Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Putnam, James

PUTNAM, James, jurist, b. in Danvers, Mass., in 1725; d. in St. John, New Brunswick, 23 Oct., 1789. He was a relative of Gen. Israel Putnam. He was graduated at Harvard in 1746, studied law with Judge Edmund Trowbridge, and began practice at Worcester. He was appointed attorney-general of the province when Jonathan Sewall was promoted to the bench of the admiralty court, and was the last to hold that office under the provincial government. In 1757 he was a major, and in service under Lord Loudon. In 1775 he was one of those that signed the address to Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, approving his course, and later he accompanied the British army to New York, and thence to Halifax, where, in 1776, he embarked for England. In 1778 a writ of banishment and proscription was issued against him. On the organization of the government of the province of New Brunswick in 1783, he was appointed a member of the royal council and a judge of the superior court. He remained in office till his death. John Adams was a student at law in Judge Putnam's office. — His son, James, b. in 1756; d. in England in March, 1838, was graduated at Harvard in 1774, and was one of the eighteen country gentlemen that were driven to Boston, and addressed Gen. Gage on his departure in 1775. He went to England, became a barrack-master, a member of the royal household, and an executor of the Duke of Kent.