Meade of Virginia, George Wood, and Judge Wayne of the United States Supreme Court. Immediately after graduation, he entered the office of Sylvester Russell, a leading lawyer in Morristown, was licensed as an attorney in 1812, as a counsellor in 1815, and in 1834 was made serjeant-at-law. So soon as he was licensed he began the practice of his profes sion at Morristown. His practice steadily increased, and he won and secured the con fidence of the community by his strict integ rity, and commanded the respect of the bar and bench by his superior talents and close attention to the interests of his clients. In 1823 he was elected a member of the House of Assembly, was twice returned by his fel low-citizens of Morris County to the same position, and became the Speaker of the House during the last two years. While a member of the Legislature, in 1824 and 1825, he was made Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris County, and in 1826, still a member of the Legislature, was appointed an As sociate Justice of the Supreme Court to suc ceed Judge Rossell. While holding this office, and to meet the wishes of the mem bers of the bar in the southern part of the State, he removed to Burlington, where he remained while on the bench. At the ex piration of his term, the Hicksite Quakers combined with the political party opposed to him, and elected enough members of the Legislature to prevent his re-election. His defeat was deprecated by all parties, except those who were determined to be revenged upon him for doing that which he deemed to be his duty; and no one more strongly con demned that action than did the gentleman who succeeded him, and who only consented to accept the office when he ascertained that his predecessor could by no possibility be re elected. Judge Drake was tall and rather slender, but with a commanding presence. He was a clear-minded thinker, a good law yer; not a brilliant man, but of excellent judgment, and good, sound, common-sense, and possessing a discriminating intellect of more than ordinary power, he easily grasped
the salient points in a case. His opinion in the great Quaker cause, to which reference has already been made, is perhaps as good an example of his mode of reasoning and of his ability as any other which he decided. He re turned to Morristown after his term expired, and resumed the practice of his profession; but his long absence from his former clientage interfered very materially with his success. His health had suffered from a very severe at tack of rheumatism, from which he never en tirely recovered. In the spring of 1837 he imprudently rode on horseback from Morris town to Succasunna, after making a change of clothing, was seized with pleurisy, and died at the residence of his brother-in-law Dr. Woodruff. Joseph C. Hornblower, who succeeded ChiefJustice Ewing in, 1832, was the first and only citizen born in Essex County who ever held that office. He was the son of Josiah Hornblower, an Englishman, who came to New Jersey in early youth and settled at Belle ville; a man of learning, a surveyor, and of great public spirit, identifying himself espe cially with the educational interests of the community. He became a member of the Legislature of the Continental Congress, was a justice of the peace, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Young Hornblower in boyhood was of a weak physical constitution, and could not therefore avail himself of all advantages for acquiring a superior educa tion. Whatever, however, could be done for him in that direction was carefully afforded him. He finished his studies in the Orange Academy, at that time one of the best con ducted and most celebrated institutions of learning in the State, and of which his father was one of the trustees. John McPherson Berrien, prominent in Southern politics, at one time Senator and at another AttorneyGeneral of the United States, was a fellowstudent at this institution. Mr. Hornblower, after "leaving the Academy, was employed in New York by his brother-in-law, in some mercantile enterprise, but very soon deter mined that he was fitted for a different life.
