Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 5.

Dr. Johnson observed, ‘History may be formed from monuments and records, but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and in a short time is lost forever. What is known can seldom be immediately told, and when it might be told, it is no longer known.’ The labors of a lawyer are of such a nature as to attract but little attention. The daily business of life is his concern, and his deeds, and even his name, often pass away and are forgotten, like the ‘production of the seasons on which we subsist.’

Like shadows gliding o'er the plain,
     Or clouds that roll successive on,
Man's busy generations pass,
     And as we gaze their forms are gone.

The people of Medford in early times were their own lawyers. For about a century and a half there were no resident lawyers, and not until after 1800 did the first lawyer come to Medford. He was one of the most eminent and distinguished men of Massachusetts, and probably the most distinguished lawyer who ever lived in Medford.

Hon. Timothy Bigelow has left a great name—a learned and distinguished lawyer, patriot, statesman. His life was well spent in the honorable labors, a life devoted to the benefit of his fellowmen and in all the private and public demands of duty. His father, Col. Timothy Bigelow, was actively engaged in the early movements of the Revolution. The son joined the father, and was with him during the Rhode Island campaign, but the colonel was ordered South, and the son returned home to his books, and to the aid of his mother, upon whom fell the care of the family, occasioned by the absence of the patriot father.

Timothy Bigelow, Esq., son of Col. Timothy and Anna (Andrews) Bigelow, was born in Worcester, April 30, 1767. His early life was therefore passed in that