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 8
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Judge Clagett had no brilliant powers of mind, and was not an extraordinary lawyer ; but he was honest, and undoubtedly served his constituents faithfully and satisfactorily in the various political trusts which he assumed. As a Judge of Probate, too, no intima- tion has been discovered that his conduct was not entirely ap- proved by the people.
Governor Plumer has left it on record that he consented to the appointment of Judge Clagett with reluctance, because he did not consider him suitable for the place. The history of the legis- lating out of existence of the Superior Court, and of the fruitless measures taken by the ex-judges to retain their places, is given in the biographical sketch of Judge Richard Evans in this work.
When in 1816 the success of the Republican party enabled the legislature to restore the Superior Court, Judge Evans was in the last stages of consumption, and Judge Clagett was not reap- pointed.
But the fact that seven years afterwards he was replaced in the office of Judge of Probate, and acted as such through life without
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exception, makes it clear that though he may not have been emi- nent as a jurist, yet his honesty and the rectitude of his inten- tions could not have been questioned.
He is said not only to have lacked the witty powers which characterized his father, but to have been unable even to appre- ciate them. Mr. Adams, the clerk of the Superior Court, once repeated to him some of the epigrams and bon mots of the elder Clagett, but the son could see nothing worthy of admiration in them. Judge Arthur Livermore, on being informed of this, re- marked : "Clagett has put off the old man !"
His wife was Margaret McQuesten, of Litchfield. His chil- dren were eight daughters and one son, William, the lawyer of Portsmouth.
WILLIAM MERCHANT RICHARDSON, LL. D.
C. J. 1816-1838.
Son of Captain Daniel and Sarah (Merchant) Richardson ; born, Pelham, January 4, 1774 ; Harvard College, 1797 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died, Ches- ter, March 23, 1838.
With the exception of Judge Jeremiah Smith, perhaps no occupant of the judicial bench has done so much to shape the jurisprudence of New Hampshire as the gentleman above named. When he came into office, no printed reports of cases previously adjudicated in the State were in existence, there was little uni- formity of practice, and great uncertainty about many branches of the law, more especially in regard to the construction of stat- utes. At the close of his long, diligent, and efficient service, the rules of practice had become well established, and the decisions of his court had been published to the profession, and were recog- nized as of value and authority in this State and elsewhere.
As has happened in many another instance, an accident gave him to the law. His father was one of a line of cultivators of the soil, and the son was employed in the same calling until he was about fifteen years old, when he met with a severe injury to one of his hands, which unfitted him for a time for manual labor, and caused him to turn his attention to study. He prepared himself for college, and graduated with a high rank for scholarship. He next engaged in teaching, first in the academy at Leicester, Mas- sachusetts, where his application was injurious to his health ; and
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subsequently, after some interval of rest, as preceptor of the academy in Groton, Massachusetts. While occupying these po- sitions he devoted himself assiduously to the cultivation of his literary powers. He there acquired the easy and graceful style which distinguished all his writings, and indulged in poetical com- position, for which he had much taste and aptitude.
While at Groton he formed the acquaintance of Judge Samuel Dana, who invited him to enter his office as a student. This probably decided Mr. Richardson to choose the law as a profes- sion, and he engaged in the study with diligence. He passed his examination for admission to practice with credit, and was at once received as the partner of his preceptor. Of course he found himself in abundant employment from the start, so that his pa- tience was never tried by the vexatious process of waiting for clients.
It was not long before he acquired an enviable standing as a lawyer and a man in his community, and when in 1811 a vacancy occurred in the office of Representative in Congress in the dis- trict, he was chosen to fill it. He was a Republican of that day, though not a violent partisan, made one or more speeches, and altogether showed a very creditable figure in Congress. But he had no fancy for political life, and shortly after being reelected he resigned his seat.
In 1814, being made United States attorney for the District of New Hampshire, he removed his residence to Portsmouth, and entered into practice there. It is evident that he was at once recognized as a lawyer of the first capacity, for when, on the reorganization of the courts in 1816, Governor Plumer nominated him for Chief Justice of the highest judicial tribunal to a council politically divided, and in high party times, he was unanimously confirmed.
He was now in the position for which his powers were pe- culiarly well adapted, and was at first ably supported by his asso- ciates. He devoted himself with characteristic application to his duties ; and it may have been in consequence of this that he was attacked shortly after his appointment by a dangerous illness which brought him to death's door. He slowly recovered, but the effects of the disease were visible throughout the remainder of his life. A slight lameness was one of these ; his nervous system was also affected, and he was liable to periodical fits of sickness,
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afterwards. But he never relaxed his habits of industry, and nothing but absolute physical inability could keep him from his papers and his studies.
The famous Dartmouth College controversy culminated in one of the earlier important causes which came before the Court after Judge Richardson's appointment. The weighty questions involved in it were argued by the ablest counsel, and the opinion, in which all the Court were united, was prepared and delivered by the Chief Justice. Notwithstanding it was afterwards overruled by the Su- preme Court of the United States, the decision has always been regarded as able, and by some jurists as the more correct state- ment of the law.
The limits of this sketch do not admit of any specification of the judicial labors of Judge Richardson during the nearly twenty- two years of his service. The pages of the first six volumes of the New Hampshire Reports attest his diligence and fidelity and learning. A part of the time while he was on the bench his associates were obviously his inferiors in judicial qualifications, and the gravamen of the work fell upon him. But he sustained it cheerfully, and the reputation of the tribunal in which he pre- sided never suffered.
In holding jury terms of the court he appeared to no less ad- vantage. His quickness to see and appreciate the points made by counsel, his readiness to apply his wide knowledge of legal principles to the shifting vistas of a trial, his entire freedom from bias, all combined to make him an admirable nisi prius judge. He had little pride of opinion, and was always ready to yield his first impressions to the force of argument or authority. In the earlier years of his judicial experience, particularly, the leaders of the bar were men of logic and research, and their forensic con- tests sometimes occasioned displays of legal argumentation that might well cause the judgment of the strongest mind to halt between two opinions. Judge Richardson was thought by some almost too ready to abandon a ruling he had once made, as soon as he began to doubt if it were tenable. On one occasion Jere- miah Mason was pressing a point to him with his usual force, and the Judge, to save him the trouble of further argument, remarked, " Brother Mason, the impression of the Court is in your favor." " Yes," replied the great lawyer, "but I want your Honor to stick !"
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Judge Richardson possessed an eminently judicial mind. He was able to look down upon a case, as it were, from a serene height of impartiality, and to see all its sides with noonday clearness. Whatever might have been his first inclinations, his deliberate judgment was formed on full consideration of the whole case · from every point of view. His perfect integrity and singleness of purpose were never brought in question. The judicial ermine received no stain from his wearing it. He knew no friends and no enemies while in the seat of judgment, nor any of the ordi- nary lines of divisions among men. His ideal was the very highest.
Untiring industry was one of his chief characteristics. That there have been men who, by the force of extraordinary intrinsic powers, have attained the highest judicial rank without giving their days and nights to the study of the law cannot perhaps be gainsaid ; but they are the exceptions. The giants of the law have usually been the gigantic workers. The best judgments have smelled of the lamp. Where one great lawyer has been able to dispense with close study, a hundred have made them- selves great by giving nearly double the traditional number of hours to intense application. Judge Richardson's native capacity was excelled by that of few men, but he supplemented it by the ut- most industry over the works of the sages of the law. He believed in general cultivation, too, as an adjunct to legal study. He pushed his researches into almost every department of learning. He kept up his knowledge of the classics, and read the best Italian, French, and Spanish authors in their original tongues. He ac- quired a thorough knowledge of botany, and more or less famil- iarity with every branch of natural science. In addition to the performance of his strictly official labors, he found time to take part as chairman of a commission to revise the laws of the State in 1826; to 'superintend the publication of a large part of the cases included in the early volumes of the judicial Reports ; and to prepare three manuals for the guidance respectively of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and Town Officers, and containing the ne- cessary statutes, forms, and directions for each. He was also the author of occasional poems, which were characterized by much delicacy of feeling and expression, and breathed the spirit of true poesy. Dartmouth College, in token of appreciation of his learn- ing and literary accomplishments, bestowed upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1827.
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The private life of Judge Richardson was exemplary. He removed in 1819 from Portsmouth to Chester, where he passed the residue of his life. Before the days of railroads, Chester, like not a few other country places, was the residence of a good num- ber of families of education and refinement. Here Judge Rich- ardson found congenial society, and here his public spirit and social graces were exhibited to appreciative friends. Every move- ment for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town found in him a ready supporter. He was not only interested in the church and the schoolhouse, the two corner-stones of New England civiliza- tion, but he exerted himself to support the other voluntary aids to instruction and rational amusement. He lectured before the Ly- ceum, and was the chief founder of the Athenaeum of the town. At his home he solaced himself in his hours of relaxation with music, in which he delighted and was no mean proficient, and diversified his labors by work in his garden, on which he justly prided himself.
He was fond of society, though the time he gave to study did not allow him much leisure for formal company. But all classes of his townsmen found a ready welcome at his house. There were among them some privileged characters, in those days, with whose blunt Scotch-Irish humor the Judge was entertained. One of these, an inveterate cider-toper, used to call at the Judge's house not unfrequently, to beg a mug of his favorite beverage. This was never refused him so long as he was sober. But one day, when he came with his usual request, he had evidently had more than his full allowance already, and the Judge refused to give him more. "Well," said the disappointed tippler, " I've heard of the unjust judge, who neither feared God nor regarded man, and I think I know him pretty well, too." The retort tickled the Judge, but did not procure the coveted boon.
Besides deriving great enjoyment from the drollery and humor of others, Judge Richardson was himself a wit. All who knew him agree that no one, of his time, said brighter or keener things than he. But such good sayings depend so much upon the cir- cumstances which call them forth, and are of so evanescent a character, that they suffer in the attempt to repeat them.
One mot, being professional, perhaps should not be withheld. The Judge, while going his circuit in his open carriage, drove, in the midst of a storm of sleet, up to the hotel where several mem-
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bers of the bar had already established themselves. " Well, Judge," said one of them, "you've had to face it." "Yes," replied the Judge, " and I'd rather ' facit per alium' than 'facit per se.' "
Judge Richardson married, in 1798, Betsy, daughter of Peter Smith of Pelham, and had seven children. Two of his daughters married members of the New Hampshire bar : Elizabeth, who was the wife of Benjamin B. French, and Anne, the wife of Henry F. French. No descendants bearing the family name, it is believed, now survive.
CALEB ELLIS.
J. 1813-1816.
Born, Walpole, Massachusetts, 1767 ; Harvard College, 1793 ; practiced, Newport and Claremont ; died, Claremont, May 9, 1816.
Mr. Ellis's legal studies were carried on under the direction of John Davis of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and he commenced practice in Newport about 1796. He could have remained there but a short time, for he settled in Claremont probably before 1800, and is said to have tarried at Cornish awhile, between the two places.
He was somewhat mature in years when he began his profes- sional career, and was thoroughly well prepared for it by study and cultivation. Without any personal desire for appearing in public, he was soon brought forward by the suffrages of the people for official positions, and was chosen representative in the legis- lature in 1803; member of Congress for two years in 1804; councilor in 1809 and 1810 ; state senator in 1811; presidential elector in 1812. In 1813 he was appointed with the approval of all parties a Justice of the Supreme Court, an honor which he had declined three years previously.
His term of judicial service, cut short by his premature death, served only to confirm the favorable impressions which led to his appointment. He was in truth a model judge. His able associ- ate in the court, Hon. Jeremiah Smith, pronounced a sketch of his character before the grand jury, soon after his decease, in which were admirably set forth his peculiar qualifications for the judicial functions.
He was modest and unassuming. His prominence was not the
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result of ambition or self-seeking, but was the reward of merit that could not be concealed. He was moderate, prudent, and conscientious. Those who differed from him in opinion could not but admit his candor and honesty. He never allowed himself to be carried away by stress of feeling; all his conduct was gov- erned by well-founded principle. Quick to perceive and appre- hend, he was none the less ready to inquire and thoroughly inves- tigate questions that came before him, and he had none of the pride of opinion which would hinder him from abandoning his first impressions, when the weight of authority was against them. He studied the law as a science, and his reasoning powers were of the first order. The only criticism made upon his intellectual methods was that he was perhaps sometimes too refined and subtle in his distinctions to be easily comprehended by a jury.
As a judge he was impartial and independent. He was far above being influenced by the positions or opinions of parties, or by any other considerations than those which properly entered into the subjects of judicial inquiry. Neither fear nor favor affected his official conduct by a feather's weight. Having carefully de- termined what was right, he was firm and decided in adhering to it. Nor did he render a disagreeable thing doubly disagreeable by an ungracious manner. He was always pleasant and courteous, and gave willing ear to all reasonable solicitations. Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, was practically his rule of conduct.
With so many desirable qualifications for the judicial station, it was hoped by all that he might long continue to administer it ; but it was not so to be. His constitution was slender, his health soon began to fail, and after only three years of useful and honorable duty upon the bench, his temporal life was brought to a close. Few men have combined in an equal degree mental and moral qualities of such acknowledged superiority, and personal characteristics so engaging and attractive. His death was the cause of widespread mourning, public and private.
He married Nancy, daughter of Colonel Robert Means of Am- herst, February 4, 1816. They had no children.
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SAMUEL BELL, LL. D.
J. 1816-1819.
Son of Hon. John and Mary Ann (Gilmore) Bell ; born, Londonderry, Feb- ruary 9, 1770 ; Dartmouth College, 1793 ; admitted, 1796 ; practiced, Fran- cestown, Amherst, and Chester ; died, Chester, December 23, 1850.
A descendant of one of the early "Scotch-Irish " settlers of Londonderry, Mr. Bell was brought up on his father's farm, and until the age of eighteen received no instruction beyond the meagre routine of the common schools. In April, 1788, having a strong desire to obtain a collegiate education, he began the study of Latin, and afterwards became a pupil of the distinguished John Hubbard, at the academy in New Ipswich. In the winter of 1790 he taught a school in his native town, and the next year was admitted to the sophomore class of Dartmouth College.
Immediately after taking his degree he was received as a stu- dent in the office of Samuel Dana of Amherst, and on the con- clusion of his required term of three years, was admitted an attor- ney, and commenced practice in Francestown. From that place he was sent representative to the legislature in 1804, and the two years succeeding, in both of which he was elected to the Speaker's chair. In 1807 he was tendered the attorney-general- ship of the State, but declined it. In 1807 and 1808 he was cho- sen to the State Senate, and was honored both years with the presidency of that body. In 1813 he served as a member of the Executive Council. He had transferred his residence in 1806 from Francestown to Amherst, and about 1811 he removed from Amherst to Chester. At that time his health had seriously declined, so that he was disqualified for business, and fears were entertained that he might never recover. By the advice of friends he determined to try the effect of an extended trip on horseback, though so weak that at first he could travel but few miles daily. His strength improved by this exercise, and he passed much of two seasons in journeying in Ohio, which was the "far West " of that day.
With the restoration of his health he resumed professional work, in Chester. He was commissioned a Justice of the Superior Court in 1816, and performed his judicial duties three years. In 1819 he was chosen governor of the State, and rechosen the three
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years following, receiving at his last election nearly twenty-three thousand votes, to little more than one thousand cast for all others. As soon as his gubernatorial term ended in 1823, he was elected a senator of the United States for six years, upon the expiration of which he was reelected. His twelve years' service in the Senate closed in 1835, and he then retired from political and professional pursuits.
The retention during a period of nearly thirty years in such responsible positions in public life, of one who was no popularity seeker and no political manager, implies that he must by the exhibition of uncommon ability, and attention to duty, have made good his claim to the confidence of the public. Mr. Bell's mental powers were of a high order, carefully cultivated and thoroughly disciplined. He was a sound, though not a showy lawyer, pru- dent in counsel, strong in contention. He made no pretension to eloquence, and rather lacked fluency of speech, but he compen- sated for it by the vigor and force of his reasoning and his ex- pression.
His manner on the bench is described as courteous but decided.
He was of a dignified presence. Though accessible to all, he unbent to few. His rulings were made with deliberation, and were seldom withdrawn, in which respect he differed from Chief Justice Richardson. If a persistent counsel ventured to press for a reopening of a question already passed upon, " that point is de- cided," was his mild answer, and it was then well understood that nothing more was to be said. Jeremiah Mason stated, when it was proposed to make Judge Bell governor of the State, that the Superior Court would thereby " lose its backbone." John M. Shirley, who made a careful study of the characteristics of the gentlemen connected with the Dartmouth College Cases, described him as "a man of immense erudition and great business capacity, a thorough lawyer, and possessed of great moral courage." His published judicial opinions in the early volumes of the state Reports bear testimony to his habits of thorough and careful research, his complete understanding of the rules and reasons of the law, and his clear, logical habits of investigation and state- ment.
· His political fortunes were never advanced by display, artifice, or intrigue. His fellow-citizens put him forward because they had faith that he would represent them fairly and honestly. He
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made few speeches, but they had the root of the matter in them. He was conscientiously attentive to the public business, and left a record in the highest degree creditable. He kept in touch with the best sentiment of his section. When Daniel Webster went into the national capitol the morning after hearing the arraign- ment of his political principles by Robert Y. Hayne, he called Mr. Bell into consultation, gave him an outline of the reply he was proposing to make, and asked him if that fairly represented the views of their constituents at the North. Upon Mr. Bell's assuring him that it did, "Then," said the great expounder, " the country shall know my views of the Constitution, before this day is over !" So great was the confidence of the champion of New England in the standing and understanding of the New Hampshire senator.
After retiring from the Senate he spent the remainder of his life at his home on a sightly hill in Chester, interesting himself in the affairs of the day, and in the up-bringing of his younger children, and enjoying the respect and honor of his townsmen and of all who knew him.
The degree of LL. D. was awarded him by Bowdoin College in 1821.
His first marriage, November 26, 1797, was with Mehitable Bowen, daughter of Hon. Samuel Dana of Amherst ; his second with Lucy, daughter of Jonathan Smith of Amherst, July 4, 1828. Of his five children by the former marriage, two, Samuel D. and James, entered the legal profession ; and of his four by the later, two, George and Louis, did likewise.
LEVI WOODBURY, LL. D. J. 1816-1823.
Son of Hon. Peter and Mary (Woodbury) Woodbury ; born, Francestown, December 22, 1789 ; Dartmouth College, 1809 ; admitted, 1812 ; practiced, Francestown and Portsmouth ; died, Portsmouth, September 4, 1851.
Mr. Woodbury obtained the chief part of his preparation for college at the Atkinson Academy under the preceptorship of John Vose, and at Dartmouth was distinguished for his scholar- ship. He studied the law with Jeremiah Smith at Exeter, Sam- uel Dana of Boston, Massachusetts, and at the Litchfield Law School, Connecticut, and began practice with high promise in his
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native town in 1812. In 1816 he was chosen clerk of the New Hampshire Senate. This brought him before the eye of Governor Plumer, a fellow-boarder, at the capital, who was then engaged in the rather difficult operation of selecting a new set of judges. The Governor saw that he was industrious and ambitious, with such intellectual qualities as would insure his success on the bench, and surprised most people who did not know the young lawyer by giving him an associate justiceship of the Superior Court. He was the youngest man who had ever been designated for the place, and was called the " baby judge," but he soon proved that the Governor's prognostications were not erroneous. If he lacked anything of experience or knowledge, he made haste to compensate for it by all that assiduity and labor could accomplish. It was said that he could and did work sixteen hours a day when occasion required it, and this, by the way, not only while he was young, and eager to justify his appointment, but even to the later years of his life.
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