs, amounting in the aggregate to a very considerable sum, fell upon Shattuck. He was unable to discharge them, and, as the law then was, was committed to jail for non-payment. He obtained the liberty of the yard, which extended to the bounds of the town of Amherst, but for years was unable to go outside of them. It is said, however, that he made the most of his limited opportunities, and kept up his practice while thus nominally a prisoner.
He was married, in 1806, to Mary, daughter of James Wallace of Temple, and in 1816, after her decease, to Sally, daughter of Samuel Stanley of Amherst. He had seven children.
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JOHN LANE SHEAFE.
Son of Jacob and Mary (Quincy) Sheafe ; born, Portsmouth, November 28, 1791 ; Harvard College, 1810 ; practiced, Portsmouth, Colebrook, and Lancas- ter ; died, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 5, 1864.
Mr. Sheafe was prepared for college at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and read law with Jeremiah Mason of Portsmouth. Admitted to the bar in the Court of Common Pleas in 1813, he was in practice in Portsmouth until 1820, when he removed to Colebrook. After five years' sojourn there, he went to Lancas- ter and remained three or four years. Then he took up his resi- dence in Lowell, Massachusetts, and lived there till 1838, when he emigrated to Florida, as was understood, but subsequently be- came an inhabitant of New Orleans, Louisiana.
As a young man Mr. Sheafe was quite diffident, so that the wags of Coos County were at first inclined to make sport of him, but his abilities and education soon gained him respect. In Lowell he was considered an able lawyer, and had a good busi- ness, though he was not distinguished as an advocate. He was there elected in 1833 and 1836 a representative in the General Court.
In New Orleans he developed the first-rate qualities which he really possessed. There was scope there for the best that was in him, and emulation to bring it out. He became a prominent Whig politician and a "brilliant lawyer," and was appointed a Judge. True to his Northern training, he opposed the pernicious doctrine of secession, and remained a Union man as long as he lived.
He never married.
JOHN SAMUEL SHERBURNE.
Son of John and Elizabeth (Moffat) Sherburne ; born, Portsmouth, 1757 ; Dartmouth College, 1776 ; died, Portsmouth, August 2, 1830.
Mr. Sherburne, whose Christian name was originally Samuel only, was descended from some of the oldest families of Ports- mouth. He followed the mercantile profession for a while, but with no success. In 1778 he was a volunteer aid of General Wil- liam Whipple, who commanded a brigade of militia in the expe-
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dition against Rhode Island. One morning while at breakfast in his tent a chance cannon shot fractured the bones of his leg, which had to be amputated.
Shortly after the close of the war he appeared as an attorney at law in Portsmouth, having acquired the needful preparation in the office of John Pickering of that place.
On the opening of the Federal courts in Portsmouth in 1789, Mr. Sherburne received the appointment of district attorney, which he held until 1793.
In 1790 he was elected a representative in the legislature, and served two or three years, a part of the time as Speaker. In 1793, and again in 1795, he was chosen a member of the lower House of Congress, four years in all. A further term of one year in the state legislature in 1801 completed his political career.
In 1802 he was a second time appointed district attorney of the United States, and exercised the office until 1804. As a practic- ing lawyer he was lacking in self-control. Above mediocrity as an advocate, he could so ill bear contradiction or interruption, that his anger on such occasions often did mischief to his client's interests. It is said that he sometimes flattered the Court and at other times bullied them, as the humor moved him, or as he thought would best promote his own purposes.
Mr. Sherburne's agency in bringing about the removal of Judge Pickering, an unmistakably insane man, by impeachment, always remained in the minds of many a black cloud upon his character. He testified strongly against the respondent, but when summoned for further cross-examination, he absented himself so that he could not be found.
The office of District Judge of the United States, from which Judge Pickering was shamefully ousted, largely through his agency, was bestowed upon him in 1804, and he occupied it dur- ing the remainder of his days. His subsequent life is said not to have been happy. He had little enjoyment of the friendship of others, or of his family even. Several years before his death his faculties failed, and there were not wanting those who looked upon this as a judgment upon him for his course against his predecessor in office.
His wife was Submit, daughter. of George Boyd of Portsmouth. They had three sons and a daughter.
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JOHN MAJOR SHIRLEY.
Son of John and Joanna (Yale) Shirley ; born, Sanbornton, November 16, 1831 ; admitted, 1854 ; practiced, Sanbornton Bridge (Tilton) and Andover ; died, Andover, May 21, 1887.
The narrow circumstances in which Mr. Shirley's childhood was passed forbade him a systematic education. But he made the utmost of the district schools ; and later, when his own efforts enabled him, he studied in the academy at Sanbornton Bridge, and in the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Northfield.
From the time he reached fourteen years of age he worked upon the farm, and later at more lucrative pursuits, to contribute to the support of his parents. His father died in 1851, and he maintained his mother until her death in 1871. It was character- istic of Mr. Shirley that though he furnished the writer with a sketch of his life, he was silent respecting this most honorable incident.
He entered the office of Asa P. Cate and Benjamin A. Rodgers at Sanbornton Bridge, to qualify himself for the bar. After his admission he was employed by them for a part of the year, and then he settled permanently in practice in Andover. He con- tinued there for the remainder of his life, having at different periods other partners, generally young men who had been his students. He held various positions there : was postmaster from 1855 to 1859; representative in the legislature in 1859 and 1860; superintending school committee, 1858 to 1865; agent of the town to pay volunteers and aid their families, 1862 to 1865 ; and dele- gate to the convention to revise the state Constitution in 1876. In 1871 he was appointed state reporter, and performed the duties until 1876.
Mr. Shirley was above all things a lawyer. He exulted in his profession, in its noble purpose, its interesting history, and its extended scope. He believed that no occupation in life afforded the opportunity for conferring more benefit on society than that of the lawyer. His ideal was the highest. He had no admiration for the subtleties of the law nor for its outgrown and unreason- able rules. He would have them modified till they became really the "perfection of reason " as well as of morals. He was a stu- dent but not a devotee of the black letter ; he was rather a prac- tical reformer.
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Though faithful and successful in trials at nisi prius, he was far more at home in discussing questions of pure law before the Court. He ransacked the lore of the past for precedents and analogies, and some of his briefs were marvels of application and ingenuity. He had wonderful fluency of speech, and a humorous fitness of expression that never failed to attract and hold the atten- tion. His law studies were not confined to his cases; he wrote many articles for the law journals, and delivered several public addresses upon legal topics. The chief of his productions was his " History of the Dartmouth College Causes." This work must have cost him great labor, and his views are wrought out in it with much ingenuity. Whether or not we are prepared to accept his conclusions to the full, we cannot but acknowledge that the production is the work of a thorough lawyer and an honest as well as a very able man.
Mr. Shirley was an earnest working member of the New Hamp- shire Historical Society and of the American Bar Association, and was elected to the office of vice-president in each. He was long interested in Freemasonry, had taken numerous degrees, and in the Grand Masonic bodies of the State was habitually placed at the head of the committees on jurisprudence and trials.
It was truly said of Mr. Shirley that he was "honest, able, learned, industrious, and courageous." It may be added that he was courteous, kind, honorable, persistent. It was necessary to know him well to appreciate him. He had a little of the extrava- gance of expression of Boythorn, that had to be made allowance for. But beneath his little eccentricities, the man was as true as steel. His health was never strong, and he worked with all his might while his day lasted. He wore himself out, but left behind him a memory fragrant with kind feeling, devotion to duty, and high achievement.
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