Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Putnam, Samuel

PUTNAM, Samuel, jurist, b. in Danvers, Mass., 13 April, 1768; d. in Somerville, Mass., 3 July, 1853. He was graduated at Harvard in 1787, studied law, and began practice in Salem in 1790. He soon attained high rank at the Essex county bar, and represented that county in the state senate in 1808-'14, and in the legislature in 1812. From 1814 till 1842 he was judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts. Harvard gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1825. — His daughter-in-law, Mary Traill Spence Lowell, author, b. in Boston, Mass., 3 Dec., 1810, is a daughter of the Rev. Charles Lowell. She married Samuel R. Putnam, a merchant of Boston, in 1832, and subsequently resided several years abroad. She has contributed to the “North American Review” articles on Polish and Hungarian literature (1848-'50), and to the “Christian Examiner” articles on the history of Hungary (1850-'1), and is the author of “Records of an Obscure Man” (1861); “The Tragedy of Errors” and the “Tragedy of Success,” a dramatic poem in two parts (1862); “Memoir of William Lowell Putnam” (1862); “Fifteen Days” (1866); and a “Memoir of Charles Lowell” (1885). — Her son, William Lowell, soldier, b. in Boston, 9 July, 1840; d. near Ball's Bluff, Va., 21 Oct., 1861, was educated in France and at Harvard, where he studied mental science and law. He entered the 20th Massachusetts regiment in 1861, was ordered to the field in September, and was killed while leading his battalion to the rescue of a wounded officer. When he was borne to the hospital-tent he declined the surgeon's assistance, bidding him go to those whom his services could benefit, since his own life could not be saved. He was a youth of much promise, possessing remarkable natural endowments and many accomplishments. See the memoir by his mother mentioned above.