The Supreme Court of Vermont. delicate health of others of his family in duced him to resign the judgeship in the summer of 1865, when he was appointed United States Consul at Nice, where he remained until 1870. The following year, he was appointed president of the southern claims commission, and held this important position until 1880, when the commission was brought to a close. Immediately after wards, he was appointed commissioner on the French and Alabama claims, and served as such until 1884. His duties in these offices required his presence at Washington, and he made that city his home the last twenty years of his life. He was of high ability, a cultured scholar, a fine talker, a man of strong independence, sturdy patriotism, and a thorough gentleman. He suffered from an attack of grippe in the winter of 1890, from the effects of which he never recovered. His son, Owen Aldis, is at the Bar in Chicago. He was deeply interested in all scientific matters and was of a philosophic, inquiring turn of mind; in one of his last years he said that if he could live his life again, he should not pursue the legal profession, but spend his time in scientific investigations. John Pierpoint was born at Litchfield, Conn., and could trace his descent in an unbroken line from Robert Pierrepont, com mended by William the Conqueror for gallant conduct in the battle of Hastings. Robert and John were frequent names in the family, and John, number nineteen, settled in Roxbury, Mass., between 1630 and 1640. One of the family settled in Connecticut, and from him the subject of this sketch descended. When he was ten years old, he came to Rutland to reside with his brother Robert, and remained with him until he began the study of the law, when eighteen years of age. He soon went to the law school at Litchfield, boarding in his father's family, two miles distant. On leaving the law school, he returned to Rutland, and was
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admitted to the Bar in 1827. He opened an office in Pittsford, where he remained five years, when he removed to Vergennes in May, 1832. His health broke down and he spent the winter of 1835-36 in Mississippi; in the spring he returned to Vergennes somewhat improved, but he ever after continued a frail, delicate man, and although his health was better in his later years, it was necessary for him to avoid severe work or exposure. His practice, while at the Bar, was never large, but he did all that his health would permit. He settled more controversies than he prosecuted. He was often auditor and referee, selected by the parties on account of his fairness, his knowledge of the law, and his power to apply it to the common affairs of life. He was a member of both branches of the Legislature, and when in the Senate was chairman of the judiciary committee; he was register of the probate court for twenty-one years. He was elected judge in 1857, and was appointed Chief Judge in November, 1865, and held the position for more than sixteen years, a longer time than the same has been held by any other one. He was well versed in the principles of the common law, but not always accurate in his remembrance of cases, even late ones, in the decision of which he had taken part. He would often forget them, but when re minded of what doctrines had been held in such a case, he readily yielded his views, often with the remark that " that seems to be the law, but it ought not to be." His opinions are well and forcibly written. The cases reported by him are less in number than those of some of the other judges, but this was caused by his ill-health during the latter part of his life. The Bar of the State erected a monument to his memory. Judge Barrett, a native of Orange County, obtained his education at Dart mouth; he became a resident of Woodstock
