Introduction
Theron Metcalf (October 16, 1784 – November 12, 1875) was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts. He was a New England jurist and served as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Biography
Metcalf was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, the son of Hanan Metcalf and Mary (Allen) Metcalf. He graduated from Brown University in 1805, and studied law at the Litchfield Law School after graduation. He was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1807, and moved to Dedham, Massachusetts in 1809 to practice law. Metcalf edited the Dedham Gazette from 1813-1819. He served as Norfolk County Attorney for twelve years, until the position was eliminated.
Political career
In 1815, he was appointed Reporter of Contested Elections for that year. In 1831, 1833 and 1834, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He opened a law school in Dedham in 1828 where he gave lectures. Brown gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1844, and Harvard University did the same in 1848.He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1844.
He was appointed Reporter of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1839, and sat on the bench of that court from February 24, 1848 until his resignation on August 31, 1865. His annotations were considered valuable for their philosophical investigation and discriminating analysis.
In 1832 and 1847, he was elected a fellow of Brown University. He delivered an address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown in 1832, and in 1840 delivered the 4th of July oration at Dedham. Metcalf donated a set of fifty volumes of ordination sermons that he had collected to Brown University.
Metcalf died in Boston, Massachusetts on November 12, 1875.
Family life
On November 5, 1809, he married Julia Tracy, daughter of United States Congressman Uriah Tracy. Metcalf and his wife had three children: George Tracy Metcalf, William Pitt Metcalf and Julia Metcalf.
Published works
His publications include:
- A Digest of the Cases decided in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823, including the Five last Volumes of Tyng's and the first of Octavius Pickering's Reports (Boston, 1825)
- Reports from 1840 till 1849 (13 vols., 1840–51)
- the first volume of Digest of Decisions of Courts of Common Law and Admiralty in the United States (1840)
- a Supplement to the Revised Statutes of Massachusetts till 1844, with Luther S. Cushing (1844)
- articles to The American Jurist on the "Law of Contracts."
Edited works
His edited works include:
- Asahel Stearns and Lemuel Shaw, The General Laws of Massachusetts till 1822 (2 vols., 1823)
- George Maule and William Selwyn's Reports
- Russell on Crimes
- Starkie on Evidence
- Yelverton's Reports