James Sullivan (governor) - Life

Life

James Sullivan was born on April 22, 1744, the fourth son of John Sullivan and Margery Brown Sullivan, in Berwick, in a part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay that is now the state of Maine. Sullivan's father was from County Limerick, and his mother was a child on board the ship he came over on whom he later wooed and wed. The elder Sullivan was a schoolteacher and farmer in Berwick. Sullivan was educated at home, and any prospects for military service were dashed when his foot was crushed in a childhood accident. He was also afflicted with epilepsy while relatively young, and suffered generally mild seizures (but sometimes lasting several hours) for the rest of his life. While convalescing from his foot injury he read a great deal, learning Latin and the classics. His elder brother John, who was studying law, was instructed to supply his brother with law books and training. Sullivan studied law in his brother's law practice in Durham, New Hampshire, and was eventually admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, where he established a practice first in Georgetown, then shortly afterward in Biddeford, where he was the town's first resident lawyer. In 1768 he married Hetty Odiorne, the daughter of a successful Portsmouth, New Hampshire merchant.

Sullivan's law practice flourished, and by the time he was 30, he was one of York County's leading citizens. For his services as a lawyer defending land claims, in 1773 Sullivan was offered a portion within the tract. He accepted, and the property was organized as Limerick Plantation, named after County Limerick, Ireland, the birthplace of his father. In 1775 he helped settle the town (personally assisting in the clearing of land), which on March 6, 1787 would be incorporated as the town of Limerick.