The First Female Attorney in Worcester County

(Vol. III, No. II/III -- Fall/Winter 1999/2000)

In 1880, only four women were engaged in the practice of law in Massachusetts out of a total of 1,984 lawyers. Apparently none of these women was admitted to practice before the Supreme Judicial Court. In Robinson's Case, 131 Mass. (Lathrop) 376 (1881) our Supreme Judicial Court determined that neither common law, nor existing statutes permitted the admission of women to the Bar. In concluding its decision, the court stated:

that our duty is limited to declaring the law as it is, and that whether any change in that law would be wise or expedient is a question for the legislative and not for the judicial department of the government.

The legislature reacted swiftly and enacted Chapter 139 of the Statutes of 1882, which made women eligible for admission to the Bar. By 1920, however, there were still only 47 women practicing law in the Commonwealth out of some 4,850 members of the bar.

Addie F. Gillette was born in Fitchburg on February 27, 1885. Addie's parents were friends of Judge Charles Sidney Hayden and his wife, Mary. After her parents' deaths, Addie came to live with Judge and Mrs. Hayden, who treated Addie as a member of their family.

At some point, however, Mrs. Hayden left the family home. Judge Hayden subsequently married Addie on August 27, 1898, when he was fifty years old and she twenty-three. Addie read and studied law in her husband's office and was admitted to the Bar in 1904. The women of Fitchburg were horrified a "delicate woman" would be associated with hardened criminals in the practice of law. The Fitchburg's Women's Club opposed her admission to the Bar.

Despite Judge Hayden's untimely death at the age of fifty-five on April 30, 1903, Addie continued her husband's practice. She also opened a Boston office and was admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court on December 13, 1905. At the time, Addie was the only woman practicing law in Worcester County. She maintained her husband's practice in Fitchburg under the name A. Frances Hayden, Attorney and Counselor at Law, until 1907; thereafter she moved her practice exclusively to her Boston office.