Volume 1 — SKETCHES OF ALUMNI AT THE DIFFERENT COLLEGES IN NEW ENGLAND.

SKETCHES OF ALUMNI AT THE DIFFERENT COLLEGES IN NEW ENGLAND.

HON. NATHAN WESTON OF AUGUSTA, ME.

John Weston, from whom the subject of this memoir is the fourth in descent, came from Buckinghamshire in England to this country, in 1644, at the age of 13. After residing a few years in Salem, he purchased a tract of land in what is now South Reading, Ms., to which he removed, and where he spent the residue of his days. He died in 1723; being more than 90 years of age. It is noted on his gravestone, that he was one of the founders of the church in Reading. A part of his estate remained in the hands of his posterity for over one hundred years. Stephen, his son, was a pious, industrious, and respectable man. He had a farm in Reading, where he died in 1753, at the age of 88.

Stephen, his son, became the owner of a farm in Wilmington, Ms. He was a leading man there, distinguished for his piety, and was for many years Deacon of the church in that town, where he died in 1776, in his 81st year. Nathan, his fifth son, was born at Wilmington, in 1740. He married Elisabeth, the mother of the subject of this Memoir. She was the daughter of Samuel Bancroft, Esq., of Reading, who represented that town for many years in the General Court, and sister of the late Rev. Dr. Bancroft of Worcester. He (Nathan) removed to that part of Hallowell which is now Augusta, in Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, in 1781. He was for several years in the State government of Massachusetts, being, at different times, a member of the House, Senate, and Council of that Commonwealth. He died in 1832, at the advanced age of nearly 93 years.

Nathan Weston, his son and the subject of this Memoir, was born at Hallowell, now Augusta, July 27, 1782. He pursued his studies, preparatory to his entering college, at Hallowell Academy, under the direction of the late Preceptor Moody. He was graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1803. He went immediately into the study of the law. After reading a few months with Benjamin Whitwell, Esq., of Augusta, he entered the office of George Blake, Esq., Attorney for the United States, for the Massachusetts District, at Boston, where he prosecuted his studies, until his admission to the bar, in the county of Suffolk, in July, 1806.

He soon after opened an office at Augusta, but in March, 1807, removed to New Gloucester, in the county of Cumberland, where he continued in full practice in his profession three years, representing that town in 1808, in the General Court of Massachusetts. In June, 1809, he married Paulina B., daughter of the Hon. Daniel Cony, and returned to Augusta, in March, 1810, where he now (1847) resides. He continued the practice of the law until the fall of 1811, when he was made Chief-Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Second Eastern Circuit of Massachusetts, in which he continued to officiate until the separation of Maine, in 1820. He then became one of the Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court, and in October, 1834, he was appointed Chief-Justice of that State, which office he held till October, 1841, when his term of office expired. In 1831, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him at Dartmouth College, and afterwards at Waterville and Bowdoin Colleges, Maine.

In February, 1825, at a general meeting of the members of both houses of the Legislature, then sitting in Portland, without distinction of party, he was with great unanimity nominated for the office of Governor, but preferring to remain on the bench, he declined the nomination.

Judge Weston has four sons; Nathan, Daniel Cony, who married Mary C. North, granddaughter of the late General William North of New York, George Melville, and Charles. The first three were educated at Bowdoin College, and are now in the practice of law; one in Augusta, one in Orono, and one in Vassalborough, in Maine. His third son, George Melville, is Attorney for the State for the county of Kennebec. Charles, his fourth son, has been a midshipman in the Navy of the United States. Of his daughters, Paulina Cony died in 1820, aged two years. Two survive, namely, Catharine Martin and Louisa Matilda.

Chief-Justice Weston is not known as the author of any published work, beyond an occasional oration or address, in his younger days; but the decisions of the Supreme Court of Maine, now extended to about twenty volumes, are filled with legal opinions drawn by him, which will remain a monument of his learning and industry.

HON. RICHARD LAW OF NEW LONDON, CT.

[This memoir was obtained through the instrumentality of Prof. Kingsley of Yale College.]

Richard Law was a son of the Hon. Jonathan Law, Governor of Connecticut, and was born at Milford, on the 17th of March, 1733. He was educated at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1751, and where also he received the degree of LL. D. Immediately after graduating, he entered upon the study of the law, in the office and under the instruction of that able jurist and accomplished lawyer, the Hon. Jared Ingersoll; and after a course of studies usual at that day, he was, soon after the age of 21, admitted to the bar, at New Haven; and immediately removed, and settled at New London, where he became highly distinguished in his profession. As an advocate at the bar, his style was pure and correct, but not copious and flowing. He was distinguished more as a learned lawyer, a close logician, a fair special pleader, than an eloquent orator. His talents were better adapted to a court than a jury. He possessed a discrimination, and power of seeing and seizing the great point in the case—the point on which it must turn; and by a course of special pleadings—by drawing on the "heartstrings of the law," he had a faculty of presenting his point, by forming an issue in law for the decision of the court, most favorably for his client; and on such issues, from the logical structure of his mind, he was powerful. He was thoroughly read in the ancient English law authorities; and few American lawyers or jurists, of his day and age, better understood the great principles of the English common law, or could better discriminate between such of those principles as were applicable to the genius of a republican government, and such as were not, than Judge Law. Those which he adopted formed, as it respected the common law, the polestar of his judicial decisions.

After a full and lucrative practice of several years, in consequence of ill health, he was induced to relinquish the bar, and accept a seat as Chief-Judge on the Bench of the County Court for the county of New London. This office he held until May, 1784, when he was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court.

In May, 1776, he was chosen an Assistant, a member of the Council or upper house of Assembly, which office he held by annual elections of the freemen, until May, 1786, when an act was passed excluding Judges from a seat in the Legislature.

In 1777, it is believed that at May session, he was appointed by the General Assembly a member of Congress; and continued with little, if any intermission, a member of that body until 1782.

On granting the charter to the city of New London, he was by the freemen in March, 1784, unanimously chosen Mayor; which office he held until his death—a period of nearly twenty-two years.

On the return of peace, after the Revolution, he was appointed with the Hon. Roger Sherman, to revise the code of Statute Laws of the State. This code had not been revised for thirty years, and had accumulated to a great size, from the great variety of statutes enacted in the emergencies of the Revolution. In its subjects of correction, a work of great interest and importance, it required no small ability so to select and discriminate as to give universal satisfaction. In the discharge of which duty he discovered great knowledge of the science of legislation, and the true principles of national government.

In May, 1786, he was appointed Chief-Judge of the Superior Court; and continued in that office until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States; when being by President Washington appointed District Judge of the District of Connecticut, in October, 1789, he resigned the former and accepted the latter, which he held until his death, which occurred at New London, Jan. 26, 1806, in the 73rd year of his age.

Judge Law lived in an eventful period of his country, and of the world; and the many and various important offices which he held and honorably sustained through the course of a long life, better bespeak, than language can express, the character, the worth, and merits of the man.

REV. NAPHTALI SHAW OF BRADFORD, VT.

Naphtali Shaw was born at Bridgewater, Ms., June 20, 1764, and was the fourth son of his parents. His father, who was by occupation a tanner and shoemaker, was William Shaw, who lived in Bridgewater, and married Hannah, daughter of Samuel West, who was a Deacon of the Congregational Church in that place, and lived to be more than eighty years of age. He had five sons and six daughters. At the age of fifteen the subject of this Memoir enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and went with others to take Rhode Island, which was in 1779 in possession of the British, but he did not continue long in the service, the object being accomplished. He prepared for college under the instructions of Dr. Crane, a physician of Titicut Parish, and the Rev. Dr. Reed of West Bridgewater. In 1786, he entered the Freshman Class of Dartmouth College, and graduated there in 1790. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he taught school at Easton, Ms., and at Boston, as an assistant of Mr. Caleb Bingham, an instructor of much celebrity. His theological course of study was pursued under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Sanger of Bridgewater, who was in the habit of educating young men for the ministry. He was approbated to preach the gospel, as it was then called, by the Plymouth Association of Ministers, Aug. 1, 1792. Jan. 30, 1793, he was ordained Pastor of the church in Kensington, N. H., where he remained till Jan. 13, 1813, when he was dismissed on account of ill health. His ministry was pacific and useful; peace and harmony were restored, and the cause of education, morals, and religion promoted. His health was such, that upon resignation, he retired from the ministry, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, having purchased a farm in the town of Bradford, Vt., where he still lives in the enjoyment of his bodily and mental powers, to a good degree, at the age of 84 years.

Mr. Shaw married, June 10, 1798, Mary Crafts, daughter of Dr. John Staples Crafts of Bridgewater, who was to him a great blessing. "The greatest blessing," said Martin Luther, "with which a man can be favored is a pious and amiable wife, who fears God and loves her family, with whom he may live in peace, and in whom he may repose confidence." The wife of Mr. Shaw died Jan. 14, 1840. Their children were four;—Thomas Crafts, living in Bradford, Vt., a farmer, and a deacon of the church in that place, who married Sarah Jenkins, by whom he has two daughters, Sarah Jane and Mary Ann; Eliza Park, who married Dea. Randell H. Wild of West Fairlee, who died in Bradford, Dec. 22, 1841, leaving two daughters, Elisabeth and Emily; Samuel West, who married Jerusha Bliss of Fairlee, and died March 12, 1832, leaving no child; Mary Ann, who died July 12, 1808, in childhood.

HON. NAHUM MITCHELL OF PLYMOUTH.

Nahum Mitchell was born in East Bridgewater, Feb. 12, 1769. His father was Cushing Mitchell, son of Col. Edward, grandson of Edward, and great-grandson of Experience, who was one of the Pilgrim forefathers, and arrived at Plymouth in the third ship, the Ann, in 1623. They all lived and died in East Bridgewater, on the spot which their descendants now occupy. His mother was Jennet, daughter of the Hon. Hugh Orr, from Lochwinioch, County of Renfrew, Scotland, who married Mary, daughter of Capt. Jonathan Bass of East Bridgewater, whose father was Dea. Samuel Bass of Braintree, whose father was John, who married Ruth, daughter of the Hon. John Alden, the Pilgrim; and John's father was Dea. Samuel Bass of Braintree, (now Quincy.) Capt. Jonathan Bass's wife was Susanna, daughter of Nicholas Byram of East Bridgewater, whose wife was Mary, daughter of Dea. Samuel Edson of West Bridgewater, and whose father, Nicholas Byram, married Susanna, daughter of Abraham Shaw of Dedham.

Cushing Mitchell's mother was Elisabeth, daughter of Elisha Cushing of Hingham, a descendant from Matthew Cushing, one of the first settlers in Hingham, and ancestor of all of the name in this part of the country, and whose father was Peter Cushing of Hingham in England. Matthew's wife was Nazareth, daughter of Henry Pitcher. Matthew's son Daniel married Lydia, daughter of Edward Gilman, ancestor of all the Gilmans in New England. Daniel's son Daniel, father of Elisha, married Elisabeth, daughter of Capt. John Thaxter of Hingham, son of Thomas, the ancestor of all the Thaxters in this vicinity. Capt. John Thaxter's wife was Elisabeth, daughter of Nicholas Jacob, or Jacobs, of Hingham.

Col. Edward Mitchell's mother was Alice, daughter of Maj. John Bradford of Kingston, son of William, Deputy-Governor, and grandson of William Bradford, the Governor. The Governor's wife was widow Alice Southworth, her maiden name Carpenter. William the Deputy's wife was Alice, daughter of Thomas Richards of Weymouth. Maj. John's wife was Mercy, daughter of Joseph Warren, son of Richard Warren, and his wife Elisabeth, from London. Joseph's wife was Priscilla, daughter of John, and sister of Eld. Thomas Faunce of Plymouth. Col. Edward Mitchell's mother, after the death of his father, married Dea. Joshua Hersey of Hingham.

The subject of this Memoir prepared for college with the Hon. Beza Hayward, in Bridgewater, and entered Harvard College, July, 1785, where he graduated in 1789. He kept school at Weston, while in college, and a few times after graduating, in Bridgewater and Plymouth; and was engaged in instructing part of the time while attending to his professional studies. He read law with the Hon. John Davis, Judge of the District Court of Massachusetts, lately deceased in Boston, but then living in Plymouth, his native place. He was admitted to the bar, Nov. 24, 1792, and settled in the practice of the law in East Bridgewater, his native place.

Judge Mitchell was Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Southern Circuit, from 1811 to 1821, inclusive, being Chief-Justice during the last two years of that time. He was Representative to General Court from Bridgewater seven years between 1798 and 1812; Representative in Congress from Plymouth District two years, from 1803 to 1805; Senator from Plymouth County two years, 1813 and 1814; Counsellor from 1814 to 1820, inclusive; Treasurer of the Commonwealth five years, from 1822 to 1827; Representative to General Court from Boston, 1839 and 1840, in which place he then resided. He was appointed by the Governor one of the Commissioners for settling the boundary lines between Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and afterwards, for settling the line between Massachusetts and Connecticut; and was Chairman of the first Commissioners for exploring and surveying the country from Boston to Albany for a railroad route, 1827, and is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and has been Librarian and Treasurer of that institution. He was also several years President of the Bible Society in Plymouth county.

Judge Mitchell married, in 1794, Nabby, daughter of Gen. Silvanus Lazell of East Bridgewater, and has 5 children, Harriet, Silvanus L., Mary Orr, Elisabeth Cushing, James Henry. Harriet married the Hon. Nathaniel M. Davis, Esq., of Plymouth; Silvanus L. married Lucia, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel Whitman of Portland, Me., Chief-Justice of Court of Common Pleas; Mary O. married David Ames, Jr., Esq., of Springfield; Elisabeth C. married Nathan D. Hyde of East Bridgewater; James Henry married Harriet Lavinia, daughter of John Angier of Belfast, Me., and is a merchant in Philadelphia; Silvanus L. was graduated at H. C., 1817, and he and his brother-in-law, Hyde, went into business as merchants at East Bridgewater, and thence removed to Boston.

Judge Mitchell wrote a short History of Bridgewater, which was published in 1818, in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VII., 2nd series. He has since published an enlarged History of the Early Settlement of that Town, with a particular Genealogy or Family Register of the Early Settlers.