Litchfield enquirer., 1847-06-17
Mtsarapbp.


 [We somewhat reluctantly yield 10 the repeated solicitations of many ofour sub- scribers to republish the Biographical Sketch of the Hon. Nathaniel Chipman. Our reluctance, however, arises from the fact that we have new on hand, ready for publication, sketches of the lives of Samuel J. Mills, Seth Warner. JohG Cot ton Smith, and other eminent natives oi the county, which we designed to inserr as soon as we had completed the Legis. lative Proceedings. A few unimportan' errors, which escaped our notice in the first edition, are now corrected. .1-ENQ,
 NATHANIEL CHAPMAN, IL. D., was bora in Salisbury, in l752. He recsv' cd ne,hing more than an ordinary common school education until after his twentieth year, when he commenced the study of class sics, entered Yale COllege-ana in l11I at the age of 25 he graduated at that institu> ,ion. The spring before his graduation he received . lieutenant's commission in the American Army, which he accepted, and Immediately entered upon its duties. The succeeding winter, that of l777-76, he was with the Army a, Valley Forge, and enda- Ied with it those hardships and sufferinss which tested the valor and proved the patri- o,ism of our soldery more convincingly than any thing else that occurred during cur revolutionary struggle. In the campaign of the next season, he was present at the battle of Monmouth, and took as active a part in it as his station would allow.
 He sosa after left the army, and com menced the study of that profession, of which he was afterwards SO distinguished an ornament, at Lisch6eld, in his native state, and was there admitted to the bar in l779, after having studied but five months. He immediately removed to Tinmouth, Vt., where his father had previously settled. For . complete understanding of Mir. Chip> mans relation te the bar of that State of 1t is necessary to consider the state of the law, and of those at this time engaged in its administration aad practice.
 The government of the "Stats of Yer. mont" had been in operation but about a ysar-its Supreme Court, which had been organized shorter time, had held its first ssssion only the December previous. There were at that time nc authorized attorneys in the state, and the parties to actions thes tried appeared personally. The Supreme Court consisted of enc chief justice and four assistant judges, not one of whom had been legally educated. Like most of the early sittlers of Vermont, they were men of vigor- GUS in,ellscls, uncultivated by education, and owed their eminence not 90 much to ability acquired by study as to their native strength of nind, and ,hcir energetic exsr- else ef it h the controversies in which they were uAavoidably involved At the second session of this ceurt, which was held at Westminster fa Cumberland coun- sy in May, l779, Stephen R. Bradley and Noah Smith were admitted as attorneys, &c. These were the first licensed practitioners, and the only oAss who preceded Mr. G. In the succeeding month, in the words of he record, '" at Superior Court holden at Rutland in the county of Bennington, on the ed Thursday of June, A. D. l794, Nathan isi Chipman was appointed attorney at law sworn and licensed to plead at the bar within the S,ats." He was thus the third lawyer in the state, and the first in the shire aow county of Rutland, and such were af- Isrwards his attainneats, that he was ever to be in ability and legal ac> luisitien, as we'll as in point of time, at the head of the bar. He entered immediately upon his admission, into an extensive prac- sies--his nanis appears in nearly every case in the court doekets for the ten suc> seeding years as attorney either for the plaintiff er defendant Al tho first coanty court after the incorporation og the county. hs was appointed States Attorney, which snice he retained until l785, vixen he rslin> quishsd it in favor his brother. Soon after this he removed to Rutland, in consequence sf ,ha, place being selected as the psIma nsns shire town. MT. c. early acquired the confidence of his fsllew citizens, and was hoAsred by them visA many important off oss. He was sf,imes the rspressn n,a,ive of the 'towa of his residsncs in The Gen. sral Assembly, or its delegate to State Con vsn,ions. In October, l77S, he was for the first time elevated 10 that station, which he was 90 sminsAtly calculated to do justice, 10 ,hat of Judge of the Supreme Court. h 17s9 he was also appointed one of the com missisners in behalf of Vermont, to adjust with those appointed by New York the diff | tsrences which exis,ed between the two states--and in l790 he vas appointed joint Cemuisssioner with Lewis R. Morris, to