Jonathan Kittredge (1793 - 1864)
Born at Canterbury (NH); died at Concord (NH).
Lawyer, local and state legislator, jurist.
Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1888
Presented to the State of New Hampshire, 1889.

Kittredge graduated from Dartmouth College (Class of 1813). He read law with Bleeker & Sedgwick (Albany, NY), and with Roswell W. Lewis at New York City. He began a law practice at New York City (1817).

Kittredge moved to Canaan (NH) in 1822, and practiced law there until 1827. According to William Wallace, author of The History of Canaan, New Hampshire (1910), Kittredge arrived at Canaan a chronic alcoholic. Wallace writes (op cit., p. 325), "...his case seemed almost hopeless; no man could have been worse; he had thrown off self-respect, lost caste in society, his brethren of the bar shunned him, and clients seldom sought his counsel." But with the help of Rev. Amos Foster, Kittredge was able to overcome his addiction in 1825. He wrote a speech about his addiction and how he had overcome it; this speech was printed in 1827 and copies were widely sold in England, France, and Germany. Kittredge became a hero of the temperance movement, and within New Hampshire Kittredge became the agent for the State Temperance Society (1832), and editor of their newspaper (1834).

In politics Kittredge was a Whig, and he practiced his politics in a state where politics was a brutal business at the time. He had moved from Canaan to Lyme (NH) in 1827, and he stayed at Lyme until 1836, despite very little business as a lawyer. But the community gave support to Kittredge in his battle with his addiction, and Kittredge also married (Miss Balch) while at Lyme. In 1836 Kittredge returned to Canaan (NH) with his wife, and there he established himself as an able lawyer and an able practitioner of local politics. He was able to arrange for the removal of the (Democrat) postmaster at Canaan, and Kittredge took over the vacant position. He headed the Whig party in his area, and held town offices which interested him. Kittredge was elected five times by Canaan (NH) voters to the State House of Representatives (1846/8; 1851; 1855). In 1848 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention which nominated Mexican War hero General Zachary Taylor as their candidate for President of the United States, and Kittredge worked hard to ensure Taylor's election.

In 1856, after some years as a Whig Party mainstay, Kittredge was appointed Chief Judge of the State Court of Common Pleas, then the state's highest court. Kittredge had plenty of political enemies, and in 1858 the state's judicial system was reformed and the Court of Common Pleas was abolished. Wallace (op cit.) suggests that this was a payback to Kittredge for his rough and tumble politics. Kittredge moved to Concord (NH) in Spring 1859 and remained there until his death.

References: William A. Wallace, ed. James B. Wallace, History of Canaan, New Hampshire (1910; J. O. Adams and H. P. Rolfe eds., History of Salisbury...(1890).