Hammond, John (1613?–01 March 1663), promotion writer and lawyer, first appears in the historical records in Virginia in 1646. Nothing is known of his parentage or education. He remarked in 1654 that he had spent nineteen years in Virginia and two in Maryland, so he evidently emigrated to Virginia about 1633. He probably farmed and practiced law in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. He witnessed a deed there in 1646 and was elected a burgess in 1652, but the Puritan assembly expelled him as “a scandalous person, and a frequent disturber of the peace of the country, by libell and other illegall practices.” The offended Hammond, with his wife and four children, promptly moved to Maryland, where he bought a plantation in St. Mary’s County. In June 1653 he argued a case before the Maryland Provincial Court. The entrepreneurial Hammond was granted a license to sell liquor on 5 December 1654 and established an inn at Newtown. He was also given the right to provide a ferry over the Newtown River. In return, Hammond allowed the St. Mary’s County Court to meet at his inn, “the most Convenient place.”...
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Hammond, John (1613?–01 March 1663), promotion writer and lawyer
J. A. Leo Lemay
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Morgenthau, Henry (1856-1946), lawyer, real estate agent, and diplomat
Elizabeth Zoe Vicary
Morgenthau, Henry (26 April 1856–25 November 1946), lawyer, real estate agent, and diplomat, was born in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Lazarus Morgenthau, a cigar manufacturer, and Babette Guggenheim. After his business failed, Lazarus Morgenthau immigrated to the United States in 1866 and became an insurance salesman. Henry Morgenthau attended public high school, graduating in 1870, the same year he entered the City College of New York. He remained there only one year before financial pressures compelled him to work. Employed as an errand boy at a law firm, Morgenthau slowly learned the business, becoming expert in title searches and mortgage foreclosure sales. In 1875 he quit his job to enter Columbia Law School, supporting himself by teaching at night. He graduated in 1877 and was admitted to the bar....
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Morgenthau, Henry (1856-1946)
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Otis, Harrison Gray (1765-1848), politician, lawyer, and businessman
Eva Sheppard
Otis, Harrison Gray (08 October 1765–28 October 1848), politician, lawyer, and businessman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Allyne Otis, a merchant and the first secretary of the U.S. Senate, and Elizabeth Gray. “Harry,” as he was called, enjoyed the privileges of economic comfort and social elevation, including his family connection to two famous revolutionary figures: his paternal aunt ...
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Otis, Harrison Gray (1765-1848)
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Ruggles, Samuel Bulkley (1800-1881), lawyer, land developer, and economist
James Folts
Ruggles, Samuel Bulkley (11 April 1800–28 August 1881), lawyer, land developer, and economist, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, the son of Philo Ruggles, a lawyer, and Ellen Bulkley. The family moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, around 1804. Samuel was educated at the Poughkeepsie Academy and Yale College, graduating with the class of 1814. He studied law in his father’s office and was admitted to the bar in 1821, setting up practice in New York City. There in 1822 he married Mary R. Rathbone, daughter of a prominent merchant; decades later her inheritance from her father helped the Ruggles family through difficult financial times. Samuel and Mary Ruggles had two sons and one daughter; after 1839 they lived in a house he had built on fashionable Union Square. Ruggles made many friends among New York’s “Knickerbocker” patricians and the leaders of the Whig party of New York City and state. Like most of their social circle, the Ruggleses were devout Episcopalians....
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Troup, Robert (1757-1832), lawyer and land agent
Wendell Tripp
Troup, Robert (1757–14 January 1832), lawyer and land agent, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, the son of Robert Troup, a sea captain and privateer, and Elinor Bisset. Robert Troup, Sr., earned much glory and booty in King George’s War and the French and Indian War and left a large estate when he died in 1768. His wife died soon thereafter and Robert was thus orphaned at age eleven. Unidentified family friends sent the boy to Princeton for a year and then to King’s College (now Columbia) in New York City. He graduated in 1774. At King’s College he forged close friendships with ...
