Jonathan Everett Sargent (1816 - 1890)
Born at New London (NH) ; died at Concord (NH).
Lawyer, state official and legislator, juriest.
Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1882.
Presented to the State by Mr. Sargent.

Sargent and his nine siblings went to work as children, but at age seventeen Sargent became interested in education. He arranged with his farmer father that for the next four years, until he was twenty-one, he would earn money for his room, board and clothes while getting an education. Sargent "fitted" for college at the academy at Hopkinton (NH) and at Kimball Union Academy. He graduated from Dartmouth College (Class of 1840) while teaching school at Canaan (NH).

Following college Sargent began to read law at the Canaan (NH) office of William P. Weeks; but he taught school outside Washington, D.C. during 1841 - 1842 and was admitted to the D.C. Bar (April 1842). Then he returned to Canaan, became a partner with Mr. Weeks, and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar (July 1843). Sargent married (Mary Jones, of Enfield, NH), and on Thanksgiving Day 1843 the couple moved into a new house at Canaan.

The Sargents moved to Wentworth (NH) in 1847. Sargent practiced law at Wentworth 1847 - 1869, while serving as a State Representative (1851, 1852, 1853) and a State Senator (1854).

In 1855 the Know-Nothings swept state political offices, campaigning against further immigration. Governor Ralph Metcalf (1855 - 1857) recognized Sargent's abilities and made him an Associate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas (served July 1855 - July 1859). When the legislature abolished this court, in July 1859, Sargent became Associate Justice of the new State Supreme Judicial Court, and (1873) Chief Justice.

Once again state politics conspired to derail Sargent's career. The legislature was swept by the Democrats in 1874, and the State Supreme Judicial Court was abolished. Former Chief Justice Sargent moved to Concord (NH), practiced law and was made Grand Master of the Masons. He served as president of the Loan & Trust Savings Bank, and as an officer of The New Hampshire Historical Society. Although Governor Weston and the Democrats served only one term in office, Sargent had had enough of state government. He remained in private life.

References: William A. Wallace (ed. James B. Wallace) The History of Canaan, New Hampshire (1910); John M. Comstock, Obituary Record of the Graduates of Dartmouth College...for the year ending at Commencement 1890 (1890); Charles H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894).