In 1830 he was appointed
Judge of Probate. He was twice elected to the State Senate and several times
to the lower House. In 1842 Joel was elected a Judge of the Superior Court and in 1861 he was elected Chief Justice of Connecticut, and held that office until his death.1
Abijah Scovil was a physician. He may have obtained his medical knowledge from local practitioners, or may have gone to England in 1758 or 1759 with his brother James and attended lectures there. Nothing decisive as to this has been discovered.
In April, 1760, he was in Waterbury, and in November of the same year he was at Chestnut Tree Hill, in Derby, now in Oxford, Connecticut. In June, 1761, he was a resident of Bedford, Westchester County, N. Y., and was still there on March 19, 1763, when he witnessed the will of Ephraim Waring of Bedford. Deeds on record at Wallingford, Connecticut, show that he bought land in the parish of New Cheshire in January, 1769, and that his last sale of land there was April, 1773. These deeds prove that he was actually a resident of New Cheshire, since they mention the land as "the place where I now live," and dwelling houses and barns. He next chose the parish of New Cambridge (now Bristol), then in the town of Farmington, as his residence, buying one acre of land there of Cornelius Graves on March 14, 1774. Later he acquired other property here. The locality was known as Chippen's Hill, in the northwest corner of the town.
Nearly all his neighbors were Episcolpalians and Loyalists during the Revolution, and Dr. Scovil certainly held the same views. In 1774 he is named a member of the Episcopal Society at New Cambridge, and on Nov 4, 1784, was enrolled at the reorganization of St. Matthew's Church, located at East Plymouth. In February, 1800, he conveyed his real estate to Elisha Tubbs of Bristol, and the latter gave bond to support and maintain Dr. Scovil five years if he lived that long. He died before the five years expired, and Tubbs acquired title to the property from Eleazer Scovil, administrator, in 1803. Dr. Scovil left but a small amount of personal property and was insolvent at his death.
Descendants of Dr. Abijah Scovil's son, Eleazer Scovil, in Vermont preserved for a long time his mortar and pestle with which he ground his drugs. They also have spoons made from his silver knee and shoe buckles.