moderate competence sufficient for his sim ple tastes, is spending his days in a digni fied quiet. Unfortunately for the commu nity as well as for himself, he has been afflicted for many years with rheumatic gout, which seems inexorable, and has so crippled his hands and feet that he is laid aside from ac tive intellectual labor. He has a taste and fondness for literature of the highest order, and if he were able would undoubtedly benefit his kind by his intellectual ability to instruct and interest. Judge Dalrimple carries with him into his enforced retirement the esteem and confi dence of his fellow-citizens. A character of the purest integrity gained by him at the bar and on the bench has followed him to these his latter days, and will ever attend him. When the term of Daniel Haines as as sociate justice expired, it devolved upon Mar cus L. Ward, then Governor of New Jersey, to find a fit successor. Governor Ward was a conscientious man and loved his native State; so he anxiously sought for the fittest man. To his astonishment one or two lead ing lawyers to whom he tendered the nomi nation for the vacant position declined the honor; but still more amazed was he when many members of the bar named an attorney practising in the small town of Belvidere as the man best equipped to fill the place. The Governor had never heard of this able lawyer, and knew nothing about him. But this was not remarkable; the chief magistrate of the State had had very little to do with lawyers; he knew all about soldiers, and could name, without much thought or any hesitation, the best fighters in the war which had just closed, for he had been a firm and fast friend of the boys in blue. He soon became satisfied that this lawyer from Belvidere, thus recog nized by members of the bar as fully fitted for the office although unknown to him and to fame, was the man for whom he was seek ing; and so on the 15th of November, 1866, David Ayres Depue was commissioned, after being duly nominated and confirmed, as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; and no better nomination was ever made. Judge Depue is of Huguenot descent; but when his original ancestor emigrated to this country, or from whence he came, cannot now be ascertained. A family of the name of Dupuis, which is undoubtedly the original method of spelling the name, lived in the western part of the State, near the Delaware River, during the last century. About a hun dred and fifty years ago, Nicholas Dupuis was connected with the colonial records of New Jersey. Some member of this family was an ancestor of Judge Depue. His father, Benjamin Depue, a highly respectable citi zen, removed from New Jersey to North Bethel, Northampton County, in Pennsyl vania, where the future judge was born in 1826. In 1840 Mr. Benjamin Depue re turned to Warren County in New Jersey, not to the home of his ancestors, but made his way to Belvidere, the capital of the county, bringing the future judge with him. Young Depue had a careful father, who determined that his son should receive the very best education which could be obtained. Accordingly he gave him the benefit of a thorough academic course, in preparation for a collegiate training. In pursuance of his plan, the father placed his son in Prince ton College, where the young man graduated in 1846. In less than ten days after gradua tion, young Depue entered the office of John M. Sherrerd, then one of the leading lawyers of Belvidere. A very warm friendship sprang up between preceptor and student, which con tinued until the death of Mr. Sherrerd. This friendship was so strong on the part of the student, that his only son was named after Mr. Sherrerd. That boy is now a young lawyer of great promise, practising at New ark, and is Assistant U. S. District Attor ney of New Jersey. Judge Depue was licensed as an attorney in 1849, and received his counsellor's degree in 1852. He remained for about a year after being licensed in Mr. Sherrerd's office; and then, following the advice of his friend and
