William Gaston

Later years After his term as governor ended, Gaston returned to his law practice. His practice, established in 1865 with Harvey Jewell and Walbridge A. Field, was highly successful. Gaston was known to not particularly like criminal law, but he was acknowledged as one of the period's leading trial lawyers. Gaston represented Archbishop John Joseph Williams and Father John H. Fleming when the parents of a teenage girl sued after Fleming lost an image of an angel that the girl believed was given to her by the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He served as president of the Boston Bar Association from 1880 to 1881. He died in 1894, and is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery.