such circumstances, but young Sullivan pos sessed a happy and accommodating disposi tion, and had already become much beloved in his new place of residence. "Necessity in early life," wrote a contem porary resident of Bicldeford, " had brought him acquainted with labor of almost every kind. The ax, the saw, the shovel and the plow he handled equally with any one, and superior to most men, and with such willing resolution that none went before him. He would fell a tree equal to any, and lift as much." His outfit for his pioneering trip consisted of an ax and a week's provisions. Clad in blanket frock and trousers, he kept pace with his companions, and felled trees and burnt his ground as cheerfully and effectively as the best of them. The week passed, the work necessary to fit his tract for cultivation had been done, and he trudged back, — a distance of thirty miles, — appearing among his neighbors again as cheery and as black as natives returning from a successful hunt. Sullivan was granted by his partners the privilege of choosing a name for the new town, and he called it Limerick, in honor of his father's birthplace, in Ireland. The county of Lincoln was incorporated in 1760, and Povvnalborough was made its shire town in the same year. It embraced the present towns of Dresden and Wiscasset, to gether with two others eastward and north eastward. There was a small settlement at Wiscasset Point, and one scarcely larger on Eastern River, near the Kennebec, in what is now the town of Dresden. The families in the latter place numbered one hundred and fifteen. The county organization consisted of a Judge of Probate, Register of Deeds and Probate, with a Sheriff and Deputies. A Court of General Sessions of the Peace was held by the Justices of the Peace for the county hav ing criminal jurisdiction, and being provided with grand and petit juries. At the " tory trials" (1777) nine justices sat together.
The proprietors of the Plymouth (Kenne bec) Patent built the courthouse, locating it within the parade ground of Fort Shirley, constructed in 1754. The house was fortyfive feet long, forty feet wide and three stories high. A room in the second story, twenty by forty-five feet in horizontal dimen sions, was fitted up as a court room, and also for several years served as a place for Sun day worship for the settlement. The eastern most block house of the fort was appropriated for a jail, and the easterly part of the bar racks as a dwelling for the jail keeper, who was also Deputy Sheriff. This courthouse still stands, a conspicuous building near the eastern bank of the Kennebec, a short dis tance above the head of Swan Island. It is visible from the river boats and from the rail road on the opposite shore. "No place in Maine," says Willis,' " was so distinguished for its able and talented young men as Pownalborough." Among those who commenced life in that remote part of civilization were Rev. Jacob Bailey, the " Frontier Missionary; " William, Charles and Roland Gushing, the first two as county officers, the latteras a lawyer; Dr. Thomas Rice; Timothy Langdon, lawyer; Edmund Bridge, the time-honored sheriff; and Jonathan Bowman, Register and Judge. In this court room James Sullivan is said to have argued his first case. Its walls have echoed also the voices of James Otis, John Adams, the Ouincys and Sewalls, and other lawyers of eminence, who here pleaded the causes of their clients. Generally these Boston lawyers acted in the interests of one or the other side of the Kennebec (Plymouth), Pemaquid and Muscongus Patents; the second best known here as the " Drowne Claim," and the last as the "Waldo Patent." Both the terms of the in struments and the various surveys made un der each, contributed to stubborn and longcontinued disputes. The action 1 " Law, of Courts the and children Lawyersofof Master Maine." Sul-
