USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > The bench and bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 : biographical sketches of members, history and catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, historical notes > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
HISTORICAL NOTES
and of indomitable energy. He was, withal, gentle and winning in his manners, kindly in his disposition, and naturally of an ardent and cheerful temperament, though the last few years of his life were saddened by heavy pecuniary misfortunes. As a lawyer, he was remarkable for frankness and downright honesty to his clients, striving always to prevent litigation, uniformly allaying irritation and effecting compromises, and only prosecuting with energy the just and good cause, against the bad. He enjoyed the friendship of many sages of the Revolution, his correspondence with whom, would form interesting materials for the history of his time.
Col. Kirby, was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He was one of the early Masters of St. Paul's Lodge of Litchfield, and for many years was its secretary. He was a beautiful penman, as is evidenced by the records of St. Paul's Lodge. He was largely instrumental in forming the Grand Lodge of the State of Connecti- cut, and was one of its early officials. He was also a prominent Royal Arch Mason, and was a delegate to the convention which organized the general Grand Chapter of the United States, and was its first General Grand High Priest. When he left Litchfield to accept the position of Judge of the territory of Louisana, he gave to St. Paul's Lodge, Litchfield, his library of miscellaneous books, which have been carefully preserved by the Lodge as a memorial of him, and are now placed in the fireproof building of the Historial Society.
He also sold his law books to Seth P. Beers and I am enabled to give the conveyance with the list of books, which will show the library of a prominent practising lawyer of a century ago.
List of Law Books sold to Seth P. Beers by my husband Ephraim Kirby and delivered to said Beers by me in pursuance of written directions from my said husband which directions bear the date of July the 5th A. D. 1804.
Vols.
Vols.
Blackstones Commentaries 1 Powel on Devises I
Dunscombs trial per pais 2 Woods Institute I
Beacon Abridgin't
5
Coke on Littleton I
Jacobs Dictionary
I
Woodesons Lectures
3
English Statutes 6 Bacon on Awards I
Goddphin on Executots, etc. I New York Atty Vade Mecum I
Fosters Crown Law
I Schifflers Practice I
Bullen Nisi Prius
I Barlamiqui on Nat. Law I
Powel on Mortgages
I Historical Law Tracts I
Morgans Essays
3 Compleat Attorney
I
Attorneys Vade Mecum
2 Stats. England abridgd
I
Comyn's Digest
5 Stiles Practical Regr. I
Cokes Institute 2 Part
I English Pleader I
Hawkins Plea of ve Crown
2 Clerks Tutor
2
172
LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
Vols.
Vols.
Every man his own Lawyer I Plowdens Reports
I
Office of Justice 2
Ventries Reports
I
Douglass on Wills
I Carthews Reports I
Law of Evidence
I Hobarts Reports
Dagges Criminal Law
3 Cowpers Reports
Statutes of Vermont
1 Vernons Reports 2
Benthams Defence of Usury
I
Vesey's Reports
Adve on Court Martial
I Pre Chancery
1 I
Acts of 3d Session of 5th Congress
I Thos. Raymond Reports
I
Acts of ist Session of 6th Congress
Littletons Reports
I
Acts of ist Session of Ist Congress
I Moore's Reports
I
Saxbys Customs
I Palmer's Reports
I
Holts Reports
I Jenkins Reports
I
Strangers Reports
2
Fitzgibbons Reports
I
Burrows Reports
5 Saville's Reports
I
Wilsons Reports
3 Peere Williams Reports
3
W. Blackstone Reports
2
Atkins Reports
3
Browns Reports
I Livins Reports 2
I
Dainfords Reports
I Lord Raymonds Reports
3
Salkelds Reports
2 Comberbach's Reports
I
Lutwyches Reports
I Bulstrode's Reports
I
Cokes Reports
7 Comyns Reports
I
Crokes Reports
3 Chipman's Reports
I
Kebles Reports
3 Kirbys Reports
I
(Signed)
RUTHY KIRBY.
11221 I 2 I
Beccaria on Crimes
I Fincks Reports Hardwicks Reports
I
Acts of Ist Session of Con- gress
I Vaughan's Reports Siderfins Reports
I
[
I
I Yelvertons Reports Dyer's Reports
I
Douglass Reports
I Ambles Reports
Sinners
ROGER SHERMAN.
I73
HISTORICAL NOTES
Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
ROGER SIIERMAN.
One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was ad- mitted to the practice of the law in 1754 by the Litchfield County Court.
He was born in Newton, Mass., April 19, 1721, and received a very limited education, and learned the trade of a shoemaker. His father, William Sherman, dying when Roger was twenty years old, he soon after removed to New Milford, Connecticut, and lived with his brother William who had been settled there on a farm for about three years. The first notice of Roger Sherman on the town records of New Milford is Feb. 6. 1744. He became a large land owner and was very prominent in all the town affairs, a deacon in the church, and clerk and treasurer of the Eccl. Society. He and his brother also had a general store, and he lived very nearly on the site of the present Town Hall, which in later years has been named "Roger Sherman Hall." The old store building is said to be still in existence.
He was a very industrious and studious man. In 1745 the Gen- eral Assembly appointed him a County Surveyor of New Haven County, which then included New Milford ; this office was pecuniari- ly of more value in those days than it has been in later years, for one of his surveys he received nearly 84 pounds ; many of the plans and maps of his surveys are to be found in the New Milford Land Records made by him in his own hand.
Soon after the formation of Litchfield County in 1751 he studied law, and in 1757, three years after his admission to the bar. he was appointed County Judge, and a Judge of the Quorum. He was also a representative to the General Assembly several sessions. Re- moving to New Haven in 1761, he was chosen the Governor's as- sistant, and also a Judge of the Superior Court. which office he held twenty-three years.
He was elected a member of the first Continental Congress which met September 5th, 1774 in New York, and continued a member of Congress for nineteen years, the last two being in the Senate, of which he was a member at the time of his death, July 23. 1793.
I74
LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
As a member of the Continental Congress, he was one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, which he sign- ed on July 4. 1776.
Thomas Jefferson says of this distinguished statesman, "I served with him in the old Congress in the years 1775 and 1776. He was a very able and logical debater in that body, steady in the principles of the Revolution, always at the post of duty, much employed in the business of the committees, and, particularly, was of the com- mittee with Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Livingston and my- self for preparing the Declaration of Independence. I had a very great respect for him."
John Adams also wrote, "Destitute of all literary and scientific education, but such as he acquired by his own exertions, he was one of the most sensible men in the world. The clearest head and steadiest heart. He was one of the soundest and strongest pillars of the Revolution."
Chief Justice Ellsworth said that he made Mr. Sherman the model of his youth,
The honor and fame of Roger Sherman does not rest entirely upon his being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the early formation of this government, he took an active and im- portant part. He was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, and it was undoubtedly due to his wise and sagacious counsel and cool impartial judgment, that the Convention was held together until the great work was ac- complished. Very many of its peculiar provisions, which are now considered so important, originated with him. This compilation cannot go into the history of the Convention in detail, but those wishing further light on the subject of the part taken in it by Roger Sherman, will do well to consult Hollister's History of Con- necticut, where it is discussed at length.
A competent authority says, that "he is the only man who signed four important fundemental documents of our government, viz : The Articles of Association in 1774; the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which he assisted in drafting; the Articles of Confedera- tion in 1778, and the Federal Constitution in 1788.
OLIVER WOLCOTT.
The other signer of the Declaration of Independence in whom Litchfield County is interested, was Oliver Wolcott, who was the first sheriff of the County upon its organization in 1751.
The following taken from Kilbourn's History of Litchfield is a pretty concise sketch of this distinguished man.
"The Honorable Oliver Wolcott, son of His Excellency, the Hon. Roger Wolcott, Governor and Chief Justice of Connecticut, was born in Windsor, December 20, 1726, and was graduated at Yale College in 1745. In early manhood he commanded a company
-
GEN. OLIVER WOLCOTT.
175
HISTORICAL NOTES
of volunteers in the Northern Army, in the war against the French. Having pursued the usual course of medical studies, he established himself as a physician in Goshen, and was there at the date of the organization of the County of Litchfield, October, 1751. The Legislature appointed him the first High Sheriff of the new County, and he immediately took up his abode in this village, and con- tinued to reside here until his decease, a period of forty-six years. In 1752 he erected the "Wolcott House" in South street, where dur- ing the Revolutionary War, King George's leaden statue was melted into bullets, to be fired at his own troops.
With a commanding personal appearance, dignified manners, a clear and cultivated intellect, and a character for integrity far above the reach of suspicion. it is not to be wondered at that he became a favorite of the people with whom his lot was cast. Besides holding the office of Sheriff for over twenty years, he was chosen a Representative to the Legislature five times between the years 1764 and 1770, inclusive : a member of the Council or Upper House from 1771 to 1786. Judge of the Court of Probate for the District of Litchfield from 1772 to 1795: Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1773 to 1786; and member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1784 ( except two years ). He was one of that memor- able band of patriots and sages who, on the 4th of July. 1776, affixed their names to the Declaration of Independence. In the early part of the war of the Revolution, Judge Wolcott was commissioned as a Brigadier General, and Congress appointed him a Commissioner on Indian Affairs for the Northern Department, with General Schuyler and others. In May, 1779, he was elected by the Legisla- ture and commissioned by Governor Trumbull as Major General of the Militia of Connecticut, to succeed General James Wadsworth, resigned. In these important and responsible stations, he rendered the country essential service. On the field, in the camp. at the rendezvous, in the department of the Commissary of Supplies-in fact, wherever he could render himself useful-he was found, ever prompt in planning and efficient in executing. At the same time he was an active member of the Committee of Safety; and, when at home, was equally zealous and conspicuous in the local affairs of the town-officiating as Moderator. Selectman, Committeeman, etc. Indeed, no man in the State, at this period, discharged so many and varied public duties. A considerable share of the reputation which Connecticut required for promptness in furnishing men and means for the army, is due to General Wolcott. Certainly, to no other individual in the western counties could Governor Trumbull or General Washington appeal for aid, with the certainty of suc- cess, as to him.
In 1786, he was elected to the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and was annually re-elected for a period of ten years In May, 1796, he was chosen Governor, to which distinguished
176
1.ITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
position he was again elevated at the annual election in 1797. He was now seventy years of age. His naturally robust constitution began to feel the weight of care and responsibility which had been so long pressing upon it. He departed this life at his residence in Litchfield. December 1, 1797, aged 71 years.
Joel Barlow, in his great national poem, The Columbiad, thus refers to his zeal and efforts in the cause of Independence ;
"Bold WOLCOTT urged the all-important cause, With steady hand the solemn scene he draws ; Undaunted firmness with his wisdom joined.
Nor kings nor worlds could warp his steadfast mind."
Governor Oliver Wolcott was of and had a very distinguished family. His son. Oliver, Jr., was Secretary of the United States Treasury under President George Washington, and Governor of this State for ten years. Another son, Frederick, was clerk of County and Superior Courts for years, and the founder of the village of Wolcottville, now the business portion of Torrington. One of his daughters married Hon. William Moseley, M. C., of Hartford, and another married Lieutenant-Governor Goodrich, of llartford.
His sister, Ursula Wolcott, married Governor Matthew Gris- wold, and was the mother of Governor Roger Griswold. Thus her father, brother, husband, son and nephew were all governors of Connecticut, a fact which cannot probably be said of any other lady who has lived in the State or the United States.
THE COUNTY JAIL
The history of the legal matters of the County would be in- complete without a reference to the County Jail. This institution is situated on one of the most prominent sites in Litchfield at the corner of North and West streets. The original jail was located on the brow of East Hill, on the exact spot now occupied by the C'enter school house. At the excavation of the ground for the cellar for the school house some of the original foundation work was discovered, and in some of the stone work were found staples and rings indicating that occasionally a prisoner might have been chained up. It is said to have been a crude, but strongly built structure of hewn logs. Adjoining it a large old-fashioned house was erected in which the jailer lived and kept a hotel, the prison being in the rear. This building appears to have been built in 1786, at a cost of about nine hundred pounds, sterling.
J. ITCHFIELD COUNTY JAIL
177
HISTORICAL NOTES
The front part of the present jail was erected in 1810-11, at an expense of $11.245.78, and was built of brick, which were made of clay dug on the road between Torrington and Litchfield, just cast of "Seymour's meadow." The bricks were very hard and builders have said that it was much easier to dig through the granite foundations than through the brick.
A wooden building for a kitchen was afterwards added on the northern side, and the present arrangement of cells in the middle building was made about sixty years ago.
In 1895, the accommodations not proving adequate, a county meeting was held and an addition ordered to be constructed on the west end of the original building, which was done at a cost of about $25,000.00. The old part had cells for seventeen inmates and this addition provided cell room for twenty-eight, with cage: for five more, with washroom, bathroom and other needed ac- commodations. It is now heated by steam and furnished with city water, and is lighted with gas from its own private plant.
In the early days the keeping of the prisoners was let out to the highest bidder and the keeper (now called the jailer ) made what he could out of the prison work and also kept a hotel in the building. This system prevailed until about 1865. when the sheriff, as one of the prerogatives of his office took possession and ran the institution himself. The price allowed for board of pris- oners has varied : at the present time it being $2.25 per week, paid by the State.
One of the large rooms in the third story was used as a public hall. The Masons and other societies used it for their meetings and at other times it was used as a schoolroom. The compiler of these sketches has attended school there.
AA large workshop is located in the second story of the new part. in which many of the prisoners are employed caning chair seats, manufacturing brooms, and such other employments as is allowed to prison labor.
.A large elin tree, seen in the cut at the southeast corner of the jail yard, is known as the " Whipping post elm," on which formerly prisoners were publicly whipped ; the last whipping occurred about seventy-five years ago.
Lam Schonl
THE LITCHFIELD LAW SCHOOL
CATALOGUE
OF
SCHOLARS
INTERESTING MEMORANDA
JUDGE REEVE'S ..
1784
THE LITCHFIELD LAW SCHOL,
1833
JUDGE GOULD'S. .
AUDI WELLEN JR. & CO. Hertford Com
18I
LAW SCHOOL
THE LITCHFIELD LAW SCHOOL.
The following article appeared originally in the February (1901) number of The Law Notes, published by The Edward Thomson Co., of Northport, L. I. It was written by Charles C. Moore, Esq., a native of Winchester, and a former member of this bar, now one of the editors of the American and English Encyclopedia of Law, published by the above-named company. The article has been slightly abridged for this work. In its prepar- ation Mr. Moore was largely aided by the late Chief Justice Charles l'. Andrews :
" One who looks through the records of the town meetings of Litchfield from 1765 to 1775 will find that there were discussions on the Stamp Act, the Boston Port Bill, and other acts of Parlia- mentary aggression, as clear and well defined as the debates in that town meeting where Samuel Adams and Harrison Gray Otis were the principal speakers. The child Liberty would not have been born in the Boston town meeting had not the Litchfield town meeting and other like town meetings throughout the colonies prepared the atmosphere in which alone that child could breathe. Litchfield was the principal station on the highway from Hart- ford to the Hudson ; and a depot for military stores, a workshop, and a provision storehouse for the Continental Army were there established during the Revolution. Many distinguished royalist prisoners were sent there, and a military atmosphere pervaded the place. General Washington was a frequent visitor, and so were other general officers of the American forces, including Lafayette, who, when he visited the United States in 1824, went to Litchfield to renew old memories with some of his former comrades in arms. The leaden statue of King George the Third which stood on the Battery in New York was conveyed to Litch- held, and in an orchard in the rear of the Wolcott house it was melted into bullets for the patriot army. All through the struggle with the mother country Litchfield was a hotbed of patriotism, and when the first law school in America commenced its regular sys- tematic course of instruction there in 1784, the ambitious village had among its citizens numerous men of exceptional intelligence and culture. One of them was Andrew Adams, who had been a member of the Continental Congress and was afterward a judge of the Supreme Court. Oliver Wolcott was there. He also had been a member of the Congress, had signed the Declaration of In- dependence, and was afterward Governor of the State. Ephraim Kirby, who a few years later published the first volume of law reports ever published in America, Major Seymour, who had com- manded a regment at the surrender of Burgoyne; Benjamin Tall-
182
LITCHFIELD COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
madge, perhaps the most noted cavalry commander of the Revolu- tion ; Julius Deming. a very prominent and successful merchant and financier, and many others of like character were residing in the town. Into this community in the year 1778 came Tapping Reeve, a young lawyer just admitted to the bar, to settle in the practice of his profession. Born in Southold, Long Island, in 1744. the son of Rev. Abner Reeve, a Presbyterian clergyman, he was graduated at Princeton College in 1763, and was immediately appointed teacher in a grammar school in connection with the college. In that station and as a tutor in the college itself he passed seven years. He then came to Connecticut to study law. entering the office of Judge Root, who was then a practicing lawyer in Hartford, and some years later a judge of the Supreme Court. From Hartford he came to Litchfield. He had just pre- viously married Sally Burr, daughter of President Burr of Prince- ton, and sister of Aaron Burr. 'Until the conclusion of the Revo- lutionary War there was but very little civil business done in the county at Litchfield, and Mr. Reeve betook himself to giving in- struction to young gentlemen who looked forward to the legal profession for support and advancement when quieter times should come. This employment tended greatly to enlarge and improve his stock of legal learning, and led the way for him to begin in ,1784 a systematic course of instruction in the law and to regular classes. The Law School dates from that year. It continued in successful operation and with annual graduating classes until 1833. The catalogue contains the names of one thousand and fifteen young men who were prepared for the bar subsequent to the year 1798, most of whom were admitted to the practice in the court at Litchfield. The list of students prior to that date is imperfect, but there are known to have been at least two hundred and ten. More than two-thirds of the students registered from states other than Connecticut. Maine sent four, New Hampshire fifteen, Ver- mont twenty-seven, Massachusetts ninety-four, Rhode Island twenty-two. New York one hundred and twenty-four, New Jersey eleven, Pennsylvania thirty, Delaware eighteen, Maryland thirty- nine, Virginia twenty-one, North Carolina twenty, South Caro- lina forty-five. Georgia sixty-nine, Ohio four, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee each one, Kentucky nine, Alabama three, and Louisi- ana seven. There were four from the District of Columbia and one from Calcutta. The greatest number who entered in any single year was fifty-four in 1813.
" Lawyers now living in the original states will recognize the names of many men conspicuous in the juridical annals of their state. Aaron Burr studied law at Litchfield. John C. Calhoun entered the Law School in 1805; only a few rods from the school building was the house where Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in 1811. and Henry Ward Beecher in 1813: and a short hour's
1
183
LAW SCHOOL
walk would have brought the young Southerner to the spot where John Brown was born in 1800, in the adjoining town of Torrington. Two of the graduates became judges of the Supreme Court of the United States-Henry Baldwin and Levi Woodbury : fifteen United States Senators, fifty members of Congress, five members of the United States Cabinet, ten governors of states, forty-four judges of state and inferior United States courts, and seven foreign minis- ters. Georgia is especially well represented. Among the names of judges of that State we notice Eugenius A. Nesbit, who wrote the elegant dissertation in Mitchum v. State, 11 Ga. 615, on the privilege and duty of counsel in arguing a case to a jury, in con- nection with the proper limitations of the freedom of debate-an opinion copied almost verbatim in Tucker v. Henniker, 41 N. HI. 317, with an omission of quotation marks so singular and flagrant as to have occasioned comment by the profession
" The course of instruction was completed in fourteen months, including two vacations of four weeks each, one in the spring. the other in the autumn. No student could enter for a shorter period than three months. The terms of instruction were (in 1828) Sioo for the first year and Soo for the second, payable either in advance or at the end of the year.
" In the library for the Law School at Yale University may be found several bound volumes of manuscript which apparently con- tain the entire lectures of Judge Reeve. They are in the hand- writing of his son, Aaron Burr Reeve. But marginal reference interlineations in his own hand make it certain that these volumes have all been revised by Judge Reeve himself. The tradition is that they are the manuscripts which he used in his lectures during the last years that he taught. An inspection of these volumes shows that the course of instruction given at the Litchfield Law School covered the entire body of the law. They speak of the law gener- ally-in reference to the sources whence it is derived, as customs and statutes, with the rules for the application and interpretation of each. Then follows Real Estate, Rights of Persons. Rights of Things, Contracts, Torts, Evidence. Pleading, Crimes, and Equity. And each of these general subjects is treated under various sub- sidiary topics, so as to make the matter intelligible and afford the student a correct and adequate idea of, and basis for, the work he will be called upon to perform in the practice of his profession. Judge Reeve conducted the school alone until 1798, when, having been elected a judge of the Supreme Court, he associated James Gould with him. They had the joint care of the school until 1820, when Judge Reeve withdrew. Mr. Gould continued the classes until 1833, being asissted during the last year by Jabez W. Huntington. Judge Reeve remained on the bench until lie reached the limit of seventy years in 1815. The last part of the term he was chief justice. He died in 1823, in the eightieth year
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.