Prentiss Mellen

Prentiss Mellen
United States Senator from Massachusetts
In office June 5, 1818 – May 15, 1820
Preceded by	Eli P. Ashmun
Succeeded by	Elijah H. Mills
First Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court
In office July 1, 1820–October 11, 1834
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Nathan Weston
Personal details
Born	October 11, 1764 Sterling, Massachusetts
Died	December 31, 1840 (aged 76) Portland, Maine
Political party	Federalist
Spouse(s)	Sarah Hudson[1]
Children	Grenville Mellen;[2] Frederic Mellen[3]
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Congregationalism

Prentiss Mellen (October 11, 1764 – December 31, 1840) was a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Sterling, Massachusetts to Rev. John and Rebecca (Prentiss) Mellen.^[4] Mellen graduated from Harvard University in 1784; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1788 and commenced practice in Sterling and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and in Dover, New Hampshire; moved to Biddeford, Massachusetts (later a part of the State of Maine in 1820), around 1791 and practiced law; settled in Portland, Maine, around 1806; member of the Massachusetts Executive Council 1808-1809, 1817; presidential elector in 1817; trustee of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine from 1817 to 1836; elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Eli P. Ashmun and served from June 5, 1818, to May 15, 1820, when he resigned; upon the admission of the State of Maine into the Union in 1820 became chief justice of the supreme court of that State and served until his resignation in 1834, when age disqualified him;^[5] member and chairman of the commission to revise and codify the public statutes of Maine in 1838; died in Portland, Maine, December 31, 1840; interment in Western Cemetery.

In 1833, Mellen was the first President of a newly formed abolitionist society formed in Portland. Samuel Fessenden and Methodist Rev. Gershom A. Cox were the vice-presidents.^[6]

Notes

1. Greenleaf, LL.D., S. Herbert (1841), Reports of cases determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine, Volume 17; Memoir of the Life and Character of the Late Chief Justice Mellen, Augusta, ME.: The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, p. 471.
2. Lancey, S. Herbert (1856), The gift book of gems, Bangor, ME.: David Bugbee & Co., p. 103.
3. Griffith, George Bancroft (1888), The poets of Maine: a collection of specimen poems from over four hundred Verse Makers of the Pine Tree State, Augusta, ME.: Elwell Pickard & Co., p. 107.
4. Davis, William Thomas (1895), Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Volume II, Boston, MA.: The Boston History Company, p. 544.
5. "Senators From the Bay State". Boston Post (Boston). July 25, 1910. p. 10.
6. The Abolitionist, Volume 1 Page 95

References

Dictionary of American Biography; Greenleaf, Simon. “Memoir of the Life and Character of the Late Chief Justice Mellen.” Maine Reports 17 (1841): 467-76.

External links

• Prentiss Mellen at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Prentiss Mellen at Find a Grave