sketch, moved from Hopkinton. N. H., to New London, at that time equally
well known as Heidleburg. This locality had been known by this latter
name for nearly a quarter of a century. It was granted by the Masonian
proprietors, July 7, 1773, to Jonas Minot and others, as the "Addition
of Alexandria." It was first settled in 1775, and was incorporated as a
town by the legislature, June 25, 1779. Peter Sargent, who thus moved
into the town two years after its incorporation, was one of ten
brothers, all born in Amesbury, Mass., who settled as follows: Amasa,
Ezekiel, Thomas, and Moses always lived at Amesbury; James settled in
Methuen, Mass.; Peter, Nathan, and Stephen came to Hopkinton, N. H., and
settled there; and Abner and Ebenezer came to Warner, N. H., and settled
there. These ten brothers, with four sisters, were the children of
Deacon Stephen Sargent, of Amesbury, Mass.
[Christopher Sargent, an older brother of Deacon Stephen, graduated at
Harvard, entered the ministry, and was the first settled minister of
Methuen, Mass. His eldest son, Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent, graduated at
Harvard, practiced law at Haverhill, and was for many years a judge of
the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, and was chief justice of
the state in 1790 and 1791, when he died aged sixty.]
Deacon Stephen Sargent was the son of Thomas, 2d, who was the son of
Thomas, 1st, who was the son of William Sargent. Stephen married Judith
Ordway, of West Newbury, Mass., September 26, 1730; was chosen deacon of
the Second Congregational church in Amesbury, May 10, 1757; and died
October 2, 1773.
William Sargent was born in England about 1602, and was the son of
Richard Sargent, an officer in the royal navy. It is believed he came to
Virginia at an early day, with William Barnes, John Hoyt, and others. He
married Judith Perkins for his first wife, who died about 1633, when he,
with several daughters, was one of the twelve men who commenced the
settlement of Ipswich, Mass., that year. He soon after went to Newbury
and helped form a settlement there; and about 1638 he, with several
others, commenced a settlement at Hampton. He soon after, about 1640,
removed to Salisbury, and was one of the eighteen original proprietors,
or commoners, who settled in New Salisbury, since known as Amesbury. His
second wife's name was Elizabeth, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and
William. He had several lots of land assigned him at different times;
was one of the selectmen of the town in 1667. He died in 1675, aged
seventy-three.
Peter Sargent married Ruth Nichols, of Amesbury or Newbury, Mass., and
came to Hopkinton, N. H., in 1763 or 1764, where they lived some
eighteen years, and raised a large family, and when he went to New
London took them all with him. His children were Anthony, Abigail, Ruth,
Judith, Peter, Ebenezer, Amasa, John, Molly, Ezekiel, Stephen, William,
and Lois. These all came from Hopkinton to New London in 1781, except
Lois, who was born subsequently in New London.
Ebenezer, the father of the judge, was born in Hopkinton, April 3, 1768,
and was, of course, thirteen years old when he came to New London with
his father's family. After becoming of age he procured him a farm, and,
on the 25th of November, 1792, he married Prudence Chase, of Wendell
(now Sunapee), the daughter of John and Ruth (Hills) Chase. They had ten
children, as follows: Anna, Rebekah, Ruth, Seth Freeman, Aaron Lealand,
Sylvanus Thayer, Lois, Laura, Jonathan Kittredge, and Jonathan Everett.
Jonathan Kittredge died young, the other nine lived to mature age, and
five of them, three sons and two daughters, still survive. The parents
always lived upon a farm, securing what was then considered as a
competence, and both died in New London, having lived together more than
sixty-five years.
The following, then, is the order of descent:--
1. Richard Sargent, of England.
2. William, son of Richard, born in 1602.
3. Thomas, son of William, born in April, 1643.
4. Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, born in November, 1676.
5. Stephen, son of Thomas. Jr., born in September, 1710.
6. Peter, son of Stephen, born about 1740.
7. Ebenezer, son of Peter, born in April, 1768.
8. JONATHAN EVERETT SARGENT, was born at New London, October 23, 1816.
He lived at home, working upon the farm until he was seventeen years of
age, and, being the youngest child, his father had arranged for him to
live at home and take care of his parents, and have the farm at their
decease. The son, however, had little love for the farm, and, as soon as
the care and support of his parents could be provided for in another
way, he arranged with his father that he was to have the remaining four
years of his time till twenty-one, was to clothe himself, and pay his
own bills, and call for nothing more from his father. He fitted for
college at Hopkinton Academy, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, and
in 1836 entered Dartmouth College, having paid his way by teaching
school winters and laboring in vacations. By teaching school every
winter and two fall terms in Canaan Academy during his college course,
he earned enough to pay all his expenses in college with the exception
of $200, which he borrowed of his father, and repaid the same, with
interest, within two years. Though out of college two terms, besides
winters in teaching, and another term on account of sickness, yet he was
always ready at each examination to be examined with his class. He was
elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated, in 1840,
among the first in his class.
Mr. Sargent had long before this made up his mind to turn his attention
to the law as a profession, and he accordingly began the study of the
law at once with Hon. William P. Weeks, of Canaan, and remained with him
till the spring of 1841, when he was advised by his physician to go
South for his health. He went first to Washington, soon after to
Alexandria, D. C., where he taught a high school, then to Maryland,
where he remained a year in a family school, when, having regained his
health, he returned to New Hampshire in September, 1842. He had, upon
his arrival in Washington, entered his name as a law student in the
office of Hon. David A. Hall of that city, and continued the study of
the law under his direction, while engaged in teaching, and he was
admitted to the bar in the courts of the District of Columbia in April,
1842, only about twenty months after leaving college. By the rule of
that court any one might be admitted upon examination, without regard to
the length of time he had studied; and he was examined in open court by
Chief-Justice Cranch and his associates upon the bench, and was
admitted.
After returning home, he continued his legal studies with Mr. Weeks
until the July law term, in Sullivan county, in 1843, when he was
admitted to the bar in the superior court of judicature in this state.
He then went into company with Mr. Weeks at Canaan, where he remained
till 1847, when he removed to Wentworth and opened an office there. He
had been appointed solicitor for Grafton county in November, 1844, while
at Canaan, and he at once commenced a lucrative business at Wentworth;
was re-appointed solicitor in 1849 for five years more, thus holding the
office for ten years, to 1854, performing the duties to the entire
acceptance of the county and the people. He declined a re-appointment.
In 1851 he was first elected a member of the legislature from Wentworth,
and served as chairman of the committee on incorporations. The next year
he was re-elected, and was made chairman of the judiciary committee; and
in 1853 he was again a member, and was nominated with great unanimity
and elected speaker of the house of representatives. He served with
ability and impartiality and to the general acceptance of the members.
The next winter a new man was to be selected as a candidate for senator
in his district, and he was nominated, and was elected in March, in a
close district, by about three hundred majority. He was elected
president of the senate in 1854. He was renominated in the spring of
1855, but the Know-Nothing movement that year carried everything before
it, and he was defeated, with nearly all the other Democratic nominees
in the state.
On April 2, 1855, he was appointed a circuit justice of the court of
common pleas for the state. But in June of that year the old courts were
abolished, mainly upon political grounds, and new ones organized, and
new judges appointed. Judge Sargent received a request from Gov. Metcalf
that he would accept the second place on the bench of the new court of
common pleas. This offer had not been expected, but upon consultation
with friends it was accepted, and Judge Sargent was appointed an
associate justice of the court of common pleas. He acted as judge of the
new court of common pleas for four years, until 1859, when, by a statute
of that year, that court was abolished, and one new judge was to be
added to the supreme judicial court, making the number of supreme judges
six instead of five, as before. Judge Sargent was immediately appointed
to that place on the supreme bench. He was then the youngest member of
the court in age, as well as in the date of his commission. He remained
upon the bench of that court just fifteen years, from 1859 to 1874. In
March, 1873, upon the death of Chief-Justice Bellows, Judge Sargent was
appointed chief-justice of the state, which place he held until August,
1874, when the court was again overturned to make room for the
appointees of the prevailing political party. Chief-Justice Sargent, at
the time of his appointment as chief-justice, had become the oldest
judge upon the bench, both in age and date of commission. His written
opinions are contained in the sixteen volumes of the New Hampshire
Reports, from the 39th to the 54th, inclusive, numbering about three
hundred in all. Many of these are leading opinions upon various
subjects, and show great learning and research.
After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to make
Kansas a slave state, Judge Sargent acted with the Republican party.
Upon leaving the bench, in August, 1874, he was solicited to go into the
practice of the law in Concord with William M. Chase, Esq., whose late
partner, the Hon. Anson S. Marshall, had recently been suddenly removed
by death. Judge Sargent accepted this offer, and thus at once stepped
into an extensive and lucrative practice. This arrangement was made for
five years.
In 1876 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention of this
state. In this convention he acted a prominent part. He was made
chairman of the judiciary committee, the same place held by Judge Levi
Woodbury in the convention of 1850. He took an active part in the
debates and discussions of that body, and wielded an influence probably
second to no one in the convention. He was also elected, by his ward in
Concord, a member of the house of representatives for the years 1877 and
1878.
Early in 1877 steps were taken for a revision of the statutes, and Judge
Sargent was appointed chairman of a committee, with Hon. L. W. Barton of
Newport, and Judge J. S. Wiggin of Exeter, to revise and codify the
statutes of the state. Their work was completed and the statutes enacted
by the legislature, to take effect the first of January, 1879. The
volume was prepared and printed by the committee before the day
appointed. It is the largest volume of statutes ever printed in the
state, and it is believed not to be inferior to any other in any
important particular.
In the fall of 1878, Judge Sargent was invited by a committee of the
citizens of New London to prepare a centennial address, to be delivered
on the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town. He at
once accepted the invitation and set about the work, and on the 25th day
of June, 1879, he delivered his address, and the occasion was
distinguished by a larger collection of people, probably, than ever met
in the town upon any former occasion. The address was published in the
_Granite Monthly_, in the numbers for July, August, and September, 1879,
and has been favorably noticed as a work of great labor and research.
Dartmouth College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, in
course, three years after graduation; also, the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws, at its centennial commencement, in 1869. In compliance
with a request from a committee of the trustees, he prepared and
delivered at the commencement of 1880 at Dartmouth College a memorial
address upon the late Hon. Joel Parker, formerly chief-justice of this
state and afterwards professor of law in Harvard College. This duty
Judge Sargent performed in a manner creditable to himself and
satisfactory to the friends of the late Judge Parker. His address has
been printed with other similar addresses in memory of other deceased
judges, graduates of Dartmouth, by other distinguished sons of the
college.
In 1864 he was elected grand master of the Grand Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons for the state of New Hampshire, and was re-elected the
next year. After this he declined a re-election. He has for many years
been an active member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for
the last five or six years has been one of its vice-presidents. For some
years past he has been connected with the National State Capital Bank as
one of its directors. The Loan and Trust Savings Bank at Concord
commenced business August 1, 1872, and in the nine years since then its
deposits have increased to over a million and a quarter of dollars.
Judge Sargent has been president of this bank, and one of its investment
committee since its commencement, and has given his personal attention
to its affairs. In 1876 the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged
was organized and incorporated, and January 1, 1879, a home was opened
in Concord. Judge Sargent has been president of this institution four
years, and has taken a deep interest in its prosperity and success.
About the 1st of September, 1879, at the end of five years from the
commencement of his partnership in business, he retired from the
practice of law. Since he commenced the practice of the law, in 1843,
his residence has been as follows: In Canaan four years, to 1847; in
Wentworth twenty-two years, to 1869; and in Concord since. The judge has
acquired a competency, has one of the finest residences in the city, and
is enjoying life with his friends and his books.
Judge Sargent married, first, Maria C. Jones, of Enfield, daughter of
John Jones, Esq., November 29, 1843, by whom he had two children. John
Jones Sargent, the elder, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1866, and
died in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, October 3, 1870, just as he was ready to
commence the practice of the law. The second, Everett Foster, died
young. For his second wife, he married Louisa Jennie Paige, daughter of
Dea. James K. Paige, of Wentworth, September 5, 1853, by whom he has had
three children,--Maria Louise, Annie Lawrie, and George Lincoln. The
second died young; the eldest and youngest survive.
Judge Sargent is a leading member of the South Congregational church in
Concord, and, while decided in his own opinions, he is liberal and
tolerant in judging of the faith, and charitable in judging of the
conduct, of others. As a lawyer, he was always faithful and true to his
clients, a wise counselor and an able advocate. As a legislator, he has
been conservative and safe. As a judge, he always studied to get at the
right of the case, to hold the scales of justice evenly, to rule the law
plainly, and to get the questions of fact, and the evidence as it bore
upon them, clearly and distinctly before the jury. Any one who attended
the courts where he presided as a judge could see at once that he was
patient and painstaking, industrious and persevering, vigilant and
discriminating, impartial and fearless; and any one who reads his
written opinions will see that they exhibit great research, learning,
and ability.
JOHN HATCH GEORGE.
BY H. H. METCALF.
The man who makes his way to the front rank at the bar and in politics,
and holds his position without dispute for more than a quarter of a
century, must be a person of ability, energy, and sagacity. Especially
is this true in New Hampshire, which, from the earliest period of our
national history, has produced some of the ablest lawyers and the
keenest politicians known to the country. Such a man is Col. JOHN HATCH
GEORGE, of Concord, whose name has long been a household word at every
Democratic fireside in the state, and whose eminent legal position is
recognized throughout New England.
Born in Concord, where he has ever since resided, November 20, 1824,
Col. George is now fifty-seven years of age. His parents were John and
Mary (Hatch) George, the former a prominent, respected, and energetic
citizen, who, though a native of Hopkinton, located in Concord in early
manhood; the latter, a daughter of Samuel Hatch, a leading citizen of
the town of Greenland, among whose grandchildren are included the Hon.
Albert R. Hatch and John S. H. Frink, Esq., both also known as eminent
lawyers and leading Democrats.
Gaining his preliminary education in the excellent public schools of his
native town and in the old Concord Academy, Col. George entered
Dartmouth College in 1840, being then fifteen years of age, where he
diligently pursued his studies for about three years, until the death of
his father compelled his return home and the non-completion of his
college course. The faculty subsequently conferred upon him his
graduating degree, which was followed by that of Master of Arts. Among
his classmates at Dartmouth were several who became prominent at the bar
and in public life, including the late Hon. Harvey Jewell, and Hons. A.
A. Ranney and Horatio G. Parker, of Boston, and the present governor of
this state, Hon. Charles H. Bell.
If young George was unfortunate in the loss of his father, and in the
failure to complete the college course consequent thereon, he was
especially fortunate in being favored with the kindly regard of that
brilliant son of New Hampshire, Gen. Franklin Pierce, who, as a friend
of the family, had become conversant with his qualities and
characteristics, and readily discerned the line of action best
calculated for the development and successful exercise of his powers.
Fortunate as he was, however, in the enjoyment of the friendship of Gen.
Pierce at this time, it may safely be assumed that he never would have
been the recipient of such favor had he not given evidence of the
possession of abilities above the common order. The really great lawyer
has a lofty regard for his profession, and will never be found
influencing any one to enter upon its pursuit who is not likely to honor
the profession and bring credit to himself. When, therefore, upon the
invitation of Gen. Pierce, young George entered upon the study of the
law in the office of the former,--as he did soon after leaving college,
and at the time when that distinguished man was in active practice,--it
was under circumstances every way propitious to that ultimate success
creditable alike to each. During his three years of legal study under
such tutelage, he made that rapid progress which characterizes the
advance of the ambitious and enthusiastic young man, well equipped,
mentally and physically, for the work in hand, thoroughly in love
therewith, guided by wise counsel and inspired by brilliant example; and
when, in 1846, he was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice
of his profession in his native city, it was with unusual thoroughness
of preparation.
[Illustration: John H. George]
At the opening of his professional career, Col. George was again
particularly fortunate. Gen. Charles H. Peaslee had long ranked among
the most careful lawyers of the state, and had acquired an extensive
practice. He was a warm friend of Gen. Pierce, professionally and
politically, and, like him, an intimate friend of the George family.
Entering largely into public life, its engrossing duties withdrew his
attention more and more from professional engagements, rendering
desirable a partnership alliance with some active and competent young
man. Such alliance was offered to and promptly accepted by young George,
who thus auspiciously commenced his professional career.
The limits of this sketch will not permit a detailed account of the
progress and success of its subject; but it may be stated, that from his
entrance upon legal practice to the present time all his energies and
faculties have been heartily devoted to the labors and duties of his
profession, in whose performance he has won a high measure of fame, as
well as a fair amount of that substantial reward which the world largely
regards as the prime object of human effort. His connection with Gen.
Peaslee continued about five years, and was followed by a professional
alliance of a similar character with Sidney Webster, Esq., then a young
lawyer of fine abilities and brilliant promise, who has since become
distinguished in legal and diplomatic circles. This partnership
continued till Mr. Webster left Concord to become private secretary to
Gen. Pierce, upon the accession of the latter to the presidency in 1853.
Soon afterward, Col. George formed partnership relations with Hon.
William L. Foster, who subsequently became and long remained a judge of
the supreme court of the state, and with them Hon. Charles P. Sanborn
was also for a time associated. Since the recent resignation of Judge
Foster, his connection with Col. George has been resumed.
Not only in behalf of an extensive private clientage have the
professional services of Col. George been employed, but for many years,
also, in behalf of the public,--he having been appointed solicitor for
Merrimack county in 1849, and re-appointed in 1854, discharging the
duties of the office until 1856, when he was removed for partisan
reasons, the Republican party signalizing its ascendency by a clean
sweep of all Democratic officials. From 1853 to 1858, he was U. S.
attorney for the district of New Hampshire, appointed by President
Pierce.
There are, undoubtedly, many men at the bar, in this and other states,
as well grounded in legal principles as Col. George, and even more
familiar with the text-books, who have fallen far short of the success
he has attained. It is one thing to be able to state abstract legal
principles, and quite another correctly to apply those principles to the
facts in any given case. It has ever been the habit of Col. George, in
the conduct of a cause, to thoroughly familiarize himself with all the
facts and circumstances connected therewith. The mastery of the cause
itself leaves little difficulty in the determination of the law bearing
thereon, and is the strongest guaranty of success in its management
before a jury; and it is in the conduct of jury causes that Col. George
has won the greater measure of his success. Gifted with great perceptive
powers and a ready knowledge of men, and familiar as he ever is with the
cause in hand, in all its bearings, he is never taken at a disadvantage,
no matter how able or alert the opposing counsel. In handling witnesses,
and especially in cross-examination, he has shown unusual tact and
ability. He reads the mind of a witness almost intuitively, and
understands how to bring out the essential facts even from the most
reluctant, and to do so in the manner best calculated to make the
desired impression upon the minds of the jury. As an advocate, he is
equaled by few and excelled by none of our New Hampshire lawyers; yet
his power in this regard consists in the systematic, logical, and
intensely earnest presentation of all the facts which go to make up and
strengthen his cause, and to destroy or weaken that of his opponents,
rather than in the oratory which abounds in eloquently rounded periods
and impassioned appeals. In this connection may well be quoted the words
of one who, knowing Col. George from youth, has written of him as
follows:--