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Lincoln F. Brigham

American judge (1819–1895)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ94379779 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lincoln Flagg Brigham (October 4, 1819 – February 27, 1895) was the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts from 1869 to 1890.

Professional life

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1842, Brigham studied law at Harvard University's Dane School of Law until 1844, at which point he began working at the law firm of John H. Clifford and Harrison Colby. In 1845, Colby became a judge, and Clifford made Brigham his new partner. When Clifford was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1853, he appointed Brigham District Attorney of the Southern District of Massachusetts (Bristoll, Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties). In 1856, the position of District Attorney became elective, and Brigham was the first person elected to it. In 1859, the Superior Court of Massachusetts was established, and Nathaniel P. Banks appointed Brigham as an associate justice; in 1869, Seth Ames left the Superior Court for the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and William Claflin named Brigham Ames' successor as Chief Justice.

In 1890, Brigham retired from the court, due to health issues.

Personal life

Lincoln Brigham was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 4, 1819 to Lincoln and Lucy (Forbes) Brigham. He was married to Eliza Endicott on October 20, 1847 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The couple had four children; Thomas Swain, Clifford, Augustus Perry, and Lincoln Forbes Brigham.

Editorial summary

“Lincoln F. Brigham” enters the record as american judge (1819–1895). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lincoln, Brigham and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1819, 1895, 1869, 1890—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1819, 1819-10-04—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Lincoln, Brigham and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Lincoln F. Brigham” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lincoln, Brigham and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q94379779. VIAF identifies the subject as 61264876. The Library of Congress control number is no2004101940. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1819, 1895, 1869 and 1890.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lincoln F. Brigham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.