Rash's Surname Index
Notes for James Sproat GREEN
James Sproat Green, counselor at law, was a son of the Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D., President of Princeton College, by his first wife, Elizabeth Stockton. He was a graduate of Dickinson College, read law with Thomas P. Johnson, in Princeton, was admitted to the bar in 1817, and opened an office in Princeton, where he continued to reside and practice law till his death. He married Miss Isabella McCullough, of Philadelphia, a sister of his father's third wife.
He soon acquired a large practice, and attended regularly the county circuits held at Flemington, Somerville and New Brunswick, in those early years when lawyers went about in sulkies and remained the whole week at court. He was a fine looking, genial man, a pleasant speaker, and popular with the masses; he was a good lawyer and had many clients.
Mr. Green was a decided Federalist in his political affiliations, until he espoused the cause of Gen. Jackson for President, ever after that he belonged to the Democratic party. He was frequently a member of the legislative council of New Jersey, under the old constitution, from Somerset County. He was appointed by President Jackson United States District Attorney for New Jersey, and held that office till President Taylor appointed William Halsted in his place. And thereupon he was appointed Law Reporter of the New Jersey
Supreme Court, in place of Mr. Halsted, and as such, he published three volumes of Green's Law Reports, extending from 1831 to 1836. He was seldom without students in his office reading law with him.
Mr. Green was a trustee of the college (Princeton)for thirty-four years up to the time of his death, and as such, he presided at the Alumni dinner given at the centennial anniversary of the college in 1847. He was treasurer of the board of trustees of the theological seminary of Princeton, from 1845 till his death, and also treasurer and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church for nearly as long a time. He also held the office of one of the managers of the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum, for several years before his death. He was always willing to bear his part in the public duties of the Township and County, and frequently served in the township committee, and in the Board of County Freeholders, as well as in the common council of the borough of Princeton, For about twenty years he was a director in the Princeton Bank.
When the law school was established in Princeton, in 1847, Mr. Green was appointed one of the professors or lecturers, and continued such while that institution had an existence. When the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company began their public works, Mr. Green became a director and acted as their counsel, and was a director in the joint Companies of the Canal Company, and Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and became much absorbed in them till the close of his life.
His residence and his office were on the corner of Witherspoon and Nassau Streets until about the year 1837, when he bought the house in Mercer Street opposite the Episcopal church, where he lived in a plain and un-ostentatious way till he died.
Mr. Green, though a very regular attendant upon the public worship of the Presbyterian church, and for many years a teacher in the Sabbath school, never made a public profession of religion by applying for admission into full communion.
He died Nov. 8, 1862, after a short illness, and only two months after the death of his intimate friend, John R. Thomson.
His widow, who had been a precious wife to him, and a pious and active Christian woman in the church and community, survived him only a few years. They left five children, viz: Anna, the wife of Mr. William Mactier, of Philadelphia, Ashbel Green and Robert S. Green, both lawyers of prominence with offices in New York, though residents of New Jersey,and Isabella, wife of Dr. John H. Janeway, Surgeon in the United States Army, and Dr. James S. Green, a skilful physician, who is settled in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Mr. Green was buried in the cemetery at Princeton, after very interesting funeral services in the Presbyterian church.
SOURCE: History of Princeton and Its Institutions: The Town From its First Settlement, Through the Revolutionary War, to the Present Time. (page 33)
His son, Robert Stockton Green, would serve as Governor of the State of New Jersey (1887-1890).
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