Native of New Salem, Massachusetts; lawyer by training; served in Maine and Massachusetts legislatures and U.S. House of Representatives between 1836 and 1849; appointed U.S. consul to Hawai‘i in 1849; became Hawaiian minister of finance in 1853; served as chief justice of Hawaiian Kingdom, 1857–75, during which time he also served as Hawaiian ambassador to the United States. GQC met with him about releasing native missionaries from paying taxes. (See Day, History Makers of Hawaii, 3; National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 27:300–301; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 470; Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, 1:437, 2:299, 3:748; King, Diaries of David Lawrence Gregg, 601; GQC journal, Nov. 16, 1853.)