e entries relate. Persons and events become important or
cease to be important by the progress of time, but the life of an
individual is an adequate period usually for the formation of a
judgment. I cannot assume that it will be my fortune to make a wise
selection in all cases. Important events may be omitted, insignificant
circumstances may be recorded.

I assume that my family and friends will take an interest in matters
that are purely personal: therefore I shall record many incidents and
events that do not concern the public.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

_PRELIMINARY NOTE

In the presence of some misgivings as to the propriety of my course, I
have decided to print the article on my Life as a Lawyer, as it appears
in the "Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England" (for
January, 1901), published by the Century Memorial Publishing Company,
Boston, Mass.

Many of the facts were furnished by me. The article was written by W.
Stanley Child, Esq., but it was not seen by me, nor was its existence
known to me until it appeared in the published work. The paper in
manuscript and in proof was read and passed by the editors, Messrs.
Conrad Keno and Leonard A. Jones, Esquires. The words of commendation
are not mine, and it is manifest that any change made by me would place
the responsibility upon me for what might remain. Hence I reprint the
paper with only two or three changes where I have observed errors in
statements of facts._

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH [*]

George Sewall Boutwell, LL. D., Boston and Groton, the first
commissioner of internal revenue, secretary of the treasury under
President Grant, and for many years one of the leading international
lawyers, is the son of Sewall and Rebecca (Marshall) Boutwell, and was
born in Brookline, Mass., in what is now the old part of the Country
Club house, January 28, 1818. He comes from old and respected
Massachusetts stock, being a lineal descendant of James Boutwell, who
was admitted a freeman in Lynn in 1638, and of John Marshall, who
came to Boston in the shop _Hopewell_ in 1634. The family has always
represented the sterling qualities of typical New Englanders.
Tradition asserts that one of his paternal ancestors received a grant
of land for services in King Philip's War. His maternal grandfather,
Jacob Marshall, was the inventor of the cotton press, an invention
originally made, however, for pressing hops. His father, Sewall
Boutwell, removed with his fam