Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Gould, James

GOULD, James, jurist, b. in Branford, Conn., 5 Dec., 1770; d. in Litchfield, Conn., 11 May, 1838. Richard, his great-grandfather, came from Devonshire to Branford about 1700. James was graduated at Yale in 1791, and was a tutor there in 1793-'5. In the latter year he entered the law-school at Litchfield, Conn., and after his admission to the bar became in 1798 associated with its founder, Judge Reeve (see Reeve, Tapping), as professor in that institution. He was raised in 1816 to the office of judge of the supreme court of Connecticut, from which he was displaced in 1818 by the adoption of the new constitution. In 1820 Judge Gould took the superintendence of the school, and after the death of Judge Reeve, in 1823, continued to conduct it till 1833. He published “Principles of Pleading in Civil Actions” (New York, 1832; new ed. by Franklin F. Heard, Albany, 1887). — His son, Edward Sherman, author, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 11 May, 1808; d. in New York city, 21 Feb., 1885, was an early contributor of tales to the “Knickerbocker Magazine,” to the “New World,” the “Mirror,” the “Literary World,” and other journals. His signature of “Cassio” in Charles King's “American” was at one time well known. In 1830 he lectured before the New York mercantile library association on “American Criticism in American Literature,” in which he opposed the prevalent spirit of ultra-laudation as injurious to the interests of the country. He published translations of Dumas's “Travels in Egypt and Arabia Petraea” (1839); Dupré's “Progress of Democracy” (1841); Balzac's “Eugénie Grandet” (1841), and “Père Goriot” (1842); and Dumas's “Impressions of Travel in Switzerland,” Victor Hugo's “Handsome Pecopin,” and A. Royer's “Charles de Bourbon” (1842-'3). In addition to contributing to many literary and theological journals, he wrote “The Sleep Rider; or, the Old Boy in the Omnibus, by the Man in the Claret-colored Coat,” and a parody on a report made to the legislature regarding a riot which the police had failed to suppress (1842). He signed himself “The Man in Claret,” and the work made a sensation in literary circles. Besides the foregoing, he published “Abridgment of Alison's History of Europe” (New York, 1843); “The Very Age,” a comedy (1850); “John Doe and Richard Roe; or, Episodes of Life in New York” (1862); “Good English, or Popular Errors in Language” (1867); “Classical Elocution” (1867); and “Supplement to Duyckinck's History of the New World” (1871). — Another son, John W., author, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 5 Nov., 1814; d. at sea, 1 Oct., 1838, took a voyage to South America for his health as a common sailor in 1833, and in 1838 went again as supercargo, but died on his way. In the intervening years he wrote tales and sketches connected with the sea, most of which were published in the New York “Mirror.” A volume of these with a memoir, and his journal of the voyage on which he died, was issued by his brothers for private circulation, under the title “Journal of a Voyage from New York to Rio Janeiro” (New York, 1839).