Paul Spooner

Paul Spooner (March 20, 1746—September 4, 1789) was a Vermont political figure who served as Lieutenant Governor.

Biography

Paul Spooner was born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts on March 20, 1746. He was raised in Petersham, Massachusetts, studied medicine, and moved to Hartland, Vermont to begin a medical practice in 1768.^[1][2]

In 1775 Spooner was a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress. (At the time jurisdiction over Vermont was the subject of a dispute between New Hampshire and New York.^[3][4]

Spooner served as a member of Vermont's Revolutionary War Council of Safety from 1778 to 1782. In 1779 he was elected Hartland's Town Clerk, and he also served as Hartland's Town Meeting Moderator.^[5][6]

From 1779 to 1789 Spooner served as a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.^[7][8]

In 1780 and 1781 Spooner was Windsor County's Probate Judge, and from 1780 to 1782 he was one of Vermont's agents who negotiated with the Continental Congress.^[9]

In 1782 he became Lieutenant Governor, serving until 1787. He was Assistant Judge of the Windsor County Superior Court from 1779 to 1782, Chief Judge from 1784 to 1785, and Assistant Judge again from 1785 until his death.^[10][11]

Spooner died in Hartland on September 4, 1789.^[12] He was buried in Cutts Cemetery in Hartland.^[13]

References

1. Records of William Spooner, of Plymouth, Mass., and His Descendants, by William Spooner, Volume 1, 1883, pages 103 to 105
2. John Gibson of Cambridge, Massachusetts: and His Descendants, 1634-1899, by Mehitable Calef Coppenhagen Wilson, 1900, page 16
3. Vermont: The Green Mountain State, by Walter Hill Crockett, page 482
4. Independent Vermont, by Charles Miner Thompson, 1942, page 177
5. History of Windsor County, Vermont, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich and Frank R. Holmes, 1891, pages 365 to 366
6. Encyclopedia, Vermont Biography, edited by Prentiss Cutler Dodge, 1912, page 80
7. A Gazetteer of the State of Vermont, by Zadock Thompson, 1824, page 312
8. The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries Concerning the Histories, Antiquities and Biography of America, published by Charles B. Richardson & Co., New York, Volume 6, 1862, pages 282 to 283
9. Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, compiled by Jacob G. Ullery, 1894, pages 172 to 173
10. History of Eastern Vermont, page 698
11. Magazine article, History and Anniversary of Hartland, by Nancy Darling, The Vermonter magazine, November, 1913, page 228
12. The Bibliography of Vermont, by Marcus Davis Gilman, page 260
13. Paul Spooner at Find a Grave