Samuel Prentiss was an American jurist and senator from Vermont.
Background
He was born on March 31, 1782 at Stonington, Connecticut, United States, the son of Samuel and Lucretia (Holmes) Prentiss. His paternal ancestor, Capt. Thomas Prentice, came from England to Massachusetts, where he was made a freeman of Cambridge in 1652. His grandfather, Samuel, served in the Revolution as a colonel; his father, as a doctor.
Education
At Northfield, Massachussets he was educated in part under the direction of Rev. Samuel Allen, who seems to have encouraged in him a taste for literature which he never lost. At the age of nineteen he began the study of law in an office at Northfield, continuing later at Brattleboro, Vermont.
Career
Admitted to the bar in 1802, he opened an office the following year at Montpelier. Here, except for absences while in political or judicial offices, he lived the rest of his long life. At first, as a young lawyer in a small village, his practice was slight, leaving him ample leisure for that scholarly and unremitting study of the fundamentals of legal science which he pursued throughout his life. Though his scruples prevented his accepting any client whose cause he distrusted, his learning and honesty eventually gave him a wide practice which included most of the important cases in the state.
In spite of his success, he was so lacking in self-confidence that he refused in 1822 the offer of a place upon the state supreme bench. Three years later he did accept such a position, however; but for some time he rarely wrote the court's decisions, though his counsel seems to have determined the character of the most important of them. In 1829 he became chief justice of his tribunal.
When, in 1830, a United States senator was to be elected from Vermont, Prentiss was proposed for the place. Except for two years in the state legislature (1824 - 25), he had held no political office nor was he known as a politician. He was elected on the first ballot by a legislature with a Democratic majority. For eleven years he sat in the Senate. Though counted as one of the ablest men in a body which contained the greatest political figures of the day, he exercised no outward leadership. What influence he possessed came neither from eloquence nor skill as a political manager, but rather from the respect which his intellect and character inspired among his colleagues.
A vacancy occurring in the federal court for the Vermont district, in 1842 Prentiss resigned his senatorship to accept it. For the rest of his life he presided over this court. He died in Montpelier.
Achievements
Politics
Initially he called himself a Federalist and later became a Whig.
Personality
Prentiss was excessively modest and unassertive. He was an unassuming, unaggressive figure, spoke rarely, and made no effort to win popularity or publicity. Prentiss was a simple, gracious, conservative judge of great learning and honest, scrupulous in his care for justice.
His tall spare figure, neatly clothed in the fashion of an older day, and his formal but kindly courtesy gave him even among his contemporaries the name of a gentleman of the old school.
Connections
On October 3, 1804, he married Lucretia Houghton of Northfield, Massachussets. They had twelve children of whom nine of the sons who reached maturity followed their father's profession of the law.