Jeremiah Smith (1759 - 1842)
Born at Peterborough (NH); died at Dover (NH).
Portrait painted by artist Adna Tenney, 1880 after the 1835 original by artist Francis Alexander. The Dartmouth College portrait plaque for the original says the sitter is shown as he looked in 1804. See American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art (to be published 2007-2008). Gift to the State, 1880.

Smith was born at Peterborough (NH). He attended Harvard College (1777-1779) but was wounded while with General Stark's troops at the Battle of Bennington (Aug. 14-16, 1777). Smith completed his sophomore year at Harvard, then transferred to Queen's College (now Rutgers University, NJ). He graduated in 1780, returned to New Hampshire, read law and was admitted to the Hillsborough County bar at Amherst in 1786. He began a law practice at Peterborough.

Smith served Peterborough as Town Clerk and as a selectman, then was elected to the state legislature (served 1787-1791). In 1791-1792 Smith was a delegate to the state constitutional Convention, where laws were framed that were followed for the next fifty years. He was then elected to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (served 1791-1797). Smith returned to Exeter (NH), where he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire (served 1797-1800), then Judge of Probate for Rockingham County. President John Adams (1797-1801) named Smith Judge of the Circuit Court for New Hampshire, but incoming President Thomas Jefferson replaced Smith. New Hampshire thereupon (1802) named Smith Chief Justice of Superior Court (now the state Supreme Court). Smith served as Chief Justice 1802-1809, then resigned to run for governor. He won against John Langdon, 15,610 votes against 15, 241, and served as governor 1809-1810.

Smith returned to legal practice in 1810. In 1813 he was again named Chief Justice of Superior Court (served 1813-1816). In 1817-1818 Smith was one of four legal counsel representing Dartmouth College in the case The Trustees of Dartmouth College v. William H. Woodward. In 1817 the New Hampshire State Supreme Court ruled against Dartmouth College legal counsel Jeremiah Smith and Jeremiah Mason. The decision was appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court and in 1818 Dartmouth legal counsel Daniel Webster and Joseph Hopkinson won the case.

Smith retired from legal practice in 1820 and became a bank president and Treasurer of Phillips Exeter Academy. He died in 1842.

References: Charles H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894); Who Was Who in America, 1607 - 1896 (1963).