Editor’s note: In the beginning lawyers and felons were shunned. Now they are running things . . .
DURING the greater part of the seventeenth century, lawyers did not constitute a class or profession in the American colonies. In New England, their presence in the community, not to mention their services, was deemed undesirable, if not dangerous. To be sure, among the Puritan leaders, at least Winthrop, Bellingham, Humphrey, and perhaps Pelham and Bradstreet, had received a legal training. Frequently, in their time, gentlemen would reside at the Inns of Court in order to prepare themselves for the public duties appertaining to a county magistracy or a seat in Parliament. In the case of Winthrop and his associates, their knowledge of the law, being duly subordinated to a knowledge of the Word of God, was found very useful in organizing and conducting the new government. But the law as a profession they had not followed with much zeal in England, and were not willing to tolerate in their new home. Read more . . .