Supreme Judicial Court 1882-1885, in full bench courtroom of Court Square Court House. Left to right are: Waldo Colburn, William Allen, Walbridge Abner Field, marcus Morton, Charles Devens, Charles Allen, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

When the Massachusetts legislature began to act on the pressing need for a new Suffolk County Court House, Chief Justice Marcus Morton headed the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He did not live to see the structure completed. Morton died in 1890 and was replaced by Walbridge Abner Field. The rest of the Supreme Judicial Court in 1893-1894, the court that moved into the new building, consisted of, in order of seniority, Associate Justices Charles Allen, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Marcus Perrin Knowlton, James Madison Morton, John Lathrop, and James Madison Barker.

In a memoir John Noble wrote that it was during the administration of Chief Justice Field that the Supreme Judicial Court moved from the Old Court House on Court Street into the new Pemberton Square building. Noble also wrote that "Many of the details of arrangement had been made under his immediate supervision, and much of the work of settling down and establishing it [the Supreme Judicial Court] in its new domains devolved on him."[1]

[1] John Noble, "Memoir Written for the Massachusetts Historical Society by John Noble, Esq.," in TRIBUTES OF THE BAR AND OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH TO THE MEMORY OF WALBRIDGE ABNER FIELD 61 (1905)