Charles A. Peabody
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Charles Augustus Peabody (born July 10, 1814 – July 3, 1901) was a prominent New York attorney and a judge of the United States Provisional Court for the State of Louisiana during the American Civil War, from 1863 to 1865.


Early life, education, and career

Born in
Sandwich, New Hampshire Sandwich is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 1,466 at the 2020 census. Sandwich includes the villages of Center Sandwich and North Sandwich. Part of the White Mountain National Forest is in the north ...
, Peabody established himself in New York City as a young man.Lyman Horace Weeks, ''Prominent Families of New York'' (1898), p. 445."A Career of Steady Success", ''The Weekly Underwriter'', Volume 73, Alasco Delancey Brigham and Henry Rogers Hayden, eds. (December 23, 1905), p. 480. In 1834, Peabody began the study of law in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, in the office of
Nathaniel Williams Nathaniel Williams (born 1656 or 1657 – c.1679) was a Welsh writer. Life Nathaniel Williams was the son of Thomas Williams, from Swansea in South Wales. He studied at the University of Oxford, matriculating as a member of Jesus College in ...
, then United States District Attorney of Maryland. After two years, Peabody moved to Massachusetts and pursued his studies in the Law School of Harvard College. In 1839, he moved to New York, where he entered began the practice of law, and "became identified socially, through domestic ties, with the most eminent families of the metropolis".


Political and judicial activities

In 1855, Peabody participated in the formation of the Republican Party in New York in 1855, and in 1856 he was appointed a judge of the
New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
(the trial-level court of the state). In 1858, he was appointed a quarantine commissioner to succeed ex-Governor Horatio Seymour. In 1862, with the government of Louisiana having voted to join the Confederate States of America and declaring its secession from the United States, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order stating that the insurrection "having temporarily subverted and swept away the civil institutions of that State, including the judiciary and the judicial authorities of the Union" made it necessary to appoint "some judicial tribunal existing there capable of administering justice".Abraham Lincoln, Executive Order Establishing a Provisional Court in Louisiana (October 20, 1862), quoted in Charles Augustus Peabody, ''The United States Provisional Court for the State of Louisiana'' (1879), p. 4. Therefore, Lincoln stated in this order: When the U.S. Department of State instituted a
numbering scheme There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management ...
in 1907, it retroactively identified this as United States Executive Order 1.Lord, Clifford et al.
Presidential Executive Orders
', p. 1 (Archives Publishing Company, 1944).
Peabody was commissioned Chief Justice of Louisiana,''Celebration of the Centenary of the Supreme Court of Louisiana'' (March 1, 1913), in John Wymond, Henry Plauché Dart, eds., ''The Louisiana Historical Quarterly'' (1922), p. 120. appointed court officers, and drew a salary, but never heard a case.


Personal life

Peabody was married three times, the first time to Julia Caroline Livingston of the Livingston family of New York, with whom he had three sons and a daughter, his sons including the prominent attorney,
Charles A. Peabody Jr. Charles Augustus Peabody, Jr. (April 11, 1849 – April 26, 1931) was an American politician, lawyer, and prominent figure in New York banking and insurance. Early life Peabody was born on April 11, 1849, in New York City. He was one of four ch ...
Julia died in 1878. Peabody's second wife was Mary Eliza Hamilton, a cousin of Mrs. Astor, a daughter of
John Church Hamilton John Church Hamilton (August 22, 1792 − July 25, 1882) was a historian, biographer, and lawyer. He was a son of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Early life Hamilton was born on August 22, 1792, in Philade ...
and granddaughter of
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. After Mary's death in 1887, he married for a third time to Athenia Livingston (née Bowen), the widow of James Bowen (his "old-time warm friend and associate") and daughter of Anthony Rutgers Livingston (brother to U.S. Representative Robert Le Roy Livingston). He died at his residence in New York City, at the age of 87.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peabody, Charles A. 1814 births 1901 deaths People from Sandwich, New Hampshire Harvard Law School alumni New York Supreme Court Justices United States Article I federal judges appointed by Abraham Lincoln Peabody family