our colonies, particularly in New England, people are much addicted to quirks of the law. A very ordinary countryman in New England is almost qualified for a country attorney in England." (1)

Contemporary with these conditions, however, a small Bar of native lawyers of really great ability was growing up.

The Nestor of them was John Read, who, born in 1679, graduated from Harvard in 1697, studied in Connecticut and was admitted to the Bar in New Haven in 1708. Before his death in 1749, he acquired the reputation of being "the greatest common lawyer that ever lived in New England." Of him, Adams said later, "He had as great a genius and became as eminent as any man." To him is due many of the forms of writs, actions, declarations and conveyancing, later in use. He was retained by the Colony of Connecticut, and also by Massachusetts, in important boundary dispute cases with New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island; also for the town of Boston in many cases, one of particular importance involving the title to Dock square, tried for six years and appealed to the King in Council, where he won. (2)

After Read, came Jeremiah Gridley, who, born in 1702, a Harvard graduate of 1723, studied first for the ministry and later became "the father of the Boston Bar," Attorney General in 1742, and the great legal scholar of the Century. His office was the f training school for James Otis, Jr., and John Adams, of whom Gridley used to observe, that "he had reared two young eagles who were one day to peck out his eyes." Oxenbridge Thacher, Benjamin Pratt (later Chief Justice of New York), and William Cushing, (later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts and Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States), were also his pupils.

Judge Edmund Trowbridge, born in 1699, a Harvard graduate of 1728, was the great "real estate" lawyer of the time, termed by Chief Justice Isaac Parker, in 1813, "perhaps the most profound common lawyer of New England before the Revolution." His opinions and his essay on the law of mortgages were considered of such value as to be annexed (after his death in 1793, at the age of

(1) A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements and Present State of the British Settlements in North America, by William Douglas (London 1747).

(2) Life of John Read, by George B. Read (1903).

94) to Volume 8 of the Massachusetts Reports; and such was his learning and ability, that it is said by John Adams, that he had the entire command of the practice in Middlesex, Worcester, and several other counties, and had the power to crush any young lawyer by a frown or nod. In his office in Cambridge studied Francis Dana and Theophilus Parsons (both of whom became Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of Massachusetts), James Putnam, Royall Tyler, (Chief Justice of Vermont), Rufus King, Christopher Gore and Harrison Gray Otis.

Contemporary with Gridley, were William Shirley, Robert Auchmuty, and William Bollan who were native English lawyers, Richard Dana (1), Benjamin Kent (2), James Otis, Sr. (3), Timothy Ruggles (4), and Benjamin Pratt (5).

About two decades later, another group of lawyers added distinction to the Bar-James Otis, Jr. (6), Oxenbridge Thacher (7), Samuel Adams (8), Jonathan Sewall (9), Robert Treat Paine (10), John Worthington (11), and Joseph Hawley (12), the two latter being the most prominent of the few lawyers practising in the western part of the Province.

About 1765, just prior to the Revolution, a third group of eminent young lawyers of considerable law learning began to distinguish themselves-John Adams(13), Josiah Quincy, Jr. (14), Samuel Quincy (15), Sampson Salters Blowers (16),

(1) Born in 1700, Harvard graduate of 1718.

(2) Born about 1705, Harvard 1727, educated as a clergyman. (3) Born in 1702, father of James Otis, Jr.

(4) Born in 1711, Harvard 1732.

(5) Born in 1709, Harvard 1737, Chief Justice of New York in 1761.

(6) Born in 1725, Harvard 1743, studied with J. Gridley.

(7) Born in 1720, Harvard 1738, studied for the ministry, later studied law with J. Gridley.

(8) Born in 1722, Harvard 1740.

(9) Born in 1728, Harvard 1748, a school teacher, later studied law with Judge Chambers Russell, admitted to practice 1758, Attorney General 1767.

(10) Born in 1731, Harvard 1749, became a minister, later admitted to the Bar in 1759.

(11) Born in 1719, Yale 1740, studied law with Gen. Phinehas Lyman. (12) Born in 1724, Yale 1742, studied for the ministry, later studied law with Gen. Lyman.

(13) Born 1735, Harvard 1755, studied law with Judge James Putnam, admitted to the Bar in 1758, called as Barrister 1761.

(14) Born in 1744, Harvard 1763.

(15) Born in 1735, Harvard 1754, studied with Benjamin Pratt. Solicitor General 1767.

(16) Born in 1742, Harvard 1763, studied law under Gov. Hutchinson.

Theophilus Bradbury (1), William Cushing (2), Daniel Leonard (3), Theodore Sedgwick (4), and Caleb Strong (5).

At first no special qualifications and no definite term of study had been required for admission to the Bar. But, in reality, in order to master the profession, a student in the Colonies had to acquire far more knowledge than a student at the Inns of Court in London; for as Gridley said to Adams in 1758:(6)

A lawyer in this country must study common law and civil law and natural law and admiralty law and must do the duty of a counsellor, a lawyer, an attorney, a solicitor and even of a scrivener; so that the difficulties of the profession are much greater here than in England.

Notwithstanding this outlook, the students of law increased in number, so that in 1756, John Adams, who had begun to study in the office of Judge James Putnam of Worcester (Harvard 1746), wrote, that they were "very numerous." (7)

Gradually, under the influence of the able lawyers mentioned above, a regular Bar began to establish itself; and out of it grew rules regulating practice, course of study and legal etiquette. By 1757, when John Adams was meditating the opening of an office in the country part of the then county of Suffolk, he was told "that the town of Boston was then full of lawyers, and many of them of established character for long experience, great abilities, and extensive fame, who might be jealous of such a novelty and might be induced to obstruct me."

That these lawyers were men of importance to their juniors, is amusingly shown by Adams, in a further entry in his diary. Oct. 24, 1758; "Went into the court house and sat down by Mr. Paine at the lawyers' table. I felt shy under awe and concern; for Mr. Gridley, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Otis, Mr. Kent and Mr. Thacher

(1) Born in 1732, Harvard 1757, practiced law in Maine 1761-1779, one of the earliest lawyers there.

(2) Born in 1732, Harvard 1751, studied law with J. Gridley, was the first regular educated lawyer to settle in Maine, 1755, Chief Justice of Massachusetts 1776.

(3) Born in 1740, Harvard 1760.

(4) Born in 1746, left Yale without graduating in 1765, studied for the ministry, admitted to the Bar in 1766.

(5) Born in 1745, Harvard 1764, admitted to the Bar in 1772. (6) John Adams' Life and Works, Vol. II., p. 46.

(7) General Gage later denounced "this country where every man studies law"; and in 1768 the British Attorney General said, "Look into the papers and see how well these Americans are versed in Crown Law".

were all present and looked sour. I had no acquaintance with anybody but Paine and Quincy and they took but little notice."

As early as 1761 the Bar had formed a regular association; and had prescribed seven years of probation-three of preliminary study, two of practice as attorney in the Inferior Court, and two of practice as attorney in the Superior Court. (1) John Adams, noting in his diary July 28, 1766, the Bar meeting for the admission of three young gentlemen, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Quincy and Mr. Blowers, consoled himself for the "swarming and multiplying" of lawyers, by the reflection that four years must elapse before they could assume the gown. Adams describes as follows the admission to practice of himself and Samuel Quincy, Nov. 6, 1758, their sponsor before the Court being Gridley, the Attorney General:

I began to grow uneasy, expecting that Quincy would be sworn and I have no patron, when Mr. Gridley made his appearance, and, on sight of me, whispered to Mr. Pratt, Dana, Kent, Thacher, about me. Mr. Pratt said nobody knew me. "Yes," says Gridley, "I have tried him and he is a very sensible fellow!" At last he rose up and bowed to his right hand and said, "Mr. Quincy," when Quincy rose up; then he bowed to me, "Mr. Adams," when I walked out.

After being presented to the bench with a few complimentary remarks, "the clerk was ordered to swear us; after the oath, Mr. Gridley took me by the hand, wished me much joy, and recommended me to the bar. I shook hands with the bar and received their congratulations, and invited them over to Stone's to drink some punch, where most of us resorted, and had a very cheerful chat."

This genial relationship between the seniors and juniors of the Bar on days of admission was preserved for some time later. Thus, Prentiss Mellen (Harvard 1784), and later Chief Justice of Maine, who studied with Shearjashub Bourne at Barnstable and was admitted to the Plymouth Bar, says, that "according to the fashion of that day on the great occasion I treated the judges and all the lawyers with about half a pail of punch, which treating aforesaid was commonly called the colt's tail."

In 1763, Adams writes in his diary, that the Bar had agreed "that nobody should answer to a suit but the plaintiff himself or some sworn attorney, and that a general power should not be

(1) Adams' Life and Works, Vol. II., p. 197. G. Dexter, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. Vol. VI., p.145.

admitted;" also that "no attorney should be allowed to practice in the Superior or Inferior Courts unless duly sworn."

About 1760, Chief Justice Hutchinson, by a rule of court, introduced the distinction between barristers and attorneys, and provided that none but barristers could argue in the Superior Court. This rule was not always enforced; for Josiah Quincy, Jr., who was refused to admission as a barrister, being obnoxious in his politics to the ruling powers, says in his Reports in Aug., 1769:

At the last sitting of the Superior Court in Charlestown I argued (for the first time in this court) to the Jury though not admitted to Gown, the legality and propriety of which some have pretended to doubt; but as no scruples of that kind disturbed me, I proceeded (maugre any) at this court to manage all my own Business, (for the first time in this country) though unsanctified and uninspired by the pomp and magic of the long robe.

By rule of court, three years of practice was required before admission as a barrister. This was later increased to seven years, with a regular grade of promotion,-similar to the custom of England, where five years' residence in the Inns of Court was required, and three years, of a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge.

At the same time Hutchinson also introduced a costume for the judges, consisting of a black silk gown, worn over a full black suit, white bands, and a silk bag for the hair. This was worn by the judges in civil causes, and criminal trials, excepting those for capital offenses, in which trials they wore scarlet robes, (1) with black velvet collars and cuffs to their large sleeves, and black velvet facings to their robes.

Of such importance was this costume that Hutchinson deemed it worthy of record to note in his diary, after describing the riot in Boston on the night of the 26th of August, 1765, when all his plate, family pictures, furniture, wearing apparel and the books and manuscripts, which he had been thirty years collecting, were destroyed by the mob, that: "The Superior Court was to be held the next morning in Boston. The Chief Justice who was deprived of his robes and all other apparel, except an undress he was in when the mob came, appeared in that undress and an

(1) The color of the robes may remind one of Cromwell's remark, "Well, if I cannot rule by red gowns, I will rule by redcoats." Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, Vol. II., p. 187.