Draft:Samuel Green (judge)

Samuel Green (March 7, 1770 – March 22, 1851) was a justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1819 to 1840.

Judge Samuel Green was born at Concord. He was admitted to the bar in 1793; commenced practice at Concord, and was a member of the legislature in 1806-7-8. On the resignation of Samuel Bell, in 1819, he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, and served continuously until 1840, when his term expired by the age limitation. He was a highly respectable judge, though not a man of eminence. After retiring from the bench he accepted a position in one of the departments at the National Capital, at Washington, being a widower, and passed the remainder of his life in that city. He died at Washington, D.C.

Son of Nathaniel Green ; born, Concord, March 7, 1770 ; admitted, 1793; practiced, Concord ; died, Washington, District of Columbia, March 22, 1851.

This was one of four brothers who embraced the legal profession, and the most successful of them in attaining high position. He was prepared at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, to enter college a year in advance. But though he lacked the advantage of a completed liberal education, his earnestness in study and self-improvement went far to compensate for the want of it. In the midst of temptations to which too many of his companions yielded, he preserved habits of sobriety and correctness of life. His brother, Peter Green of Concord, and Jonathan Rawson of Dover directed his legal reading, and he became an attorney in Concord in 1793.

He was a representative in the legislature in 1806, and the two years succeeding. For the next ten years he was quietly building up a local reputation, and in June, 1819, on the resignation of Samuel Bell, he was made his successor as a Judge of the Superior Court. For this he was largely indebted to the opinion of his townsmen, no doubt, of his fitness for the post, as he had not then any very extended reputation as a lawyer, so far as appears.

He changed his residence from Concord to Hopkinton in 1832. Twenty-one years he remained a Judge, devoting his time and powers conscientiously to his work. He was a highly respectable, though not an eminent magistrate. His disposition was amiable and equable, and his conduct towards suitors and counsel was unexceptionable. Upright and just, he was never suspected of wrong doing or intention. A good lawyer, of sound judgment and useful though not shining talents, ready for work and determined to do his best, he administered the law to the general satisfaction. In 1840 he reached the age of seventy years, which severed his connection with the bench.

In 1834 Judge Green became a widower for the second time, and as the emoluments of his office could not have enabled him to make much provision for the future, he was probably not sorry to accept a clerkship at the national capital, for his ultimate support. In that quiet situation he passed the last ten years of his life, contentedly and cheerfully.

His first wife was Mary G. Coffin, who died in 1806. In August, 1810, he married Mrs. Ann N. Wardrobe. By his first marriage he had a son and two daughters; by his second a son.

References

Category:1770 births Category:1851 deaths Category:Justices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court

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