Draft:Robert J. Peaslee

Robert J. Peaslee (September 24, 1864 – 19__) was a justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1898 to 1901, and again from 1908 to 1934, serving as chief justice from 1924 to 1934.

"Robert James Peaslee, son of Robert and Persis B. (Dodge) Peaslee, was born in Weare, N. H., September 24, 1864 and was educated in the common schools of his native town, Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, Mass.; Anns Academy, Shelburne Falls, Mass., and at Boston University School of Law, from which he graduated with high honors in 1886; was admitted to the bar in 1886, and practiced law in Mauchester, N. H., until appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, June 14, 1898.

From the very outset of his career, the few in Manchester who had an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Peaslee, confidently predicted that he would take high rank in the profession of the law. A diligent and conscientious student, he was not content with the mere smattering of knowledge obtainable from text-books, but devoted himself to an exhaustive examination of legal propositions, and became familiar with the bedrock principles on which they depended. A clear-headed and logical reasoner, the possessor of a remarkably retentive memory, able to apply legal knowledge to facts with readiness and accuracy, regular and systematic in his habits and methods, pugnacious in spirit, and blessed with an appetite for hard work, he came to the bar admirably equipped for any battle of the law, whether skirmish, campaign, or siege. Add to this formidable equipment sound sense and absolute honesty, and it does not seem strange that in the comparatively few years of his practice he came to be recognized as one of the leaders of the Hillsborough bar.

In the spring of 1898 it became necessary to select a successor to lion. Lewis W. Clark, who was about to retire from the bench after an honorable service of more than twenty years. That the new appointee should be a Manchester man was a self-evident proposition. Mr. Peaslee's friends, recognizing that he had abilities of the highest order and believing that he possessed a natural aptitude for judicial work, earnestly desired his promotion to the bench. He received a flattering endorsement from other sections of the state, but the bar of Hillsborough county, where he had made his record and won his spurs, joined in a practically unanimous request for his appointment. In naming him for the place, Governor Ramsdell, himself a member of the Hillsborough bar, not only expressed his own judgment, but gave effect to a public sentiment so strong and universal that it could not be disregarded."

In 1923, Peaslee was president of the New Hampshire Bar Association.