Worcester County, Massachusetts - The Bench and Bar, 1889 (part 1 of 4)

The Bench and Bar

" It 18 not they who are oftenest on men's lips, who are clothed with a visihle autliority, who bear tlie swoi-d and tiie ensign of State, that culitriliute most to the well-being of a community ; but he, nitUer, wlio sits apart in severe simplicity, and, in the supremacy of iutellectuul and moral strength, adjusts the relation between man and man; and, with an authority mightier than his who wields a sceptre, silently moulds the State, and interprets and disjienses the laws that govern it." - Beo. Alon^iO HUl^ remarl:s on the life of VUny Mnrrick,

By the act incorporating this county, passed by the General Court of the Province in 1731, provision was made for four annual terms of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, and of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and for an annual session of the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery.

Thejurisdiction of justices of the peace and of judges of Probate supplemented that of these more formal tribunals, and the whole constituted a system of judicial machinery which served the needs of the community, with but little amendment from 1699 until the adoption of the State Constitution. With several changes of title and some amplification to adapt it to the increased business and complexity of interests in the modern highly organized society, its principal features subsist in the system of to-day.

The Superior Court was composed of a chief and four associate justices. Its jurisdiction covered "all matters of a civil and criminal nature, including appeals, reviews and writs of error ... as fully and amply to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Ext^hequer within his Majesty's Kingdom of England." It also possessed very limited equity powers. The home government had always exhibited a jealous disposition to keep the Provincial courts closely hemmed in by the rules of the common law. Except in cases of the breach of the condition of a bond or a mortgage, when the court might prevent the exaction of the strict forfeiture on payment of proper damages, no part of the great system of equity jurisprudence, which, in England, was then well advanced, was permitted to take root here. This early discouragement has seemed, until very recent years, to prejudice the minds of our law-makers and our courts against the granting or the exercise of jurisdiction in equity.

The judges were appointed by the Governor and his Council, and might, and frequently did, hold various other offices at the same time. Hutchinson, when chief justice, was also Lieutenant-Governor, member of the Council and judge of Probate for Suffolk. The principle of appointment to judicial office thus established has been ever since adhered to in this Commonwealth, and it is to be hoped that no demand for popular elections will cause a seat upon the bench to be set up as a prize of the caucus. By the provision of the State Constitution the good sense of our judges, and the increase in the number of men competent and willing to perform the duties of the various offices, our courts have, in the main, been presided over by men who held no other public office, and gave all their energies to the labors of their judicial station. It has thus most happily been true of the administration of Massachusetts justice, that it has been singularly free even from the suspicion of partisan bias, and has retained the confidence alike of bar and laity. Until the Revolution no resident of Worcester County attained the dignity of justice of the Superior Court.

The Inferior Court of Common Pleas was composed in each county of four justices, three of whom constituted a quorum for transacting business. Its jurisdiction covered civil actions of every nature, according to the course of the common law. From its decision an appeal lay to the Superior Court.

The Court of General Sessions of the Peace was held at the same times with the Common Pleas by the justices of the peace for the county or such a number of them as were designated from time to time. Its jurisdiction as a judicial tribunal covered only criminal matters, and hence was limited to the trial of oflenses for which the punishment did not extend to death, loss of member, or banishment. The same tribunal had a supervision and control of the administration of the county finances, the laying out of highways, etc., similar to the present powers of County Commissioners.

Justices of the peace held courts in their various places of residence, and were authorized to hear and decide in a large variety of civil actions where the damage did not exceed forty shillings. When the title to land was concerned, however, the issue was deemed too important for any court of less dignity than the Common Pleas. In criminal matters their jurisdiction extended to minor breaches of the peace and disorderly conduct, and they could inflict penalties of small fines, whipping and sitting in the stocks. For offences beyond their jurisdiction they were authorized to bind over persons accused to the higher tribunals. From their decisions appeals lay to the Court of Common Pleas.

In the Governor and Council was vested jurisdiction over the probate of wills, the settlement of the estates of deceased persons, the appointment of guardians and the like. It was the custom, however, for them to appoint substitutes in the various counties, who transacted the ordinary business subject to revision on appeal to the Governor and Council. These deputy courts were recognized by several laws of the province, though their establishment was never specially authorized by any act of the General Court.

Tiie history of the bar of this county is practically covered by the professional activity of four of its members. Joseph Dwight, admitted at the first term of the Court of Common Pleas held in the newlyestablished county, lived until 1765. John Sprague was admitted to the bar in 1768, and died in 1800. Benjamin Adams admitted in 1792, probably tried causes before Judge Sprague, and as he lived in Uxbridge until 1837, it is most probable that the late Peter C. Bacon, who was admitted in 1830, knew him personally.

When Joseph Dwight, in 1731, took the oaths of an attorney and became the only member of the Worcester County bar, there were in the province but few educated lawyers. Benjamin Lynde was chief and Paul Dudley an associate justice of the Superior Court, both of whom were thorough lawyers. Through the influence and learning, especially of Dudley, the forms of pleading were being brought into intelligible shape, and the principles of law were becoming more clearly understood by bench and bar. It was not at all essential, however, that a judge should be a lawyer. Many of those upon the Superior bench had no legal education, and of fourteen judges of the Court of Common Pleas for Worcester County before the Revolution, only three were members of the bar. Dwight was born in Hatfield in 1703, and received his education at Harvard, where he graduated in 1722. After his admission to the bar for some years he resided in Brookfield, and was repeatedly elected its Representative to the General Court.

For one year during his service he held the position of Speaker of the House. In 1743 he was appointed to the bench of the Common Pleas, and retained his commission until about the time of his removal to Stockbridge, in Hampshire County, in 1751 or 1752. There he was interested in the efforts which were being made, under the direction of Jonathan Edwards, to educate the Indians. Judge Dwight was appointed a trustee of the schools, and for a year or more remained closely associated with the learned divine, for whom he always testified the highest regard. He soon left Stockbridge for Great Barrington, and resumed judicial functions in the Hampshire County Court until Berkshire was set off, in 1761. For the new county he became chief justice, and so continued till his death, in 1765. With his duties as judge he combined the carrying on of a mercantile business and the functions of an active military leader. He held the rank of brigadier-general, and won the comraend.ation of his superior officers for services against the French.

A contemporary of his, both at the bar and on the bench, was Nahum Ward, a resident of Shrewsbury, and a judge of the Common Pleas from 1745 to 1762. Not much is recorded of him, though he was in active practice for several years. His son and grandson, each bearing the name of Artemas, filled larger places in the public eye, and each became judge of the same court.

The only other lawyer on this bench until after the Revolution was Timothy Ruggles, who was born in Rochester, in the county of Plymouth, in 1711, and graduated at Harvard in 1732. He was judge from 1757 until the Revolution, and chief justice after 1762. His father, the Rev. Timothy Ruggles, endeavored to turn the future soldier's thoughts to the study of divinity, but it is probable that the combative instincts of the son, so strongly developed later in life, inclined him to a more stirring field of exertion. Whtn only twenty-five he represented Rochester in the Assembly. There he was instrumental in procuring the passage of an act to prohibit sheriffs or their deputies from making writs, a useful provision of the public statutes to this' day. As a lawyer he must have been successful, for while still a residentof Plymouth County, he practiced in other courts, and was often engaged in causes in Worcester County before he removed to Hardwick, about 1753.

The fame of the soldier, however, generally obscures whatever other reputation its possessor may earn. In " Brigadier Ruggles" the judge was almost forgotten. Like Dwight, he was actively engaged in several military operations, and fairly won his distinction by hard service. In 1755 he was next in command to General Johnson in the battle in which the French, under Dieskau, were badly defeated. Illustrative of the brigadier's blunt manners, they say that when during the day something was going wrong, he consoled his superior officer with the remark : " General, I hope the damnable blunders you have made this day may be unto you for your spiritual and everlasting good," an expression rather of hope for future improvement than of confidence in the present abilities of his leader, which amore politic subordinate would probably have confined to his own thoughts.

It was a matter of course that he took an active part in political affairs. Hardwick sent him as its representative to the Assembly for several years, during two of which he was Speaker of the House. He presided over the convention of delegates from eight Colonies, which met in New York, in 1765, to consider the grievances imposed by the home government. His attachment to the old order of things here manifested itself in his refusal to join in the protest of the convention against taxation by Parliament. As his opinions on this subject had been openly expressed, it is a singular evidence of the great respect in which he was held that he should have been chosen as a delegate. But neither the consistency of his course nor his dignified character excused him in the eye of the Provincial

Legislature. In accordance with their vote he was publicly censured by the Speaker, and from that time his separation from the popular cause became more and more apparent. When the discontent finally became a revolution, he abandoned his property, his dignities, and his home, and took up his part with the supporters of the Crown. At this point, of course, his connection with our county affairs ceased. He died in Halifax, in 1798, having lived to see those whom he had called rebels firmly established as citizens of an independent State.

Eleven other judges of the Court of Common Pleas, previous to the Revolution, were taken from various vocations. Th«y were men chosen for general good sense, for the respect in which they were held by their neighbors, and for their integrity of purpose - qualities which, in the scarcity of trained lawyers, certainly entitled them to superintend the administration of justice.

John Chandler, of Woodstock, the first chief justice, was also the first judge of Probate. He was a military oflicer of some distinction, and represented his town in the General Court, and was chosen afterwards a member of the Governor's Council. His son, bearing the same name, was born in Woodstock in 1693, but removed to Worcester in 1731. He was the first clerk of courts, regisier of probate and register of deeds for the county in those days when one man could discharge the duties of a multiplicity of ofiices. While still holding those offices he was appointed sheriff of the county, and was for several years elected selectman and a Representative to the General Court. Later on he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas and judge of the Probate Court, thus succeeding to the dignities of his father. He died in 1763.

Another father and son who occupied seats on the bench of the County Court were the two Joseph Wil- DEES, of Lancaster. The elder was influential in securing to Worcester the distinction of being the county-seat, as he objected to the selection of Lancaster, lest the morals of its people should be corrupted by the sessions of the courts therein. He succeeded the first John Chandler as judge of Probate and held both offices till his death, in 1757.

His son succeeded the second Chandler in the Common Pleas, was Representative of Lancaster in the General Court for eleven years, and was actively engaged in business operations, in his native town, until his death, in 1773.

Of most of the other judges little is known. Jonas Rice was, in 1714, the sole inhabitant of Worcester, all others having been driven away by the depredation of the Indians. His firm courage secured to him, in the rebuilt town, the respect of his neighbors and marked him as a man fit for responsibilities.

Practicing before the court thus composed, beside the three who have been mentioned as elevated to the bench, there were but fourteen lawyers from 1731 until the Revolution. Joshua Eaton was the first of the profession who settled in Worcester. He was a native of that part of Watertown now Waltham, and was educated at Harvard, where he graduated in 1735, in his twenty-first year. He entered upon the study of the law in the office of Edmund Trowbridge, who was then just beginning his professional career, in the course of which, as leader of the bar of the Province and as judge of the Superior Court, he contributed, perhaps more than any one man before the Revolution, to the advancement of legal science. Trained under this excellent master, Mr. Eaton seems to have started upon a successful practice. The early desire of his parents had been that he should adopt the clerical profession, and after about six years at the bar, his own feelings turned him in the same direction. He studied for the ministry, gave up a good and increasing practice and adopted his new calling with such zeal and energy as to subject him to the censure of the church, which approved of more moderate ministerial devotion. He soon, however, by a more quiet walk and conversation, commended himself to the church in that part of Leicester now Spencer, and .there was settled, lived for nearly thirty years, and died, in 1772, respected and beloved by his peojde.

A fellow-t')wnsman of Eaton, in Leicester, was Christopher Jacob Lawton, a lawyer who had been admitted in Hampshire County in 1726. He practiced for some years in Springfield and in SufBeld before his removal to Leicester. Except that he had a clientage of only moderate numbers, little is known of his professional attainments,

Stephen Fessenden was another student of Judge Trowbridge, who opened his oiBce in Worcester about 1743. But he, too, from some unknown cause, does not appear to have long clung to his professional pursuits.

Perhaps the most learned and able lawyer of this bar previous to the Revolution was James Putnam, who came here in 1749, fresh from his studies with Judge Trowbridge, of whose encouragement and advice he seems to have profited more than those we have mentioned. He was born in Danvers in 1725, and after graduating at Harvard in 1746, betook himself to the law with a zeal and industry that resulted in placing him with the leaders of the bar in the Province. Dwight was then the only lawyer residing and practicing in the county, but Putnam had to contend with the leaders from other counties, and was proved a worthy opponent. He obtained a large clientage not only at home, but in Hampshire and Middlesex, and rose, by merit, to the position of Attorney-General of the Province. This office he was holding when the Revolution called upon men to choose between King and country. Like most of the other men of prominence and wealth, Putnam stood by the old order, and like them he thereby lost his home. He was rewarded for his loyalty to the Brit- ish government by an appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. There he added to his reputation as a sound lawyer, and acquired such a name for learning and impartial justice that when a friendly biographer described him as " the best lawyer in North America," the praise did not seem unwarrantably extravagant. He lived until after the inauguration of the first President of the United States of America.

One of the judges of the Common Pleas for ten years was Samuel Willard, of Lancaster. His son, Abel Willaed, bom in that town in 1732, may, from his father's position, have been naturally inclined to the law. After graduating at the university, he studied in Boston, and was admitted to this bar in 1755. In his native town, then a rival of the county-seat for population and business activity, he found ample opportunity for the exercise of his talents. He illustrated the truth, too often forgotten, that modesty, kindliness and aversion to strife are not inconsistent with the successful practice of the law. He performed. the true function of the lawyer in allaying rather than fomenting strife, in endeavoring to keep his client out of threatened difficulties - methods which in no degree interfered with asserting and maintaining his just rights when litigation could not properly be avoided. In 1770 he formed with John Sprague the earliest law partnership in this county. During the war he too left the country and died in England in 1781.

Ezra. Taylor, of Southborough, is to be included in. this list of lawyers, though whether he was regularly admitted to the bar is uncertain. He at any rate practiced law in Southborough, from about 1751 until the Revolution, and continued so to do in Maine, where he removed during the progress of the war.

A pupil of James Putnam was Joshua Atherton, who was born in Harvard in 1737, and graduated at Cambridge in 1762. He began his practice in Petersham, but did not long remain in this county. After several changes of domicile, he settled in Amherst, in New Hampshire. There he became a leader at the bar, and Attorney-General of the State after the Revolution, and died in 1809.

In 1765, the same year with Atherton, two other young men began their professional careers in this county. Daniel Bliss was a native of Concord, and a graduate of Harvard in 1760, in his twentieth year. Like Eaton, he was urged towards the ministry by his parents, and somewhat by his own inclination. Some influences turned him aside, and he studied law in the office of Abel Willard. He made Rutland, where he found his wife, the field of his early ventures in business. About 1772 he returned to his first home in Concord. He gained a good position at the bar, and an enviable reputation as a thorough gentleman, but he did not sympathize with the cause of the colonists against the Crown. Thus he, too, became an exile from the country that he evidently loved, and the friends who had honored him. After the war he was appointed a judge in New Brunswick, and fulfilled its duties with credit, as he seems to have discharged all other duties until his death, in 1806.

Contemporary with Atherton and Bliss was Joshua Upham, of Brookfield. Born in 1741 ; like nearly all the lawyers we have mentioned, he had the advantage of a college education at Harvard. His class-mate and intimate associate was Timothy Pickering, with whom he maintained a friendship that was interrupted,' not broken, by the war. After his graduation, in 1765, he completed his professional studies in two years, and was admitted to the bar a few months later ihan Bliss. In Brookfield he built up an excellent practice, continually increasing until 1776. It then became no longer possible for one who was not heartily with the popular cause to remain, and he removed to Boston, and later to New York. Either from the failure of some business enterprises in which he was engaged, or perhaps, more probably, on account of his Tory predilections, he left the country after the peace and, like Putnam and Bliss, found opportunity for the exercise of his professional acumen on the bench of New Brunswick. In the last year of his life he was occupied in England in perfecting with the home government a reorganization of the judicial system of the British American provinces. This work he lived to complete, but died in London in 1808.

Two sons of the second Judge John Chandler became members of this bar. Rufus was born in 1747, graduated in 1766 and admitted to the bar in 1768. He studied with James Putnam and practiced in Worcester until the laws became silent in the midst of arms. He naturally imbibed the principles of his father and his preceptor, and his name was included with theirs in an act of banishment, passed while the war was still in progress. He had already left the country, and resided till his death, in 1823, in London.

His brother, Nathaniel, born in 1750, followed closely in his footsteps. After graduating at Harvard in 1768, he took the place of Rufus in Putnam's office, where he studied during the next three years. He chose Petersham for his residence and practice, until at the beginning of the war he took service with the British in New York. Though he thus seems to have taken a much more decided stand against the colonies than his brother, or several others whom we have mentioned, he was able to return to Petersham in 1784 and engage in mercantile pursuits. He did not renew the practice of the law, nor long continue in business, but soon came back to Worcester, where he died in 1801.

Of the lawyers heretofore mentioned, not one remained in practice in this county after the Revolution. Nearly all of them cast in their lot with the supporters of the old regime, and the new condition of affairs left them no place in their wonted sphere. Some of them, as has been shown, found room for

John Sprague forms a connecting link between the bar of the province and that of the independent State. He was born in Koehester, Plymouth County, the birth-place of Timothy Ruggles, in 1740. In the year 1765, when Joseph Dwight, the first member of this bar, died, Sprague graduated from Harvard. His first choice was the profession of medicine, but it evidently did not suit his tastes, for after a few months' trial he abandoned it for the law, and commenced studying in James Putnam's office. Like a host of our New England professional men, he taught school while pursuing his studies, a kind of discipline whose benefits appear in the acquired patience and facility in I imparting knowledge of those who have tried it successfully. After his admission to this bar in 1768, he removed to Newport, Rhode Island, and thence to Keene, New Hampshire. Finally he m'ade Lancaster his home, and in a business connection with Abel Willard began a most extensive practice. Thus he continued until it became necessary for him and his partner to decide whether they would become rebels with their countrymen, or cleave to their foreign allegiance. Willard, as has been seen, chose for the latter. Sprague hesitated, as many a conscientious and thoughtful man must have done. He went so far as to leave Lancaster for Boston before the actual outbreak of hostilities. There, however, the advice of friends at home, and his own reflection, induced him to espouse what seemed the weaker cause, and he returned to take his chance with the resisters of oppression.

The end of the June term, 1774, brought to a close the sessions of the Provincial Court of Common Pleas for this county. During the interval before the opening of the new court, in December, 1775, it may Well be that no one had time or thought for contests so comparatively trivial as those of the forum. But this state of things could not long continue. The everyday affairs of life must receive attention, though the fate of nations is in suspense. The Provincial Government commissioned judges, and before them Sprague resumed his practice.

After the adoption of the Constitution he represented the county in the State Senate for two years, and among his other public services he was one of the few early advocates of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. Later on he became high sheriff of the county. Two years before his death, which occurred in 1800, he was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the first lawyer on that bench after the Revolution.

Sprague appears to have taken no prominent part in the stirring scenes that were being enacted about him during the war. The name of another judge, whose career lielps us to bridge this interval, is most frequently remembered in connection with his military achievements. Artemas Ward was a justice of the Common Pleas both before and after the Revolution. He was born in Shrewsbury and graduated at Harvard in 1748. His father, Nahum Ward, has already been mentioned as one of the earliest in practice in the county. This is the third instance of a son succeeding his father on the bench of the Common Pleas of this county before the Revolution. That judicial honors and the capacity worthily to wear them may often be transmitted to descendants seems to be a well-established fact in the history of this Commonwealth. Whether Judge Nahum Ward continued in office until the appointment of his son is not certain, but it is stated by one authority that he died in 1762, which was the year in which Artemas became a judge. The latter had not adopted the profession of his father, but soon after leaving college was actively engaged in public affairs. He represented his native town in the Legislature, and was a member of the Governor's Council in 1774, when the home government undertook to remove from the electors of the Province the right to choose councillors and to vest their appointment in the Crown. His acceptance of such an appointment by Brigadier Ruggles had been the final act which placed him in a position entirely hostile to the popular cause. The mandamus councilors, as they were called, were among the latest irritants of an exasperated public sentiment. Before this time, however, Ward had served his apprenticeship as a soldier. He was with Abercrombie in the disastrous expedition against Ticonderoga, and in the hardships and defeat of that campaign his firmness and soldierly qualities seem to have been well tested and approved. Soon afterwards we find him a colonel of militia and busily engaged in matters of drill and evolution. All the while, however, he shared in the growing popular discontent and openly avowed his sentiments. So far did he go in publicly stating his opposition to the measures of Parliament that Sir Francis Barnard publicly deprived him of his commission, and when his constituents elected him a member of the Council, did him the honor promptly to veto the choice.

The first Provincial Congress, of which he was a member, elected him the first of three general officers to whom they committed the charge of the motley assemblage of volunteers which then represented the military power about to engage in strife with Great Britain. When General Ward assumed this command it certainly must have seemed that the result most probable for him was defeat and a rebel's death. He continued as general-in-chief until Washington arrived and took command, when Ward for a time assumed a subordinate position. He soon retired from the service, however, on the plea of ill health. His withdrawal resulted in a breach with Washington which was never healed.

office he continued until two years before his death, which took place in 1800. Soon after the war the burden of taxes, necessitated by the great debt contracted during the conflict, the depression of business, so long impaired and interrupted, the sudden release from service of a large number of men who had become almost unfitted for peaceful vocations, combined to produce a feeling of discontent among the people, which in Massachusetts culminated in "Shays's Rebellion." A principal ground of their complaints was the machinery of justice, which compelled the payment of debts, and courts and lawyers were the objects of the bitterest hatred. They adopted as one method of remedying their grievances the plan of preventing the sessions of the courts.

In September of 1786, Judge Ward was to preside over the regular session of his court in Worcester. Threats had been freely made that he would not be permitted so to do, and on the morning when, according to custom, the judges and officers of the court proceeded in a body to the court-house, they found the hill on which it was situated filled with a mob, and the court-house itself with armed men. The judge was too old a soldier to run away from bayonets, and he stoutly pressed on through the throng, and up to face the small body of insurgents who were under the command of an officer, and maintained some appearance of discipline. His entrance to the courthouse was prevented, and neither by expostulation or threat was he able to convince the insurgents of the folly and danger of their course. It was impossible to accomplish any useful purpose by carrying his persistence further, and when, on the next day, it was evident that the militia .sympathized rather with the insurgents than with the Government, the attempt to hold court was abandoned. Somewhat similar scenes were enacted in other counties, though we do not re.id of other judges who so resolutely met the law-breakers. The insurrection was rather of a nature to fall to pieces by itself than to require a great show of force, and it was not long before its inherent weakness resulted in its entire collapse.

Timothy Euggles and Thomas Steele, the associates of Judge Ward on the bench of the Common Pleas just before the Revolution, were loyalists, and by the progress of events became expatriated. When, in 1775, the Provisional Government issued its commission to General Ward as chief, Jedediah Foster, Moses Gill and Samuel Baker were named associates. Of the four, not one was a member of the legal profession.

Mr. Foster was born in Andover, and obtained at Harvard a college education. He early made Brookfield his home, and there was associated in mercantile business with Josepb Dwight, who combined with his professional occupation several other activities. Mr. Foster married the daughter of General Dwight, and three of their direct descendants will hereafter require honorable mention as members of this bar, of whom two were promoted to the bench. Although not educated for the bar, it may be supposed that his association with Judge Dwight gave him some insight into legal principles. At any rate he became sufficiently skilllul as a conveyancer to command a considerable business. His judgment was greatly relied upon by neighbors and residents of other towns. Before he was on the bench he was often appealed to to decide controversies or to give advice on perplexing questions. For these services he made it a practice lo take no fees, a custom by which, perhaps, many a young attorney might speedily build up a tremendous clientage. In Foster's case, however, it was not true that that which costs nothing was worth nothing. His reputation for probity, wisdom and impartiality was wide-spread, and caused his selection for numerous positions of trust and responsibility. He was at the same time judge of the Common Pleas and of the Probate Courts, a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Concord and a colonel of the militia. In 1776 he was promoted to the bench of the Superior Court of Judicature, the first Worcester County resident who had that honor. A funeral sermon, preached in 1779 by his pastor, Nathan Fiske, testifies to his services to the church, the town and the State.

Judge Moses Gill lived on a magnificent estate in Princeton, which was described by President Dwight, of Yale College, as more splendid than any other in the interior of the State. These lands were the inheritance of his wife. His own fortune, accumulated in mercantile pursuits in Charlestown, his native place, had enabled him to improve and maintain an establishment of extensive proportions. He was born in 1733, and lived in the place of his birth until about 1767, when he began to spend a portion of each year amid the beauties of the Princeton hills. That town he represented in the General Court, and was successively State Senator, Councillor and Lieutenant- Governor. From 1775 until his election to the office of Lieutenant-Governor he was an associate justice of the County Court. Both he and his associate, Samuel Baker, of Berlin, were of the original board of trustees of Leicester Academy. To have been instrumental in establishing an institution which has contributed so largely from among its alumni to the service of the State, and especially to the leadership of the bar of this county, must be counted, perhaps, the greatest of Judge Gill's distinctions.

Of Samuel Baker little can be added, save that for twenty years, until his death in 1795, he faithfully discharged his judicial duties. During a portion of this time he represented his town of Berlin, and was several years a State Senator.

When Judge Foster was promoted to the Superior Court, .losEPH Dorr took his place in the lower tribunal. His father, bearing the same name, was the pastor of the church in Mendon for many years, a man repected for his public spirit as well as for his faithful discharge of ministerial duties. The son grad- uated at Harvard in his twenty-second year in the class of 1752. He was never ordained, but he evidently had some intontion of adopting his father's profession, for he preached in the pulpit occasionally. He was a most earnest patriot and fully in sympathy with the principles animating the Revolution. He devoted almost the whole of his time for seven years to the public service without any compensation, and was one of those non-combatants who largely aided the success of the cause by efficient moral support at home. In any conflict all cannot be on the lield of action. It is the part of some to foster and preserve the prize of the battle, - the institutions whose existence is at stake. Mr. Dorr was the town clerk and treasurer of Mendon for a number of years. On the records the Declaration of Independence is spread at length in his handwriting, so beautifully legible as to suggest at once the thought that he was not a lawyer. On this bench, however, he presided with dignity and acceptance for twenty-tive wars, and was also judge of Probate from 1782 to 1800. During the last years of his life he removed to Brookfield, where he died in 1808.

The Court of Common Pleas, presided over in this county by the gentlemen of whom we have spoken, survived almost without change the political disturbances of the time. Appointed in 1775 by the de facto government, Ward and his associates continued to discharge the same duties after the Declaration of Independence and under the Constitution of the State.

No mention of this court appears in the Constitution, but in 1782 an act was passed " establishing Courts of Common Pleas." This was in effect a statute declaratory of the law as it was then administered. The jurisdiction granted was the same; the right of appeal, the power to make rules and the regulation of the business of the court were the same as under the province charter.

The court was to consist of " Four substantial, discreet and learned persons, each of whom to be an inhabitant of the county wherein he shall be appointed,'' and these requirements were well fulfilled by those who were upon the bench in this county when the statute passed.

In the same year with the act just referred to were passed statutes establishing " a Supreme Judicial Court" and "Courts of General Sessions of the Peace," both of which tribunals had been exercising their functions before either Constitution or statute were adopted.

In the convention which formed our State Constitution, it was decided to simplify the rather cumbersome title of the Provincial Court of last resort. Accordingly, all through the Constitution reference is made to a Supreme Judicial Court, instead of the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery. Among the early enactments of the first Legislature under the new order of things was a statute giving jurisdiction to the Supreme Judicial Court of " all such matters as have heretofore happened or that shall hereafter happen, as by particular laws were made cognizable by the late Superior Court of Judicature, etc., etc., unless where the Constitution and frame of Government hath provided otherwise." After this very explicit recognition of its existence, an act establishing a Supreme Judicial Court passed in 1782 seems, to some extent, a work of supererogation. That act provides for one chief and four associate justices, and grants very broadly jurisdiction over all civil actions and all criminal offences. It further authorizes the control and correction of the proceedings of the inferior courts by writ of certiorari and mandamus. A full bench was to consist of at least three of the judges. From the rulings of one justice at nisi priics exception might be taken to the full bench, which alone had the final decisions of questions of law. Before three judges also were to be decided all capital cases, divorce matters, and probate appeals.

Courts of General Sessions of the Peace, with jurisdiction over minor offeaces and with power to bind over to the proper tribunals persons charged with graver crimes, were provided for by another act of the same year. Of the numerous justices of the peace who exercised jurisdiction in this court it would be impossible to obtain record or to make mention. Some one or more of the Common Pleas Court usually sat with them at the trial of offences. In 1803 the criminal jurisdiction was transferred altogether from the Sessions Court to the Common Pleas Court, leaving to the former the supervision of county finances, the laying out of highways and the like. After several experiments in giving these latter powers also to the Common Pleas, and after the Court of Sessions had been twice abolished and twice revived, in 1827 the act defining the power of county commissioners was passed, and the Sessions Court finally disappeared. Until 1811 the County Court of Common Pleas remained the tribunal in which was carried on the great bulk of ordinary litigation.

Upon the election of Moses Gill to the Lieutenant- Governorship and his consequent resignation of his seat on the bench, the position was offered to Dwight Foster, but was declined. Michael Gill was thereupon appointed. Of him I learn nothing, save that he was probably a nephew of his predecessor ; that he resigned in 1798, and that he was living in 1826. Elijah Brigham took the place left vacant by Judge Baker's death in 1795. He was born in Northborough in 1751 and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1778. The study of divinity at first engaged his attention, but that was soon abandoned for mercantile pursuits. Senator, councillor and member of Congress successively, he discharged the duties of each station with propriety, though without leaving a great impress upon the times. He held the office of judge until the abolition of the County Court in 1811. In 1816, r>\viGHT Foster accepted an appointment to this hench in 1801. He was a son of the earlier judge, and was born in Brookfield in 1757. His classical studies were pursued at Brown, where he graduated in 1774. After studying his profession he commenced its practice at home. At that time there was no other lawyer within twenty miles of Brookfield. As a consequence he early gained a very great practice, which his own abilities enabled him to keep and increase. His health was never robust, so that all through life he was obliged to husband his physical resources. Yet by diligence during his working hours, by a systematic arrangement of hi.s time and by powers of application natural and cultivated, he accomplished an enormous amount of labor. As a conveyancer he was noted for accuracy and neatness, - qualities of whose importance he was no doubt impressed by his father, who had been obliged to acquire w hat knowledge he had of that branch without the aid of such an education as the son had enjoyed. It was noted of the latter that he made it a constant practice to rise and be at work early, invariably by candle-light in winter. This discouraging propensity is the only fault recorded of him.

His father had been chosen as a delegate to the convention for framing the Constitution, but died before the session began. Dwight, then but twentytwo, was chosen to fill the vacancy, - a proof of the confidence which his townsmen already reposed in his sound judgment and discretion. In 1792 he held the office of high sheriff of the county, and was the same year elected to Congress, where he sat for three terras. Later, he was a member of the United States Senate. For ten years he was the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, succeeding Judge Sprague, and lived until 1823, active until the last. His manners are described as extremely courteous, and he exercised a generous hospitality at his country home.

In the same year with Judge Foster, Benjamin Heywood was elevated to a seat on this bench. He was the son of a Shrewsbury farmer, and had learned and practiced in early life the trade of a carpenter. His strong desire for an education overcame the difficulties in his way, and he prepared for college and entered Harvard in 1771. But here hindrances to the pursuit of knowledge still met him. The country was aroused to arms. With the other young men of the institution, he felt the duty of bearing his share in the impending conflict. At the opening of hostilities he laid aside his books, followed the retreating British forces after Concord fight, and was soon after regularly commissioned an officer of the Provincial Army. He rose to the rank of captain, and discharged the difficult and responsible duties of regimental paymaster with scruixilous fidelity and accuracy. When, at the close of the war, the Coutinental Congress found itself with a great debt, an army whose pay was largely in arrears, and an empty treasury, a most serious danger threatened the stability of the independence which had been won. The soldiery were naturally discontented and conscious of ill treatment, and conscious also of their strength as a united body. Captain Heywood was one of those who at this juncture assisted Washington to allay the growing impatience and to persuade the men to disband peaceably, in the hope of justice from the tardy jieople who had profited by their sutferings. When, after peace was finally established, he returned to his native town, he found himself called upon to devote much of hia time to the public. His neighbors had learned to appreciate his integrity and the soundness of his judgment. Later, he removed to Worcester, where he cultivated a large farm, portions of which remain in the hands of his descendants to this day. In 1801 he succeeded Judge Dorr, and held office so long as the court existed. He is the last judge of any of the higher courts of this county who was not educated for the legal profession.

John Sprague, who succeeded Artemas Ward as chief of the Common Pleas, was, as has been said, the only member of the bar before the Revolution who continued for any length of time to practice in the courts under the new establishment. His first competitor was Levi Lincoln, who was admitted to the bar in Hampshire County, and began practice here as soon as the courts were opened in 1775. Joshua Upham had not then abandoned his Brookfield clientage, but remained only a few months longer. Lincoln was the son of Enoch Lincoln, a farmer of Hinghara, and had been apprenticed in youth to a trade. In this employment he evidently found he had no pleasure, and he succeeded, with the assistance of friends who were impressed by his manifest desire and aptness for learning and his serious determination to obtain an education, in fitting himself to enter Harvard College. There he graduated in 1772, in his twenty-fourth year, and began the study of the law in Newburyport. Later, he entered the office of Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, who was then of the highest rank in the profession, as well as in the councils of the patriotic party. His studies were interrupted by the call to arms in April, 1775, but he soon returned to his books, and opened his office in Worcester. At once he was made clerk of the courts, and held the office a little over a year. No doubt the duties interfered too seriously with the great opportunity for professional business whicli lay before him. Those who had been the leaders in every walk in life, judges of the courts, lawyers, men of wealth and cultivation, had in large numbers adhered to the British cause, and were then in self-imposed exile. To a man of Lincoln's superior ability it was inevitable that the people should look for leadership and advice. His powers matured early under the responsibilities which he was thus compelled to assume. He possessed naturally great firmness of purpo.se and a sober judgment, and throughout his long career, much of which was passed prominently before the public eye, what he accomplished was largely due to the fact that what, on sufficient reflection, he felt to be his duty, that he unfalteringly strove to do.

He had none of that long period of weary waiting for clients which serves to some extent to winnow out the wheat from the chafl" of modern aspirants for legal honors. After the long vacation and the cessation of general business natural to the beginning of so tremendous a struggle as was then inaugurated, with the first breathing space people realized that their affairs at home still must receive attention. Lincoln at once was overwhelmed with business. In 1779 he was "specially designated to prosecute the claims of government to the large estates of the Refugees, confiscated under the Absentee Act." Mr. Willard says of him : " He was without question at the head of the bar from the close of the Revolution till he left our courts, at the commencement of the present century. His professional business far exceeded that of any other member of the bar. He was retained in every case of importance, and for many years constantly attended the courts in Hampshire and Middlesex." His great success shows that he made the best use of his excellent opportunities. He was a most skillful advocate before juries, pleasing in his address, popular from his known public spirit, eloquent and keen. It must have been a task most congenial to his when, as counsel in the celebrated case involving the liberty of a negro, he was called upon to maintain the equal rights of all men under the laws of his native State. The suit was brought by one Jennison against two of the name of Caldwell, for enticing away a negro slave. Sprague was of counsel for the plaintiff. Lincoln's argument, deduced from the laws of God and nature, from the principles for which the Colonies were even then contending, and from the first article of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights the proposition that in this State at least no man could have the right to say that he was the owner of another. So the court decided, and so, from that day, has been the undisputed law.

With public duties and honors Lincoln's life was replete. He sat in the convention to frame the Constitution of the State, and in the Congress of the Confederation. He was State Senator, Councillor, Lieutenant-Governor. In 1800 he was chosen to represent his district in the Congress of the United States, but had hardly taken his seat when President Jefferson called upon him to enter the Cabinet as Attorney- General. The duties of that station he discharged with ability and faithfulness so marked as to cause Jefferson to accept with the utmost reluctance and with every evidence of regret his resignation, after four years of service.

In the more limited sphere of his native town he was active for good. In the support of the freedom of religious worship, of common-school education, of advancement in the arts and sciences, in support of government against faction and misrule, his voice and influence were ever ready. The latter years of his life he spent in a well-earned retirement, enjoying the delights of literature, which his busy life had only permitted him to sip. In 1820 he died, transmitting to a line of descendants, as an especial legacy, which they have never surrendered, his great quality of faithfulness to duty.

In 1776 Mr. Lincoln was appointed judge of the Probate Court for this county, and held the office for six years. It was not until after the adoption of the State Constitution that a law was passed establishing and defining the jurisdiction of this court. As haa been said, the judges appointed from time to time had been in theory the deputies of the Governor and Council, in whom the jurisdiction really resided. In 1783 an act passed providing that an " able and learned person" should be appointed in each county for " taking the probate of wills and granting administration on the estates of persons deceased," for the appointment of" guardians to minors, idiots, and distracted persons," "examining and allowing the accounts of executors, administrators, or guardians," and other kindred matters.

One year after Lincoln, William Stearns, of Lunenburg, entered upon a brief career at the bar, which was cut short by his death in 1784. Before he decided upon making the law his profession he had studied divinity and made a beginning in journalism. He was a lovable man, who, even in the short time he lived, made friends of all about him, and left a reputation for kindness of heart, joined with talents, that promised him a successful career. He was associated with Sprague for the plaintiff in the case of Jennison Jigainst Caldwell, to which reference has been made.

The next admission was not until 1780. In that year Dvvight Foster, Daniel Bigelow and Edward Bangs took the oath. Bigelow was a Worcester man, born in 1752. After graduation at Harvard he tried his hand at pedagogy for a few months. Then, with Stearns, he carried on a newspaper, which lived about a year, when both its editors betook them to the law. Bigelow settled in Petersham, and there won the confidence of the community as a counsellor whose advice it was safe to follow, and as a suitable person to be entrusted with legislative functions. For eight years in House and Senate he represented bis constituents with fidelity, and until his death, in 1806, retained the respect which he had fiiirly earned.

Edward Bangs, a native of Hardwick, was pursuing his studies at Harvard when the news spread of the British expedition to Concord, on the 19th of April. He was a member of a company recruited from the undergraduates, which had been drilled in anticipation that their services might be needed in some such emergency. In the irregular warfare of that memorable day he bore his part courageously. With true chivalry he made no waron the defenceless, and saved the life of a wounded enemy whom others were about to put to death. Although the regular course of studies was interrupted by the exciting scenes that followed, he continued to use his books at home, so that when the recitations were resumed he was ready to proceed with his class, and graduated in 1777, at the age of twenty-one. Chief Justice Parsons, then practicing in Newburyport, became his guide through the mazes of the law, his college classmate, Rufus King, being then also his fellow-studeut. After admission to the bar, in 1780, he formed a partnership with Mr. Stearns for practice in Worcester, but after two years concluded to try his fortunes alone. In this he achieved a moderate success, though a biographer, from whom most of the material for these sketches is drawn, says of him that " In his arguments on questions of law ... he conceived the matter well, and was methodical in his arrangement, and made strong points, but was not sufficiently lucid in their enunciation."

For several years he held the office of prosecuting attorney for the county. From the asperities and dry detail of his profession he found relief in the study of the classics, in art, in music and in poetry. He was a great admirer of tlie beauties of nature and a devoted horticulturist. At one time he tried his hand at editing a newspaper, and was one of the eleven members of this bar who, at different periods of its precarious and stormy existence, endeavored to bear up the which Francis Blake had intended should throw its protection about the national policy of Mr. Jefferson.

During the disturbance of 1786 and '87, known as " Shays's Rebellion," he contributed by pen, voice and arm to the upholding of the cause of order and good government. When the rioters gained such numbers and cohesion as to threaten some serious danger to the State, he felt it his duty to enlist. The privations of the campaign in the winter of 1786-87 - brief though it was - were a severe strain upon his health, the effects of which were felt through life.

In 1811 the old system of County Courts was abolished, and the State divided into six circuits, for each of which a Court of Common Pleas was established.

The Western Circuit consisted of Worcester, Hampshire and Berkshire Counties. Each court consisted of a chief and two associate justices, any two of whom might hold the court. The jurisdiction was the same as that of the County Courts which were superseded. Mr. Bangs, who was then county attorney, was promoted to a seat on the new tribunal, and retained that position till the time of his death, in 1818.

The predecessor of Judge Bangs, in the office of county attorney, was Nathaniel Paine ; born in Worcester ; graduated at Harvard, and through life identified with the town of his birth. Hestudied law with John Sprague, in Lancaster, who was then in himself the bar of the county. That year (1775), however, saw Levi Lincoln's entry upon his professional career, and young Paine had before him most excellent examples in his instructor and his young rival. With the exception of the four years immediately following his admission to the bar, in 1781, when he lived in Groton, Mr. Paine spent his life in Worcester. There, one says of him, he " acquired a practice at one time greater in extent, it is believed, especially in the collection of debts, than was ever enjoyed by any other professional man in the county." For thirty-five years he discharged the delicite duties of judge of the Probate Court for this county, succeeding Judge Dorr, in 1801. In that court, where the widow and the fatherless, the hapless victim of insanity and the reckless prodigal are brought, in order that the rights, which their own weakness is insufficient to maintain, may be secured to them, it is needful that a man of wide sympathies, of patience and of sound judgment should preside. These qualities Judge Paine possessed, and in his long term of service, which has not its equal for duration in this county, and probably not in the state, they were ripened into the character of a model judge. Some one has observed that, broadly speaking, in the course of a generation, less than Judge Paine's official term, all the property of a county passes through the processes of the Court of Probate.

In 1817 an act was passed " to regulate the jurisdiction and proceedings of the Courts of Probate," by whicli all provisions of previous statutes were codified and the methods of transacting the business of the court established much as they are in vogue at the present time. In 1823 the system of remuneration by fees was abolished, and fixed salaries established for judges and registers. In Worcester County the judge was allowed six hundred dollars, and the register eleven hundred dollars, the latter office, though of less dignity, commanding a greater salary, inasmuch as it occupied more thoroughly the time of the incumbent. Judge Paine was distinguished for courtesy of manner, for a habit of observation, a faculty of retaining in his memory what he saw or heard, and great facility in communicating his stores of anecdote thus treasured up. He was accordingly a most deliglitful companion - one who could entertain^ by his own colloquial power, or who was ready to add to his acquisition by listening to others. He lived several years after resigning his judicial functions, and died in 1840, at the ripe age of eighty-two.

One of Levi Lincoln's students who obtained a good standing at the bar was Seth Hastings, of Mendon. He was born in Cambridge, in 1762, and graduated at its university twenty years later. After completing his professional studies, he opened an office in Mendon, and made that town his home till the close of a useful life of just three-score years and ten. He was not a graceful orator, but a wellgrounded lawyer, in whom courts and juries recognized a man who understood his subject, and reasoned it out in logical order. He was a member of Congress for three terms and a State Senator later. In 1819 he was made chief justice of the Court of Sessions. Two of his sons adopted his profession, and practiced in this county.

William Stedman was another Cambridge man who settled in this county. He graduated from Harvard at nineteen in 1784, and entered the office of Chief Justice Dana to fit himself for practice. Admitted in Essex in 1787, he immediately chose Lancaster for his field, and there obtained a considerable practice as a counsellor. He filled the offices successively of member of the Legislature, member of Congress and clerk of the courts. He was well versed in the learning of his profession, and greatly relied upon as a counsellor, but did not obtain eminence as an advocate. In Congress he was a general favorite and one of the wits of the House. His easy, aflTable manner, cheerful disposition and ready fund of humor made him popular in every circle. He was a strong supporter of Federalist doctrines. At one time, in retaliation for the imprisonment of some British-born subjects who had become naturalized as American citizens, a party of British oflHcers were arrested in this country. Ten of them were brought by the United States marshal to Worcester for lodgment in the county jail. The affair aroused considerable excitement, and earnest protest was made by Francis Blake, Stedman and others against the use of the jail for such a purpose. Lincoln, on the other hand, supported the demand of the marshal, and, after some hot debate, persuaded the sheriff to permit the incarceration of the prisoners. The sympathizers of the latter endeavored to make the confinement as tolerable as possible, and on one occasion gave them an elaborate dinnerparty within the jail. Shortly afterwards the prisoners overpowered their guard, and effected an escape, and suspicion was not unnaturally directed to their late hosts as connivers at the deliverance. This charge was many years later refuted by one of the officers themselves, who declared that no assistance was rendered them by any Americans. Mr. Stedman removed to Newburyport in the latter part of his life, and there died in 1831.

Pliny Merrick, the elder, was the son of a clergyman in Wilbraham, and, after graduation from Harvard, studied divinity, and for some years preached occasional sermons. He had not sufficient health to undertake the constant labors of a settled minister, and felt obliged to try the milder climate of Virginia. There he was employed as a private tutor, and improved his leisure in the study of the law. Whether he thought the exactions of this profession less arduous does not appear; but he returned to Massachusetts, completed his studies, was admitted to the bar in Plymouth County, and announced his readiness to receive clients in his native town. From there he removed to Brookfield in 1788, and continued in practice till his death in 1814. He gave evidence of fine talents as an advocate, and had much of that rhetorical skill for which his son, the late Judge Merrick, was distinguished. It has been remarked that an unsuccessful lawyer often made a good clergyman, but that one who left the pulpit for the forum rarely bettered his condition. Mr. Merrick seems to have been an exception to this general statement ; for he gained a reputation as a sound lawyer, while of his clerical efforts we learn little.

A rival of Merrick for the clientage of Brookfield and its vicinity was Jabez Uphasi. He was born in that town about the year 1764. His father was a Revolutionary officer, holding the rank of captain at the close of the war. The son more easily, if less gloriously, earned the title of major for peaceful service on the staff of a general of militia. He showed his pluck and persistence, however, by earning his way through the collegiate course. His class graduated in 1785, but Upham disagreed with the faculty as to the just rank which should be assigned him at commencement, and left the college without the degree for which he had made such exertions. He had, however, the more important acquisition, a mind well trained and restored, and later received the diploma which testified to the fact. After three years of study in the office of Judge Foster he entered the ranks of the profession, and looked about him for a place in which to make essay of his powers. One or two attempts in other towns convinced him that on his native heath he was strongest, and in Brookfield he passed his life, too early closed in 1811. Some years before his death he met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of a leg, an operation from whose effects he never fully recovered. He was twice chosen to a seat in Congress, succeeding Seth Hastings as the representative of the Worcester South District. Although he died at forty-seven, when a lawyer is supposed to be at his best, he had obtained a high position, and is spoken of with great respect by contemporaries and men who knew his reputation. His strength lay in a most painstaking investigation of his case, and a persistence in bringing out every point of law or fact on which he relied. Nothing that he thought contributed to the strength of his argument was omitted, even though the patience of his auditors was at times severely tested. Not brilliancy, but unflagging effort was the means of his success.

Not all the members of this bar have been high examples of what is best in character and attainments. Perhaps it is as well to remember by way of warning that in the past, as now, men who have set out with hopes as eager, with ambitions as lofty and with opportunities apparently as favorable as the most successful whom we have called to mind, have fallen in the race or lagged very far behind the wisners of the prizes. A very eccentric character was a law3'er in Leominster. Of that town its local historian remarks that it had been most fortunate in the number of members of the bar there resident, and follows this with the inexplicable non-sequitur that for the first half-century of its existence there were no lawyers in the place.

Whatever subtle meaning may have lain in the writer's mind, one of the lawyers must have furnished - some topic for tea-table gossip in the quiet village. Asa Johnson graduated at Harvard in 1787, at an age when most men are established in life. But his career had theretofore been an exciting one. During the Revolution he had served in the navy of the Confederation, and had come out with quite a handsome share of prize money. With this he determined to secure an education, and fitted himself for the bar with credit. At one time he acquired a sufficient practice to lay by a competency, and was apparently on the road to a respectable position as a country counsellor. He was thoroughly honest, a good classical scholar and fond of his books. He possessed an active intellect, and is described as an agreeable conversationalist, quick at repartee when he could be drawn into any social intercourse. But he was one of those men in whom the social instinct seems either never to have existed or to gradually disappear. His religious views separated him widely from the sympathy of his neighbors in that Godfearing community. He was called an Atheist in the days when a man who doubted the least of the generally received dogmas was looked upon as in serious danger of eternal punishment. Becoming more and more a recluse, and permitting no one to become intimate, with him, the most fanciful stories were told of his methods of life. It is said that he cooked and ate cats, owls and reptiles in his lonely home. His only intercourse with his fellow-men, at length, was at the gaming table, and there he dissipated the property he had laid by. In 1820, poor, almost friendless and miserable, he died, an illustration, too often repeated, that man cannot fulfill the aim of his being either to his own satisfaction or with worldly success v/ho lives wholly in and for himself.

Peentice Mellen, who practiced law in Sterling from 1789 to 1791, deserves a passing notice in these chronicles, from the fact that in later years he became chief justice of the highest court of the State of Maine, and in that capacity reflected credit on the State where he was educated, and the bar at which his early impulse in the path of success was received.

The professional life of Benjamin Adams, covering close on to half a century, is one of those level stretches of beautiful meadow which seems to span the interval between our point of departure and our standing-ground, and to bring nearer to us the lofty hills which we have left, and enable us to compare them with the eminences close at hand. When Adams was admitted to the bar, in 1792, John Sprague held the office of high sheriff, but that same year resigned its duties to give his entire attention to his large professional business. A few years later, as chief justice of the Common Pleas, he doubtless inspired the young advocate with admiration for his learning and dignity. Levi Lincoln was in the full tide of a large and increasing practice, and was already known as the man whose arguments had abolished slavery on Massachusetts soil. The rugged honesty of Artemas Ward secured for him the respect on the bench even of the counsel, who appreciated their superiority in knowledge of the law to the old general, whose profession was rather of arms than of briefs and writs.

Born in Mendon in 1764, Mr. Adams received a liberal education at Brown University. He studied law in Uxbridge with Colonel Tyler, who had been a Revolutionary officer and was the first lawyer practicing in the south part of the county. Tyler does not seem to have obtained much eminence, or to have long remained in practice. Soon after Adams was admitted to the bar he succeeded to the business of his preceptor, who then disappears from history. Possessed of fair abilities and a steady purpose to make the most of them, he acquired a substantial practice and, what was better, the confidence of his townsmen. On the death of Judge Brigham he was elected to fill the vacant seat in Congress, and by successive re-elections retained the office until 1823. In that year he was defeated as a candidate by Jonathan Russell, because of a speech made by Adams in favor of the principle of protection. At that time Daniel Webster had not seen the light which afterwards so clearly illuminated his pathway as to cause him to retrace his steps and forswear his logic. The great statesman lent his matchless powers to exposing the fallacies which Adams upheld, in so forcible a manner that neither he nor any one who has come after him has been able to answer the argument, and the result was Adams's defeat. In very truth he was before his time. An ample fortune which he had accumulated he lost by unfortunate investments in manufacturing enterprises, and it may not be an unwarrantable inference that his own ill success caused him to feel more deeply the need of some protection by the State, for business that in itself was profitless.

He is described as a man of peculiarly even temperament, who did not suffer prosperity or adversity to throw him from his balance. An upright Christian gentleman, he did the duties that lay near him, usefully serving his community in whatever way his hand found to do. In a county whose bar boasted before his death of the fame of the second Levi Lincoln, of Charles Allen and of Emory Washburn ; his attainments were not of an order to be loudly heralded. None the less they were a distinct contribution to the welfare of his neighborhood. His talents were honestly put to their best use, so that it could be said the world was better for his life. In 1837, a few years after the late Peter C. Bacon came to the bar, he died in Uxbridge, where his active life had been spent.

Of the fame of an orator only one who has listened to the magic of the living voice, and felt his own enthusiasm aroused beneath the spell of the vivid eloquence, is fitted to speak with authority. Francis Blake was pre-eminently a master of the art of speech. His other titles to remembrance have been subordinated to this in the minds of those who have spoken and written in his praise. The late Judge Thomas, a critic qualified by his skill in the same art, has said of him: "In theCourt-House . . . he won by his sweetness and commanded by his dignity; where his learning and logic convinced, where his wit and humor convulsed Bench, Bar and Jury; where his passion aroused to indignation or melted into tears; where now his genius, his eloquence and his name even are but a tradition; where the orb has sunk long since below the horizon ; and the eye catches only the last lingering, fading hues of twilight. Such is the history and the fate of forensic eloquence."

Mr. Blake was the son of a Revolutionary oflicer who lived in Rutland until the boy was five years old when he removed to Hiugham. In that town the Reverend Joseph Thaxter, afterwards a distinguished clergyman, taught the pupils of a grammar-school. Under his excellent instruction Blake made such rapid progress in preparation for college that he entered Harvard much the youngest member of his class and graduated in 1789, when only iu his sixteenth year. He was considered one of the brightest and most accomplished scholars of his class; nor do his faculties seem to have been unduly stimulated nor his brain turned by his rapid advancement. He soon began the study of the law in Mr. Sprague's office in Lancaster, and at twenty was admitted to the bar, thoroughly equipped for the race for legal distinction. For a few years he tried the quality of his metal in Rutland, his native village, where he obtained a business sufficient to warrant his entering a larger field. In 1802 he came to Worcester, and there practiced until, in the year preceding his death, his failing health compelled him to give up his severe labors and assume the less exacting duties of clerk of the courts. At the time that he came to Worcester the contest of parties which had resulted in the defeat of the Federalists was still exciting the public mind. Mr. Jefferson's policy was fiercely attacked by the opposition, and Blake's ardent temperament impelled him to eagerly support the administration whose success he had desired. The publication of a newspaper called the National ^yis was begun, principally as a result of his efforts, and he undertook the editorial duties. Through a large part of President Jefferson's first term Blake's pen and influence were constantly devoted to the promulgation and defence of the doctrines of the Republicans, as they were then called. In 1804 he retired from the field of journalism, leaving the paper to other hands. Under the editorial guidance of several different members of the bar it passed through various experiences of the uncertainties of newspaper life until its mission ended.

For two years Mr. Blake represented the county in the State Senate, but aside from this held no political office. His real triumphs were in the court-room. For his success there it is instructive to learn that he did not depend upon his abundant resources of intellectual gifts.

Mr. Willard says, "It is a wrong impression that Mr. Blake made but slight preparation in his causes. But few could have discovered more investigation, or have given more satisfactory proofs of diligent and thorough study in the management of his causes. . . . His briefs were remarkably full," and showed "that mental effort had been tasked in a degree to which few in full and successful practice are willing or able to submit."

With powers apparently just developed to their highest value, and the brightest prospect of an honorable career, his physical health gave way. In 1817, when only forty-two, he died poor, as is the lot of most great advocates, but rich in friends and reputation.

One of Mr. Blake's law students and ardent admirers was a Worcester boy, Samuel Brazer, born in 1785. At the outset of his career he was placed in the employ of a mercantile house in Boston, where it was intended that he should fit himself to become one of the substantial merchants of that thriving town. He evinced, however, so decided a taste and aptitude for literary pursuits, that he was allowed to enter Leicester Academy to prepare fur college. He had that treacherous facility iu acquiring knowledge from books which often leads its possessor to rely on hasty and superficial attention to his tasks. His ready wit and spirit of mischief led him into seme pranks which resulted in his incurring the displeasure of his instructors and the abandonment of his plans for a college course.

Entering Blake's office, he found himself in the midst of political turmoil, rather than an atmosphere adapted to profound study, such as so volatile a character most required. He entered with zeal into the exciting controversies of the day, contributed to the jEgis, and evidently acquired a taste for politics, which overcame every other interest or ambition. He was by no means unfitted for public life. Numerous prose writings and occasional addresses show a considerable ability, and a few ventures in the realms of poetry prove his command of language and active imagination.

After admission to the bar he began practice in New Salem, but its detail soon became distasteful. He could not reconcile himself to the quiet life of the country lawyer, waiting for clients. He moved to Baltimore, and died there in 1823, without having realized the hopes of his friends or the promise of his youth.

One of the justices of the Supreme Court in the first j'ears of the century was Simeon Strong, who had been distinguished as a lawyer before the Revolution, and had continued practice not only in his county of Hampshire, but in our courts after the war. His son, Solomon Strong, adopted his father's profession, and was admitted to the bar in 1800, just before his father was appointed to the bench. He was born in Amherst in 1780, and received his education at Williams College. Somewhat of a rollingstone, we find him practicing successively in Eoyalston, Athol, Westminster and Leominster. Notwithstanding his apparent instability, he had acquired a competent knowledge of the law and retained a good clientage for many years. Two terms in Congress, besides several in the State Legislature, showed that I he had the confidence and esteem of his constituents, and his qualifications as a lawyer were recognized by his appointment to the bench of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas upon the death of Judge Bangs, in 1818.

By an act of the General Court, which took eff'ect in 1821, the system of Circuit Courts was abolished, and the Court of Common Pleas for the Commonwealth established. By its provisions four justices were to be appointed, any one of whom could hold a session of the court. The terms were to be held at the same times and places as had previously been provided for the Circuit Courts, and the jurisdiction, rules, and methods of procedure of the new court were changed in no essential particular. The act provides " that the chief justice of said Court of Common Pleas shall, during his continuance in office, receive from the treasury of the Commonwealth, in full, for his services, the sura of twenty-one hundred dollars annually," and the associates in like manner the sum of eighteen hundred dollars. All fees theretofore paid to the justices of the Circuit Courts are directed to be paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth. The change seems, on the whole, to have been principally in the interests of economy, for under the new statute four judges at fixed salaries took the place of ten under the circuit system, who received an uncertain rate of compensation, dependent largely on fees.

The first chief justice was Artemas Ward, then of Newton, son of the old general and judge. Judge Strong was appointed the senior associate, and for twenty-two years, until his resignation, continued to discharge his judicial functions with dignity and credit. He died in Leominster in 1850. During the last years of his life, after his retirement from the bench, his patience was tried by disease and suffering. His cheerful courage sustained him through it all, and added another to his titles to our respect.

When in the first year of the present century Levi Lincolu assumed the duties of Attorney-General of the United States he was in command of the most extensive practice in this vicinity, often called into adjoining counties, and in the foremost rank of advocates in the Commonwealth. During his four years service in Washington he could not have retained the same control of his great clientage as formerly. In 1805 he stated as one of his reasons for resisting the urgent request of President Jefterson that he would remain in the Cabinet, that his duties to his family required his presence at home, and it appears not improbable that he may have been thinking of his son just completing his studies and ready to enter upon a inofessional career, iu the outset of which the father's experience and established business connections would be of infinite value. The son taking up the name, the profession, and the position in the community of his father added, as time went on, new dignities to each.

Born in Worcester in 1782, his reputation is the peculiar pride of the city in whose growth and welfare he always took the profoundest interest, and where he made his home.

He graduated from Harvard in 1802, and studied law in his father's office, though without the advantage of the daily presence and advice of the busy Attorney-General. When he began his practice, however, the senior Lincoln had returned from Washington, and for several years thereafter continued to practice in our courts. The young counsellor needed no outside iuHuence to recommend him to those in search of a sound legal adviser and earnest advocate. He very early made his qual ifications apparen t,and with such rivals as Jabez Upham, Francis Blake and John Davis, the position of leadership at the bar, to which he attained, was not won without many a hard-fought contest. The power of incessant application and a most determined will were his, and by these he overcame obstacles that sometimes seemed too great for him to cope with. He left the practice of the law at fortytwo, and survived all of his cotemporaries in the profession, so that we have uot the testimony of those who had heard him as an advocate. But he told friends of " the overwhelming labor which his successes cost him ; bow he would watch the night out in the study of his cases, and then go in the morning into the court-room, with a throbbing brain, and speak for hours." Efibrts of such a character could only be sustained by vigorous physical health, which to the last years of his life Governor Lincoln possessed. As a result of his careful preparation, he acquired a complete mastery of his faculties, so that in the vicissitudes of trials he was ready to use to the best advantage all his mental resources. He had a great command of language and of admirably clear statemen', which entitled him to be called an eloquent speaker. Certainly he was a most convincing one. His style was not encumbered with rhetorical ornaments, but plain, substantial and direct. When, in the year of his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, he gave up business, he had acquired a position at the bar second to none in the Commonwealth, and a

His political honors are naturally those which have most prominently been associated with the memory of his name. In 1812 be was a member of the State Senate, add was a strong supporter of the administration in its measures which resulted in the war with Great Britain. The majority in this State were intensely opposed to the war, and here at the outset of his career Lincoln exhibited his independence of judgment and courage in supporting his convictions. He was rewarded by seeing a strong sentiment built up in favor of sustaining the war after we were engaged. In 1814, as a member of the House of Representatives, he protested with vigor against the resolution which resulted in our participation in the famous Hartford Convention. Defeated by a large majority in the General Court, he drew up a protest which was signed by the minority, and widely circulated through the country, bringing its author into national repute. The convention was held, but its action, beyond furnishing a text for secessionists' arguments in later years, had no result, and aroused but short-lived interest.

For several years Mr. Lincoln represented Worcester in the Legislature - -always with credit. In 1822 he was elected Speaker of the House, in which a majority were of the opposite political party. This is an evidence of that remarkable freedom from partisan bias which he displayed on all occasions. Many years afterwards, when a member of Congress, he felt it his duty to reply to an attack which a member of his own party had made upon the President, to whom he was politically opposed, and did it with so much dignity and effect that the supporters of the administration published his remarks. He would not win l>y any but the fairest means and the most direct arguments.

His promotion was rapid. He left the Legislature for the Lieutenant-Governorship, and while in that office was appointed anassociatejusticeof the Supreme Court. On that bench he remained only a year, but brought to the performance of its duties a learning and a dignified urbanity, which gave evidence that there also he would have added to his reputation, and to that of the court, already distinguished for its high character. In 1825 he received the nomination for the office of Governor of Massachusetts from both political parties. He said that, owing to his judicial position, this was the only way in which he should have considered it proper to accept the nomination. For nine years he held the office by successive reelections, most of them practically uncontested, and no more faithful or efficient officer has filled the chair. Interested in everything that could contribute to the welfare of the Commonwealth, he imparted a stimulus to internal improvements of all kinds. Canals and railroads, the improvement of agriculture, the upbuilding of manufactures, reforms of the prisons and of hospitals for the insane, the establishment of Normal Schools, all received his energetic attention.

Declining to accept a tenth term as Governor, he was persuaded to take the seat in Congress left vacant by the election of John Davis to the gubernatorial office. There he remained during four Congresses, and again sought to retire among his friends and his home enjoyments, free from the constant turmoil of public life.

During the rest of his life this retirement was broken only at intervals. In 1848 Worcester, having received a charter, organized its municipal government, and called upon him, as its first citizen, to occupy the mayoralty. This duty he cheerfully performed for one year. For twenty years thereafter he lived amid its growing population and thriving industries, always interested in every movement of progre,-s, and contributing by his management of his large landed property to rendering it a city of beautiful streets and home-like residences. Much of his time was devoted to the encouragement of agriculture. In his own fine farm and herd of cattle he took infinite delight, and the Worcester Agricultural Society, of which he was president for thirty years, owed much to his constant care. Though eminently a man of aftairs rather than of books, he took a deep and rational interest in scientific and literary investigations.

His pastor, the Rev. Alonzo Hill, speaks of him as a deeply religious man, constant in every good word and work for the church and society which his father had been largely instrumental in establishing. Regular in his attendance on public worship, his erect figure was every Sunday to be seen on his way to the church, a mile from his home, until the infirmities of age in the last year of his life prevented.

One who knew him well says that his great characteristic was faithfulness - a thoroughness in whatever matter, large or small, that he undertook. He had an ambition to possess the respect and good-will of the public, but this ambition was subordinate to the determination to deserve that esteem. No considerations of present advantage or of personal friendship were sufficient to deter him from the course which seemed to him the proper one. This was well illustrated when, as Governor, it became necessary for him to appoint a chief justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Judge Parker. Resisting the claims of an intimate friendship, the urgency of influential supporters and a natural desire to gratify long-standing expectations, he selected a man whom his judgmenc a-sured him was best qualified for the office. Long afterwards he used to say that the act of his Governorship on which he looked back with the most complete satisfaction was the giving to the judicial history of the Commonwealth the services of Lemuel Shaw, and

During the Civil War he was a most earnest supporter of tlie government by word and act. Too far advanced in years himself to take the field, his eloquent words incited others and his steady courage sustained the drooping faith of those who doubted our ultimate triumph. His last public service was to act as one of the electors-at-Iarge, and to cast a ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. A patriot to the core, with a son and grandson in active service, he never felt that he had done enough for his country while there remained any service which in its hour of need he could perform.

Judge Washburn has well summed up his virtue when he says : " I have little hesitation in saying that I have never known one whose life and character had more of completeness in its composition than his. Among his characteristics were a steadiness of purpose, a quickness in e.xpedients, a judgment cool and well-balanced, discriminating nicely in the selection of agents and the application of means, and withal, a courage that shrunk from no responsibility, and an industry that was alike incessant and unwearied."

In 1868, the year of Governor Lincoln's death, there passed away a life-long friend who had arrived at an equal length of days. Rejoice Newton was a native of Greenfield, and a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1807. After studying law for three years he was admitted in Hampshire County, and was so fortunate as to form a partnership with Francis Blake, then at the height of his successful practice in Worcester. This connection continued for four years, which must have been full of instruction and inspiration to the younger man, while the latter's methodical habits and calm judgment must have been of service to the brilliant orator. After the dissolution of the partnership the friendly relations were still maintained, as is evinced by letters written by Mr. Blake in the last year of his life.

For seven years Newton discharged with efficiency the duties of prosecuting attorney for the county. At the end of that time, in 1826, he formed a partnership with Wm. Lincoln, the scholarly historian, a brother of Governor Lincoln. As a lawyer, he was respected as a safe and careful adviser. In the House and Senate of the State he served usefully several terms. In numerous business enterprises of the city he took an active interest, and his services were in request on boards of directors of financial institutions. By attention to business and judicious investments he accumulated a handsome property, and was able to retire from active pursuits and enjoy his books and his farm during the last ten or fifteen years of his life. Like Governor Lincoln, he had a great fondness for

His tastes in this respect he was able to gratify, for his broad acres were his only care for many years. One of the beautiful hills which overlooks the city of his adoption still bears his name, and now, annexed to an adjacent park, reminds us that the farms of a few years ago are becoming the city locations of today.

It was remarked of Mr. Newton that, winning or losing in the court-room, his imperturbable temper was never disturbed. Such a command over one's self is invaluable to any man, but to none more than to the advocate, when, in the sharp contests of jury trials, a keen opponent is ready to take advantage of every lapse, and the twelve men are observing as carefully the conduct of the counsel as the statements of the witnesses.

At the ripe age of eighty-five Mr. Newton completely withdrew from that world whicli had become accustomed to his absence by the strictness of his retirement from active life. The papers of the day, in alluding to his death, spoke of him as one not known to their modern generation.

This bar has contributed largely from its numbers to the ranks of historical scholars. In the case ©f Isaac Goodwin the taste for investigation of the records of the past and for literary work was so strong as to make the ordinary business of the lawyer a distasteful drudgery. Born in the town of Plymouth in 1786, and pursuing his studies there until he was admitted to the bar, in 1808, it would have been strange if he had not imbibed a love and reverence for the tradition of olden time. He did not receive a collegiate education, but, after passing through the common schools, entered the office of Joshua Thomas, a distinguished counsellor in his native town. His first office he opened in Boston, but, after a trial of less than a year, sought a less thoroughly occupied field for his unpracticed eflTorts in the town of Sterling, in this county. There he undertook such business as came to him, and found leisure for his favorite studies. His contributions to legal literature were works of considerable value. The first, a treatise on the duties of town officers, was a much-needed guide for the conduct of country selectmen through difficulties that not infrequently perplex them. In later years it was the foundation of a larger and more complete work on the same subject by Judge Thomas, which for years remained a standard reference book. Whether such compilations do not as often mislead the lay reader who relies on his own interpretation of their language as they assist him may be doubted, but in the hands of the trained student they prove most useful tools. "The New England Sheriff"" was his second venture in this field, and till this day that work is a valued part of a lawyer's library.