DURFEE, Job, jurist, born in Tiverton, R. I., 20 September 1790; died there, 26 July 1847. He was graduated at Brown in 1813, and then, after studying law, admitted to practice. In 1814 he was elected a member of the state legislature, serving continuously until 1819, and again from 1827 till 1829, becoming speaker in 1828. He was elected as a federalist to congress, and served from 3 December 1821, till 3 March 1825. At the close of his congressional career he declined a renomination, and retired to his farm, where he devoted his attention to literature. Later he resumed his legal practice, and in 1833 was appointed associate, becoming, two years later, chief justice of the Supreme Court of his state, which office he held with honor to himself during Dorr's rebellion and till his death. Judge Durfee wrote poetry, and published "What Cheer? or Roger Williams in Exile" (1832; republished in England); also an abstruse philosophical treatise entitled "Panidea." See "Complete Works of Job Duffee, with a Memoir of his Life," edited by his son (Providence, 1849).