The New International Encyclopædia/Lowell, John (jurist)

LOWELL, John (1743-1802). An American jurist. He was born at Newburyport, Mass.; graduated at Harvard in 1760; was admitted to the bar in 1762, and rapidly attained prominence in his profession. He was an enthusiastic patriot, took an active part in the pre-Revolutionary movement in Massachusetts, and after the outbreak of hostilities served for a time as a lieutenant of Massachusetts militia. In 1776 and again in 1777 he was elected from Newburyport to the Provincial Assembly. In 1780 he was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and took a prominent part in drafting the Constitution which was adopted. He is said to have been the author of the declaration in this instrument that ‘all men are born free and equal,’ which was held by the State Supreme Court in 1783 to have abolished slavery in Massachusetts. In 1782-83 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and in 1782 was appointed by that body one of the three judges to try appeals from the local courts of admiralty. In 1784 he was a member of the New York-Massachusetts Boundary Commission, and in 1789 was appointed by President Washington the first judge of the United States District Court in Massachusetts, which office he held until his death.