Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Richardson, William Merchant

RICHARDSON, William Merchant, jurist, b. in Pelham, N. H., 4 Jan., 1774; d. in Chester, N. H., 3 March, 1838. He was graduated at Harvard in 1797, studied law, and settled in Groton, Mass. He was elected to congress as a Federalist in 1811, and served one year, when he resigned and removed to Portsmouth. He was at once appointed chief justice of New Hampshire, and discharged the duties of that office for twenty-two years. He was a jurist of great industry, talent, and information, and was highly regarded for his inflexible integrity. Dartmouth gave him the degree of LL. D. He is the author of the “New Hampshire Justice” (Concord, 1824) and “The Town Officer” (1824) and was co-reporter of the “New Hampshire Superior Court Cases,” of which the reports of several volumes are his alone (11 vols., 1819-'44). See his “Life,” (Concord, 1839).