Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/652

 James Sullivan. proportioned and athletic; with dark hair, black eyes and florid complexion. He never partook of intoxicating liquor, but was more fond of poring over his books than of labor ing on his farm. James was the fourth child of this mar riage. The parents had intended him for the military profession, but when about sixteen years old he received an injury to his foot and leg while cutting down a tree that incapac itated him for a soldier's life. Consequently he became the student of the family, though but a home-student, as all the children were; and like John, and, after him, Ebenezer, he became a lawyer. Master Sullivan himself was for many years often called upon to draw wills, deeds and other legal papers; and if any dispute arose in the neighborhood, it was always re ferred to him for settlement. He died in 1796, at the age of one hundred and five years. When James was about nineteen years old he entered upon the study of law with his brother John, who, though but twenty-eight years of age, had already attained to a good business. About this time John removed from Newmarket to Durham, N. H., pur chasing in 1764, a handsome mansion built by an eminent physician of that town. The region was one of fertile farms, peace and plenty. The inhabitants had a cherished prejudice against lawyers, who, they be lieved, fomented litigation for their own ad vantage. Some of the younger and more energetic residents gave the newcomer no tice to quit the town, threatening physical coercion in case the mandate was not speed ily obeyed. John informed them that he should not leave, and that, if resort was had to force, they would find him ready. The people of Durham became greatly ex cited over the matter, and many were at length found arrayed on each side. Colli sions took place between the factions, and one man was severely, though not danger ously, wounded by an overzealous adherent

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of Mr. Sullivan. The affair had assumed a very serious aspect, when a truce was called, a conference was held in which it was determined that the question of Mr. Sulli van's staying should be settled by combat between the intruder and a champion to be selected from his enemies. So this early John Sullivan was in for a fight which he had not sought and did not desire. He was of large stature, and pos sessed great physical strength, and it was objected by the champion's immediate friends that the match was not a fair one. James, therefore, smaller, and lame in one leg, vol unteered as a substitute for his brother, to do battle for the profession. He proved the victor in the contest, and, curiously, the people of the town ever after had the great est confidence in John. It was in 1766, the year of the last Indian raid in the town, that James Sullivan became a resident of the most thickly settled portion of the extensive territory of Georgetown, the first corporation in Lincoln County. There is no record of his life here. He no doubt found some legal business, but like his brothers in their early professional life on the Piscataqua, he probably turned his hand to whatever appeared most profitable for the time. It is almost certain that he taught the young ideas of Parker's Island " how to shoot" in other ways than with bows and ar rows; and that he acquired skill in gather ing the inhabitants of the briny deep within the meshes of the nets, as he did later in en tangling the human kind in the meshes of the law, or in relieving them therefrom. At a subsequent period, having become joint proprietor of a township in southwestern Maine, he, with his associates in the enter prise, set out into the wilderness from Biddeford on foot. This was in 1774, when, on account of the opposition to the measures of the mother country, the courts had lost their authority and litigation was suspended. Most young married men in the profession would have been gloomy and discouraged in