Samuel Livermore was an American jurist and politician.
Background
Samuel Livermore was the third son and fourth child of Deacon Samuel Livermore and Hannah Brown, daughter of Deacon William Brown of Waltham, Massachusetts. The Livermore family in America descended from John Livermore (Leathermore or Lithermore), a potter by trade, who left England in 1634 and was admitted the following year as freeman in Watertown, Massachusetts. His descendants became people of substance and of importance. His great-grandson, Deacon Samuel, inherited from an uncle a farm in the township of Waltham, Massachusetts, United States where he took up his residence and held various offices. Here his son Samuel was born on May 25, 1732.
Education
Livermore attended Waltham schools. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1752.
Career
At eighteen Livermore worked as a teacher in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Then he read law in the office of Edmund Trowbridge. At the age of twenty-four he was admitted to the bar and began to practise in Waltham, but he soon moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he established his reputation as an energetic and fearless lawyer. He also became the warm friend of the royal agent, Governor Wentworth.
When trouble was brewing between the colony and the mother country, Livermore withdrew from Portsmouth to the Scotch-Irish settlement of Londonderry (now Derry), New Hampshire. He was elected to represent the township in the General Assembly of 1768-1770 but was recalled to Portsmouth in 1769 when Wentworth appointed him judge-advocate in the Admiralty court, and attorney-general. Five years later, however, he returned to Londonderry, and the next year (1775) he pushed farther still into the wilds to Holderness, at that time accessible only in winter, when vehicles could travel over the snow. Here he made his home, acquiring by grant and purchase more than two-thirds of the whole township, over which he practically ruled as "squire, " building a dignified residence, a church, and a gristmill, and personally superintending both farm and mill when the break with England prevented the fulfilment of his duties as King's attorney-general. Despite his apparent withdrawal from the Revolutionary conflict, popular confidence in him led to his election in 1776 as attorney-general, and from this time almost until his death he held office under the state practically continuously, sometimes, indeed, filling two offices at once. In 1779 he was elected by the General Court as commissioner to the Continental Congress to represent the interests of the state in the controversy over the "New Hampshire Grants" on the west side of the Connecticut River.
His services as commissioner led to his being chosen again as a representative to Congress in 1789, and in 1791. At the end of the last term (1793), he was elected to the United States Senate, and at the end of the six-year term, he was reelected for another six years but resigned in 1801 because of failing health. Twice he was chosen president of the Senate, pro tempore, and as such signed the address to the President on the death of Washington.
Meantime, he had also been holding other state offices, the most important being that of chief justice of the superior court (1782 - 1790). Thus he did not at first resign when elected to Congress, for there was then no law requiring it. In 1791 he was president of the New Hampshire constitutional convention.
He died at his home in Holderness and was buried there in the cemetery of Trinity Church.
Achievements
Livermore was noted for his service as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire's 3rd at-large congressional district from 1789 to 1793 and United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1793 to 1801. When the Constitution of the United States was being debated, and the vote of New Hampshire hung in the balance, Livermore as a member of the convention of 1788 did great service in bringing about ratification, thus securing the ninth state and ensuring the acceptance of the Constitution.
Politics
He was a member of the Federalist Party.
Personality
He was sometimes harsh of speech but he possessed a frankness and kindness of heart which atoned for his brusqueness. His honesty and common sense as a judge made amends for his contempt for precedents and for his sometimes inconsistent decisions.
Connections
On September 23, 1759, Livermore married Jane, daughter of the Rev. Arthur Browne of Portsmouth, the first minister of the Church of England to settle in New Hampshire. There were five children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. Of his surviving sons, Edward St. Loe and Arthur both became distinguished lawyers, and George Williamson held for many years the office of clerk of the court and register of deeds at Holderness.
