WASHBURN, Emory [1800-1877] -- American educator, lawyer, jurist, governor, author

Governor of Massachusetts, he was born in Leicester, Mass., Feb. 14, 1800; son of Joseph Washburn (1755-1807), an officer in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war; grandson of Seth and Mary ([Harrod]) Washburn, and great2-grandson of John Washburn, secretary of the Plymouth colony in England. He attended Dartmouth college; was graduated from Williams, A.B., 1817, A.M., 1820; studied law at Harvard, and was admitted to the bar in 1821. He practised in Leicester, 1821-28; and in Worcester, 1828-56; was a representative in the state legislature, 1826-27, 1838, and 1876-77; state senator, 1844-42, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee. He was judge of the court of common pleas, 1844-48; Whig governor of Massachusetts, 1853-55; university professor of law at Harvard, 1856-62, and Bussey professor of law there, 1862-76. He was a trustee of Williams college, 1845-48; an overseer of Harvard, 1855-61; fellow of the American Antiquarian society; member of the Massachusetts Historical society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Williams and by Harvard in 1854. He is the author of: Judicial History of Massachusetts, 1630-75 (1840); History of Leicester (1860); Treatise on the American Law of Real Property (2 vols., 1860-62 ); Treatise on the American Law of Easements and Servitudes (1863); Lectures on the Study and Practice of Law (1871). He died in Cambridge, Mass., March 18, 1877. [Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans]