Litchfield Law School

The Litchfield Law School of Litchfield, Connecticut, was the first independent law school established in America for reading law. Founded and led by lawyer Tapping Reeve, the proprietary school was unaffiliated with any college or university.^[3] (While Litchfield was independent, a long-term debate resulted in the 1966 recognition of William & Mary Law School as the first law school to have been affiliated with a university.)^[4]

Tapping Reeve House and Law School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
East elevation and north profile of Tapping Reeve House, 2010
Show map of Connecticut Show map of the United States
Location	Litchfield, CT
Coordinates	41°44′38″N 73°11′19″W / 41.74395°N 73.18851°W / 41.74395; -73.18851Coordinates: 41°44′38″N 73°11′19″W / 41.74395°N 73.18851°W / 41.74395; -73.18851
Built	1784
NRHP reference No.	66000879
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966^[1]
Designated NHL	December 21, 1965^[2]

Reeve began teaching his first student in 1774 and was teaching by lecture by 1784. Reeve later became the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. The school closed in 1833, having educated over 1,100 students, including Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun. The law school, including Reeve's house, was declared a National Historic Landmark, in 1965, as the Tapping Reeve House and Law School,^[2][5] which is owned and operated by the Litchfield Historical Society as a museum displaying life in a 19th-century period school.^[6] The Society also operates the Litchfield History Museum.

Tapping Reeve

Reeve was born on Long Island, New York, in 1744. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1763, serving for seven years as a tutor at the Grammar School that was connected with the college. There he met the children of the Princeton College's president, Aaron Burr Sr.: Aaron Burr (later Vice President of the United States) and Sally Burr, who were both his students.

Tapping Reeve moved to Connecticut and studied law under Judge Jesse Root of Hartford, and was admitted to the bar in 1772. In the same year, he married Sally Burr. They then moved to Litchfield and Reeve started his own law practice. Tapping Reeve built his six-room Litchfield house in 1773 and settled in with his wife. In 1780 he added a downstairs wing for Sally, who found it difficult to climb stairs.

Law School

 

Judge Gould's Law School Building, from a 1920 image

In addition to practicing law, Reeve trained many prospective attorneys, including Aaron Burr, his brother in law. Students lived in the homes of town residents and traveled to Reeve's house on South Street to receive their morning lectures on the common law in Reeve's downstairs parlor. In 1784, in response to increasing demand, Reeve had a one-room school built adjacent to his house.^[7] James Gould became Reeve's associate when Reeve was elected to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1798. Reeve withdrew in 1820 and Gould continued until 1833. The school's lectures covered the entire body of the law including real estate, rights of persons, rights of things, contracts, torts, evidence, pleading, crimes, and equity.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

See also: Category:Litchfield Law School alumni

The list of students who attended Tapping Reeve's law school includes two Vice Presidents of the United States (Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun), 101 members of the United States House of Representatives, 28 United States senators, six United States cabinet secretaries, three justices of the United States Supreme Court, 14 state governors and 13 state supreme court chief justices. Litchfield Law School students also held state and local political office and became business leaders. Students went on to found university law schools and become university presidents.^[8] Framed pictures of students are still hung in the school, including George Catlin, Horace Mann (the educator), Aaron Burr, Oliver Wolcott Jr., and Roger Sherman Baldwin. Each name is followed by the year that the student finished, when known.^[9]

• John Allen, 1784^[10]
• Ezekiel Bacon, 1794^[11]
• William J. Bacon, 1823^[12]
• Joshua Baker, 1821, Governor of Louisiana^[13]
• Henry Baldwin, 1797, Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court^[14]
• Roger Sherman Baldwin, 1812 (son of Simeon Baldwin and the grandson of Roger Sherman)^[15]
• James Bell, 1824^[16]
• Edmund H. Bennett^[17]
• Aaron Burr, 1774, U.S. Vice President, U.S. Senator^[18]
• Chester Pierce Butler, 1818^[19]
• John Caldwell Calhoun, 1805, U.S. Vice-President, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, Secretary of War^[20]
• George Catlin, 1817^[21]
• Charles Clarke Chapman, U.S. Representative for Connecticut^[22]
• John M. Clayton, 1817, U. S. Senator and Secretary of State^[23]
• George W. Clinton, 1828, son of DeWitt Clinton, Mayor of Buffalo^[24]
• John A. Collier, 1805^[25]
• Joel Crawford, 1806^[26]
• William Crosby Dawson, 1817^[27]
• Thomas Day, 1797^[28]
• John Stark Edwards, 1796^[29]
• Amos Ellmaker, 1806^[30]
• Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, 1811^[31]
• John Myers Felder, 1806^[32]
• Thomas Flournoy Foster, 1816^[33]
• Samuel A. Foot, 1797, Connecticut Governor, U.S. Representative and Senator^[34]
• John Brown Francis, 1813, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island 1844-45, Governor of Rhode Island 1833-38^[35]
• Albert C. Greene, 1812-1813, United States Senator and Attorney General of Rhode Island^[36]
• Hopkins Holsey^[37]
• Ward Hunt, 1830, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States^[38]
• James G. King (1791–1853), businessman and politician who represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district from 1849 to 1851.^[39]
• Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (I), 1817^[40]
• Horace Mann, 1822, U.S. Representative^[41]
• Theron Metcalf, 1806, Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court^[42]
• Rutger B. Miller, 1824^[43]
• Eugenius Aristides Nisbet, 1823^[44]
• Elisha Phelps, 1801^[45]
• John Pierpoint, 1826, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court^[46]
• John Pierpont, poet and pastor of the Hollis Street Church in Boston^[47]
• Horatio Seymour, 1798^[48]
• Roger Minott Sherman, 1794 (son of Rev. Josiah Sherman, the brother of Roger Sherman)^[49]
• Richard Skinner, 1798 ^[50]
• Perry Smith, 1807, U. S. Senator^[51]
• Truman Smith, 1817, U. S. Senator^[52]
• Benjamin Swift, 1801, U.S Representative, U.S. Senator^[53]
• Frederick A. Tallmadge,^[54] 1811
• Uriah Tracy, 1778^[55]
• Bates Turner, 1780^[56]
• Stephen Upson, 1805^[57]
• Nicholas Ware, 1792^[58]
• Lemuel Whitman, 1805^[59]
• Elisha Dana Whittlesey, 1813^[60]
• Frederick Whittlesey, 1819^[61]
• Thomas T. Whittlesey, 1818^[62]
• Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 1778^[63]
• Levi Woodbury, 1809, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Senator, Secretary of the Treasury and Navy, and Governor of New Hampshire^[64]
• Augustus Romaldus Wright, 1833^[65][66]

 

See also

• List of National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut
• Tapping Reeve

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
2. . National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
3. Harno, Albert J. (1953). Legal Education in the United States: A Report Prepared for the Survey of the Legal Profession (1980 ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 28–32. ISBN 0313224250.
4. "1966 Debate Over the First Law School in America" The Bridgeport Post Sept. 15, 1966 via scholarship.law.wm.edu, William & Mary Law School. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
5. Blanche Higgins Schroer and S. Sydney Bradford (January 16, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Tapping Reeve House and Law School" (PDF). National Park Service. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying 5 photos, exterior, from 1965 and 1974.
6. "Litchfield Historical Society: The Ledger". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
7. Litchfield Law School, Litchfield Historical Society
8. . Archived from the original on 2009-02-28. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
9. "Litchfield Law School History". Litchfield Ledger. Litchfield Historical Society. 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
10. "John Allen". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
11. "Ezekiel Bacon". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
12. "William J. Bacon". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
13. "Joshua Baker". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
14. "Henry Baldwin". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
15. "Roger Sherman Baldwin". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
16. "James Bell". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
17. Old Colony Historical Society (1878). Collections of the Old Colony Historical Society. The Society. p. 128.
18. "Aaron Burr". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
19. "Chester Pierce Butler". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
20. "John Caldwell Calhoun". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
21. "George Catlin". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
22. "Charles C. Chapman". www.ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
23. "John M. Clayton". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
24. Litchfield Law School (1900). The Litchfield Law School, 1784-1833. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Enquirer. p. 25.
25. "John A. Collier". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
26. "Joel Crawford". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
27. "William Crosby Dawson". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
28. "Thomas Day". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
29. History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, Volume 1. H. Z. Williams & Bro. (Cleveland). 1878. p. 182.
30. "Amos Ellmaker". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
31. "Henry Leavitt Ellsworth". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
32. "John Myers Felder". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
33. "Thomas Flournoy Foster". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
34. "Samuel A. Foot". National Governors Association. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
35. "John Brown Francis". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
36. "Albert Collins Greene". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
37. "Hopkins Holsey". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
38. "Ward Hunt". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
39. James Gore King, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved September 23, 2007.
40. "Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
41. "Horace Mann". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
42. New England Historic Genealogical Society (1907). New England Historic Genealogical Society. The Society. p. 185.
43. "Rutger B. Miller". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
44. "Eugenius Aristides Nisbet". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
45. "Elisha Phelps". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
46. Ullery, Jacob G. (1894). Men of Vermont Illustrated. Brattleboro, VT: Transcript Publishing Company. pp. 183–184.
47. Richards, Irving T. (1933). The Life and Works of John Neal (PhD). Harvard University. p. 61. OCLC 7588473.
48. "Horatio Seymour". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
49. "Roger Minott Sherman". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
50. "Richard Skinner". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
51. "Perry Smith". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
52. "Truman Smith". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
53. "Benjamin Swift". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
54. "Frederick A. Tallmadge". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
55. "Uriah Tracy". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
56. John J. Duffy; Samuel B. Hand; Ralph H. Orth, eds. (2003). The Vermont Encyclopedia. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England. p. 290.
57. "Stephen Upson". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
58. "Nicholas Ware". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
59. "Lemuel Whitman". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
60. "Elisha Whittlesey". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
61. "Frederick Whittlesey". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
62. "Thomas T. Whittlesey". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
63. "Oliver Wolcott, Jr". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
64. "Levi Woodbury". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
65. "Augustus Romaldus Wright". Litchfield Historical Society. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
66. Fisher, Samuel H. (1946). Litchfield Law School, 1774-1833: A Biographical Catalogue of Students. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Bibliography

• Baldwin, Simeon Eben. James Gould: A Sketch. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1909.
• Beecher, Lyman. A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Hon. Tapping Reeve: Late Chief Justice of the State of Connecticut, who Died December Thirteen, Eighteen Hundred and Twenty-Three, in the Eightieth Year of His Age, with Explanatory Notes. Litchfield, CT: S.S. Smith, 1827.
• Blondel-Libardi, Catherine, "Rediscovering the Litchfield Law School Notebooks," Connecticut History 46 (Spring 2007): 70–82.
• Calder, Jacqueline. 1978. Life and Times of Tapping Reeve and his Law School. Typescript.
• Collier, Christopher. "Tapping Reeve, The Connecticut Common Law, and America's First Law School." Connecticut Supreme Court History 1 (2006): 13–25.
• Farnham, Thomas J. "Tapping Reeve and America's First Law School." New England Galaxy 17 (1975): 3–13.
• Fisher, Samuel H. The Litchfield Law School: Address by Samuel Fisher. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Enquirer Press, 1930.
• Fisher, Samuel H. Litchfield Law School, 1774-1833: A Biographical Catalogue of Students. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1946.
• Halow, D. Brooke. Litchfield's Legacy in Law: A Study of the Litchfield Law School's Influence on Legal Training in America, 1784-1833. American Studies 493, Yale Law School, 1996.
• Kilbourn, Dwight C. The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909: Biographical Sketches of Members, History and Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Historical Notes. Litchfield, CT: Self Published, 1909.
• Kronman, Anthony, ed. History of the Yale Law School. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
• Litchfield Historical Society. The Litchfield Law School, Litchfield, Connecticut: A Brief Historical Sketch. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Historical Society, 1952.
• Litchfield Historical Society. Presentation of the Reeve Law School building to the Litchfield Historical Society at Litchfield, Conn., August 22d, 1911. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Enquirer Press, 1911.
• Litchfield Historical Society. The Noblest Study: The Legacy of America's First School of Law. Permanent Exhibition, Tapping Reeve House, Litchfield, CT.
• Litchfield Law School. Catalogue: Reprint of 1900. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Enquirer Press, 1900.
• Litchfield Law School Students. Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School From 1798 to 1827 Inclusive. Litchfield, CT: S.S. Smith, 1828.
• McKenna, Marian C. Tapping Reeve and the Litchfield Law School. New York: Oceana, 1986.
• Pruitt, Jr., Paul M. and David I. Durham. Commonplace Books of Law: A Selection of Law Related Notebooks from the Seventeenth Century to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Law Library, 2005.
• Sheppard, Steve, ed.. The History of Legal Education in the United States. 2vols. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, Inc., 1999.

Further reading

• Boonshoft, Mark. "The Litchfield Network: Education, Social Capital, and the Rise and Fall of a Political Dynasty, 1784–1833." Journal of the Early Republic 34.4 (2014): 561–595. Online</ref>
• Hicks, Paul DeForest, "The Litchfield Law School: Giding the New Nation," Prospecta Press (2019)
• Hicks, Paul DeForest, "Litchfield Law School Alumni on the New York Courts," Judicial Notice, 16, (2021) 4-11

External links

• Reeve House and Litchfield Law School - Litchfield Historical Society
• Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library Finding Aids - Archon - Litchfield Historical Society
• The Ledger - Litchfield Historical Society
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. CT-381, "Law School, South Street, Litchfield, Litchfield County, CT", 1 photo, supplemental material