Thomas Durfee

James Richardson, at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and received a degree from Brown University, with honors, in 1846.

[1] After reading law for two years in Providence, he was admitted to the bar in 1848,[1] and in 1849 he was appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court.

During the early years of his professional life he wrote jointly with Joseph K. Angell a Treatise on the Law of Highways.

He was a representative in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1863, Speaker of the House in 1864, and State Senator in 1865.

[3] During the American Civil War, he "was a frequent contributor to the papers, and his pen was powerful in support of the Union cause".