Robert James Peaslee

Robert James Peaslee (September 24, 1864 – August 23, 1936) was an American lawyer and judge who served as a justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1898 to 1901 and from 1908 to 1934, serving as chief justice from 1924 to 1934.

Early life, education, and career Born in Weare, New Hampshire, the son of Robert and Persis B. (Dodge) Peaslee, he attended the common schools of his native town, Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, and Arms Academy in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. He received his law degree from Boston University School of Law, from which he graduated with high honors in 1886.

Judicial service and later life In the spring of 1898, following the retirement of long-serving justice Lewis W. Clark, Peaslee received strong endorsements for appointment to the position from around the state, particularly from the bar of Hillsborough County. Governor George A. Ramsdell, himself a member of the Hillsborough bar, appointed Peaslee to the seat in 1898. to a seat vacated by the retirement of Justice William M. Chase, who was statutorily required to retire upon reaching his 70th birthday.

In 1924, Governor Fred H. Brown nominated Peaslee to become chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court after Justice John E. Young declined the appointment. Peaslee succeeded Chief Justice Frank N. Parsons upon Parsons's retirement later that year,

Following his departure from the court, Peaslee was advisory counsel of a law firm in Concord, where he participated in some of the hearings on the Amoskeag Mills bankruptcy case, In 1935, Peaslee denounced the New Deal administration as "robber-barrons" over the assertedly unconstitutional taxation of certain New England manufacturers. Peaslee contended that legislation supported by the administration would unconstitutionally deprive manufacturers of property. On February 15, 1917, he married Sarah Congdon Hazard, who survived him.

Peaslee died in a hospital in Boston, at the age of 72, after a long illness.