MEMOIR OF JUDGE SPRAGUE.

The Hon. John Sprague was a citizen of Lancaster from Sept. 1, 1770, to the 21st of Sept. 1800, the time of his death. The town was much indebted to him for the correctness of their municipal proceedings, and the unanimity with which their affairs were conducted. He was born at Rochester, in the county of Plymouth, then Province of the Massachusetts Bay, on the 21st of June A. D. 1740, O. S. corresponding to the 2d of July, N. S. He was the son of Noah Sprague, Esq. by Sarah, his wife, who was a lineal descendant of Elizabeth Penn, the sister of Sir William Penn, who was an Admiral under Cromwell, and the father of William Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania; her husband was William Hammond, of London. Benjamin Hammond, their son, removed from London to Sandwich, in the colony of Plymouth, married there in 1650, and thence removed to Rochester. John Hammond the second son by this marriage, married Mary Arnold, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Arnold, the first minister of Rochester, and Sarah, a daughter, by this marriage was Mr. Sprague's mother. Judge Sprague began to prepare for College in Dec. 1760, and entered therein at Cambridge at the end of the summer vacation after, viz. A. D. 1761. Having pursued his collegiate studies with reputation, he graduated in 1765, and soon after took charge of the grammar school in Roxbury; commenced the study of physic there, and pursued it under the instruction of the late Doct. Thomas Williams for a short time, viz. until May, 1766. In that month he removed to Worcester, abandoned the study of physic, and entered as a clerk in the office of Col. James Putnam, an eminent Barrister at Law, and kept a private grammar school there. At the May term of the Court of Common Pleas, 1768, he was admitted an Attorney of that Court, removed from thence to Rhode Island, and in the following Sept. was admitted an Attorney in the Superior Court in the county of Providence, colony of Rhode Island, &c. and opened his office in Newport; there he remained without the prospect of much business, in the diligent pursuit of his professional studies, until May, 1769, when he removed to Keene, in the county of Cheshire, then province of New Hampshire, where he pursued the practice of Law until Sept. 1, 1770, made himself acquainted with the people, and the business of the Courts there, and by his talents, industry and fidelity, acquired a reputation which long afterward afforded him extensive professional employment in the interior counties of that province. Inclined to take up his permanent abode in his na

tive province, he then removed from Keene to Lancaster, in the county of Worcester, and opened an office in partnership with Abel Willard, Esq. a respectable Counsellor at Law, for the term of ten years, beginning the 21st of the same month. This partnership was interrupted by the war with Great Britain. Mr. Willard adhering to the King, left Lancaster in March, 1775, and never returned. In April, 1772, he was admitted an Attorney of the Superior Court at Worcester. In Dec. 1772, he married Catherine Foster, of Charlestown, the twelfth child and ninth daughter of Richard Foster, Esq. Sheriff of Middlesex; by this marriage, he had one son and two daughters. He was occupied in extensive professional employment, till arms silenced the laws; then he shared in the burdens and privations common to his neighbors and fellow citizens in the eventful period of the revolution. Having purchased a small farm in the centre of the town, he labored upon it as a farmer; dismantled himself of his linen and ruffles and other appropriate habiliments, and assumed the garments of labor, which were then the checkered shirt and trowsers. He was resorted to for counsel in all cases of difficulty which occurred, and toward the close of the revolution, when our government was formed, and business revived, he was one of the principal counsellors and advocates in our Courts of Justice. His legal learning was so well combined with and aided by common sense, and a sound discretion, that he was consider ed one of the most safe, discerning and upright counsellors in the Commonwealth. As an advocate, he was not the most eloquent, but such was the fairness of his statements and force of his arguments, that conviction seemed their natural result. He was cotemporary with the two Strongs, the late Governor, and the late Judge, both of the county of Hampshire, and the late Hon. Levi Lincoln, of Worcester, and divided with them the multiplied business of advocating causes and collecting debts in the counties of Hampshire, Worcester and Middlesex, and in the counties of Hillsborough and Cheshire, in New Hampshire. In May, 1782, he was elected a representative of the town to the General Court, and in the January session following, a vacancy in the Senate occurring, being a candidate, voted for by the people, was elected by the Legislature to fill that vacancy, and was again elected to the Senate by the people in 1785. In February, 1783, he was first commissioned a Justice of the Peace and quorum, for the county of Worcester. So high was he held in the estimation of the Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court, as a Lawyer, that at the February term of that

Court in Suffolk, 1784, he was made a Barrister at Law, and was called to that distinction by the first writ that issued for Barrister in the Commonwealth; the mode of admission preceding the revolution having been without writ. He was to have been admitted before the revolution, but the tumults in the country interrupted the Courts. He was elected to represent the town in the General Court in 1784 and 1785.

In 1786, Mr. Sprague was selected by the Government as the law adviser of Maj. Gen. Lincoln, to attend him in his expedition against Daniel Shays and his adherents, who had excited a rebellion in the Commonwealth.

May 5, 1787, he was bereaved of his wife, and in the latter part of the same year, he married Mary Ivers, the widow of Thomas Ivers, Esq. late Treasurer of the Commonwealth, and eldest child of Mr. John Cutler and Mary, his wife, of Boston, who survived him. In 1788, he was elected a member of the convention for ratifying the Constitution of the United States. The town was opposed to the ratification, and by a committee of seven gave him instructions to vote against it. Having confidence, however, in the intelligence and rectitude of their delegate, they so qualified the instructions as to leave him to vote as he should think proper. He was one of seven out of fifty members from the county, who voted in the affirmative. In the winter of the same year, he was appointed Sheriff of the county of Worcester, in the place of William Greenleaf, Esq. who was removed from that office. He was punctual and faithful in the performance of his official duties, reduced the former irregularities in the administration of the office to order and system, and resigned it in 1792.

He returned to the practice of law, and continued in it until 1798. He represented the town in the General Court from the year 1795 to 1799 inclusive. In 1798, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Worcester. It was a new and valuable acquisition to have a learned lawyer at the head of the Judicial administration of the County, whose integrity and talents fitted him for the station, and whose justice and impartiality would ensure the confidence of all engaged in the business of the Court. In this office he continued until his death. His historical and legal knowledge, the accuracy of his mind, and its adaptation in the choice of language to express it on all subjects, rendered him a very useful member of the legislature, and he was looked to as a safe adviser and guide in the political and local concerns of the Commonwealth.

He was a lover of peace, and possessed a happy talent at reconciling jarring interests and harmonizing discordant feelings. Such were his mental qualities, so strong his sense of justice and honourable dealing, that he was selected, before he was on the bench, a commissioner or referee to adjust the numerous controversies which prevailed to an alarming degree in the then District of Maine, between those who, without title, had settled on the lands of the Commonwealth, of the Waldo Patent and Plymouth Company on the one part, and the lawful proprietors of them on the other. By his co-operating agency, together with the enactments thereon by the legislature, such a settlement of the contending claims was ef fected as restored peace and contentment to the parties.

In the course of his professional career, many young gentlemen of liberal education, entered his office as students in law, and derived from him the requisite instruction. Of the distinguished men now living who were his pupils, are the Honorable Edward H. Robbins, late Lieut. Governor of the Commonwealth, now Judge of Probate for the county of Norfolk.-The Honorable Nathaniel Paine, Judge of Probate for the County of Worcester.-The Honorable Artemas Ward, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,-and John M. Forbes, Esq. now Charge d' Affairs, at Buenos Ayres.

In his domestic relations he was faithful and affectionate; a good neighbor, unostentatious in his professions of friendship, but manifested his sincerity by kindness and beneficence and untiring efforts to do good. He was a lover of order, and ready at all times to promote the interest and honor of the town. His charities, hospitality and benevolence are by many still remembered. The writer of this memoir, who was his neighbor, and at his desire by his bedside the last twenty four hours of his life, witnessed his calmness and resignation at the approach of death, and his faith in Him who giveth the victory.

His tomb stone, it is hoped, justly repeats the benediction of the Saviour,-"Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God."

APPENDIX.

LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COURT, FROM

THE FIRST ON RECORD, TO THE PRESENT TIME.

1671 Thomas Beattle, 1672 Thomas Beattle, 1673 (Ralph ?) Houghton,

1737

Jabez Fairbanks, 1738 Jabez Fairbanks,

1739 Ebenezer Wilder, 1740 Samuel Willard,

1741

1689 Ralph Houghton,

1693 John Houghton,

William Richardson,