George Martin (1815–December 15, 1867) was a justice of the

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the state ...

from 1851 until his death in 1867. Born in

Middlebury, Vermont Middlebury is the shire town (county seat) of Addison County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 9,152. Middlebury is home to Middlebury College and the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. History One of ...

, Martin was the son of a tavern-keeper and graduated from

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

in 1833, and thereafter read law to gain admission to the bar in Vermont.Henry A. Chaney, "The Supreme Court of Michigan", '' The Green Bag'' (1890), Vol. 2, p. 388-89.Portrait Presentation George Martin
Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society.Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society biography of George Martin
In 1836, he moved to

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, settling at

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

. He was a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

of the village of Grand Rapids, and was a prosecuting attorney for a time, but held no other important office until in 1851, at the age of thirty-six, he was made a circuit judge to succeed

Edward Mundy Edward Mundy (April 14, 1794 – May 13, 1851) was an American politician and judge from the U.S. state of Michigan, and served as its first lieutenant governor. Early life Mundy was born in Middlesex County, New Jersey, and graduated fro ...

. By virtue of his office of circuit judge he was also a member of the Supreme Court as it was then constituted, and he continued the duties of both courts until the organization to which he was elected in the spring of 1857. Martin continued for more than sixteen years to hold that post under the two following judicial systems. When the independent court was organized, he drew the chief-justiceship by lot, and afterwards was chosen to that post by his associates, and held it until his death, which took place sixteen days before the close of his term. By dint of his office, he was also an ''ex officio'' Regent of the University of Michigan. He was described as having "extra ordinary gifts, and with them the vices that were common to many of his predecessors and contemporaries, — intemperance and unthrift", and that he was "keen to detect in a record some technical defect that would enable him to get rid of the case without taking the trouble to study it". In one noted case, ''Twitchell v. Blodgett'', he stated that he "could not allow to judicial doubts more potency than to legislative certainty". In the last three years before his death, Martin "was so unfit to work that he filed but few opinions".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, George 1815 births 1867 deaths People from Middlebury, Vermont Middlebury College alumni U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court 19th-century American judges