Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent

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Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent (often spelled Sargeant) was a Massachusetts judge born on November 2, 1731, in Methuen, Massachusetts, and he died on October 12, 1791, in Haverhill. He served as a justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1782 to 1791 and was the court’s second Chief Justice from 1790 to 1791, after the American Revolution.

He was the son of Reverend Christopher Sargent and Susanna (Peaslee) Sargent, with his father descended from early Massachusetts settlers. Sargent attended Harvard College, graduating in 1750 and earning a master’s degree in 1753. He began practicing law in Haverhill.

In 1759 he married Rhoda Barnard of Salisbury, and they had seven children. In 1775, Sargent was elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the de facto government of the province at the time. He was offered a position on the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature by the congress’s council and served there for life.

Sargent was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining in 1780. After independence, Governor John Hancock appointed him chief justice in 1790, a role he held until his death in 1791 in Haverhill.