Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-11-18
Death Of Judge Royce.

I Death of Judge Royce.
Though that event occurred at his resi-
dence in East Berkshire, in Franklin County,
on Wednesday last, knowledge of it was not
obtained in this place until Saturday, the
14th inst. The passing away of the Hon.
Stephen Royce, who, for many years, was
among the highest in personal and public
character, elicits something more than a
mere announcement and yet justice to his
name and memory demands more extended
and elaborate article. Without being able
to state with precision the statistical details
and characterizing traits of his earliest years,
it may now suffice to say, that he was the
son of Stephen Royce, one of the early,
staunch, yeoman settlers Of Franklin county.
upon the farm on which his distinguished
son has just ded-a splendid patrimony in
the rich valley of the Missisquoi river, making
the home of the son, as it had been of the
father, through long life. Judge Royce
was educated at Middlebury College, and
graduated in 1906. He then devoted him
self to the study and practice of the law in
his native county with such assiduity and
success, that in 1925, he was elected Judge
of the Supreme Court, and again in 1926
For reasons not now in mind, he was not
elected again till 1929 from which time he
held the Office by annual elections till Octo-
Der, lS52,-being the Chief Judge for the
last six years of the time. In 1854 he was
elected Governor, and also in 1855. Since
that he has held official position, but has
| lived in retirement on the old family home
stead, in leisure and freedom from care
and responsibility grateful to his waning
years, enjoying-as the fruits of long life,
devoted with unsurpassed ability and un-
questioned uprightness to the service of the
State in most responsible and exacting posi-
tions-the admiring reverence of his fellow
citizens
Though shrinking lnodesty one of the
most noticeable in his personal qualities,
early in professional life he came to be re-
garied as one Of the most highly endowed
and thoroughly accomplished iurists of his
! day, and his services were enlisted in as5Ocia-
ton, or conflict, with the most mature and
eminent lawyers of the State-as Adds. and
Swift, and Marsh, and Edmonds. and Prem
tiss, and Everett, and Bradley, and others of
/ like grade in age and rank. In the twenty
/ five years Of his service as Judge, he impressed
himself upon the professional and public
Judgment of the State one of the able>t
and most accomplished jurists that have
given strength and good name to the Judicial
ry of Vermont. Though his mildness of
! temper, and kindness of feeling, and delicate
modesty, preeludei the exercise of that eff
/ tective energy and decisivencss which charac-
terized some OF his eminent contemporaries
and successors still he held . the way ring
balance = of Justice with strong and even
hand, and permitted only :. the law and the
testimony TO bear upon his judicial admin
/ istration. Ii is true that he was affected
with a delicate sensitveness as to the feelings
of Others, that rendered it painful to him
TO pronounce, in formal opinion and judg
ment, upon questions and eases involving
important pecuniary or personal interests ::
yet such opinion and Judgment were formed
and held, and pronounced by him, without
any mixture of misgiying, or tinge of bias,
arising from considerations aside from - the
law and the testimony
| The quality and extent Of his learning in
the law, and the exquisite refinement of his
mind and taste as jurst, are most strikingly
eyinced in enduring example and illustration
in the opinions drawn up by him, and con-
tanned in the Vermont Reports from Vol. /
to Vol. 81. On the whole, they entitled
to be, as they are in fact, regarded as the most
perfect specimens of judicial literatur con-
tanned in our Reports in one respect sur
passing even the renowned opinions of Judge
| Prentiss. viz. in the quality of a compre-
hensiveness that never transcribed the scope
of the case in hand To partake Of the char
acter of essays upon the subject, as well as OF
an opinion of the court in the case.
publication many of the cases that fell to
him to draw up opinions in. An impression
prevailed to some extent, that it was attribu-
! table to Discrimination TO expend the requis tc
labor. Another reason. in fact, operated
! upon him in this respect, and he assigned 1t
freely II confidential friends, and it was
the usage his opinions shared in the hands
of Reporters and country publishers fate
that his associates and success rs have equal
" shared down to the present time. but,
perhaps. with less kcennesS of chagrin in
the present. and less terror of dread IN the
prospect. In this connection 1t is permits
sable to say, that careful was he, that the
utmost perfection should mark his work,
that sometimes he would write to the Re
porter directing him - change word or
alter a clause. as matter of mere taste, in
reference to literary finish. in opinions al
ready forwarded for publication.
Having closed his judicial labors in Octo-
her. 1852, by voluntarily declining TO be
again elected .Iul-e. without any previous
participation in politics. and without any
of the qualities Of a politici1n, &c received
the grateful and voluntary tribute ot the
State. in recognition of his eminent personal
and official worth, by being nominated and
elected Governor, as already stated.
Judge Royce was never married. Since
the death of his parcats, some female mem
Der of the family maiden sister. think
has been mistress Of his house and home,
and, in later years. his favorite nephew. the
Hon. Homer E. Royce. has lived the
farm and participated in it, management
As has been lately announced in the public
Journals, be had been feeble and failing for
some weeks past. till now, fall of years,
and crowned with the honors of an eminent
ly virtuous and we'll spent life. he has been
gathered to - the silent halls of death,
leaving, tor the temperin= of the public, as
we'll rs personal sorrow, the reflection thas,
- 1t was his time to die ''-DdiiV Journal.