seat on the U.S. supreme bench tendered him by President Lincoln in 1865; declined the mis- sion to Austria offered him by President Johnson in 1867, and was mentioned as a candidate for the vice-presidency in the Republican national con- vention of 1868. He prepared for publication a translation of P. C. Roux's Essay on the History of France and the Immediate Causes of the Revolu- tion of 1789, a volume of notes to the same, and left incomplete a History of Seventeen Years; from 1860 to the Retiring of the Federal Army from Louisiana and South Carolina. He died in Scho- harie. N.Y, March 29, 1887.
DURFEE, Bradford Matthew Chaloner, phi- lanthropist, was born in Fall River, Mass., June 15, 1843; son of Maj. Bradford and Mary (Brayton) Durfee. He was prepared for college in the Fall River high school and entered Yale, but left just before the close of his second year on account of ill health. He travelled abroad, 1865-68, engaged FALL RIVER HIGH SCHOOLAn image should appear at this position in the text.
in business for a time, and sub- sequently spent a large part of his time in travel. He pre- sented to Yale college a large and costly dor- mitory, called "Durfee Hall." Yale conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1871. In 1887 his mother, Mrs. Mary Brayton Young, presented to the city of Fall River the B. M. C. Durfee high school building as a memorial to her son. This building, commanding a prominent site overlooking an ex- tended territory, represented at the time it was built the largest single gift made to the cause of public education in America, its estimated cost being more than $500,000. Mr. Durfee died in Fall River, Mass., Sept. 13, 1872.
DURFEE, Job, jurist, was born in Tiverton, R.I.. Sept. 20, 1790; son of Thomas and Mary (Louden) Durfee; and a descendant from Thomas Durfee who came from England about 1650 and settled on the island of Rhode Island. Job's father was a soldier of the Revolution, a member of the council of Governor Hancock, and chief justice of the court of common pleas of Newport county, 1820-29 Job was graduated with honor at Brown in 1813. He studied law with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1817, and was a representative in the general assembly, 1816-20. He was a representative in the 17th and 18th congresses, 1821-25. He was again a representa- tive in the general assembly, 1826-29, and speaker, 1828-29. In 1833 he was again a state represent- ative; was associate judge of the supreme court of the state. 1833–35, and chief justice, 1835–47.
He received the degree of LL.D. from Brown in 1815, and was a trustee, 1837-47. He was married in 1820 to Judith, daughter of Simeon Borden, and their son, Thomas Durfee, afterward chief justice of the supreme court of Rhode Island, prepared Complete Works of Job Durfee, with a Memoir of His Life (1849). His memorable charge on treason, delivered to the grand jury at the time of the "Dorr War,' was printed and widely circulated. He published: What Cheer, a poem (1832), and Panidea (1846). He died at Tiverton, R.I., July 26, 1847. DURFEE, Nathaniel Briggs, representative, was born at Tiverton, R.I., Sept. 29, 1812; son of David and Patience (Cook) Briggs Durfee; grandson of David Durfee and of Col. John Cook of Tiverton, R.I.; and a descendant of Thomas Durfee, one of the early settlers of Portsmouth, R.I. His mother was a widow when she married David Durfee, having been previously married to Nathaniel Briggs of Tiverton. Nathaniel was educated at Newport, R.I., and engaged in farm- ing in his native place. He was a member of the Rhode Island assembly for eleven years, and was a representative in the 34th and 35th congresses, 1855-59. He died at Tiverton, R.I., Nov. 9, 1872. DURFEE, Thomas, jurist, was born in Tiver- ton, R.I., Feb. 6, 1826; son of Judge Job and Judith (Borden) Durfee; and grandson of Thomas Durfee and of Simeon Borden, both of them de- scendants of early settlers in Rhode Island. He was graduated at Brown university in 1846 and was admitted to the bar in 1848, settling in Providence. He was reporter of the supreme court of Rhode Island, 1849 53, and he served in the court of magis- trates of the city of Providence, 1854-60, one year as associate and five years as presiding magistrate In 1863 he was repre- sentative in the gen. Thomas Durfee. eral assembly from Providence, and speaker of the house. In 1864 he was chairman of the Rhode Island delegation to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President in 1861. In 1865 he was state senator. On June 1, 1865, he was chosen associate justice of the supreme court of Rhode Island and in 1875 was elected chief justice. retiring in 1891. In 1897 he was one of a commission of fifteen, appointed by the governor of Rhode Island, under a resolution of the general assembly, to revise the constitution
