New Ipswich, N. H., was the second. He was born in 1732, and married a lady named Hubbard, by whom he became the father of four children, of whom John was the third. John Appleton married Elizabeth Peabody, by whom he was the father of an only son, the future Chief-Justice of Maine. Judge Appleton's mother died when he was only four years old, and he was left with an only sister thus early in life to the care of others. After passing through the com mon schools and academy of his native town he entered Bowdoin College of which his uncle, the Rev. Jesse Appleton, was president and was graduated in the class of 1822, when only eighteen years old. In his col lege course he laid deep the foundation of his knowledge of the classics, especially the Latin from which his frequent and felicitous quotations, both oral and written, are notice able. He began the study of law in the office of George F. Farley, at Groton, Mass., and afterwards continued it at Alfred, the shiretown of York County, Maine, under the instructions of his relative, Nathan Dane Appleton. He was admitted, in 1826, to the bar at Amherst, N. H., shortly after he arrived at his majority. He began the legal practice, the same year, at Dixmont, Penob scot County, Maine, and after a few months removed to Sebec, Piscataquis County, where he resided six years. Here the young law yer did not find the time weighing heavily on him for want of occupation, although it was a sparsely settled town and business could not have been pressing, for he had early acquired the habit of close study and was a most diligent reader of all that relates to the profession of the law, especially of those writers who sought, like Bentham, to discard its excrescences and useless absurdi ties. Removing to the city of Bangor in 1832, which ever after remained his home, he formed a partnership, with his future brotherin-law, Hon. Elisha H. Allen, under the
name of Allen & Appleton, and entered at once into an extensive practice. This firm continued until Mr. Allen was elected to Congress in 1840. Mr. Allen subsequently became Chancellor of the Sandwich Islands and Minister of Hawaii to the United States. Subsequently he had for partners John B. Hill and his cousin Moses L. Appleton, the latter remaining with him until 1852, when Judge Appleton was appointed to the bench. Their clientage was unusually large,— hundreds ofsuits in each term being intrusted to their care. On account of the insolvency of the times, collections were made then large ly by suits, but fees were small. " In respect of experience and multiform legal knowl edge," as the Judge once naively said, " it was largely remunerative." The research and activity which it stimulated, placed them in the very fore-front of the legal fraternity. What the advocate should be in the mind of this able lawyer he tells us in a beautiful tribute to the memory of one of his associ ates upon the Maine Bench, Hon. Edward Kent, in which he unconsciously has given us a pen-picture of himself. He says : " As an advocate, he was earnest, fluent, a thorough master of the facts to be discussed, omitted nothing which could conduce to the result sought to be attained. Judicious, frank and open, scorning all artifice and, concealment despising all trickery, he addressed himself to the merits of his cause, and to the calm judgment of the jury. His commanding presence, the recognized purity of his life and the integrity of his character, gave force and strength to an argument in itself forci ble and strong without the added weight of those great accessories." Judge Appleton " was (at that time) the leading advocate in this section of the State," says Mr. Frank lin A. Wilson, of the Penobscot Bar, whose discriminating judgment rarely fails in such matters; and he further adds that: "He was in the full vigor and prime of life, graceful in motion, eloquent in speech, persuasive and successful; and to my youthful mind
