436 GEORGE TYLER BIGELOW. 



GEORGE TYLER BIGELOW. 



George Ttler Bigelow was born at Watertown, Massachusetts, 

 October 6, 1810, and died in Boston, April 12, 1878. He was a son 

 of the Hon. Tyler Bigelow, an eminent lawyer in Middlesex county, 

 and grandson of Colonel Timothy Bigelow of Worcester, an officer in 

 the war of the Revolution. He graduated at Harvard College in the 

 class of 1829, and afterwards pursued the study of law. In 1834, he 

 was admitted to the bar, and established himself in the practice of his 

 profession at Boston. He was interested in political affairs, and at 

 different times in early life was a member of the Legislature of Massa- 

 chusetts ; but his main strength was devoted to the profession in which 

 he was destined to win the highest honors that his native State could 

 give. " At the bar," it has been said, " he was active, energetic, indus- 

 trious, indefatigable, with plenty of courage and tenacitj." 



In 1848, he was appointed by Governor Briggs a justice of the 

 Court of Common Pleas. The appointment was much criticised, but 

 the criticism did not continue long. One who knew him well has said, 

 " From the first day he took his seat, he was every inch a judge. In 

 the despatch of business, in the management of the docket, in his clear 

 and able charges to the jury, in his absolute impartiality, he won the 

 applause and even the admiration of the bar." 



In 1850, he was promoted to the Supreme Judicial Court as succes- 

 sor to Mr. Justice AVilde. As to the manner in which he filled this 

 office, one of his associates, Mr. Justice Hoar, has said : " His learning 

 and sagacity, his love of the law as a science, his readiness of appre- 

 hension, and, more than all, his wonderful power of appropriating, 

 submitting to legal tests, and bringing to practical and safe results the 

 ideas and suggestions of others, whether at the bar or from his asso- 

 ciates on the bench, made him an invaluable member of the Court. 



On the retirement of Chief Justice Shaw in 1860, Judge Bigelow 

 succeeded him in the highest judicial office in the State. He held this 

 office with honor until the year 1867, when certain physical infirmities 

 led him to withdraw from judicial life. He accepted at once the office 

 of actuary of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, 

 and held that place until the beginning of the year 1878. 



Judge Bigelow was a member of the Corporation of Harvard Col- 

 lege from the year 1868 to the time of his death. He was also Vice- 

 President of this Academy. 



