Joseph, an eminent American judge, professor of law, and jurist, was born 18th September 1779, at Marblehead, a small fishing town in the county of Essex and state of Massachusetts. His father had been a surgeon in the army, and had served with General Washington, but had afterwards retired, and was in good practice in Marblehead and the adjacent towns. As a boy, he was remarkably intelligent and studious, and his precocious talents were developed by his becoming early a favourite of the village barber, and being permitted to frequent the shop, and listen to the interesting miscellaneous talk of the host and his customers, thereby receiving impressions which continued through life. At the age of fifteen, Joseph, after showing unusual firmness and determination in preparing himself for matriculation, was entered at Harvard College, where he was a fellow-pupil with the Rev. Dr Channing, the distinguished divine and philanthropist, and his immediate chum was the Rev. Dr Tuckerman. Though he had been brought up as a Calvinist, he became, during his college career, a Unitarian, a faith which he continued throughout his life to hold; while, at the same time, the prevailing temper of his mind was a settled tolerance of every other creed. He was not only in youth, but throughout his life, more or less inclined to poetry, and wrote many verses; but these seldom, if ever, attained mediocrity; and it does not appear that he gave way to this habit, except at leisure hours, and as a variety to graver studies. His career at college was very distinguished. The constitution of his mind, which was eminently legal, no doubt insensibly impelled him towards the law. On leaving college, he entered the office of Mr Sowell, then a distinguished advocate at the Essex bar, and a member of Congress. Though at first somewhat repelled by the dryness of legal authors, which presented so great a contrast to the more elegant and various studies of his youth, he soon conceived a great love for its principles and a settled desire to master its details.

At the age of 22, Joseph Story was admitted to the Essex bar, and opened his office at Salem. His progress was not rapid, but sufficiently encouraging to admit of his falling in love and soon marrying his first wife, whose early death threw a gloom over this period of his life, which was, however, dissipated by time, and, in 1808, he married again. During his early career at the bar, he devoted much time to the study of composition, and to poetry and declamation, the practice of delivering annual orations, commemorative of the Independence and other great events, offering attractive opportunities to young American lawyers. He also mixed in politics, and, in 1805, he became member for Salem in the legislature of Massachusetts. Here he developed his talent as a debater, and gained so great distinction in the House that he was elected a member of Congress. Having declined a re-election to Congress, in consequence of an early disgust at the meanness and petty intrigues of public life, and its incompatibility with success at the bar, he returned to the Massachusetts legislature, and was elected speaker of the House of Representatives. At this period, his reputation for ability, and for frankness of character, had gradually increased. During the same year, a vacancy having occurred in the Supreme Court, the appointment, after two successive refusals from other persons, was unexpectedly offered to him. At this period, his age was only 32; he was then making an income of upwards of £1,000 a year, and the salary of associate justice was under £800 a year. He fully considered the subject, and after balancing the advantages and disadvantages, he preferred the serenity and dignity of the judicial office, to the rough and ready warfare of the bar, and accepted the appointment.

Shortly before Mr Story's appointment to the office of associate justice of the Supreme Court, he had edited three English law books, in general request in America, viz., Chitty on Bills of Exchange, Abbot on Shipping, and Lawes on Assumpsit. He had not, however, as yet shown that eminence as a scientific lawyer which he afterwards attained. His contemporaries no doubt gradually arrived at the conclusion that he was peculiarly fitted for the office of a judge. They observed, in all his judgments, a philosophical mind, well equipped with all the learning of his profession, stored with details, as well as anxiously careful of first principles. His acuteness was more than equalled by his singular fertility in illustrations; and his judicial eloquence, readiness, and urbanity of manner, soon led him to be marked out as the most able and popular judge of his day. He was, however, no popularity-hunter, in the vulgar sense of the word, but seemed always to be actuated by a strong sense of duty, and was zealously attached to the great principles of the American constitution. Marshall was then the chief justice of the court—a thoroughly able and upright judge—and it was often said, that the same relations existed between him and Justice Story as existed between Lord Mansfield and Mr Justice Buller. Story was distinguished above all his contemporaries for the extent of his reading and his familiarity with the English reports, and indeed his interest in everything English extended far beyond his own profession; for he devoured, with unceasing interest, throughout his life, the English newspapers, and was always well versed in their minutest details.

In 1829, eighteen years after Mr Justice Story's appointment as a judge, Mr Dane, who had long meditated the foundation and endowment of a law professorship at Harvard University, and had long had in his eye the preeminent qualifications of Mr Justice Story for such an office, at last matured his plan, and offered him the appointment. Though the salary was only about £150, the duties were not incompatible with the office of a judge, and Justice Story readily accepted the office, having always felt a peculiar pleasure in imparting his own ample stores of information to others, especially to the young. He gradually increased his pupils from six to upwards of a hundred. It was part of the conditions annexed to the office, that the professor should write some legal works in four or five volumes, on subjects which were left to some extent to his own selection. These terms were probably in his eyes one of the greatest attractions of the office, and he at once applied himself to the preparation of his first work, which was entitled, Commentaries on the Law of Bailments. The subject was one which had not hitherto been fully developed by any legal writer, Sir William Jones's work, though elegant and able, being somewhat slight in its treatment. It also admitted of appropriate references to the civil law. His great judicial experience was also greatly in his favour. The work, when completed, displayed an elegance, ability, and copiousness of illustration, till then unknown in America, and, with the exception of Blackstone's Commentaries, little known in England. All his contemporaries were struck with its great merits, and these were also acknowledged in England. In a year and a half afterwards, viz., in 1833, his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, in three volumes, were published. This work, though, from its subject, not so familiar to English lawyers, was conspicuous for the same merits as the preceding. He immediately afterwards commenced his Conflict of Laws, one of the works by which he is best known to English lawyers. The subject had not been touched upon by any writer on the law of England, which had, indeed, always treated with contempt all other systems of jurisprudence; and it was scarcely to be wondered that a work which discussed in a liberal spirit, and with copious illustrations from the continental jurists and American reports, till then unknown even by name, was welcomed by all English lawyers. The next works followed in rapid succession, all equally able and replete with learning; his treatises on Equity Jurisprudence, on Equity Pleadings, on Principal and Agent, on Partnership, and on Bills of Exchange. While some of the latter works were in preparation, successive editions of the prior works, with large additions and improvements, were published. The rapidity with which these works were produced, while his duties, as a judge and a professor of law, were at the same time conscientiously performed, was the wonder of his contemporaries. At last, under his untiring labours, his health broke down in 1842. His physician recommended a visit to England, where his great reputation as a jurist had now made his name familiar to all the leading lawyers, and where he had acquired many friends. Lord Brougham having heard of his probable visit, had assembled the Lord Chancellor and many of the leading judges to welcome his arrival; but, in the meantime, his health had rallied, and the visit was postponed, never to be resumed. He had, however, since the time of his becoming an author, corresponded with many of the English judges, particularly Lord Stowell. It was a subject of regret that Mr Justice Story had not been appointed chief of his court on the death of Chief-Justice Marshall, a station to which his merits entitled him; his claims were ignored owing to his constitutional views being opposed to that of the then President of the United States. He died somewhat suddenly on the 10th of September 1845, at the age of sixty-six.

Justice Story has rendered a great service to the law of England, by introducing into the text-books a more philosophical spirit, and also by liberalising the minds of his readers with ample references to the foreign jurists. He was the means, also, of introducing to English lawyers what little they knew of Scotch law by his frequent references to Bell and Erskine. His treatises are now accepted as standard authorities, and stand side by side with, and in some cases superior to, the best English works. It is impossible to look upon his life without admiration for his indefatigable industry, united, as it was, with great acuteness and elegance of mind. He was universally beloved in private life, and his death left a blank in American society. He was eminent as a conversationalist; his appearance was prepossessing, intelligence and refinement being at once conspicuous in his countenance; yet withal he was mild and unassuming in manners. In every respect he is entitled to be regarded as one of the worthies of America. (J.P.—N.)