William Brigham

WILLIAM BRIGHAM, Esq, (Charles, William, Charles, Samuel, Thomas), b. Sept. 26, 1806, m. June 11, 1840, Margaret A. Brooks, b. July 6, 1817. William Brigham fitted for college at the Leicester Academy, in a single year, generally passing his Sundays at home, and always walking the twelve miles between the two places. He was a diligent student at Harvard, held a good rank in his class, and obtained various appoint ments at exhibitions and commencement. After graduation, in 1829, he read law with Hon. George Morey, of Boston, was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1832, and soon had a sufficient amount of professional employment. Later, on motion of Hon. Daniel Webster, he was ad mitted to the United States Supreme Court. He was a representative from Boston in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, in the years 1834, 1835, 1836, 1841, 1849, and in the Senate in 1866. April 29, 1835, he delivered the centennial address at Grafton; this was published, and gives evidence of thorough research in the town history, as well as accuracy of statement, a quality for which he was distinguished in after " life. In 1836 he was selected by Governor Everett to compile and edit the laws of Plymouth Colony, published tho same year. With a strong interest in the welfare of his fellow-citizens as in the prosperity of his country, he carefully abstained from the allurements of political office, so generally fatal in this country to a man's private character, and con fined himself to an earnest and eloquent advocacy of all good publicmeasures. In this way he was always an anti-slavery man, even when it was the unpopular cause, and when he stood at his office window in Court street, in company with several well-known citizens, and saw the iniquitous proceedings when the Court-house was guarded by an armed force to ensure the rendition of a fugitive slave, he expressed him self with sorrow, not unminglcd with bitterness. One of the cart ridges (loaded with a bullet and three buckshot) served to the troops that day he kept as a token of that wickedness. He was one of the founders of the Republican party. Agricultural pursuits, from their connection with his childhood and early youth, had great attraction for him, and for many years before his death he lived on the homestead at Grafton, during the summer, and actively directed all farming and horticultural labors. Several of his addresses before agricultural societies have been published. The demands of his professional life made careful and extensive reading almost a part of his nature, and the results sometimes appeared in reviews of books in the North American Seview and Christian Exam iner. His knowledge of the early history of Massachusetts was accu rate and extensive, and in 1853 he was chosen a member of the Massa chusetts Historical Society, of which he was one of the most useful and valuable members. A lecture by him, delivered the 19th of Jan uary, 1869, on the Colony of New Plymouth and its relations to Massa chusetts, — one of a course before the Lowell Institute, by members of the Historical Society, and published in a volume called " Massachu setts and Its Early History," — is highly creditable both to his research and insight. June 11, 1840, he married Margaret Austin Brooks (born July 6, 1817), daughter of Isaac Brooks and Mary Austin, of Charlestown. As a lawyer, his practice was large. He was a safe adviser, andenjoyed in a high degree the confidence and attachment of his clients. Often was he able by his kind, honest and yet plain talk, to dissuade his clients from long and expensive litigation, and he always, when possi ble, strove to prevent aggravating lawsuits, but when this could not be done he gave the whole power of his legal knowledge to his client's cause. A man of kindly spirit, the friend as well as father of his chil dren, of simple and pleasing manners, he yet worked too hard, and at the moment when it seemed possible for him to relax his labors, when he was on the point of relinquishing his practice, and devoting his at tention to the care of the many and large trust estates in his hands, he was stricken with his fatal illness, the first of his life, and he died July 9, 1869. His remains rest in Mount Auburn. William Brigham inherited, in a marked degree, the physical charac teristics of his race. Tall (six feet and two inches), well-knit, and finely proportioned, he was said to resemble the grandfather for whom he was named, and like him he put little faith in doctors, of whose ser vices he had indeed little need, as his pure, temperate life, unlnfiamed by alcohol, unstinted by tobacco, was singularly free from bodily ills of any kind, and the strong vitality he inherited from his ancestors he transmitted undiminished to his children Pure, unselfish, just, wise, cautious yet vigorous, kind and devoted, was this man's life. Children, History of Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts: From Its Early ..., Part 1, p. 465, 466