Native and Resident Lawyers. 339 



and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He commenced practice 

 in Plymouth, Mass., Sept. 1, 1825. June 7, 1830, he was ap- 

 pointed register of probate, which office he held until 1852. He 

 was State treasurer from 1853 to 1855, and from 1866 to 1871 ; 

 representative from Plymouth in 1863, and State senator in 1864 

 and 1865 ; president of Old Colony Bank, Plymouth, 1855-1865 ; 

 president of the Plymouth Savings Bank, 1872-1880 ; director of 

 the Old Colony Railroad Company ; actuary of the New England 

 Trust Company, Boston, 1870-1879. He delivered an oration in 

 Hingham, July 4, 1823. He died in Boston Feb. 2, 1880. Mr. 

 Loud was uniformly courteous in manner, a kind-hearted counsel- 

 lor, a faithful custodian of private trusts, and a man of rectitude, 

 industry, and conscientious fidelity in all the positions in which he 

 was placed. 



John Otis [III. 102] was born in Hingham in 1657. He moved 

 to Barnstable in 1686, where he died Sept. 23, 1727. He was 

 a distinguished lawyer, for eighteen years a colonel of militia, 

 twenty years representative, twenty-one years a member of the 

 Council, and for thirteen years chief justice of the Court of 

 Common Pleas and judge of probate. 



He was the father of James Otis, and grandfather of James 

 Otis " the patriot," both well known in connection with the his- 

 tory of the country. 



Benjamin Pratt [III. 116], son of Aaron Pratt, was born 

 March 13, 1710-11, in that part of Hingham now included with- 

 in the limits of Cohasset. He was graduated at Harvard College 

 in 1737. He studied law with Auchmuty or Gridley, or both, and 

 commenced practice in Boston. For several years he was one of 

 the Boston representatives in the General Court, and was fearless 

 and independent in support of those measures he thought to be 

 just. He was a man of strong intellect and decided traits of 

 character, qualities which made him conspicuous at the bar. He 

 gained the friendship of Governor Pownal, and by his influence 

 was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of New York. 

 On the occasion of his separation from the Suffolk Bar, the mem- 

 bers sent him an address, which spoke in affectionate terms of his 

 worth as a man and a lawyer. 



Chief Justice Pratt hoped to spend the closing years of his life 

 in New England, for he was possessed of all the pride of being 

 a New England man, but death came to him ere he realized this 

 fond anticipation. He died in New York Jan. 5, 1763. 



His talents were unquestioned. He was a man of great learn- 

 ing, and wrote much in prose and poetry in a classical and schol- 

 arly style. He made an extensive collection of rare documents 

 relating to the history of New England, and hoped to write its 

 history, but that hope he did not live to see fulfilled. 



Edward B. Pratt, son of Samuel L. and Mary L. (Bigley) 

 Pratt, was born in Boston, Dec. 22, 1866. The family moved to 

 Hingham in 1879. He attended the public schools, and was fitted 

 for college in the Hingham High School ; took the full course of 



