History of Peterborough, (Hillsborough County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Jeremiah Smith, governor of New Hampshire, was born in Peterborough, N.H., Nov. 29, 1759; son of William and Elizabeth (Morison) Smith, and grandson of John and Margaret (Wallace) Morison, of Londonderry, N.H. He entered Harvard college in 1777; served for two months in the patriot army, under General Stark, being present at the battle of Bennington, where he was slightly wounded, and afterward completed his sophomore year, at Harvard, and was graduated at Queens (Rutgers) college, New Jersey, in 1780. He was admitted to the bar in 1786, and began practice in Peterborough. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1788?90; a delegate to the state constitutional convention, 1791?92, and a representative in the 2d-5th congresses, 1791?97, resigning his seat in 1797, his term being completed by Peleg Sprague. He removed to Exeter, N.H., in 1797; was district attorney for New Hampshire, 1798?1801; judge of probate for Rockingham county, 1800?1801, and in February, 1801, was appointed by President Adams, judge of the U.S. circuit court, but the court was soon after abolished. He served as a justice of the superior court of the state, 1801?02; as chief justice, 1802?09 and 1813?16; as governor of New Hampshire, 1809, and was a presidential elector-at-large for New Hampshire in the same year. He retired from the practice of his profession in 1820, and removed to Dover, N.H., in 1842. He was twice married; first, March 8, 1797, to Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Ross, of Bladensburg, Md., and secondly, Sept. 20, 1831, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Dale, of Dover, N.H. Judge Smith received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dartmouth in 1804, and from Harvard in 1807, and also that of sergeant-at-law, conferred upon him by Judge Story in 1812. He was a trustee and treasurer of Phillips Exeter academy; president of the Exeter bank for nearly forty years, and a member of the New Hampshire Historical society. He is the author of a eulogy on General Washington (1800); a biographical sketch of Judge Caleb Ellis (1816), and of Charles Henry Bell, in Bell's "Bench and Bar of New Hampshire," and of various orations, arguments and decisions. His life was written by the Rev. John H. Morison, D.D. (1845). Judge Smith died in Dover, N.H., Sept. 21, 1842.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Nathaniel Holmes, jurist, was born in Peterboro, N.H., Jan. 2, 1815; son of Samuel and Mary (Annan) Holmes; grandson of Deacon Nathaniel and Catherine (Allison) Holmes, and of David and Sarah (Smith) Annan; great grandson of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Moore) Holmes, and a descendant of Nathaniel Holmes, who immigrated from Coleraine, Ireland, to Londonderry, N.H., with his family in 1740. He studied at Chester academy, Vt., and English at the academy in New Ipswich, N.H., and was a student at Phillips academy, Exeter, N.H., 1831-33. He was graduated from Harvard in 1837, tutored in a private family in Maryland, studied at the Harvard law school, 1838-39, and was admitted to the Boston bar in 1839. He settled in practice at St. Louis, Mo., and was circuit attorney for the city and county of St. Louis in 1846; was counsellor of the board of public schools, St. Louis 1853-54; counsellot of the North Missouri railroad company in 1869; and was one of the judges of the supreme court ot the state of Missouri, 1865-68. He was Royall professor of law at Harvard university, 1868-72, and then returned to St. Louis, Mo., and resumed his law practice, retiring in 1883, and making his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was one of the organizers of the Academy of Science of St. Louis in 1856, and was corresponding secretary and an editor of its Transactions, 1857-83. He was elected a correspondent of the "K. K. Geolog-ischen Reichsanstalt" of Vienna in 1857, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870; corresponding member of the Academy of Science of New Orleans in 1875, and of the Numismatic and Antiquarian society of Philadelphia in 1881, and was an honorary member of the Bacon society, London. He received the degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1859. He wrote: Authorship of Shakespeare, advocating the Baconian theory (1866; enl. ed., 1886); Realistic Idealism in Philosophy Itself (1888). He died in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 26, 1901.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor