Charles was born on April 11, 1830 in Derry, New Hampshire, United States. He was the youngest child of Joseph Doe, Jr. , and Mary Bodwell (Ricker) Doe. He was descended from Nicholas Doe, who, according to family tradition, came from London, England, and who was living at Oyster River, New Hampshire, in 1666. Charles’s father was a large landowner and farmer of Somersworth (later Rollinsford), and a member of the legislature. The family was well off.
The boy enjoyed a good education at the academies of South Berwick, Exeter, and Andover, after which he went to Harvard College for a term, and thence to Dartmouth College where he graduated in 1849. He then entered the law office of Daniel M. Christie of Dover, New Hampshir, and subsequently passed some time at the Harvard Law School, but, being offered the post of solicitor for Strafford County, did not complete his course.
Doe accepted the post of solicitor for Strafford County, was called to the bar in January 1854, and commenced practise at Dover.
As county solicitor he had much criminal work, and his family connections assisted him to acquire a good share of the civil business of the neighborhood.
He had at an early age taken an active interest in politics on the Democratic side, being assistant clerk of the state Senate in 1853 and 1854 and appearing frequently on the public platform.
In 1856 he was, upon an address of the Republican legislature, removed from his office of county solicitor, but three years later he joined the Republican party, being urged thereto by the Democratic attitude toward the growing disaffection in the Southern states and his realization that in this matter there could be no compromise.
Indifferent however to under-current of dislike and the more open opposition of personages prominent in public and professional circles, he resolutely adhered to the principles of conduct which he had formulated for himself and declining to modify his views on legal reform, in course of time, earned the respect, if not the assent, of the bar, and impressed the public with his absolute sincerity of purpose. His efficiency and competence were demonstrated from the outset of his judicial career.
He never, however, overcame the animosity of his political opponents, and when in 1874 the Democrats obtained control of the legislature, they proceeded to reorganize the state courts, doing away with the supreme judicial court, and substituting a superior court of judicature to which he was not appointed. He did not resume practise, but returned to his home at Rollinsford, and there lived in retirement, declining a proffered nomination for Congress.
In 1876, however, the Republican party regained power, created the supreme court of New Hampshire and he was offered and accepted the position of chief justice.
Having conceived a distaste for trial work, he made an arrangement with his colleagues in 1878 by which he was relieved of most of the Trial Term business and concentrated his attention on the Law Term.
In 1887 he took a vacation in Europe, spending some time in Great Britain and France. On his return he resumed his judicial duties, but never regained his former vigor.
His intellect, nevertheless, w'as unimpaired and he continued to take a dominant part in the administration of justice up to the day of his death.
Doe delighted in research, frequently investigating legal principles to their foundation, and embodying the result of his labors in opinions which were treatises on the law involved. In Hale vs. Everett his opinion extended to 144 pages of the report.
He held that common law rights existed independently of any particular writ, that a mistake in procedure was formal merely, and not substantive, and therefore that the court had power to effect any necessary amendments independently of the legislature.
Doe served as associate justice of the supreme judicial court of New Hampshire. He effected a revolution by a radical departure from well-established principles. On this principle, historically untrue, he brought about procedural reforms which were effective, though radical, by means of court decisions and without recourse to legislation.
Doe had unconventional type of mind and strong reform tendencies. His peculiar genius was afforded full opportunity on the Appeal side of the court, and “for nearly twenty years . .. by the general concensus of his contemporaries he was the foremost man of the profession in the state; foremost not merely in name or in official position, but in fact”.
Originality marked all his work, and he declined to be bound by precedent, saying, “as there was a time when no precedents existed, everything that can be done with them can be done without them. ”
In appearance and manner he was plain and unassuming, having a strong aversion to ceremony. He is pictured in middle age as “of medium height, slightly bent, his beard shaggy and grizzled. He might have been a country storekeeper, a farmer, or a lumberman. He wore a sort of brown frock coat, coarse trousers and heavy boots or brogans, which showed no trace of blacking. An old battered straw hat completed the ordinary summer costume of the chief justice of New Hampshire. In winter he frequently wore a dark-blue cloth cap with laps to pull down over the ears; and he wore in court a coarse rug which onlookers insist was a horse- blanket”.
He was a thorough believer in fresh air and on the coldest days in winter would have all the windows of his courtroom wide open, despite all protest from bar, jury, and public.
In 1865 Doe married Edith, daughter of George Wallis Haven of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
