Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/369

 Ho7i. Josiah Quincy.

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��for college a very large number of young men from all parts of the country.

When young Quincy left this school, he was prepared to enter college one year in advance. He had taught school one winter in Lee, Mass., with good success, being the winter after he was sixteen years old. Soon after this he received a letter from Mr. Josiah Quincy of Boston, advising him to study law, and offering that he and Mr. Henry Hall would give him fifty dollars each per year to enable him to study his profession. He thereupon entered the law-office of Samuel Jones, Esq., of Stockbridge, Mass., where he remained some four years, teaching school near by one winter. The rules of court then required five years' study for a person not a graduate of college ; but, by the advice of friends, he made his appli- cation after only four years' study, and was admitted to the bar in that county, as a matter of grace and favor, without examination, when about twenty-two years of age, probably in February, 1815.

After this he opened an office for a few months at Stockbridge, and then after a short space at Sheffield, Mass., where he had been but a short time ■when he received a letter from Mr. Oliver F. Weld of Ruraney, N.H., a merchant of large business there, and Avho had married a sister of Quincy's mother, a Miss Hatch of Boston, re- <iuesting him to go to Rumney to prac- tise law, and offering him six months' board and the use of an office if he would do so.

Young Quincy thought favorably of this offer, but first went up on a visit to see the place and the prospect of busi- ness. This journey was made as fol- lows : First he went to Boston, then by stage by way of old Haverhill, Mass., to

��Concord, N.H. ; leaving Boston at ten o'clock A. M., and arriving at Concord the same day at eleven o'clock p. m. There were then no stages above Con- cord. He therefore procured passage with the mail- carrier from Concord to Plymouth in a gig wagon. The first day they reached Bridgewater, where they stopped over night, and the next day they reached Plymouth. After spending a few days in Rumney, pros- pecting, he concluded to accept his uncle's offer, and locate there.

He returned to Sheffield, and has- tened the arrangements for his depart- ure. When these arrangements were completed, he went to Northampton, and thence by stage up the Connecticut River to Haverhill, N.H. ; and, as there was no public conveyance from there to Rumney, he hired a man with an old horse and wagon to take him there, paying him six dollars for the service. He at once opened an office in Rum- ney, and immediately had a large prac- tice.

This first journey was made in De- cember, 1 81 5, and the second the next spring or early summer.

Mr. Quincy speaks, as a matter of special interest, of the fact that while at Stockbridge, engaged in the study of law, he had enjoyed the opportunity of mingling in most excellent society. He was much in the family of Judge Sedgwick, and many others distin- guished for their intelligence and refine- ment. He also went to Great Barrington, and took charge of the office of a Mr. Potter, a lawyer of some eminence who was then in feeble health, remaining with him, and managing his business, some three months. He was also in the office of Judge Barnard of Sheffield, for some months, assisting him in his business. In all these places he was

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