to settle in Bennington, where, he writes in the preceding January, " I shall indeed be rara avis in terris, for there is not an attor ney in the State. Think, Fitch, think what a figure I shall make, when I become the oracle of law to the State of Vermont." There were lawyers in Vermont at that time, but none save adherents of New York, who regarded the State courts as usurpations. In May, 1779, Stephen Row Bradley and Noah Smith were admitted as attorneys, and in the succeeding month, "at the Superior Court holden in Rutland, in the county of Rutland, on the second Thursday of June, A.D., 1779, Nathaniel Chipman was ap pointed attorney at law, sworn and licensed to plead at the Bar in the State Court." In a decade after the above letter, he was Chief Judge of the State, and, in fact, the oracle of law therein. He was appointed the first State's attorney for Rutland County and retained the office for several years; he removed to Rutland, which had been se lected as the permanent shire town. He often represented his town in the General Assembly and constitutional conventions; was one of the commissioners to adjust the difficulties between Vermont and New York; a member of the convention which ratified the United States Constitution, and one of the committee to revise the Statute laws in 1797, which is the best compilation of our early legislation. He was a member of the Council of Censors in 1813; in 1815 he was chosen Professor of Law in Middlebury College; at the incorporation of this insti tution he was placed at the head of its board of trustees, and so continued till his death. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College. During the last ten years of his life he lived somewhat secluded at Tinmouth, with few companions except his books, which he studied daily until a short time prior to his death. He outlived nearly one-half of his successors in the legal profession. A physi cian in Colorado writes that, after the death
of Judge Chipman, his library was a wonder to the boys in the neighborhood, as when produced for appraisal, it measured exactly one cord, — eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high. Judge Chipman was constantly engaged in business enterprises, —-farming, manufac ture of iron, etc., but his absence from home, in his professional and judicial duties, pro duced the usual results, and his ventures were generally unsuccessful. His son, Henry, was United States district judge in the territory of Michigan, and his grandson, the late John Logan Chipman, was for a long time judge of the Superior Court in Detroit and a late member of Congress. In 1786, Judges Fasset and Porter were dropped from the list of judges, and in their places were elected Mr. Chipman and Luke Knowlton. Mr. Chipman's first year of ser vice was with four laymen; at the end of it the two new members were dropped, the Bench being reduced from five members to three. In 1789, Chief Judge Robinson was elected Governor; Paul Spooner died just prior to the election, leaving Judge Niles, who declined a re-election; Judge Chipman was chosen Chief, Noah Smith and Samuel Knight assistants. He served as Chief two years, and upon the organization of the United States' courts in Vermont, was ap pointed by President Washington district judge. At the end of his second year in the latter office, he resigned, as there was but little business in the court and the com pensation small. He resumed practice and continued in it until 1796, when Chief Judge Isaac Tichenor was elected United States senator, and Mr. Chipman was again chosen Chief, Judges Woodbridge and Hall remain ing as assistants. He served one year, when in October, 1797, he was elected United States senator, at the end of which term he again resumed practice, removing to Tinmouth. He represented Tinmouth in 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809 and 1811; and in 18 13, when the Legislature was Federal by one or
