Background
Prentiss Mellen was the eighth of the nine children of the Rev. John and Rebecca (Prentiss) Mellen. He was born on October 11, 1764 in Sterling, Massachusetts.
Prentiss Mellen was the eighth of the nine children of the Rev. John and Rebecca (Prentiss) Mellen. He was born on October 11, 1764 in Sterling, Massachusetts.
Mellen's father, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1741, prepared his sons Henry and Prentiss for his own college, which they entered in 1780, graduating in 1784. Prentiss then spent a year as tutor in the family of Joseph Otis of Barnstable, later studying law with the eccentric lawyer, Shearjashub Bourne, of that place. In after years Mellen used to refer semi-humorously to the inadequacy of his professional preparation.
Admitted to the bar in Taunton in October 1788, Mellen practised for about eight months in Sterling, then he removed to Bridgewater. Not being as successful here as he had hoped, he left in November 1791 and spent the winter with his brother Henry who was practising law in Dover, New Hampshire. Upon the advice of his friend, George Thacher, a lawyer and at that time a representative in Congress from the District of Maine, he removed to the nearby town of Biddeford, now in the state of Maine. Here with a meager law library, but with an unbounded ambition, he opened his humble law office in Squire Hooper's tavern. By 1806 his law practice in the adjoining county, Cumberland, had grown so extensive that he moved to Portland, where he became a leader in what was commonly considered to be the ablest bar in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 1808, 1809, and 1817 he was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts. In 1818 he was chosen senator from Massachusetts, thus becoming a colleague of Harrison Gray Otis. In 1820, when Maine became a state, he left the Senate to accept appointment as chief justice of the supreme court of Maine, an office which he held until October 1834, when, having reached the age of seventy, he was required by law to retire. Mellen died on December 31, 1840 at Portland, Maine.
Tall and imposing, fervid and impassioned in speech, Mellen was an effective lawyer. As a judge, Mellen was conscientious, and his opinions are careful and pointed.
Mellen had married, on May 5, 1795, Sarah Hudson of Hartford, Connecticut, by whom he had six children. His son, Grenville, after studying law, deserted that profession for literature. In this he may well have been influenced by his father's lifelong interest in and practice of the composition of verses.