Mellen, Prentiss, 1764-1840

Chief justice, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, of Portland, Me.

Prentiss Mellen, a Senator from Massachusetts, was born in Sterling, Worcester County, Mass., on October 11, 1764. He graduated from Harvard University in 1784; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1788 and commenced practice in Sterling and Bridgewater, Mass., and in Dover, N.H.. He moved to Biddeford, Maine (until 1820 a district of Massachusetts), around 1791 and practiced law. He settled in Portland, Maine, around 1806 and became a member of the Massachusetts executive council in 1808-1809 and in 1817. He was a trustee of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, 1817-1836 and was elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Eli P. Ashmun and served from June 5, 1818, to May 15, 1820, when he resigned. Upon the admission of the State of Maine into the Union in 1820 he became chief justice of the supreme court of that State and served until his resignation in 1834. He was a member and chairman of the commission to revise and codify the public statutes of Maine in 1838. He died in Portland, Maine, December 31, 1840.