Choate (Rufus) is born in Essex.

The son of David and Miriam (Foster) Choate, Rufus Choate graduates from Dartmouth College, studies and then practices law, initially in Danvers. Choate marries Helen Olcott in 1825, and moves to Boston in 1834. He becomes known as a brilliant lawyer and orator, later telling a student, “To be a good lawyer is no more than to be a good carpenter. It’s a knack, simply moving a machine.” A founder of the Whig party in Massachusetts, he is elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1830, to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832, and is appointed complete the term of Daniel Webster in the U.S. Senate (1841-45). Choate dies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 13, 1859.