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ADDRESS
SOCIAL FESTIVA.I.
OF
THE BAR
OP
WORCESTER COUNTY,
3yE-A.ss-A.oia:xjssa:TS,
FEB. 7, 1856
B Y
HON. EMORY WASHBURN.
^VORCESTER:
PRINTED BY HENRY J. ROWLAND,
245 Main Street.
F
12.
SOCIA.L FESTIVAL.
At a meeting of the Bai- of the County of Worcester, held, in
pursuance of notice, at the Law Library, Sept. 15, 1855, L-a M.
Barton was called to the chair, and Joseph Mason appointed
Secretary.
On motion of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood, of Fitchburg, a com-
mittee was raised to consider the subject of a Social Festival of
the Bar, with instructions to report at a future meeting, and the
following gentlemen were appointed :
Ira M. Barton,
Nathaniel Wood,
Benjamin D. Hyde,
Francis Deane,
George W. Richardson,
Henry Chapin,
George F. Hoar.
During the Law Term of the Supreme Court, holden at Wor-
cester on the first Tuesday of the next October, the Committee
reported in favor of such a Festival, to embrace also the objects
of an historical address, the improvement of the County Law
Library, and the formation of an Association of the Bar.
The Report of the committee was unanimously accepted, and
the same gentlemen were appointed a committee of arrangements,
to carry their recommendations into effect.
The time and place designated for the Festival, was Worcester,
Feb. 7, 1856, it being the day of the first semi-annual meeting
of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas, in that city ; and
the Hon. Emory Washburn accepted an invitation to deliver the
address upon the occasion.
Distinguished members of the Bar and of the Bench, from Mas-
sachusetts and the neighboring States, were invited as guests,
and on the day appointed, at 5 o'clock P. M., at the New Court
House, Ex-Governor Washburn delivered his address.
Immediately after the address, the company, under the direction
of Col. Geo. W. Richardson, the Sherift' of the County, and
Marshal of the occasion, repaired to the Bay State House, where,
after an hour's agreeable re-union in the spacious and elegant
saloons of that establishment, more than an hundred sat down to
a supper, well provided by Messrs. Clifford & Foster. A blessing
Avas invoked by the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Hill, and the Hon. Ira M.
Barton presided, assisted by the Hon. Messrs. Newton, Wood,
Chapin and Deane, as Vice Presidents.
The festive part of the occasion was introduced by remarks
from the President, in the course of which he referred in appro-
priate and respectful terms, to Mr. Justice Byington of the Com-
mon l^leas, whose lamented and very recent demise, deprived ihe
company of the honor of the presence of all the Judges of that
Court.
The following sentiments were then announced by the Chair.
1. The President of the United States, and the Governor of the Common-
wealth.
2. The Judiciary of the Commonwealth, and the health of j\Ir. Justice
Thomas.
This sentiment was very eloquently responded to by the Hon.
Benj. F. Thomas, one of the associate justices of the Supreme
Court.
3. Our national and State .Judiciaries. Complicated and nicely adjusted
systems of jurisprudence. But under an administration by good and wise
men, upon the just principles of international law, no colli-sion can ever
take place between them ; certainly not on this occasion.
The following letter was received from the Hon. Benj. R.
Curtis of Boston, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States. For the reading of this and other letters, the
chair was indebted to Chas. C. B. Snow, Esquire, of Fitchburg.
"Washington, Jan. 21, 1856.
Hon. Tea. IM. Barton, — Dear Sir : I received your invitation, in behalf
of the Committee of the Bar of the County of Worcester, to attend their
Social Festival, to be held at AVorcester on the evening of the 7th Feb. next.
If my duties hei'e would permit, it would give me much pleasure to be
present. With some of the older members of the Bar of Worcester County,
I have had, in former years, relations too pleasant to be easily forgotten ;
and for the younger members of the profession there, as well as elsewhere
in my native State, I feel an interest, which would render me glad to meet
them, and make their acquaintance. Notwithstanding the severe contests
of the bar, which a stranger might suppose would inevitably alienate law-
yers from each other, I believe there is no profession, or occupation, whose
followers entertain for each other, so much cordial good will, and do so much
to help one another, as the members of our profession. And I have long
thought that it would promote these kindly feelings, and be in no small
degree serviceable, particularly to the younger members of the profession,
to meet together as you propose to do. I made a strong effort, some years
since, to arrange a plan for this purpose. It failed, but I was not convinced
that the objects were not desirable, or were unattainable. I am glad to
learn that you are about to have a Social Festival of the Bar of AYorcester
County.
I do not know whether there will be any place for what is called a " sen-
timent" in these times, when toasts must not be spoken of — if there is, I
would offer the enclosed. With great respect.
Your Obed't Serv't,
B. E. CURTIS.
A learned, industrious, upright and faithful Bar — The indispensable guide
and support of a just, wise, courageous and learned Bench — The Common-
wealth of Massachusetts has always had both, and its people have known
how to value them.
4. Hon. Judge Sprague, of the District Court of the United States.
Brought up at the feet of a Worcester Gamaliel, he has done equal honor
to himself, and to his instructor.
BosTox, Jan. 18, 1856.
Gentlemen : — I regret that it is not in my power to accept your invi-
tation to the Social Festival of the Bar of Worcester County. The state of
my health peremptorily forbids me that pleasure. It would have afforded
me peculiar satisfaction to have visited Worcester upon such an occasion.
My associations with your Bar, go b ick to the year 1811:, when I was a
student in the office of the Hon. Levi Lincoln, who was then distinguished
as a Lawyer and an Advocate, and h is since most honorably filled two of
the most eminent offices in the State. And I have a vivid recollection of
many of the eminent Lawyers, who then and since have so greatly distin-
guished the Bar of Worcester Cuuuty. Accept my thanks. Gentlemen, for
the honor conferred by your invitation, and believe me,
Very PiespectfuUy yours,
P. SPRAGUE.
To Messrs. Ira M. Barton and others.
5. Ex-Governor Lincoln. The Nestor amongst Massachusetts lawyers,
Judges and Governors.
This sentiment elicited a very interesting speech from the Hon.
Levi Lincoln.
The health of the Hon. Samuel Hoar of Concord, was here
given, and received by the company rising. The venerable com-
peer of Ex-Governor Lincoln, acknowledged the compliment in
remarks at once forcible and happy.
6. New Hampshire. A standing demonstration of the fact, that " giving
does not impoverish." She has given us her Websters, her Masons, her
Bells, and her Parkers ; but yet, she has more of the same sort left.
In the absence of Chief Justice Perley of the Supreme Court
of New Hampshire, whose presence was prevented by sickness, the
company called for the Hon. Joel Parker, one of the emigrants
referred to. But before responding, the chair requested him to
notice, also, the following sentiment.
7. The Law School of Harvard College. By the sound principles of Con-
stitutional law, there inculcated, and the genial associations of young men,
there formed, it constitutes the best guaranty of the Union.
These sentiments Avere aptly and eloquently spoken to by Pro-
fessor Parker, of the Dane Law School in Harvard College, and
formerly Chief Justice of New Hampshire.
8. Maine. A worthy daughter of Old Massachusetts. She may well
rejoice in her Heraldic " Dirigo," but she must never undertake to direct
the old folks.
The following note was received from the Hon. John S. Ten-
ney, a native of Massachusetts, and now Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Maine.
NoRRiDGEWocK, Feb. 2, 1856.
Ira M. Barton, Esq., — Dear Sir : On returning to my residence from
a long absence, T found your favor of the 12th ult., kindly inviting me to
attend the " Social Festival " of the Bar, on the evening of Thursday, tlie
7th inst., at Worcester.
On such an occasion, and to hear an address from the distinguished
gentleman selected for the purpose, it would give me gi-eat pleasure to be
present with the members of the profession, to which I am proud to consider
myself as belonging, in my native Commonwealth, especially in the County
of Worcester, where the Bar has been conspicuous for gentlemen of talents
and legal attainments.
But I am sorry to say, that I must deny myself this gratification on ac-
count of business of an official character, which cannot be postponed.
Accept, dear sir, for yourself personally, and the committee, in whose
behalf you extended your invitation to me, the feeling of the highest respect.
JOHN S. TENNEY.
The Hon. R. H. Vose of Augusta, a distinguished naember of
the profession, who received his legal education in Worcester,
transmitted to the committee the following sentiment.
The Bar of Worcester County. May the glorious history of the past, never
be dimmed by the future.
The Hon. Chief Justice Redfield, of the Supreme Court of
Vermont, sent the following complimentary note, regretting his
inability to attend the Festival.
Windsor, Jan'y 22, 1856.
Hon. Ira M. Barton, — Dear Sir : It would afford me very sincere pleas-
ure, to be able to attend your Festival, but as the time comes in the midst
of one of our terms, it will not be in my power. The slight acquaintance
I have had with the Bench and the Bar of Massachusetts, and their
uniform and marked courtesy towards me, certainly renders the deprivation
which I now suffer, in not being able to avail myself of this opportunity
of meeting them, a serious disappointment.
Very truly yours,
ISAAC F. REDFIELD.
9. The Ex-Judges of our Supreme Court. Equally honored upon the
Bench, and in their retirement.
The following letter and sentiment from the Hon. Richard
Fletcher, formerly an associate justice of the "Supreme Court,
were then read.
Boston, Feb. 4th, 1856.
Dear Sm : — I regret that it will not be in my power to be present at the
Social Festival of the Bar of Worcester County, on the 7th instant. You
will please to make my acknowledgments to the Bar for their kind invita-
tion. It would be well if such meetings were more frequent. They might
do much good by animating and encouraging the members of the profession
in their efforts for advancement in learning and usefulness, and by incul-
cating and keeping alive, and in action, those high and honorable principles
and maxims, which should form the characters, and govern the conduct of
those, who minister in the temple of Justice. It is unhappily too true,
that the lawyer is constantly exposed to temptation to overstep the bounds
of right and duty. In the earnest and ardent contests of the forum, his
zeal for his client, and his desire for victory, tend to divert his attention
from the claims of truth and justice ; yet certain it is, that no better mode
has been discovered, no better mode is known, for administering justice,
than by the services of a body of men properly educated and prepared to
represent the suitors, to present their claims, and discuss their rights.
Such a body of men is indispensable, to do for parties what they are unable
to do for themselves.
The profession of the law, properly pursued, is a useful and honorable
profession. But to maintain that character, lawyers must vigilantly and
scrupulously guai'd themselves against the evils and dangers, with which
they are continually beset. From age to age the profession has been
adorned by good and great men. Two eminent men. Judges Wilde and
Jackson, have recently departed from among us, who have left us noble ex-
amples of pure, upright, honorable and useful lives. There should be some
more enduring memorial of such men, than a brief eulogy, suddenly called
forth, at the time of their decease. I earnestly hope and trust that your
Festival may be an occasion of great pleasure and profit to the Bar of Wor-
cester County, for whom I entertain the highest respect and regard.
I subjoin a borrowed sentence, which expresses a just and appropriate
sentiment.
Very faithfully and truly yours,
RICHARD FLETCHER.
Hon. Ii"a M. Barton, for the Committee.
The Profession of the Law, " Let it be remembered and treasured in
the heart of every student, that no man can ever be a truly great lawyer,
•who is not, in every sense of the word, a good man."
10. The Hon. Judge Merrick. A refugee from the Worcester Bar. We
have lost a good companion; the State has gained a good Judge.
The following note was received from Mr. Justice Merrick of
the Supreme Court.
Boston, Feb. 7th, 1856.
My Dear Sir : — It is with the deepest regret that I find myself unable
to unite with the gentlemen of the Bar of the County of Worcester in their
Festival this evening. I had looked forward to a participation with them
in the pleasure of this occasion, with the utmost expectation and desire,
and I am greatly disappointed that I cannot do so. My health, within a
few days past, has given way, and I am unavoidably detained at home by
an illness, which, though it does not threaten to be of long duration, is still
sufficient, at present, to confine me to my house. Thus constrained against
my will to be absent from you this evening, I shall yet heartily sympathize
with you in your festivity. It was in the midst of the scenes of their
present occupation, that I have spent the largest, the most laborious, and
the happiest portion of my life, and I cannot, therefore, but feel identified
a
■with my professional friends and brethren of the Bjxr of the County of Wor-
cester. And I can never fail to take the deepest interest in whatever ad-
ministers to their gratification or advances them in the honorable rank they
hold in the community. I shall always rejoice in whatever promotes their
welfare, or contributes to their individual prosperity, success, and happiness.
I am very trujy yours &c., &c,
I'LINY MERRICK.
Hon. I. M. Barton, for Committee of Bar of County of Worcester.
11. The Ex-Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. None the less entitled
to our respect and reverence, although they tread upon our corns somewhat
more lightly than in days gone by.
Hon. E. R. Hoar well sustained the family reputation in his
happy response to this sentiment.
12. The Old Plymouth Colony. She can never lose caste in the Bay State,
so long as she produces our Shaws, our Spragues and our Cliffords. She
has furnished more than one distinguished Page in our history.
The following is a sentiment received from the Hon. J. H. W.
Page of New Bedford.
The Social Festival of the Bar of Worcester County. May it be crowned
with all success, and prove the re-dawning of a day which old members of
the Bar remember with pride.
13. The Orator of 1829. In erecting a " Corinthian column " to the
memory of those who first gave distinction to this Bar, he created for
himself a monument equally beautiful and lasting.
This sentiment drew a neat and interesting response from Jo-
seph Willard,. Esquire, of Boston, who addressed this Bar, on an
occasion like the present, Oct. 2, 1829.
It. The Bar of Suffolk. Confessedly, the head of the Bar of the Com-
monwealth. But they should remember where their best lawyers come
from.
The truth of this sentiment was happily illustrated by Hon.
Wm. Brigham, of the Suffolk Bar ; but claiming the double dom-
icil of Boston and Grafton.
15. The river Counties of Old [Massachusetts. While the names of Mills,
Alvord, Ashmun and Bliss, throw a melancholy glory over the past, the
light of genius, eloquence and tiue hospitality, shed a brilliant radi^ance
over the present.
The speech of the Hon. Wm. G. Bates in answer to this senti-
ment, was characterized by genuine wit, and attic taste.
9.
10
The President here congratulated himself and the company,
that he had a Vice President, who was both a poet and a lawyer,
and he, with great pleasure, introduced the Hon. Henry Chapin,
as poet lawyerate and presiding officer.
Mr. Chapin read the following pleasant effusion, and then pro-
posed the concluding sentiments.
We hasten to this festive board,
In omnibus and car,
To feed on what our means afford,
We children of th^ Bar.
Old Worcester County gathers now,
Without a single jar,
Her sons, who make their earnest vow,
Ne'er to disgrace the Bar.
'Tis well for men, at times, to know
Precisely what they are.
And law and fact combine to show,
When one has seen the Bar.
The Frenchman, as he staggers up
And utters his " be gar,"
Fresh with the flavor of the cup,
Has surely seen a Bar.
The yankee, as he swells and swears.
And smokes his long cigar,
Upon his perfumed image bears
The impress of a Bar.
But we, who battle for the right,
With many a wound and scar,
Must stand and fight, with all our might,
At quite another Bar.
And he who means to triumph here,
Though he may wander far.
Must watch with vision bright and clear,
Our jewels of the Bar.
We greet without the weakest wine.
Full many a brilliant star.
While round us now, are bound to shine,
These meteors of the Bar.
li
And as we meet, with chastened glee,
May nought our feelings mar,
And while the shades of evening flee.
Let's consecrate the Bar.
IG. The city of Springfield. While the beautiful in natm-e — the skillful
in art, and the best of good eating commend themselves to the taste or
the appetite of man, the Queen City of the Valley will continue to be a
sort of Mecca to the pilgrims of Old Massachusetts.
This sentiment was appropriately responded to by Hon. K.. G.
Chapman, of Springfield.
17. The Town of Fitchburg. One of the brightest jewels in the good old
County of Worcester.
We have been friends together,
The past we can't forget,
What'er the wind or weather,.
Oh do not part us yet.
This sentiment called up Hon. Nathaniel Wood, of Fitchburg,
who, as usual, was at home.
18. The Judge of Probate of the County of Worcester. Like his prede"
cessors, he not only fulfils the duties of his office with dignity and fidelity,
but is remarkably popular among the poor widows of the County.
This sentiment elicited a happy response from. Hon. Judge
Kinnicutt.
19. The past and present District Attornies of the County of Worcester*
The maxim that more worship the rising than the setting sun, here fails
in its application, for they all have, and deserve to have, the confidence and
respect of their brethren of the Bar, and of the community with which
they are so closely connected.
There being so many to whom this sentiment applied, the com-
pany lost the benefit or any specific reply.
20. The Sheriff of the County of Worcester. His courtesy to the people,
his kindness to the prisoner, and his generous smoothing of the rough spots
in a lawyer's existence, richly entitle him to our heartfelt wish, that his
shadow may never be less.
To this sentiment, sherifi" Richardson made a characteristic reply.
21. Old Uxbridge. God bless her. In former days she rejoiced in a duet.
To day she supports a trio.
George S. Taft, Esq., well represented the place of his birth
in a response to this sentiment.
12
22. The Town of Petersham. The blood of the fathers yet runs in the
veins of the sons. We welcome to our feast to night a son worthy of his
sire.
F. A. Brooks, Esq., of Boston, son of tlie late Hon. Aaron
Brooks, of Petersham, made a brief and appropriate reply.
It being now nearly 1 o'clock, the company separated with
the best feelings, satisfied that the occasion had been fully equal
to the most ardent expectations of the most sanguine advocate
of it. And if the spirit which animated the members at this
Festival, shall be carried to its legitimate result, similar gath-
erings will ensue, and serve to brighten and perpetuate those gen-
erous and fraternal sentiments in the hearts of the members of
the bar, which are alike honorable to themselves, agreeable to
the courts, and useful to their clients.
Worcester, Feb. 22, 1856.
Hon. Emoey Washburn,
Dear Sir : — As Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for
the recent Festival of the Bar of the County of Worcester, and in pursuance
of a vote of the Bar, I am instructed to tender you " Their sincere thanks,
for your valuable, interesting, and eloquent Address, delivered on the oc-
casion, and to request a copy of the same for publication."
Very Respectfully Yours,
IRA M. BARTON,
Worcester, 3Iarch 1, 1856.
Dear Sir : — In complying with the request contained in your note of
the 28th ult., I am performing a pleasant duty, rather than following any
personal wish to give publicity to the address.
The memorials that a lawyer is ordinarily able to leave of his efforts at
the bar, are necessarily brief. The arena upon which his powers are exer-
cised, is removed from public observation, and some of the noblest exertions
of the human intellect have been spent in determining questions of private
right, to be forgotten with the occasion that called them forth. If, therefore,
my brethren have furnished me an occasion to collect some memorials of
those who have heretofore iilled places at the Bar, and are willing to give
them a more permanent form than the entertainment of a festive hour, I
do not feel that I have a right to decline the request.
I am, Very Respectfully,
Your Ob't Serv't,
EMORY WASHBURN.
Hon. IRA M. BARTON, Chairman ^c.
ADDRESS.
I am to speak this evening of the Law and its progress,
and of this Bar and its changes, during the last twenty-five
years.
Measured by the experience of a life, how large is the
space which that period occupies !
Of all those who filled the places we occupy, twenty-five
years ago, how few are here to night, to share in the remi-
niscences which it is designed to awaken. And what a grave
has been opened and closed over bright hopes, generous as-
pirations, and stirring ambition, in the solemn experience of
these few brief years.
What a change have they wrought in the individual man !
The stout frame has been bowed, the flowing locks have
been bleached and scattered, the beaming eye clouded and
dimmed, the gladsome spirits saddened, and the shadows of
coming evening grown fearfully long, as the lingerer stops
in his lonely walk, and looks around in vain for some once
familiar companion of his earlier days.
They found a young man full of hope, they have made
him an old man full of experience.
But if we contemplate this period in contrast with the
life of the Common Law, of whose history it forms a most
important chapter, it dwindles to the measure of a moment's
space.
The origin of that system is indeed so distant that the
long vista of ages, through which, alone, the mind can re-
16
gard it, blends in its perspective, the hues of truth and
error, like the melting of the dim outline of the blue ocean
with the bluer sky, when we look out upon its waters, as
they sleep in the stillness of a summer's twilight.
I go back in my research, to the day when Rome was
gathering up her giant limbs to die, and left the few and
scattered fragments of her imperial institutions, like the
relics of half legible inscriptions, and old imperishable stone
work, on which the eye of the antiquary reads the tale of
the five centuries of Roman power and glory in that island.
I trace the slow and silent growth of institutions, which
through another period of six hundred years, were spring-
ing up, under the rule of a rude people, and I pause to ad-
mire the sturdy independence, so nearly approaching to
freedom, of the Saxon, while I read the simple but wise
ordinances of Ina and Alfred, and listen to the counsels of
their Wittenageraot — the future Parliament of Great Britain,
and mark the first rough outline of that form of trial, which
has since protected so many against the power of the oppres-
sor, by the majesty of a Juror's oath.
And, as I contemplate this broad, deep laid, rough foun-
dation of Saxon law, I see planted and rising upon it, that
stupendous fabric of Feudalism, which the Norman conquest
brought with it as the element of its power and its perpe-
tuity. The Baron's castle in the midst of his broad domain,
is frowning over the hut and cottage of his vassal and his
serf. The mitred Bishop keeps the conscience of the King,
and is stealing in upon the frank and manly doctrines of
the English law, with the subtle and artful inventions of
the church, while the monarch is himself waging an unequal
contest against the ascendency of the Pope on the one hand,
and a storm of domestic faction with his Barons on the other.
I see these Barons gathering at Runny mede, and among
the memorable records of what those stern old warriors
thought and did there, I read as a concession wrung from
royal fear, but treasured forever after in a nation's heart,
17
the development of that great element of personal right
and private justice — " NuUi vendimus nulli negabimus, aut
di ffer emus, ^miiiiSiVa. vel rectum."
And as we recall that scene in fancy, and the thought
flashes across the mind that some gifted spirit among those
men of iron nerve, may, with prophetic vision, have read
that memorable declaration, as we may now, engraved upon
the seal of a Court of Common Law, presiding over the
civil rights of a million of Freemen, with a wisdom and
learning of which the pages of Glanville and Bracton fur-
nish but barren rudiments, — in a land which even fancy had,
till that moment, never conceived, the whole comes back
upon the imagination, as a spectacle of moral grandeur,
compared with which the by-play of war sinks into insig-
nificance.
I trace, still onward, that course of events, which, infus-
ing new elements into the body of the law, changes not
only the relations of property, but the very ideas of social
duties and political rights.
The cunning shrewdness of the clergy has substituted
under the guise of " Uses " the superstitions of a vitiated
conscience, for the plain, homely precedents of feudal sim-
plicity, cheating alike the crown and the Lord of their
cherished prerogatives, and gathering into the granary of
the church the best fruits of the English soil, in spite of
charter and of statute.
There is something even dramatic in witnessing this strug-
gle, — sturdy, English doggedness triumphing over priestly
cunning. Parliament has met at Merton. The Bishops are
seeking to introduce their own canon law, and are ready, in
order to accomplish it, to minister to the passions and vices
of the impulsive Barons- But the appeal is vain. In terms
which could not be mistaken, and in words which will be
read with admiration in after days, they tell those ambitious
churchmen, *'nolumus leges Angliae mutare," and England
and her institutions are English still.
8
18
I pass over another period of four hundred years — A long
and severe struggle has been going on, the anathema of the
Pope, and the thunder of the Vatican have lost their terror.
Interdict and Excommunication can no longer clothe a
people in sack-cloth. And the prestige of royalty itself
has ceased to dazzle the eye of a fickle multitude. A Ple-
bian Parliament has laid sacreligious hands upon the Lord's
anointed.
But Law has been, during all this time, silently gaining
strength and consistency in the kingdom, and the people are
beginning to learn that without rules to guide and check
their rulers, the rights of the citizen can never be secure.
And when, at last, that feeling of an Englishman's Loy-
alty, which had been cherished by the teachings of a thou-
sand years, triumphed over the party of freedom and fanat-
icism. Liberty was found asserting her claims in behalf of
private right, and personal security against power and pre-
scriptive wrong. At one blow. Chivalry and Knight service,
under which the tenant of every manor in England had
been groaning for six hundred years, were laid prostrate,
while that single engine of magic power, the Habeas Corpus
was placed within the reach of the humblest citizen, and at
its touch the bars and bolts of the deepest dungeon gave
way, and the fetters of the oppressor fell broken from the
limbs of his victim.
As we come down from this eventful period, our pathway
grows luminous and clear in the light of Judicial learning.
The struggle between prerogative and the people, between
the crown and the priesthood, has passed and is passing
away, while the cumbrous frame work of antiquated iorms
is giving place, in the study of the jurist and the statesman,
to the vitalizing principles of social advancement and indi-
vidual right. Commerce and Trade are fixing more firmly
their marts in the growing cities of the kingdom, and thrift
is rewarding the enterprise of toiling industry.
The Common Law, in the mean time, has kept pace with
It)
the changes that are thus going on, and has expanded to
meet the unaccustomed wants of a community, no longer
confined to the culture of the soil.
Under the guidance of her great masters, her Holts, her
Blackstones and her Mansfields, she has added to her prim-
itive elements, what she has gleaned from the systems of
continental Europe, and especially from the great store house
of Eoman Jurisprudence, the elements of symmetry and
consistency which adapted to the condition of a commercial
people, the rugged relics of feudalism and the business of
arms and agriculture which still give character to her laws,
and form the basis of her constitution.
The heretofore rival systems of law and equity, have
learned how to blend and harmonize with each other, under
the administration of the Hardwickes and Camdens of the
time, till a system of Jurisprudence has grown up and be-
come incorporated into the constitution of the government,
surpassing that of Kome in the brightest days of her glory.
Fifty years more in the history of the English law, and
we find ourselves at the commencement of the period to
which I am liinited in what I am to say this evening. Yet
brief as is this little space on the great chart of English
history, I am greatly misled or we shall find that more has
been accomplished in changing some departments of the
law, and in fitting and adapting the great body of its prin-
ciples to the practical wants of the community, than had
been eflFected in either, if not all the antecedent periods of
which 1 have spoken.
Those periods had been either too dead for action, or too
full of struggle, as it were, for life itself, to allow the action
of great minds, such only as can work out great problems
of reform, in a field so uninviting as the details of admin-
istering private justice. The public mind was too much
engrossed to heed the absurdities and inconsistencies which
deformed the patch-work systems of local customs, ancient
usages, and statute expedients, which made up so much of
the existing body of her municipal institutions.
20
The first and earliest of those periods can hardly be said
to belong to the historic age of the lavf.
The elements of society were being shaped into the form
and consistency of the state. But the extent to which the
masses had rights to be protected, or, that they should be
provided with remedies for private wrongs, beyond some-
thing like a domestic police, seems to have entered but
feebly into the spirit of its rulers or its laws.
In the next era, we see little more than a long, doubtful,
three-sided struggle between the Crown, the Barons, and
the Church, in whose alternate successes, the people came in
for a meagre share only of whatever was gained by either
side. A strong national feeling was growing up among
them, it is true, but it was, after all, a period of struggle
between masters, in which the people were chiefly passive
and their rights unheeded.
Nor was it till the spirit of inquiry which the Eeforma-
tion awakened, had infused life and energy into the torpid
action of the popular mind, that the great third estate — the
Commons of England — learned how to measure the power
they afterwards wielded.
It would be pleasant to pause in this rapid review, on
what was achieved for the cause of popular right during
the Commonwealth and at the Restoration, and especially
in the so-called Revolution of 1688, when the hallowed
sanctity of royal prerogative gave way before the storm of
popular indignation. It would be pleasant to trace how the
learning and independence of Coke, the profound sagacity of
Bacon, the mild virtues and uncompromising intpgrity of
Hale, and the varied labors of the patriotic, and upright
Somers, became inwrought into the science of the Common
law, while Courts and Juries were gaining that independ-
ence which was at last guarantied to the Judges of England,
by the act of William 3d. And it would be no less inter-
esting to trace how questions of personal rights, and rights
of property, at last, became the engrossing business of the
21
courts, in place of what should be the limits of prerogative,
the jurisdiction of rival courts, or by what means the power
of a papal hierarchy should be disarmed of its terror.
It should be borne in mind that the commercial spirit of
the last century was engrafted upon the landed interests
of England, for the regulation and preservation of which
so much of the Common Law had come into existence. And
the facility with which these were blended into a common
system, and administered by the same courts, is but another
illustration of the wonderful adaptation of that Common
Law, to the wants and condition of a nation made up of
men in all the walks and employments of life.
When, therefore, the attention of the leading minds in
the kingdom had been withdrawn from the political excite-
ments, and the almost continuous wars in which the nation
had been ennraged for more than a o-eneration, it is not sur-
prising that it should have been directed to the incongruous
materials of which the Common Law was composed, — the
customs and forms of the days of the B[enr3's and the Ed-
wards registered upon the same page with the broad cos-
mopolitan jurisprudence of an era of arts, and commerce,
and navigation.
Among these stand prominently the names of Eomilly
in the department of criminal jurisprudence, and of Brougham
in the various other departments of the law, as the reform-
ers of the present century.
Those who are familiar with the changes which have ac-
tually been accomplished in England during the last twenty-
five years, will be ready to accord to it the character of the
great age of English legal and judicial Eeform.
Indeed, so rapid and important have those changes been,
that it was stated by a writer in Blackwood, that when, re-
cently, one of the leading lawyers at the Queen's Bench
proposed to republish Blackstone with corrections and addi-
tions that should adapt the work to the present state of the
law, it was found that, with the exception of the first vol-
22
ume, the identity of the work would be destroyed, and the
proposal was abandoned after the publication of a single
volume.
Neither good taste nor your patience would admit of my
dwelling upon these at large, and I can therefore name only
a few. Among these, Fines and Kecoveries, the long toler-
ated farce of feigned issues, fictitious parties and false rec-
ords in a grave court of Justice, are forever abolished.
Conveyances of land have been stripped of their useless
verbage, and rendered simple and intelligible. The mystic
subtilties of lineal and collateral warranties, no longer puz-
zle the brain of the lawyer. The forms of more than fifty
actions at the common law have been expunged. Volumes
devoted to points as nice as the line between the north and
northeast side of a hair, upon the interest of witnesses,
have been rendered pointless by opening the witness stand
to the very parties themselves. So far has this measure of
reform been carried, that the very bones of Fitzherbert, and
Saunders, and Booth, and Kastal must have stirred in their
graves as the sacreligious hand was laid upon one after an-
other of the beauties and romances of real actions, and special
pleading, — upon the" Qidhus" and the "Post," the " Ayel,"
and the " Besayil," the " Traverse," and the " giving color,"
and their places supplied with English terms and English
common sense.
Nor was this accomplished without many a sigh from the
living old school conservatives of the day. When at last it
was seriously proposed to abolish " contingent remainders,"
— the very poetry of legal abstractions — one of this class
is said to have exclaimed. " abolish contingent remainders!
Why not repeal the law of gravitation ?"
The quaint rubbish that had gathered around the body
of the common law, in the progress of a thousand years,
like the sea weed and barnacles that grow and cling to the
bottom of a noble frigate, was scraped off by the hand of
reform, till courts and the popular mind have begun to sym-
23
patliize with each other in the new revelation, that the ends
of justice had better be sought for, than its antiquated forms
and machinery preserved.
When we consider what has been accomplished in England
since 1828, when Lord Brougham made his first great speech
upon the necessity of legal reform, we shall find that it lias
not been limited to matters of form and detail alone. It
has pervaded the apirit of English Jurisprudence, embracing
alike the interests of commerce and the arts, while it has
moulded and fitted these to the prescriptive rights of birth,
and the rents and burdens of the tenantry of the soil.
It is a green and vigorous life springing out of and sus-
tained by the firm old buttresses which were reared by Titan
hands away back in the obscurity of ages.
Around the walls of that old Abby — old almost as the
Common Law itself- — within whose aisles, the pc^rtrait statue
of Lord Mansfield holds an honored place among monu-
ments of kings and nobles, of statesmen and poets, and
heroes, the green and glossy ivy has twined itself into a
shroud of living verdure. But there is a principle in its
very growth that endangers the stout old fabric to which it
clings. The fibres and tendrils of its roots searcli out every
softening and decaying particle, every crack and scale in
the stone work of which it is composed, and with almost
magic power loosen and eat out the very walls themselves,
so silently, yet so irresistibly, that new materials are con-
stantly being supplied to preserve it from a slow but certain
decay.
Such is the care and skill, the wisdom and foresight, which
are perpetually demanded in an age of change, and a vig-
orous parasitacal growth to preserve that venerable fabric
of the Common Law, in which are found so many noble
monuments of past ages, and such rich treasures of consti-
tutional liberty and personal right.
It is a matter of state, and even national pride, that
while the mother country is striving to adapt her laws, in
24
respect to personal rights, and her forms of attaining private
JLisfcice, to the wants of her citizens, she has, perhaps un-
consciously, copied so largely from the simple laws and cus-
toms of these, her off-shoot republics.
AVhen, therefore, we turn to the records of our own com-
monwealth, during the same period to which I am limited,
we may indulge something like a feeling of gratified self-
love to see how little occasion there has been for anything
like a radical reform here.
That we have seen changes it is true, hut profound as is
presumed to be the wisdom of our legislatures, it may, in
the end, be discovered that even legislative change is not
always improvement or reform.
And, if T might look abroad for illustration, I might ven-
ture to doubt the successful working of a system which
makes the popular voice the criterion of judicial fitness for
office.
It will be long, I fear, before we shall see a Kent, or a
Livingston, or a Spencer, rising out of that bubbling cauldron
whose ingredients are to be supplied from time to time by
the popular passions of Whigs or Kepublicans, of Hard
shells and Soft shells, of Know nothings and Know some-
things, as they one after the other snatch at the spoils that
feed their patriotism.
But without anticipating what are to be the fruits of re-
form here, let me pay at least this tribute to the present
and the past.
For many years the business associations of my life have
been with the courts of Massachusetts. That feeling of
respect, almost of awe, with which I first looked upon the
venerable men who then graced these seats of justice, has
hardly lost the freshness of association by familiarity.
Of the changes that have taken place in the incumbents
of the highest of these, it may not be delicate for me to
spenk individually on this occasion. But while I speak of
the past, in paying a humble, but just tribute to the courts
26
of onr own commonwealth, I miglit extend my reTnarks to
other courts, state as well as national, whose presence and
learnino; I have heen permitted to witness.
The feelings of veneration with which an American Law-
yer first enters the courts of Westminster Hall, are partly
traditionary, and partly the result of the associations and
circumstances by which he finds himself surrounded.
Those who have read, and who has not? the sketch of
Warren Hastings, by Maccauly, will at once recall his magni-
ficent description of the scene of the trial of his impeachment.
That glorious old Hall, built by William Eufus, the scene
of so many of the great events in English History, two
hundred and seventy feet in length, and ninety in height,
without a column or pillar, or any thing to break the eflect
of its imposing gothic proportions, serves as a vestibule to
the respective apartments, in which these courts are held.
But for the mind, already excited by the recollection of
events connected with the history of the hall, through
which he has just passed, there is nothing to awaken an
emotion in the style or magnitude or decorations of the
pent up quarters into which these courts are crowded.
He is, however, any thing but to be envied, who can stand
in the conscious presence where Coke, and Hale, and Mans-
field, and Ellenboro have sat in judgment, and Dunning,
and Wedderburn, and Erskine, and Follet have pleaded,
without feeling awed by the very genius of the place.
Pardon the seeming egotism, if I say, it was the first
object I sought in that vast metropolis, and the spot to
which I directed my daily walk, with feelings like those of
a pilgrim at the shrine of his devotion.
I looked upon that array of Judges in their robes of office,
and I heard them addressed as " Your Lordships " by titled
Barristers, and Crown officers amono- the leadino- men in
Parliament, with a profound respect that was not all as-
sumed. I saw members of these courts presiding over trials
at Nisi Prius, in causes which enlisted some of the first tal-
4
26
ent in the land. And I felt more than I could utter, as I
stood within those precincts, where the associations of the
past mingled with the emotions which novelty and the im-
posing dignity of the scene could not fail to awaken.
But when I came to analyze this spectacle, to lay aside
for a moment the adventitious decorations and historic asso-
ciations — to regard only the men of whom the bench was
composed, grave, learned and reverend as they were, and to
listen to their occasional remarks, and their more elaborate
opinions, it seemed to me, that for true dignity, high judi-
cial bearing, quick apprehension, patient attention, and seem-
ing impartiality, we need not go to Westminster Hall for
better models than we may find at home.
Without undertaking to compare the present condition of
the Bar of Massachusetts, with what it once was, it is safe
to affirm that a system of educational training, of prac-
tice and of professional intercourse and deportment, which
reared and fitted the men who have honored these seats of
Justice, should be approached with some distrust, at least, by
him who should seek to revolutionize or reform it.
And yet, the attempt to do this has been ruthlessly made
more than once, within the recollection of some of us, and a
radical change has been thereby wrought in the constitution
and preparation for the Bar. Instead of the period of three
or five years novitiate, which was once required before enter-
ing the outer courts of the sanctuary of the profession, and
tarrying in that middle ground, between hope and fruition,
for two years, and yet au other two years before donning the
robes, and title, and privileges of a " Counsellor," he now
starts " from the rough," and in two short years, by the
polishing process of what goes by the name of an " exami-
nation," comes out the fit companion and associate of the
very sages of the law.
And what must strike the uninitiated as something like
a solecism, the more books there are to read, the less is the
time necessary for the task. The more the relations of
27
business and society become multiplied and complicated, the
more quickly are tliey mastered, and the higher the de-
mands for scholarship, learning and mental discipline in
the profession, the less the occasion to acquire either, before
entering it, and claiming its honors and its rewards.
We witness as the fruits of one branch of this reform,
the scattered and uncared for county libraries of which the
excise, cheerfully contributed by the older members of the
bar, had laid a creditable foundation. But I leave the
memory of such a reformer to the blessings of him, who,
after seeking in vain in the place where it should be, the
volume, always the missing one, which he most needs, plods
back to his office and recalls the cause of his disappointment
and his fruitless search.
And yet, there have been changes during this period in
some of the details of our legal system, which many were
disposed to regard as veritable reforms. All of us have
read of the beauties and charms of special pleading, which
drew forth from my Lord Coke, among others, such high
and frequent eulogiums. With him, words were, literally,
things, and " placitum a placendo," — to plead well and to
please well, were, in his mind, an obvious synonym.
But to a layman who has never mastered this refined
system of the keenest logic, I fear it would be useless, if I
were able, to describe its beauty and its symmetry, or to show
the use of pleas, and rejoinders, and surrejoinders, and re-
butters, and traverses, and (1( raurrers, which the skillful
players in the legal game of chess, play out like pawns on
the chess board, before they bring forward the pieces by
which they are eventually to win.
When I think of the power of old associations, and re-
member that our meeting is not limited to those of our
own number, I know not how far it is safe to confess the
part which this Bar took in the blow that struck down that
ancient system. A report prepared by their direction, upon
the subjecc, is still extant, which found its way into the
28
newspapers of the clay, and was nearly coincident with the
act of the legislature of 1836, which declared that "in
every civil action hereafter to be tried — all matters of law
or fact in defence of such action, may be given in evidence
under the general issue, and no other plea in bar shall be
pleaded."
But whatever were the motives for such a reform, whether
because its advocates knew too much or too little, to stand
by a system which had engaged the keenest minds and
sharpest intellects at the English Bar, it had, at least, the
apology of being designed to simplify and render intelligi-
ble the proceedings of our courts, and to do something to
save, if possible, a sacrifice of justice to the mysteries of
technicality.
But it is true, that even after this, the language of law
papers was not reduced to the homely vernacular of the
nursery or the work shop, and a man was, sometimes, shocked
to learn that he had been guilty of " trover and conversion "
in claiming property that he owned, or to see some hasty
expressi<m of contempt for a blackguard, spread out into a
volume by colloquia and innuendos, and exaggerated exple-
tives, under the verbiage of which, the charge itself, like
Falstaff in the buck basket, was well nigh smothered by
the foul and offensive coverings beneath which it was brought
into court.
But, after all, these were harmless excrescences upon a
system which had become venerable by age, and respectable
by the ends at which it aimed, and the results which it or-
dinarily attained. And when, therefore, it was proposed to
efface old lines, and simplify what in tlie nature of things
must be more or less complex, by merely giving it a new
name, there were those who innocently doubted whether
there was much of progress in such a reform.
There are those who, even now, can no more readily dis-
cern the subject of a suitor's complaint, because he is told
it is a " tort," than if it had been spoken of as " Trespass,"
29
or "Case," in the brief, terse, customary language in -wliieh,
until lately, the Plaintiff told the tale of the wrongs for
which he sought redress.
One of the prominent events in the legal history of Mas-
sachusetts during the period of which I am speaking, was
the revision of her statutes.
The arduous and responsible duty of rendering a mass
of intricate and often conflicting legislation, simple and in-
telligible, was confided to a commission whose character and
capacity were a guaranty that the work should be faithfully
and ably dene.
But thoroughly, and as was fondly believed, completely,
as this revision was accomplished, the love of change, and
spirit of innovation, prompted by the new and growing
wants of a community with such varied interests, had swelled
to a volume of near a thousand pages^ and demanded a new
revision, even while one of the former commissions yet sur-
vived. That work is in able hands,'"' and if it shall be accom-
plished as successfully as the one which it is to supersede,
posterity will owe a debt of gratitude to their labors, like
that which it has paid to the memory of tho&e who preceded
them in that important field.
The last of that number has just gone down to an hon-
ored grave in a ripe old age, bearing with him the veneration
and respect of an entire community.
The place upon the bench has long since been filled which
he graced and honored in the vigor of his manhood, and
the world will go on as if he had never taken a prominent
part in its affairs. But in giving an outline of the leoal
and judicial history of Massacliusetts for the last quarter of
a century, the record would be incomplete that did not pre-
sent, prominently, among those whose character and labors
as jurists have distinguished it, the name of CnAiiLES
Jackson.
"•' The commission consists of Hon. Judge Parker, of the Dane Law School,
Hon. Mr. Richmond of Adams, and Hon. Judge Richardson, of Lowell.
30
The truest annals, perhaps, of the progress of the law are
to be found in the reported decisions of our courts.
So far as our own Commonwealth is concerned, though
one of the earliest to make provision for their publication,
the work is of a comparatively recent date.
The earliest volume of our reports contains the decisions
of the year 1804. Sixty-two more volumes have been pub-
lished since that time, thirty-five of which have been given
to the public, within the period of which I am speaking,
and materials for other volumes are nearly or quite ready
for the press.
Of the extent, variety and accuracy of the learning they
contain, the vast amount of labor and untiring industry
they evince, and of the research and scope of thought neces-
sary to their production, I need not, even if I had time,
speak at large before such an audience.
If the legislation of a state furnishes one of the best
means of studying its political history, the reported decisions
of its courts serve as, perhaps, a scarcely less accurate crite-
rion of the slow, impalpable, yet certain progress which its
unwritten law is making, to keep pace with the sentiments,
and wants, and character of its people. Principles which at
one period are little more than hinted at, or shadowed forth
with hesitation by its judges, become, in time, elementary in
their character, and their soundness no one presumes to
question.
These may not partake of the fluctuation of public sen-
timent, but I greatly mistake, or we shall perceive as we
glance at the contents of these successive volumes, that
there are classes of topics prevalent at one time, which
nearly subside at others, and that great issues which engage
the public attention at one period, are scarcely heard of at
another.
That these currents in the popular mind should influence,
often unconsciously, the judicial mind of the state, is but
saying what so many believe, that those who are to act as
'^1
ol
interpreters of the law, should take part in the actual ad-
ministration of it. Shut up the wisest man in a cloister,
and surround him only with the records of the past, and
let no whisper of what is passing in the great world around
him, reach his ear, and though you make him as learned
and impartial as Justice herself, you make him at hest hiit
a monk in ermine.
It has seemed to me that there was something like a
public pulse in the law, which accurate observers, situated
as our courts are, often feel without knowing how its move-
ments reach their consciousness, and if it acts upon courts
in modifying old dogmas, or infusing new elements of life
into the body of our jui'isprudence, it is, in its turn, acted
upon by the direction it receives from the calm judgment,
the trained sagacity, and authoritative opinions of their
Judges.
In view, therefore, of what we have read of the changes
through which our law is passing, while many a rough, ugly
excrescence has been removed, that marred its symmetry and
beauty, we find new blood infused into its system, and new
vigor vitalizing its action.
There are one or two legislative reforms, which I ought
not to pass over in silence.
Much as I idolize the stability and consistency of popular
favor, I am obliged to confess, in regard to one of these re-
forms, that from early prejudice, or other infirmity of judg-
ment, I have at times supposed that the Judges of our Su-
preme Courts, taken collectively, were better able to deter-
mine the constitutionality of a law, than a man drawn for
the first time from the farm, or the shop, to serve on the
panel of a Common Pleas Jury.
But as our law makers of 1855 thought otherwise, I am
bound to yield this traditionary impression to their superior
wisdom, and set it down to the progress of the last quarter
of a century, unless the example of one branch of the pres-
ent legislature should tend to restore some of the old fash-
ioned notions of our fathers.
32
As we cast our eyes along the history of our race, it is
refreshing to see the part which chivalry has taken in im-
proving the social and moral condition of mankind.
Fortunately, the spirit is not dead, and most fortunately,
it still delights in tilting its lance in the cause of the op-
pressed of the fairer, I hardly dare say, weaker sex.
And that, too, has been at work even in the field of legal
reform.
We all remember what a cry, as of captive maidens, and
enslaved matrons, went up from convention after convention
a few years since.
It could not fail to arouse the spirit of chivalry, sometimes
dormant, but never dead.
It was found that the affe had got in advance of such old
times, as " I'emes covert,''^ " Marital rights" and the like.
So far as the sexes were concerned, " Duties " became a
noun of masculine gender alone. Vf hile " Rights " put on
the feminine garb, or at least, the " bloomer " part of it, to
be seen and road of all men.
And nobly and effectually was the work accomplished. It
has relieved young men from temptation, and many a poor
lawyer who might have sold himself for a certain price, pay-
able in lands and stocks, will be put upon his guard in mak-
ing heart investments hereafter.
It may be no serious obstacle in the way of love and ro-
mance, but when he remembers that all that a woman hath,
at the time of her marriage, remains " her sole and separate
property," " not subject to the disposal of her husband,"
and what is better, not " liable for his debts," he may, like
a class of modern politicians, be led to calculate the " value
of the union."
But the chief glory of this chivalrous measure consists in
the singleness into which marital rights have resolved them-
selves.
That old fashioned community of interests, a community
of pursuits, which made it a kind of pleasant copartnership
33
to earn together a little competency, for what even now is
common property — their children — has become absolute by
law.
Now the married woman, happily relieved from any occa-
sion of being another's help meet, "may carry on," in the lan-
guage of the Statute, " any trade or business, and perforin
any labors or services, on her own sole account," and her earn-
ings shall be " her sole and separate property."*
This is the last chapter in the history of legal reform.
What is to be the next, I must leave for my successor to
record.
But, if in its progress, we are to listen upon the Sabbath
to the devotions of some St. Agnes, or, upon a week day, to
the learning and eloquence of a Portia at the Bar, or a No-
vella of Bologna in the Law Lecture Boom, or see sickness
robbed of half its pain and most of its terror, by the dulcet
tones and delicate little doses with which beauty shall battle
with disease, those who may stand, at the end of another
quarter of a century, where we do now, may, as they look
back upon our unfortunate condition, borrow the measure of
one of England's poets, if they do not his language, when
they exclaim, as they doubtless then will,
Law's thorny field was but a tangled wild,
Till woman tilled it, when it bloomed and smiled.
When I turn to the recollections of the last twenty-five
years which are awakened by the history of our own Bar, and
our own County, while there is much over which to rejoice,
there is not a little over which an old man may almost be
justified in dropping a tear.
Shall I speak of the social changes in the habits and in-
tercourse of the Bar, which have grown up within that period?
I know I am entering upon perilous ground. To doubt
that we live in an age of progress, to hint that railroads
and telegraphs are not of unmingled and unmeasured good
'-Stat. 1856, c. 304.
34
to man, or to dare to think, much more to say, that the pres-
ent does not outstrip the past in every thing that goes to
make up life, will sound, I am aware, like the very key note
of " Fogyism " itself.
But there are a few, sorry am I they are so few ; who can
go back w^ith me to our courts, our " court weeks," and our
Bar gatherings, before the period of which I am speaking.
What a contrast with the present ! "Court w^eek" was then
literally what it was called, instead of reaching in one con-
tinued session, as now, from the earliest harvest home, round
to the latest planting season, and the forty-one days of term
time of the C. C. Pleas in 1831, grown to one hundred and
forty- two in 1854. And those who came to court, did so to
some good purpose. It was for the business and relaxation
of a week, instead of whisking in upon a rail in the morn-
ing, to look at the list on the clerk's desk, like the numbers
in the managers' report of an old fashioned lottery drawing,
and to guess how many weeks it will be before he must go
through the same interesting process again, and then home
by the next train before nightfall.
Oh the " dies fasti !" when, within the charmed circle of
the Bar, greetings were exchanged, groups were gathered,
and dignity unbent. But it was the evenings, those " nodes
amhrosiance " of court weeks, alas ! with those who enlivened
them, now only among the things that are passed — that told
the strongest upon the life of the lawyer of that day.
Could the parlors of the two or three boarding houses
where they congregated, repeat the wit, and re-echo the
laugh, and tell of the jokes and humor in which even grave
judges sometimes shared, after the duties of the day were
over, we might, as they did, gather up a store of pleasant
memories to serve as bright new coinage, for the small change
of social life and convivial intercourse.
And why should I speak, unless it is to sigh over them, of
those other social gatherings, where the Muse oft times sat
down with us at the festive board, and the best of fellows,
35
the best of lawyers, and some of them, afterwards, the best
of judges, poured forth the best of poems and the best of
jokes into the ears of the best and kindliest of critics ?
Those days are indeed gone by — " Qualis eram non sum."
And though I would not go back to the days of the old stage
coaches, and the one horse wagon, as the means of reaching
justice, or throw a scruple's weight in the way of Temper-
ance, I have sometimes thought it could do no harm if we
should, sometimes, come together as if we were really social
beings, and indulge, if no further, in listening to the tra-
ditions of days when at the firesides of Mrs. Blake and Miss
Stearns, and around Stockwell's well spread table, there was
sparkling of wit and the outgushing of warm hearts and
cheerful spirits.
Pardon this local allusion, and set it down to the garrulity
of a busy memory teeming with the little incidents of which
so much of humble life is made up.
As I recal the history of the last twenty-five years of this
County, I cannot forbear alluding to the condition of our
County buildings.
The ugly old stone prison that stood hard by here, has
disappeared. The inadequate accommodations furnished by
the court house then and still standing, for the rapidly in-
creasing business and population of the County, have been
amply supplied by the structure in which we are assembled.
It is alike a monument to the taste, the forecast, and the in-
dependence of a Board, who, though dependent upon a popu-
lar vote for their election, did not hesitate to obey the call
of duty.
They acted for the County as it was, as it is, and, may we
not hope, as it ivill he, for a century to come, the prosperous,
thriving, independent, united community, which no true son
of hers ever blushed to call his home, or failed to feel that
her fame and her honor were a part of his own best her-
itage.
36
As we revert, again, to the record of our Courts, we find
at the commencement of the period to which I am limited,
four Judges upon the Bench of the Supreme Court.*
One only of that number — " serus in coelum redeat" — now
remains at his post of duty. Two sleep among the honored
dead. Putnam, the able commercial lawyer and upright
judge, the courteous gentleman, and the companion of ever
ready and kindly sympathies, after a retirement from the
bench of several years, was the first to pass away.
The last year has witnessed the departure of the other, f
so long and so worthily associated with the first.
A few months since, I found him, of an evening, sitting
in his study, and with an eye undimmed by age, reading
Plato, to ascertain, as he said, what advances had been made
in modern times in the science of morals and politics, and
how much the world was indebted for its present condition,
to the revelations of the Christian Keligion. And as I
thought of him as the profound lawyer to whose eye even
the subtlest pages of the black letter folio were luminous
and clear, and sat and listened to his cheerful, earnest con-
versation, in which the simple dignity of profound thought,
was mingled with the pleasant recollections of the past,
and the hopeful anticipations of the future, I could not but
envy the man who had brought, out of the conflicts of so
long a life, so rich a treasure of duties, consciously performed,
of esteem and affection so worthily won, and of reputation
for purity and uprightness of heart, and singleness of pur-
pose, so universally accorded to him as a judge, which gave
grace and dignity to his profound learning and impartial
judgment.
Within the period spoken of, nine others have been called
to fill places upon that Bench, one only of whom has gone
to his reward.]: And long may it be ere delicacy towards
■' Vid Appendix, A.
t Judge Wilde died June 22, 1855, Vid Appendix, A.
X Judge Hubbard died Dec. 24, 1847, at the age of 62.
37
the living, shall no longer restrain the utterance of what
feeling might, otherwise, dictate.
Of the four judges'' of the then Court of Common Pleas,
three have gone to join the generation that preceded them.
Chief Justice Ward was known to us only hy the reputation
for learning and integrity which he had acquired in other
parts of the Commonwealth.!
Judge Strong was one of our own numher.i A few of us
remember him before he had been elevated to that place,
when he honorably filled a seat in Congress, and was called
thence to a vacancy upon the Bench.
With a good legal mind, and respectable attainments in
his profession, he brought much experience in the practical
affairs of life, to the business of the Court, and did much
to elevate and sustain its character. He won the confidence
of all, by his uprightness as a judge, and the diligence and
fidelity with which he performed his duties. He retired
from the Bench while his powers were unbroken, but found
the evening of his days clouded by infirmity and disease,
with which he struggled without complaint, and bore up
against them with the dignity and cheerfulness of a good
man.
The last of the three has passed away from the shades of
of retirement, within which he had lived for many years,
within the last few months.j^
Though wanting many of the qualities of a perfect judge,
* Vid Appendix, B.
t Ch. J. Ward held the office from 1821 till 1841; He died Oct. 7, 1847, at
the age of 84.
I Judge Strong was a native of Amherst, and the son of Hon. Simeon
Strong, Judge of the Supreme Court. He was graduated at Williams College
in 1798. He was admitted to the bar in 1803, and commenced business in
Athol, and after remaining there about three years removed to Westminster.
From 1812 to 1814 he was a member of the Senate, and again in 1844. In
1818 he was appointed Judge of C. C. Pleas, and retained the office till 1843.
He removed to Leominster after his appointment to the Bench, and resided
there till his death in 1850, at the age of 70.
§ Hon. Judge Cummings, who died March 30, 1855, aged 69.
38
there never was a more upright and honest man, or a more
sincere lover of truth and justice, than he. What he lacked
was due to his temperament alone. Every one felt that his
instincts were all right, and that his judgment was guided
by an honest purpose and high attainments in learning.
Never suspecting fraud in his own guileless nature, no one
could be a more uncompromising foe to trick or chicanery
when once detected. The sod does not rest on a kinder
heart than that which once animated the manly form of
Judge CUMMINGS.
Of the others who have been members of this Court with-
in our period, I have not time to speak, though three of
their number have been added to the starred names that are
so rapidly swelling the catalogue of the eminent men that
have departed from our midst.* And the last mail brings
the sad intellio-ence of another vacant seat and another
stricken household. Sudden, fearfully sudden, has been the
blow that has stricken down one whom we had fondly hoped
to meet here this evening, and turned our joy into sadness.
Greater and more brilliant men may have fallen, but a
truer heart, a more upright judge, or a man of more hon-
orable feelings or guileless life, is not left to commemorate or
record the virtues of the dead.
The Court has, from various causes, been prolific in names.
Twenty-two different Judges have held seats upon that Bench
within the last twenty-five years. One of these causes,
happily is, in part at least, removed.
As I contemplate the fact, that more than a thousand
million of dollars of the wealth of the citizens of this
commonwealth, owes no little of its security and value to a
wise and impartial administration of her laws, I think,
with anything but feelings of pride, of that penny-wise
'•■Ch. .T. Wells died June 23, 185i, aged 63. Judge Ward died May 29,
1848, aged 39. Judge Colby died Feb. 22, 1853, aged 44. He was Dist-
Atty. of the Southern District after his resignation of the place of Judge.
Judge Byington had accepted our invitation and was ex^Decting to be present
on the occasion of this address, when he was suddenly stricken down by
..lisease.
89
policy which has, at times, ground down her judges to rates
of compensation below what some of her private corpora-
tions pay for looking after the running of their rail cars, or
the speed of their spinning jennies.
The Attorney and Solicitor General of twenty-five years
ago,'' have passed away. Eminent in their day, they were
long in office, and formed a connecting link between the
class of lawyers who entered the Bar soon after the revolu-
tion, and our own times. Belonging to no particular local-
ity, their history, their services, and their reputation, are
rather the property of the whole Commonwealth, than the
subjects of extended notice while treating of a single County.
Of the Judges of Probate, four have held office within
our prescribed period. | With the presence of three of that
number we are favored this evening, including him who
presides over its proceedings.
The otheri lonp- stood as a kind of connecting" link between
I o o
the modern bar and the ante-revolutionary days, many of whose
actors he had personally known.
After having held the place of County Attorney, he
presided for more than an entire generation, with great
approbation, over the duties of a Court which requires
learning, patience, diligence, and a ready sympathy, and in
1840, at the ripe age of eighty-two, nearly sixty years from
his admission to the bar, his name, like an old familiar
land-mark, ceased to hold its accustomed place at the head
of the lawyers of the then town of Worcester.
Four, during that period, have lield the place of District
or County Attorney, and another has recently been added
to the list.§ Of these, including the last, four belonged to
the Bar of this County.
Of one of these it may not be improper for one who
*Hon. Perez Morton, Attorney General and Hon. Daniel Davis, Solicitor
General. Mr. Morton was Attorney General from ISIO to 1S32. lie died
Oct. 14, 1837, at the age of 87, in Dorchester.
f Vid x\ppendix, C. J Judge Paiue. § Vid Appendix, D.
40
learned bj experience to appreciate his efforts in that office,
to say that it was sometimes difficult for an antagonist to
determine whether he was the most effectually subdued by
his adroitness or his courtesy.
Another, though in brief possession of the office, I am
unwilling to pass over in silence, though he was scarcely
known beyond the limits of this Bar/"
He came into the profession mature in years, and strong
in native powers, but already the doomed victim of disease.
He struggled with manly resolution and unshrinking forti-
tude, against a malady that would have crushed the hopes
and spirits of an inferior nature, and won for himself, as a
public officer, an approljation and respect which harmonized
with the esteem in which he was held as a companion and
a friend.
His fate was but a new illustration of the bright mark
at which death loves to aim his fatal shaft.
Passing from this office to that of the principal Clerk of
the Courts, we find that four have been incumbents of the
place.f Here, too, I may not properly speak of but one of
that number.
But in recalling the name of Kendall, the modest worth,
the amiable virtues, the scholarly tastes, and the unblem-
ished purity which characterised his life, at once rise before
the mind.
He had been a well read lawyer, though little fitted, by
taste, for the rougher passages of the profession.
In Congress he belonged to a school of politicians — God
grant it may not become quite obsolete — who, if they spoke,
said what they meant, and voted for the right because it
was the right.
He had doubtless been a greater man, and more eminent
in his profession, had he felt the goadings of poverty, or
'■■ B. F. Newton.
jHon. Abijali Bigelow, Hon. Jos. G. Kendall, Charles W. Hartshorn and
Jos. Rlasou, Esquires.
41
the calls upon a husband, or a father's instincts for exertion.
But the world has little to forgive when it comes to take
the account of his life, and sees the preponderance of the
good he accomplished.
Four have successively had in charge the executive duties
of the County, in the office of Sheriff, '■' and though two only
of these were originally of the Bar, their connection with
the Courts calls for a passing notice.
One only of these can be alluded to on this occasion. Of
sound judgment, great practical knowledge, unbending in-
tegrity, and with a heart kind as that of a woman, he knew
nothing like fear, and went right on, wherever the path of
duty led. He knew neither friend nor foe, in his judgment
of what was just, and when, to accomplish some party ar-
rangement, it became necessary to sacrifice a model officer,
he retired with dignity to private life, where he needed no
extrinsic influence to command respect, and there and thus
he died.
To speak of the Bar individually, would obviously exceed
the limits of my time or your indulgence.
T find upon the List of Counsellors in 1830, the names
of fifty-six, of Attorneys at the Supreme Court, sixteen, and of
Attorneys at the C. C. Pleas the names of fourteen, mak-
ing eighty-six in the whole. These were scattered in une-
qual numbers through thirty-five of the then fifty-four towns
in the County.
Of that number, forty-five have died. Eighteen who are
now living, have left the County, others have retired from
professional life, till ten only now remain in practice at the
Bar.
Within the period mentioned, from one hundred and forty
to one hundred and fifty have been, at different times, or
now are, members of the Bar, in addition to the eighty-six
first mentioned. About ninety-five of these still remain
connected with the profession in the County. Sixteen of the
*■' Vid Appendix, E.
6
42
towns in which lawyers were settled in 1830, no longer enjoy
the liffht of such luminaries of their own. Death, or an ex-
hausted treasury, has driven them from the former scenes of
their struggles.
These few statistics show the rapid changes that are con-
stantly taking place in the condition of our Bar. A profes-
sional life is proverbially brief, and a young aspirant for its
honors, has hardly got through wishing Providence to pro-
vide for the seniors that stand between him and success, be-
fore he finds himself equally a subject of the prayers of his
juniors, who crowd and jostle him in his course, before he
has hardly had time to measure his own speed.
For this, or some other reason, the prizes that are won,
are few compared with the whole number that enter the
arena to compete for them.
When we read of the receipts of some of the eminent
English Barristers, or of some of the Bar of our own country,
we make a false estimate of the true amount of success that
is achieved by the profession at large.
Forced by the position in which they are placed, to assume
the externals of competency, the public at large are little
aware how often this gives a false impression as to profes-
sional success.
I am not disposed to complain, nor do I believe our own
Bar has not been, when compared with others, reasonably
successful and prosperous. But the statistics of the Probate
office tell rather a sad tale.
Of the estates of forty-five of the lav/yers of the County
living in 1830, nine had no inventories returned, though
these embraced some who had been tlie most successful.
Twelve were either never settled at all, or settled in some
other jurisdiction. Twenty had inventories or accounts ren-
dered, only one of which exceeded fifty thousand dollars, and
a very small portion only, if any, of that was the fruits of
professional labor. Nine who had property, amounted to
less than five thousand dollars each, and four of them aver-
43
aged less than seventy-six dollars each, while six of the es-
tates were insolvent, as shown by the record, and there is
good reason to know that of the twelve estates not settled
here, at least seven were insolvent, making more than one
in four of the whole forty-five estates, that were altogether
insolvent.
It is certainly with very little pleasure that I refer to
these results^ and it is with far more grateful feelings, that
I turn to what the Bar of Worcester County has achieved
in the way of reputation.
I will not, however, in so doing, refer to the suggestions
of my own partial judgment, but appeal to the recorded
opinions of others, in the fact, that of those who are or have
been living within the period of which I am speaking, three
have held the place of Chief Magistrate, three that of Judge
of the Supreme Court, and that a place upon that Bench was
tendered to two others of the number.'' Four have been
Judges of the C. C. Pleas. One for many years a Senator,
and ten have been members of the House of Representatives
in Congress, and one has been a Foreign Minister of the
United States. j
Happy should I be, to speak in detail of most of those
who once filled these places. As I run my eye along the cat^
alogue of their names, their forms rise in fancy before me,
and they seem to stand among us again, each in his own
marked and well remembered traits of person and character.
The Hastings — father and sons. — The first, without the
graces of oratory, was for many years a formidable antago-
nist before a Jury, and before the Court exerted an influence
by his very respectable acquirements as a lawyer, and his
ability as a reasoner.
The eldest of the sons was perhaps a better lawyer. He
possessed much ready wit, was a man of honorable and agree-
able qualities, and died in the midst of his usefulness and
"Hon. John Davis, and lion. Charles Allen.
fHon. George Folsom, Minister at the Hague, from '49 to '53.
44
public honors, ere age had saddened life with its bitter ex-
periences.
Tufts — the man whom his friends knew better than the
world did, and saw struggling, under the stimulus of an
honorable ambition, to gain for himself a rank in his pro-
fession, while lurking disease was wasting the powers of his
body, and consigning him to an early grave.
He lived long enough to enjoy a share of the public hon-
ors of the day, and won the public confidence, as he had
done the esteem and affection of his associates.
James — then of Barre, venerable in years, courteous in
his bearing, modest and reserved in his temperament, pass-
ing through a long life without spot or blemish upon his
modest fame.
Goodwin — whose antiquarian and scholarly taste was but
partially reconciled to the drudgery of the profession he had
adopted.
Foster — the high souled, pure hearted scholar and gentle-
man, w^hose chief fault was an undue self-distrust of powers
of a high order, and unfortunately for the full develop-
ment of which, he was above that necessity which is the
stern school-master of so many in that profession, which he
early abandoned.
BrooKvS — who for many years held a leading rank among
the lawyers of this and a neighboring county, with a mind
of great acuteness, well stored with legal principles, and
whose earnestness and fidelity in the cause of his client, was
acknowledged by all who witnessed his efforts before the
Jury or the Court.
Taft — who, though bred to the profession, was able to
indulge a taste for rural pleasures and pursuits, and escape
the drudgery of the law, but was always a genial om pan-
ion at the bar, and was often honored by the expression of
public confidence, by being called to offices of trust and
honor.
Nor would I pass over in silence the name of Stebbins.
45
He made no mark in his profession by his eloquence or learn-
ing, hut he honored it by his incorruptible integrity, and
though he laid aside its duties for a more congenial employ-
ment, he retained through life that high estimation of a true
lawyer's character, which he had illustrated during the few
years he was connected with it.
And there are names which start up spontaneously, at the
very mention of a social hour.
Lincoln — the lawyer, profound and learned for his years,
the diligent student with his ever ready fancy, and playful
wit, the genial companion and the man of taste and letters.
If he ever did injustice to himself, he never was false to his
faith, or disloyal to his friendship.
Baldwin — whose sad and early fate was the only thing
that ever brought pain in the associations which his name
awakens. Wedded to a profession for which he had no sym-
pathy, his happiest day was when he bade it adieu for a po-
sition far more congenial to his taste.
His like we shall never look upon again. His better qual-
ities were best known to those who knew him best, since that
never-failing flow of humor and good feeling which he al-
ways displayed, almost obscured, at times, the varied learn-
ing which he really possessed.
But long ere this, another familiar form must have arisen
in fancy before your vision."" For forty years he filled a place
at the Bar, and saw one generation after another pass away
in its rapid changes. His was a store of abstract legal prin-
ciples, gathered by years of patient diligence in study, and
his processes of reasoning, formed upon the models of the
school men, made him a formidable antagonist, where indus-
try in preparation, and the application of keen logic, could
be brought to the encounter.
We miss him in our daily walks, we miss him at our so-
cial gatherings, and the last of his old associates will have
passed away before the image of his striking figure shall
t Samuel M. Burnside, Esq.
46
cease, as fancy peoples the scene, to come and linger around
a spot with whose duties so much of his long life was con-
nected.
One other who had held the place of County Attorney, and
at the commencement of the period of which I am speaking,
was filling the responsible post of Secretary of the Common-
wealth, since that time, came hack to enjoy a few years of
retirement, and then to follow where so many of his com-
panions and associates had gone before him/-'-=
The field of literature was always more congenial to his
taste, than the agitations and excitements of the profession,
and neither his health nor his taste allowed of his again en-
o-ao'ino- in these, after giving up public life, and few of those
who now fill these seats, know from personal observation,
how to measure his talents or his worth.
But I am admonished that if ever anything like a sketch
of the members of this Bar, who, within the last twenty-five
years, have laid off the harness of life's toils and duties, is
to be o'iven to the public, the present occasion is altogether
too brief to admit of its being done here.
And yet I should fail to meet your demands, or those of
my own feelings, if I passed over in silence the memory of
one who so long honored and adorned this Bar.f
This was not however, the only sphere in which he achieved
distinguished success. His fame was a national one. But
I leave for others to do that justice to his character as a
statesman, which, too often, comes only when the jealousies
and rivalries of party have been buried in the grave.
Of his characteristics in his professional career, I could
dwell upon what a connection in business, and a long person-
al association, impressed upon my mind.
If he was not what may be called a technical lawyer,
learned in the books, he had that sound judgment, clear ap-
'Ilon. Edward D. Bangs was Secretary of State from 1824 to 1S3G. He
died April 2, 1838. He was a son of Judge Bangs, of the C. C. P.
t Hon. John Davis.
47
prehension, and almost infallible common sense, tLat enabled
him to detect and apply the principle which was to guide in
the decision of a question, however intricate, and to trace
analogies and perceive distinctions, often subtle, the want of
which so often misleads the most learned lawyer.
And having settled in the elaboration of his own mind,
what the law, in any case submitted to him, should be, he
was generally able, by diligent research, to bring to the
support of his own conclusion, authority to sustain the posi-
tion he sought to maintain.
I do not believe any court ever listened to an argument
from him, without being enlightened, if not convinced. It
was not the flippant citation of cases from digests, but the
clear, simple statement of sound philosophy, mingled with a
respectable and creditable amount of learning, judiciously
and aptly applied.
Such a mind would have been invaluable upon the Bench,
but a well founded apprehension of a want of physical
ability to sustain its burdens, deterred him from entertain-
ing a proposition to accept the place.
Of his efforts before a Jury, I hardly need to speak, where
they have been so often witnessed.
There was an earnestness, an apparent candor and sin-
cerity in his manner, a clearness of statement, a singleness
of purpose, that never sacrificed the success of a cause to
the graces or display of oratory, and, withal, a complete
command of all the bearings of his case, that enabled him
to carry it forward with a power which no opposing counsel
ever failed to appreciate and respect, if he did not fear.
As a wise counsellor, an agreeable and entertaining com-
panion, whose conversation always instructed, and whose
playful kindness always delighted, no man ever went through
the tangled wilderness of political and professional life, and
left more for friendship to remember, and less to forget,
than he, whose almost speaking countenance, in marble,
greets us in our solitary walks in yonder cemetery.
48
I have spoken of the past, hut what am I to say of the
future of this Bar and their profession.
Of those whose names now swell its numbers, how few
will be left at the end of another quarter of a century, to
recal those of us who take part in the festivities of this
evening.
As I contemplate the past, and address myself to those
who are hereafter to occupy this Bench and fill these seats,
I cannot better express the deep sensibility which the thought
awakens, than borrowing the language of that comprehen-
sive prayer, " Sicut patribus, sic vobis."
We have seen enough of change in our own day, to read
change and progress in the shadowy history of the future.
In the growing and multiplying relations of business and
social life, new questions of interest and moment will, doubt-
less, arise, in the determination of which the same process
of keen analysis, broa^l speculation, and far-reaching fore-
sight, must be brought into exercise, by which the questions
of this and a former generation have been mastered, and
the imperishable fabric of the common law built up.
To prepare men for a work like this, requires an education
and a training which can only be acquired in the school of
the Bar
Little does the world, at large, know of the part which
an able and educated Bar plays in the business of self-gov-
ernment, in a free state.
It is not merely in giving form and direction to the leg-
islation of such a state, but what affects more nearly the
enjoyment of personal protection, and the security of per-
sonal rights, it puts the power of the law within the reach
of every citizen.
There is a spirit of power and injustice warring upon
unprotected weakness, now, as much as in the days of chiv-
alry of old, though it may not manifest itself by such open
deeds of oppression.
The arena, moreover, in which battle is to bo made for
49
the right, is no longer the listed field, hut the Hall of Jus-
tice, where, though the champion he not indeed mailed in
armor, as true faith, as fearless courage, and as devoted
fidelity are demanded, as ever signalized a Richard or a
Bayard.
And say what men may of the profession, there is in that
assurance wliich every hody feels in having the arm of a
fearless advocate to rest upon, that which half disarms op-
pression of its power, and gives to the feeblest the strength
of a trained and disciplined champion.
In the facility, however, with which men now force their
way into the profession, there is no little danger that there
may be found those whose character may gradually undermine
this public confidence in professional faith and honor.
In view of contingences like these, I can hardly exagger-
ate the importance of cultivating in the profession that
feeling of self-respect, which shall preserve it from grovelling
motives and unworthy conduct. The science they profess
is a noble one, and its investigation and pursuit demand the
highest powers of well trained and honorable minds.
But I have already taxed your indulgence too severely,
to dwell any longer upon the inseparable connection there
is between the character of a people's laAvs and the growth,
happiness and prosperity of a nation, and I hasten to close
this imperfect presentation of our subject, in the language
of another.
" At what time Law commenced, we inquire not — whether
its origin was in any respect supernatural or not, is of no
moment at present, but certainly it was when human pas-
sions were seen tearing the weak and defenceless, when in-
dividual greed, individual lust, individual hate, and most
cruel and perilous of all, individual revenge, ranged like
beasts of the forest amid a flock, that Law unbared her
beautiful brow, and bade them all cower beneath the eye. of
reason."
_A. P F* E IS^ D I X
A.
The Judges of the Supreme Court in 1830 were,
Hon. Lemuel Shaav, Ch. J.;
Hon. Samuel Putnam ;
Hon. Samuel S. Wilde ;
Hon. Maecus Moktox.
Judge Putnam resigned his seat upon the Bench Jan'y 26,
1842, and retired altogether from public life. He removed from
Salem where he had formerly lived, to Boston, many years before
his death. He died July 3;, 1853, at the age of 85. He had
succeeded Judge Parker upon his promotion to the place of
Chief Justice in Sept. 1814. He was succeeded by the Hon.
Samuel Hubbard of Boston, Feb'y 22, 1842.
Judge Wilde retained hi?., seat upon the Bench till Nov. 5,
1850. He was appointed June 17, 1815, in the place of Judge
Daniel Dewey deceased, and was succeeded by Hon. Geo. T.
Bigelow. He resided in Hallowcll when appointed, but upon
the separation of Maine from Massachusetts removed to New -
buryport. But for many years before his death resided in Boston.
He died June 22, 1855, at the age of 84.
Judge MoKTOx held the place of Judge till Jan'y 1840, when
he was elected Governor of the Commonwealth. He was ap-
pointed to the place July 4, 1825, as successor to Hon. Levi
Lincoln. The number of Judges having been again reduced to
four upon his election as Governor, no successor was appointed.
Hon. Charles A. Dewey was appointed to the Bench under
a law of 1837, increasing the nimiber of Judges of that Court
to five. He received his appointment May 25, 1837.
52
Hon. Samuel Hubbard succeeded Judge Putnam, Feb'y 22,
1842, and held office till his death, Dec. 24, 1847, and was suc-
ceeded by Hon. Charles E. Forbes of Northampton.
Hon. Theron Metcale was appointed to the Bench Feb'y
25, 1848, the number of Judges of the Court having been in-
creased by an act of the legislature to five.
Hon. Charles E. Forbes succeeded Judge Hubbard, Feb'y
7, 1848, and held office till the following October, when he re-
signed and was succeeded by Hon. Richard Fletcher of Boston.
Hon. Richard Fletcher was appointed in place of Judge
Forbes, Oct. 24, 1848, and held office till Jan'y 1853, when he
resigned and was succeeded by Hon Benjamin F. Thomas.
Hon. Geo. T. Bigelow succeeded Judge Wilde, Nov. 1850.
By an act cf April 20, 1852, the number of the Judges of the
Court was increased to six.
Hon. Caleb Gushing was appointed under this act a Judge
of the Court, and held the place till his appointment as Attorney
General of the United States in 1853.
Hon. Pliny Merrick was appointed his successor, March,
1853.
Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas succeeded Ju.dge Fletcher, Jan'y,
1853.
The Bench, therefore now consists of
Hon. Lemuel Shaw, Ch. J.;
Hon. Charles A. Dewey ;
Hon. Theron Metcale ;
Hon. George T. Bigelow ;
Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas ;
Hon. Pliny Merrick.
B.
The Judges of the C. C. Pleas in 1830, were
Hon. Ariemas Ward, Ch. J.;
Hon. Solomon Strong ;
Hon. John M. Williams ;
Hon. David Cummings.
Hon. Judge Williams succeeded Chief Justice Ward in
1841, and held office till his resignation in June, 1844, when he
was succeeded by Hon. Daniel Wells of Greenfield, July, 1844.
Hon. Charles H. Wakrex of New Bedford was appointed
to the place of Judge Williams, promoted in 1841, and held office
till his resignation in June, 1844.
Judge Strong resigned in 1843, and was succeeded by
Hon. Charles Allek of Worcester, who was appointed in
1843, and resigned in 1845.
On the 1st of March 1843, the number of Judges was increased
to five, and to fill the place thus created,
Hon. Flint Merrick of Worcester was appointed Judge
of this Court, and held the place till 1848, when he resigned.
Judge CuMMiNGS resigned the office in June 1844.
Upon the resignation of Judges Warren and Cummings, Emory
Washburn and Joshua H. Ward were appointed to the seats thus
vacated, in July 1844.
Judge Ward held office until his death, May 29, 1848, and
was succeeded by Judge Byington.
In March 1845, the number of the Judges of this Court was
increased to six.
Hon. Harrison G. O. Colby of Xew Bedford was appoint-
ed soon after to the new seat, and resigned in 1847.
Hon. Luther S. Cushing was appointed in 1845, in place
of Judge Allen.
Hon. Charles E. Forbes succeeded Judge Colby in 1847,
and held office till Feb'y 7, 1848, when he was appointed to the
Bench of the Supreme Court.
Judge Washburn held office until Dec. 1847.
Hon. Edward Mellen of Wayland was appointed to the
Bench to succeed Judge Washburn, and succeeded Chief Justice
Wells in 1854.
Judge CusHiNG was appointed reporter of the Supreme
Court upon Judge Metcalf's promotion to the Bench in 1848, and
was succeeded by
Hon. George T. Bigelow of Boston, who held office until
his appointment to the Supreme Court in Nov. 1850.
Hon. Horatio Byington of Stockbridge was appointed to
succeed Judge Ward in the summer of 1848, and held office till
his death, February, 1856.
54
Hon. JoNATHA]s^ 0. I'ekkins succeeded Judge Forbes, upon
his promotion to tlie Supreme Court in 1848.
Hon. Thomas Hopkinson of Lowell was appointed to suc-
ceed Judge Merrick, upon his resigning his seat upon this Bench
in 1848. He held office until 1849, when he resigned and was
succeeded by
Hon. E. RoCKWOOD Hoak of Concord. He held oifice till
1855, when he resigned and was succeeded by
Hon. Henky Morris of Springfield.
Hon. Pliny Merrick was a second time appointed to the
Bench to succeed Judge Bigelow, on his promotion to the Supreme
Court, Nov. 1850, and held office till his own promotion to the
same Court in March, 1853, when he was succeeded by
Hon. George N; Briggs of Pittsfield.
May 24, 1851, an act was passed increasing the number of
Judges to seven, and Hon. Henry W. Bishop of Lenox was ap-
pointed to the office thus created.
Chief Justice Wells died June 23, 1854, and Judge Mel-
len was promoted thereupon to the vacancy thereby created, and
his own place was filled by the appointment of
Hon. George P. Sanger of Boston.
The Court now consisting of
Ch. J. Mellen,
Perkins, ^
Bishop,
Briggs, y
Sanger,
Morris,
Justices.
C.
Judges of Probate.
Hon. Nathaniel Paine from 1801 to 1836.
Hon. Ira M. Barton from 1836 to 1844.
Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas from 1844 to 1848.
Hon. Thomas Kinnicutt 1848.
D.
County and District Attorneys.
Until 1832, the old system of County Attorneys for the several
55
counties was retained. By an act of that year the State was
divided into Districts. The middle District embraced Worcester
and Norfolk Counties.
This continued until May 1852, when Worcester county was
created into a separate District.
Hon. Pliny Merkick was appointed County Attorney for
the Courty of Worcester in 1824, and held the office till the
creation of the District system, when he was appointed the first
District Attorney for the Southern District, and held the office
till his appointment to the C. C. Pleas, in 1843.
Hon. Ezra Wilkinson was appointed to succeed Judge
Merrick. He belonged to Dedham, and upon the District being
divided ceased to act for Worcester County.
Benjamin F. Newton, Esq., of Worcester was appointed
District Attorney of the new Middle District. He held office till
his death the succeeding year, and was succeeded by
P. Emoky Aldric'h, Esq., then of Barre. He was superceded
and removed by Governor Gardner in Dec. 1855, and
John H. Mathews, Esq., of Worcester was appointed in his
place.
E.
Shebiffs.
Hon. Calvin Willard of Worcester held the office in 1830,
having been appointed in 1824. He resigned office and was
succeeded by
Hon. John W. Lincoln of Worcester, who held the place
till his removal by Governor Boutwell in 1851.
James Estabrook, Esq., was appointed to succeed Col. Lin-
coln, and continued in office till removed by Governor Clifford
in 1853.
George W. Richardson, Esq., was commissioned upon the
removal of Col. Estabrook.
F.
The Bab.
The following names were borne vipon the List of Members of
the Bar in 1830, although some of them were not actively en-
gaged in the business of tlie profession. Counsellors are distin-
guished by C. prefixed to their names, Attorneys of the Supreme
Court by A. and Attorneys of the C. C. Pleas by a., prefixed to
their names. Those who have died are distinguished by '"''.
Those who have removed from the County by r., annexed to
their names. Those withdrawn from practice by f, and Members
of Congress by M. C. annexed. Members of the Senate of Mas-
sachusetts in italics.
C. Charles Allen, Worcester. M. C.
A. Samuel C. Allen, Mendon, Grafton.
C. Bevjamin Adams,''^' Uxbridge. M. C.
C. Jesse Bliss,* West Brookfield.
C. William B. Banister/'' Brookfield, r.
C. David Brigham,""'" Fitchburg, r.
C. Ira M. Barton, Oxford, Worcester.
C. Leivis Bigeloiv,'-^' Petersham, r. M. C^
C. Aaron Brooks,''-' Petersham.
C, Frederick W. Bottom,* Southbridge.
C. Christopher C. Baldwin,* Sutton, Barre, Worcester.
C. Samuel M. Burnside,* Worcester.
a. Peter C. Bacon, Dudley, Oxford, Worcester.
a. Jason B. Blackington, Holden, r.
a. David T. Brigham, Worcester, r.
C. Sumner Bastow,* Sutton, Oxford.
C. Linus Child, Southbridge, r.
a. Amos Crosby,* Brookfield.
C. John Davis,* Charlton.
C. Alexander Dustin,* Sterling.
C. t George Davis, Sturbridge.
C. John Davis,* Worcester, M. C.
C. Isaac Davis, Worcester.
A. t Matthew (James) Davenport, Boylston.
a. Francis Deane, Southboro', Uxbridge.
C. NathH P. Denny, Leicester, r.
C. Waldo Flint, Leicester, r.
C. Alfred D. Foster,'^' Worcester.
a. Barlow Freeman,* Warren, r.
C. f William E. Green, Worcester.
57
C. Isaac Goodwin,* Worcester.
A. Daniel Gilbert,* North Brookfield,
A. fWilliam N. Green, Worcester.
a. Arad Gilbert, W. Brookfield, r.
C. Nathaniel Houghton,'^'' Barre.
C. Epliraim Hinds, Harvard, r.
C. Seth Hastings,"^- Mendon. M. C.
C. William S. Hastings,^'' Mendon. M. C.
C. Nahum Harrington,* Westboro'.
C. Daniel Henshaw, Worcester, r.
A. Charles G. P. Hastings,'^' Mendon.
A. .Tubal Harrington, Worcester, r.
C. Eleazer James,* Barre.
a. Silas Jones, Leicester, r.
C. \ Thomas Kinnicutt, Worcester.
C. Joseph G. Kendall,^' Leominster, Worcester. M.
A. Joseph Knox, Hardwick, r.
C. William Lincoln,* Worcester.
a. George W. Livermore, Millbury, r.
C. Seth Lee,* Barre.
C. Clough R. Miles, Athol, Millbury.
C. Jacob Mansfield,* Warren, r.
C. Pliny Merrick, Worcester, r.
C. Rejoice Newton, Worcester.
A. Jos. W. Newcomb, Templeton, Worcester, r.
C. William Perry,* Leominster.
C. Bufus Putnam,* Rutland.
C. Nathaniel Paine,* Worcester.
C. t Charles G. Prentiss, Worcester.
A. Joseph Prentice, Douglas, r.
A. Thomas Pope,* Dudley.
C. Onslow Peters,* Westboro', r.
A. Henry Paine,* Worcester.
a. William Pratt,* Shrewsbury.
C. Warren Rawson,* Mendon.
C. t Samuel Swan, Hubbardston,
C. William Stedman,* Lancaster, Charlton. M. C.
C. Moses Smith,'^-' Lancaster.
C. Jonas L. Sibley,* Sutton.
58
C. Simeon Saunderson,* Westminster.
C. Heman Stebbins,-'-' Brookfield.
C. George A. Tufts,'^- Dudley.
C. f Ehe7iezer Torry, Fitchburg.
C. Bezaleel Taft, Jr.,* Uxbridge.
C. t Joseph. Thayer, Uxbridge.
A. William M. Towne,* Worcester, r.
a. Edward J. Vose,* Worcester,
C. Harry Wood,* Grafton.
C. f Jared Weed, Petersham.
C. Lovell Walker,^'' Templeton, Leominster.
C. Emory Washburn, Leicester, Worcester.
C. Nathl Wood, Fitchburg.
a. George R. M. Witbington, Boston, Lancaster.
a. Charles Wadsworth, Barre, Worcester, r.
a. t Solon Whiting, Lancaster.
a. Otis C. Wheeler,* Worcester.
C. Joseph Willard, Lancaster, r.
C. Abijah Bigelow, then clerk &c., Worcester. M. C.
C. Levi Lincoln, then Governor, Worcester. M. C.
C. Edward D. Bangs,* then Secretary of Commonwealth.
C. Calvin Willard, then Sheriff.
Those who have been members of the Bar since that time, are
arranged alphabetically below, without regard to whether they
Avere originally Counsellors or Attorneys at Law, as that dis-
tinction is no longer retained.
William S. Andrews, Worcester, Spencer, r.
Edward Avery, Barre, r.
P. Emory Aldrich, Barre, Worcester.
Thomas Abbott, Millbury, Blackstone, r.
Frederick W. Botham, Douglas, Southbridge.
f Ndhum F. Bryant, Barre.
Walter A. Bryant,* Barre, Worcester,
Alexander H. Bullock, Worcester.
Charles C. Brimblecom, Barre.
Charles D. Bo-wman, Oxford.
Merritt Barlow, Southbridge, r.
59
Lucian C. Boynton, Worcester, Uxbridge.
Lewis H. Boil telle, Westboro', r.
Wm. Sumner Barton, Worcester.
William 0. Bartlett, Worcester, r.
Calvin M. Brooks, Worcester.
G. F. Bailey, Fitchburg.
Allen Bangs,* Worcester, r.
O. L. Bridges, Worcester, r.
f Isaac Baldwin, Clinton.
Francis A Brooks, Petersham, r.
S. A. Burgfess, Blackstone.
f Edwin Conant, Sterling, Worcester.
Edward Clark,* Sutton, Worcester.
Henry Chapin, Uxbridge, Worcester.
J. B. D. Cogswell, Worcester.
Samuel Clark, Northboro'.
Nathan T. Dow, Grafton, r.
Francis H. Dexoey, Worcester.
J. T. Dame, Clinton, Lancaster.
John A Dana, Worcester.
John C. B. Davis, Worcester, r.
J. W. Draper, Worcester, r.
Andrew J. Davis,* Worcester, r.
James E. Estabrook, Worcester.
C. C. Esty, Milford.
Maturin L. Fisher, Worcester, r.
George Folsom, Worcester, r.
Joel W. Fletcher, Northboro', Leominster.
Charles Field, Athol.
Dwight Foster, Worcester.
Elisha Fuller,* Worcester.
Jesse W. Goodrich, Worcester.
Samuel B. I. Goddard, Worcester.
Frederick W. Gale,* Worcester.
J. Martin Gorham, Barre.
William Grout, Worcester.
Benjamin D. Hyde, Southbridge, Sturbridge.
f J. W. Huntington, Lancaster.
t Alexander (Edward) Hamilton, Barre, Worcester.
60
Charles W. Hartshorn, Worcester,
Elisha Hammond,* W. Brookfield,
Leander Holbrook, Milford.
George F. Hoar, Worcester.
Franklin Hall, Worcester.
James H. Hill, N. Brookfield.
William R. Hooper, Worcester.
William H. Howe, Worcester.
S. Holman, Fitchburg, r.
William T. Harlow, Spencer.
Henry S. Hudson, Worcester, r.
J. Henry Hill, Worcester.
Lincoln B. Knowlton, Millbury, r.
Edward Kirkland, Templeton, r.
Thomas G. Kent, Milford.
t William S. Lincoln, Millbury.
f Daniel W. Lincoln, Worcester,
Aaron Lyon, Sturbridge.
f Edward W. Lincoln, Worcester.
Joseph Mason, Templeton, Worcester.
Lewis A. Maynard, Worcester.
Charles C. Mason, Fitchburg.
William B. Maxwell, Worcester.
Adolphus Morse, Worcester, r.
John H. Matthews, Worcester.
David L. Morrill, Winchendon, W. Brookfield.
D. H. Merriam, Fitchburg.
C. H. Merriam, Leominster.
L. A. Merriam, Fitchburg.
Andrew D. McFarland,* Worcester.
Amasa Norcross, Fitchburg.
Benj. F. Newton,* Worcester.
George G. Parker,* Ashburnham.
Grenville Parker, Worcester, r.
H. B. Pearson,* Harvard.
f Addison Prentiss, Worcester.
Lucius D. Pierce, Winchendon.
Calvin E. Pratt, Worcester.
Lafayette W. Pearce, Oxford, Westboro'.
i
61
Artemas Rogers, Fitchburg, r.
Abram G. Randall, Millbury.
f George W. Richardson, Worcester.
Edward Rogers, Webster, r.
Henry C. Rice, Worcester.
William W. Rice, Worcester.
Martin L. Stowe,* Northboro'.
Isaac Stevens, Athol.
Amos W. Stockwell,--' Worcester, r.
J. S. Scammel, Milford.
N. J. Smith, Blackstone, Spencer, r.
Charles H. B. Snow, Fitchburg.
William F. Slocum, Grafton.
George Swan, Hubbardston, Worcester.
C. G. Stevens, Clinton.
Elijah B. Stoddard, Worcester.
f William A Smith, Worcester.
Henry D. Stone, Worcester.
William L. Southwick, Blackstone.
H. B. Sprague, Worcester.
H. B. Staples, Worcester, Milford.
f Benjamin F. Thomas, Worcester.
Paul P. Todd, Blackstone.
John Todd, Westminster, Fitchburg.
Benjamin O. Tyler, Winchendon, r.
f Joseph Trumbull, Worcester.
George S. Taft, Uxbridge.
Newton Tourtelot, Webster.
S. P. Twiss, Worcester.
Adin Thayer, Worcester.
F. H. Underwood, Webster, r.
A. B. Underwood, Milford, r.
George F. Verry, Worcester.
Abel Whitney,'^-' Harvard.
t Asa H. Waters, Millbury.
Criles If. Whitney, Templeton, Winchendon.
Milton Whitney, Fitchburg, r.
Thornton K. Ware, Fitchburg.
Charles K. Witherell, Petersham, Barre, Worcester.
62
J. Allyn Weston, Worcester, Milford, r.
John W. Wetherell, Worcester.
] Lemuel Williams, Worcester.
William A. Williams, Worcester.
J. C. B. Ward, Athol, r.
Hartly Williams, Worcester.
James O. Williams, Worcester.
Francis Wayland, Jr., Worcester.
Geo. A. Wetherell, Worcester.
Charles Wheaton, Worcester, r.
Henry S. Wheaton, Dudley, r.
Lemuel Williams, Jr., Westboro'.
Hon. Benjamin Adams was born in Mendon, Dec, 1764,
was graduated at Brown University, 1788, read law with Hon.
Seth Hastings, and was admitted to practice at Worcester in
1792. He began practice in Hopkinton, but after remaining
there less than a year removed to Uxbridge, where he ever after
resided. He was a member of Congress from 1816, when he
was elected in place of Judge Brigham, who died at Washington,
till 1821. He was a member of the Senate of Massachusetts
during the years 1814, 1815, 1816, 1823, 1824 and 1825. He
died March 28, 1837, at the age of 72.
SuMNEK Bastow^ was a native of Uxbridge, or his father early
removed to that place. He was a graduate of Brown University,
in the class of 1802. For some time after he left College, he
was engaged in mercantile business, but he afterwards read law
with Estes Howe, Esquire, of Sutton, and was admitted to the'
Bar in March, 1811. He opened an office in the village of West
Sutton, where he did a large professional business till 1823,
when, upon receiving the appointment of Cashier of the Bank
at Oxford, he removed to that place, and, in a great measure,
retired from practice. In 1824-5, he was one of the three can-
didates for Representative to Congress, from the Worcester South
District. The fourth trial resulting in the election of John
Davis. He died at Oxford, Dec. 29, 1845, aged 67.
Jesse Bliss was born in Brimfield, and was graduated at
Dartmouth in 1808. He studied his profession with the Hon.
Jabez Upham. He practiced law in what is now West Brook-
63
field, after his admission to the Bar in 1812, till his death, Aug,
25, 1853.
Hon. William B. Banister was born in Brookfield, Nov. 8,
1773, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1797. He spent
most of his professional life in Newburyport, though for a few
years, about 1830, he was a resident of Brookfield. After this
period he returned to Newburyport, where he died July 1, 1853,
at the age of 79. He was at one time a member of the Senate
from the County of Essex.
David Brigham was born in Shrewsbury, Aug. 15, 1786,
was graduated at Harvard in 1810, and afterwards was a tutor in
Bowdoin College. He practiced his profession in New Braintree,
Leicester, Greenfield, (where he was, for several years, a partner
with Hon. Samuel C. Allen,) Shrewsbury and Fitchbiu-g. From
the latter place he removed to Iowa, where he died in 1843, at
the age of 57.
Hon. Leavis Bigelow was born in Petersham, and was grad-
uated at Williams College, in 1803. He studied law with his
father, Daniel Bigelow. He was a member of the Senate from
Worcester, from 1819 to 1821, and in the latter year was chosen
to Congress for one term. He was a sound and learned lawyer,
and prepared, and in 1818 published, a digest of the Massachu-
setts Reports, of which, after an interval of seven years, he pub-
lished a second and enlarged edition, and in 1830, a suj^plement
to this, bringing down the work to the eighth volume of Picker-
ing's Reports. It was a Avork of great labor and accuracy, and
has never been surpassed by any American Digest.
He left the Commonwealth, and became one of the earliest
settlers of the now flourishing City of Peoria, in Illinois, where
he held the office of Clerk of the Courts of that County, at the
time of his death, Oct. 3, 1838.
Aaron Brooks Avas born in Petersham, was graduated at
BroAvn University, in 1817, and subsequently Avas a Tutor in
that Institution. He studied his profession partly Avith Hon.
Levi Lincoln, and partly AA'ith Hon. LeAvis BigeloAV, and settled
in Petersham, Avherc he continued in successful practice in the
Counties of Franklin and Worcester, till the time of his death,
May, 1845.
64
He left a son, Francis A. Brooks, who, after settling in the
profession for a few years in Petersham, removed to Boston.
Fkedekick W. Bottom was born in Plainfield, Conn., and
was graduated at Brown University, in 1802. He studied law
partly with Hon. Tristram Burgess, of R. I., and partly with
Hon. Pliny Merrick, of Brookfield. He first settled in Charlton,
in 1806, and afterwards removed to Southbridge, then a parish of
Sturbridge, where he resided till his death, May 24, 1855, at the
age of 75.
He left a son, now in practice as a lawyer, in Southbridge.
Christopher C. Baldwin was born in Templeton, Aug. 1,
1800. He was fitted for College at Leicester Academy, was a
member of Harvard until May of his senior year, 1823, when he
left and entered the office of Messrs. Lincoln and Davis, in Wor-
cester, and was admitted to practice in 1826.
He began practice in Worcester, afterwards was in business a
few years in Barre, from whence he removed to Sutton. He af-
terwards removed to Worcester, and soon after was appointed
Librarian of the American Antiquarian Society.
While on a journey in Ohio, he was thrown from a stage coach,
and instantly killed, in Norwich in that State, Aug. 20, 1835.
He died universally lamented.
Samuel M. Burnside was born in Northumberland, N. H.,
was graduated at Dartmouth, in 1805. He studied law with
Judge Ward, of Boston, and commenced business in Westboro',
in March, 1810. In September of the same year, he removed to
Worcester, where he continued to reside the remainder of his life.
His reputation for learning in his profession was high. He re-
tired from business several years before his death, which took
place July 29, 1850, at the age of 67.
Amos Crosby was born in Brookfield, was graduated at Har-
vard in 1786, afterwards Preceptor of Leicester Academy, and
subsequently a Tutor in Harvard University. He was admitted
to the Bar, and settled in the profession of the law in Brookfield,
in 1804, where he continued till his death, June, 1836, at the
age of 75.
John Davis, Jr., as he was known at the Bar, was born in
Shirley, was never graduated at College, studied law with Mer-
rick Rice, of Lancaster, and from 1811 to 1821 was in practice
65
in Lancaster. The latter year lie removed to Charlton, where
he remained engaged in his profession until his death, July 8,
1840.
Hon. John Davis was born in Northboro', was fitted for Col-
lege at Leicester Academy, was graduated at Yale in 1812,
studied law with Hon. Francis Blake, began practice in Spencer,
but soon afterwards removed to Worcester, where he ever after-
wards resided. In 1825 he was elected to Congress, and held
the place till 1834, when he was elected Governor of the Com-
monwealth.
In March, 1835, he was elected Senator in Congress, and held
the office till Jan'y, 1841, when he was again elected Governor,
and held the office two years. In March, 1845, he was again
elected Senator in Congress, and held the office till March, 1853,
when he retired to private life, and died April 19, 1854, at the
age of 67. He was at different times a partner in business with
Levi Lincoln, Jr., Charles Allen and Emory Washburn. His
son, J. C. B. Davis, was for several years a member of this Bar.
Hon. Alfred D. Foster was born in Brookfield, July 26,
1800, was graduated at Harvard in 1819, studied law with S. M,
Burnside, Esq., was engaged in his profession about two years in
Worcester, after which he withdrew from the practice. He was
three years a member of the Executive Council, and a member
of the Senate from Worcester in 1848. He was a man of great
worth, and universally respected. He died Aug. 15, 1852. He
left a son, now in practice in Worcester as a Lawyer.
Isaac Goodwin was born in Plymouth, June 28, 1786, but
was never graduated at any College. He studied law with Hon.
Joshua Thomas. He commenced practice in Boston, in 1808,
but removed and was settled in Sterling in his profession, from
1809 till 1826, when he removed to Worcester. He continued
to reside there till his death. He published the " Town Officer "
in 1826, and the " New England Sheriff" in 1830. His death
took place Sept. 16, 1832, aged 46.
Alexander Dustin Avas born in New Boston, N. H., April
17, 1776, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1799, studied law
with Hon. S. Bell, of Francistown, Hon. Wm. Crosby, of Bil-
lerica, and Hon. Joseph Locke, of Billerica, and was admitted
to practice in Nov., 1804. He first settled in Harvard, but after
9
66
five years, in 1810, removed to Westminster, where lie remained
until 1826, when he removed to Sterling, where he continued to
reside until his death, Jan'y 24, 1837, at the age of 60.
Daniel Gilbert was a native of Brookfield, was graduated
at Dartmouth in 1796, and was admitted to the Bar in 1805.
He resided at North Brookfield till his decease, tliough for several
years of the latter part of his life, he had withdrawn from prac-
tice. He died March 11, 1851, at the age of 76.
Hon. Nathaniel Houghton was born in Sterling, but did
not receive a collegiate education. He studied law with the Hon.
Nahum Mitchell, of Bridgewater, commenced practice in Barre,
in 1810, and continued to reside there till his death, Dec. 21,
1840. He was a Senator from Worcester, in 1825, and the two
following years.
Hon. Seth Hastings was born in Cambridge, was graduated
at Harvard in 1782, and studied law with Hon. Levi Lincoln,
Senior. He was admitted to the Bar in June, 1786, and com-
menced practice in Mendon, where he ever after resided. His
business extended to Norfolk as well as Worcester, and was at
one time very extensive.
From 1801 to 1807 he was a member of Congress, and from
1810 to 1812 was a member of the Senate from Worcester.
From 1819 to 1828 he was Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions
for this County. When he commenced business, there were but
eleven lawyers in practice in the County.
He died at the age of 70, Nov. 19, 1831.
He left two sons, members of the profession, both of whom
have since deceased.
Hon. William S. Hastings was son of the above, and born
in Mendon, 1798, was graduated at Harvard in 1817, studied
law with his father, and was admitted to the Bar in 1820. He
settled in Mendon, where he resided till his death, June 17, 1841.
He was a member of the Senate from Worcester from 1830 to
1833. He had been three times elected to Congress, and died
while a member, at the Sulphur Springs, in Virginia. He was
never married.
Nahum Habkington was born in Westboro', June 13, 1778,
and was graduated at Brown in 1807. He studied law with
Hon. Fisher Ames, and Hon. James Richardson, and was admitted
67
to practice in April, 1811. He immediiately opened an oiRce in.
Westboro', where he resided till his death, Dec. 31, 1848, at the
age of 70.
Hon. Charles C. P. Hastings, son of Hon. Seth Hastings,
was born in Mendon, and was graduated at Brown in 1825.
He studied law a part of the time with Judge Howe, at North-
ampton, and a part with his brother, Hon. VVm. S. Hastings.
He was admitted to the Bar, Sept., 1828, and settled in Mendon,
where he resided till his death, Sept. 25, 1848, at the age of 44.
He was a member of the Senate from Worcester in the years
1840 and 1841.
Hon. Joseph G. Kendall was born in Leominster, was
graduated at Harvard in 1810, and for five years was a Tutor in
that University. He studied law with Hon. Abijah Bigelow,
and settled in Leominster, where he remained till 1833, when
he was appointed Clerk of the Courts for this County. He held
this office till his death, Oct. 2, 1847, at the age of 59. In 1824,
he was elected to the Senate, from Worcester, and held the office
four years. He was a member of Congress during the years
1830 to 1833, the 21st and 22d Congresses.
Eleazeb James was born at Cohasset, in 1754, and was grad-
uated at Harvard in 1778. He was a Tutor in that institution
from 1781 to 1789. He studied theology, and preached for a
time, though he never was settled. He then studied law with Hon.
Levi Lincoln, Senior, and began business in Barre, where he re-
sided till near the close of his life, when he removed to the fam-
ily of his son-in-law, Hon. Charles Allen, in Worcester, where
he died, April 14, 1843, at the age of 89.
William Lincoln was born in Worcester, Sept. 26, 1801,
and was son of Hon. Levi Lincoln, Senior. He was graduated
at Harvard, in 1822, studied law with Hon. Enoch Lincoln, in
Maine, Hon. John Davis, and Hon. Rejoice Newton, who had
married his sister, with whom he was afterwards for several
years a partner in business. He was admitted to the Bar, in
August, 1825, and died at the age of 42, Oct. 5, in the year
1843.
Seth Lee was born in Barre, but did not receive a collegiate
education. He was somewhat advanced in life when he began
the study of the law, which he pursued, as is understood, in the
68
office of Hon. Jabez Upham, and was admitted to the Bar, in
1810. He established himself in business in Barre, where he
remained till his death, in March, 1841.
Jacob Mansfield was born in Lynn, was awhile a member
of Harvard University, but did not graduate. He studied law
for a time with Judge Putnam, in Salem. He settled in Wes-
tern, (now Warren) but left there and went to the City of New
York, where it is supposed he died.
William Perry was born in Leominster, April 15, 1786,
was never graduated at College, studied his profession with the
Hon. Abijah Bigelow, and established himself in business in his
native town, having been admitted to the Bar in August, 1813.
He died in August, 1844, at the age of 58.
RuFUS Putnam was born in Warren, then Western, and was
;^raduated at Williams College in 1804. He settled in the prac-
tice of his profession in Rutland, where he resided till his death,
Jan'y 18, 1847, at the age of 64.
Hon. Nath'l Paine was born in Worcester, and was gradu-
ated at Harvard in 1775. He studied law with Hon. John
Sprague, of Lancaster, and was admitted to the Bar in 1781.
He began business in Groton, but after four years removed to
Worcester, where he resided during the remainder of his life-
He held the office of County Attorney for some time, and in
1801, was appointed Judge of Probate for the Coimty of Wor-
cester. This office he held for thirty-five years, and died, Oct. 7,
1840, at the age of 82.
William Pratt was born in Shrewsbury, was graduated at
Brown in 1825, studied law with Judge Merrick, and began
business in Shrewsbury. He remained there till 1835, when he
removed to Worcester, and formed a professional connection with
Judge Merrick, which continued for a short time. He died Feb.
2, 1839.
Warren Rawson was born in Mendon, and was graduated
at Brown in 1802. He studied law a part of the time with
Judge Bangs, and a part of the time with Hon. S. Hastings.
He began business in Mendon, where he remained till his death,
June 17, 1848, aged 71.
Hon. William Stedman was graduated at Harvard in 1784.
He was admitted to the Bar in Essex, in 1787. He practiced
69
law in Lancaster, and in 1803 was elected to Congress, of wiiich
body lie was a member till 1810. In the latter year he was ap-
pointed Clerk of the Courts for this County, which place he held,
Avith the exception of one year, till 1816. He then resumed his
profession in Charlton, but afterwards removed to Lancaster. He
died at Newburyport, in Sept., 1831, at the age of 66.
Thomas Pope was born in Dudley, and was graduated at
Brown University, in 1809. He settled in business in Dudley,
where he resided till his death, March 7, 1854, at the age of 66.
Hon. OxsLow Peters. Since the preparation of the address
of which these notices form an appendix, the death of Judge
Peters has been announced. He was born in Westboro', March
1, 1803, was graduated at Brown in 1825, and studied law partly
with Judge Howe and Hon. Mr. Mills, at Northampton, and
partly with Hon. Samuel Hoar. He was admitted to the Bar
in Middlesex, in September, 1828, and soon after commenced
business in Westboro'. After residing there several years, he
removed to Peoria, Illinois, and at the time of his death, held
the office of Circuit Judge of the 16th Circuit of that State.
He died at Washington, February, 1856.
Henry Paine was a son of Judge Paine, and born in Wor-
cester. He entered Yale College, but did not graduate. He
studied law with Samuel M. Burnside, Esq., and commenced
business in Worcester, where he resided till his death, in May,
1844.
Hon MosEs Smith was admitted to practice at Worcester,
December Term, 1802, and commenced practice in Lancaster,
which he abandoned after a period of twenty-three years. He
continued to reside there, however, till his death, June 29, 1835,
at the age of 58. He was never graduated at any College. He
was a member of the Senate from Worcester from 1814 to 1816.
Jonas L. Sibley was born in Sutton, the son of Hon. Jonas
Sibley. He was graduated at Brown in 1813, and studied law
Avith Hon. Levi Lincoln. He settled in business in Sutton, and
remained there till 1834, when he was commissioned as U. S.
Marshal for the District of Massschusetts. He held this office
eight years, and then returned to Sutton, but never resumed his
profession. After several years of ill health, he died, Feb'y 1,
1852, at the age of 61.
70
Heman Stebbins was born in W. Springfield, was graduated at
Yale in 1814. He practiced law for several years in Brookfield,
but abandoned it for the pi-ofession of a Civil Engineer some
years before his death, which took place Nov., 1838.
Simeon Sattnderson never received a collegiate education.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1820, and practiced law in West-
minster. He died in July, 1842.
Hon. Geokge A. Tufts was born in Dudley, the son of
Hon. Aaron Tufts, Feb'y 22, 1797. He was graduated at Har-
vard in 1818, was for one year and a quarter a member of the
Law School at Cambridge, and studied law one year with Hon.
Josiah J. Fiske, and the balance of the three years with Hon.
Levi Lincoln. He was admitte 1 to the Bar in Worcester, Dec,
1821, and entered upon the practice of the profession in Dudley,
where he resided until his death, Dec. 25, 1835, at the age of 38.
He was a Senator from Worcester for the year 1835.
Hon. Bezaleel Tafx, Jk. was born in Uxbridge, the son of
Hon. Bezaleel Taft, and was graduated at Harvard in 1804. He
commenced practice in Uxbridge, and resided there till his death,
in 1846, at the age of 66.
He was a Senator from Worcester for two years, having been
elected in 1825, and was afterwards a member of the Executive
Council.
Hon. LovELL Walker was born in Brookfield, was graduated
at Dartmouth in 1794. He was admitted to practice in 1801,
settled in Templeton, and practiced his profession there for many
years, but removed to Leominster a short time before his death,
which took place, March 25, 1840, at the age of 72.
He was a member of the Senate during the years 1830 and
1831.
Otis C. Wheeler was born in Worcester, and studied law
with Messrs. Davis and Allen, and was admitted to the Bar in
1830. He died at St. Augustine, Florida, having been in busi-
ness for a year or two in Worcester, Feb'y 6, 1831, at the early
age of 23.
Walter A. Bryakt was born in New Salem, but was never
graduated at any College. He studied law Avith Aaron Brooks,
Esq., and practiced his profession in Barre," until about two years
before his death, when he removed to Worcester and opened an
71
office there. He died in Paris, having reached there on a journey
for his health, in the Spring of 1850.
Allex Bangs was born in Springfield, and began business
there. He opened an office In Worcester for a short time, but
was compelled by ill health to abandon the profession. He was
graduated at Yale, 1846, and died at Springfield, Nov. 24, 1853.
William M. Towxe was born in Charlton, the son of Hon.
Salem Towne, was graduated at Amherst in 1825, and studied
law with Hon. John Davis and Hon. Charles Allen while part-
ners, and was admitted to the Bar in 1828. He commenced
business in Worcester where he remained till 1835, when he gave
up the profession for other business. He resided at Springfield
for some time previous to his death, which took place, April 20,
1841.
Edward J. Yose was born in Augusta, Maine, and vras grad-
uated at Bowdoin College in 1825. He studied law with Messrs.
Davis and Allen, and was admitted to the Bar in 1828. He
opened an office soon after in Worcester, and died May 25, 1831,
at the age of 25.
Hakkt Wood was born in Grafton. He did not receive a
collegiate education. After being admitted to the Bar, he prac-
ticed for some time in ]\Iaine. He afterwards returned to Grafton
where he remained in the practice of his profession till his death,
in August, 1838.
Edwakd Clark was born in Charlton, and studied law with
J. L. Sibley, in Sutton, where he afterwards practiced law for
several years. He removed to Worcester, and was in the practice
of his profession there at the time of his death, which took place
on a journey in the Western States in the summer of 1849.
Andrew J. Davis was born in Northboro', 1815, and studied
law with his brother, Hon. Isaac Davis, with whom he formed a
connection in business upon his admission to the Bar in 1834.
After about a year, he removed to St. Louis, where he continved
in practice till his death, in June, 1840. He was attacked by a
ruffian, by the name of Darnes, in the streets of St. Louis, in
consequence of an article published in the St. Louis Republican,
of which he was the proprietor, which resulted in his death.
Elisha Fuller was born in Princeton, was graduated at
Harvard in 1815, and studied theologv. He afterwards studied
72
law, and commenced business in Concord. After a few years
residence there, lie removed to Lowell, and continued in practice
there until his removal to Worcester, in 1844, where he resided
till his death, which took place very suddenly, March 18, 1855,
at the age of 63.
Fkedekick W. Gale was born in Northboro', and was grad-
uated at Harvard in 1836. He was a member of the Dane Law
School in 1838, and having completed his preliminary studies
with Hon. Isaac Davis, he formed a connection in business with
him, till 1840, when he established himself in business in St.
Louis, from whence he removed in a few years to Worcester.
Here he remained, with the exception of a few years absence in
Europe, until his death, in October, 1854, having been lost in
the wreck of the Arctic Steamer, on his passage home from Liv-
erpool.
Elisha. Hammond was graduated at Yale College in 1802.
He pursued the practice of his profession, after his admission to
the Bar in 1806, in Brookfield. He was absent a few years in
New York, engaged in editing new editions of works on law, and
was himself the compiler of a work upon the duties of Justices.
The last few years of his life, he resided in Brookfield, in what
is now West Brookfield, and died May 12, 1851, at the age of 70.
Benjamin F. Newton was never graduated at college. He
studied his profession with Hon. Benj. F. Thomas, and Hon.
Edward Dickinson, and was admitted to this Bar in 1850.
Upon the formation of Worcester County into a separate dis-
trict in 1852, he was appointed District Attorney, and held the
office till his death, which took place March 24, 1853, at the age
of 32.
Andrew D. McFarland was born in Worcester, was gradua-
ted at Union College in 1832, and studied his profession with
Messrs. Davis & Washburn in Worcester. He commenced busi-
ness in Worcester upon his admission to the Bar in 1835, and
died June 23, 1836, at the age of 25.
Martin L. Stow never received a collegiate education. He
was in practice for a while in Southboro', and afterwards removed
to Northboro', where he resided till his death in June, 1843.
George G. Parker practiced his profession in Ashburnham.
He died April, 1853.
73
Amos W. Stockweli, was bom in Sutton. He was a mem-
ber of the Dane Law School in 1835, and completed his studies in
the offices of Hon. Ira M. Barton, and Hon. Isaac Davis. He
was admitted to the bar in 1837, and established himself in Worces-
ter, where he remained a few years, when he removed to Chicopee,
where he continued to practice in his profession, till his death,
1853.
Abel Whitney was graduated at Williams in 1810. Though
regularly bred to the profession, he engaged in the business of a
teacher in Boston for many years.
He removed to Harvard several years before his death, and en-
gaged somewhat in practice as a lawyer. He died May 30, 1853.
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