Mr. Romaine attended the Columbia District School until 1852, prepared for college at a private school in the Township of Bergen, Hudson Counts and was graduated from Rutgers College in 1859. Having studied law with Hon. A. O. Zabriskie, subsequently Chancellor of the State of New Jersey, he was admitted to the bar as an attorney in November, 1862, and as a counselor in November, 1865, and since the spring of 1863 has practiced in Jersey City. He was Corporation Counsel of the City of Bergen from 1865 to 1867, and, becoming an Alderman in May, 1869, was President of the Board of Alderman in 1869 and 1870, immediately preceding the consolidation of Bergen and Jersey City. From 1880 to 1885 he was a member of the Board of Education of Jersey City. In 1883 he was appointed a member of the Board of Finance and Taxation, but was not seated on account of legal complications until 1885. In 1884 he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, in which body he served on the Committees on Claims and Revolutionary Pensions and Stationery, as well as on the Joint Committee on Passed Bills.

Throughout his career Mr. Romaine has been a stanch and active Republican. He is a master and examiner and a special master in chancery for New Jersey. Prior to the expiration of that office by legal limitation, July 1. 1897, he was a Commissioner of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of New .Jersey. At the present time he is a Commissioner of the Distrief Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey. He has been President of the Star Mutual Building and Loan Association of Jersey City since 1886, having been one of its founders and its first Vice-President in 1885. He is a member of the Holland Society of New York City and was its Vice-President from Hudson County, N. J., in 1897 and 1898. He is also a member of the Jersey City, Carteret, and Union League Clubs of Jersey City, and of other important organizations.