gore

Portrait of Daniel Webster’s mentor, attorney Christopher Gore by John Trumbull, c. 1816.

 image courtesy Harvard Art Museums

AFTER GRADUATING from Dartmouth College in August 1801, Daniel Webster returned to his family’s home, the Elms Farm, in Salisbury (later Franklin), New Hampshire.

He began studying law under respected local attorney Thomas Weston Thompson (1766-1821). A graduate of Harvard University, Thompson had prepared for the ministry and had served as a tutor at Harvard before becoming a lawyer. He had opened his law office in 1791, the year he was admitted to the bar.

Aurore Eaton is a historian and writer in Manchester, contact her at auroreeaton@aol.com or at www.facebook.com/AuroreEatonWriter