334 Hiztory of Hingham. 



lieut.-governor of Massachusetts, and re-elected in 1808, when, 

 in consequence of Governor Sullivan's death, he became acting- 

 governor. In 1810 he was elected a member of the Executive 

 Council of this Commonwealth, and in 1811 he was appointed an 

 associate-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 

 which office he declined, and soon after retired to private life. 



" He was learned in his profession, and in his addresses to a 

 jury, eloquent, and sometimes irresistible. As a statesman he 

 was fearless and independent, and obtained respect by his energy 

 and decision of character, and not by the practice of any arts to 

 secure popular favor and public admiration." 



He died April 14, 1820, and in a review of his character and 

 services a few days after his death was the following : — 



" Few of our lawyers and divines are acquainted with the fact that the 

 arbitrary encroachments of the Royalist clergymen, in 1776, were first suc- 

 cessfully resisted here (Worcester), and that too by Mr. Lincoln, — that it 

 probably was his exertions that first defined and settled the often conflict- 

 ing interests of minister, church, and parish. How few of our rising politi- 

 cians have been taught that the first practical comment on the introductory 

 clause of the Bill of Rights was first given by a Worcester jury, — that it 

 was here first shown, by the irresistible eloquence of Lincoln, that ' all men 

 were in truth born free and equal,' 1 and that a court sitting under the au- 

 thority of our Constitution, could not admit as a justification for an assault, 

 the principle of master and slave, — that it was the memorable verdict 

 obtained upon this trial which first broke the fetters of negro slavery in 

 Massachusetts and let the oppressed free ! This deed of Judge Lincoln, 

 even if it stood alone, ought to consecrate his memory with every freeman." 



Solomon Lincoln [II. 474], the son of Solomon and Lydia 

 (Bates) Lincoln, was born in Hingham, Feb. 28, 1804. After 

 attending private and public schools in Hingham, he was admitted 

 to Derby Academy, Nov. 2, 1813, of which Rev. Daniel Kimball 

 was preceptor. In April, 1819, he left the Academy to pursue a 

 course of classical studies under the tuition of Rev. Joseph Rich- 

 ardson, of Hingham, and in September following, when but 

 lifteen years old, he entered the sophomore class of Brown Uni- 

 versitv, and was graduated there in 1822. 



From Oct. 28, 1822, to Nov. 15, 1823, he taught private and pub- 

 lic schools in Falmouth, Mass. From Nov. 21, 1823, to Nov. 18, 

 1826, he studied law in the office of Hon. Ebenezer Gay, of Hing- 

 ham. Nov. 21, 1826, he was admitted to practice as an attorney 

 at the Court of Common Pleas, in Plymouth, Mass. Oct. 21, 

 1829, he was admitted as an attorney at the Supreme Judicial 

 Court, in Plymouth ; and Oct. 26, 1831, he was admitted as coun- 

 sellor by the Supreme Judicial Court, in Plymouth. Under the 

 laws then in force three years of study were required for admis- 

 sion to practice in the Court of Common Pleas, two years of 

 practice in that court as preliminary to practice in the Supreme 

 Judicial Court, and two years more of practice before admission 

 as a counsellor-at-law. 



