Litchfield Law School Totally Explained

Everything about The Litchfield Law School totally explained

The Litchfield Law School of Litchfield, Connecticut was the first law school in the United States, having been established in 1773 by Tapping Reeve, who would later became the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. By the time the school closed in 1833, over 1,100 students had attended the institution including Aaron Burr, Jr. 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.

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, Jr. (later United States Vice President) and Sally Burr, who were both his students.
Tapping Reeve moved to Connecticut and studied law under Judge Root of Hartford, and was admitted to the bar in 1772. In the same year he married his former student, 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 frail wife. In 1780 he added a downstairs wing for Sally, who found it difficult to climb stairs.

Law School

Reeve decided to start a law school, and his first student was none other than his brother-in-law, Aaron Burr. The law school students lived in the homes of town residents and traveled to Reeve's house on South Street to receive their morning lectures in Reeve's downstairs parlor. As the number of students increased, they outgrew the space in the parlor and so in 1784 Reeve built a one-room school building adjacent to his house. James Gould became Reeve's associate when Reeve was elected to the 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.

Notable students

The list of students who attended Tapping Reeve's law school includes two United States Vice Presidents (Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun), 101 United States congressmen, 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. Framed pictures of students are still hung up in the school, including George Catlin, Horace Mann (the educator), Aaron Burr, Jr., Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and US Senator & Connecticut Governor Roger Sherman Baldwin. Each name in this list is followed by the year that the student finished, when known.

John Allen, 1784
Ezekiel Bacon, 1794
William J. Bacon, 1823
Joshua Baker, 1821, Governor of Louisiana
Ebenezer Baldwin, 1810, (brother of Simeon Baldwin and uncle of Roger Sherman Baldwin)
Henry Baldwin, 1797, U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Roger Sherman Baldwin, 1812 (son of Simeon Baldwin and the grandson of Roger Sherman)
James Bell, 1824
Edmund H. Bennett
Aaron Burr, Jr., 1774
Chester Pierce Butler, 1818
John Caldwell Calhoun, 1805, U.S. Vice-President, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, Secretary of War
George Catlin, 1817
John M. Clayton, 1817, U. S. Senator and Secretary of State
John A. Collier, 1805
Joel Crawford, 1806
William Crosby Dawson, 1817
Thomas Day, 1797
John Stark Edwards, 1796
Amos Ellmaker, 1806
Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, 1811
John Myers Felder, 1806
Thomas Flournoy Foster, 1816
Samuel A. Foot, 1797, Connecticut Governor, U.S. Representative and Senator
John Brown Francis, 1813, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island 1844-45, Governor of Rhode Island 1833-38
Hopkins Holsey
Edward King, 1813, son of Rufus King and founder of Cincinnati Law School
James G. King (1791-1853), businessman and politician who represented from 1849 to 1851.
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (I), 1817
Horace Mann, 1822
Rutger B. Miller, 1824
Eugenius Aristides Nisbet, 1823
Elisha Phelps, 1801
Oliver Leicester Phelps, 1794 (son of Oliver Phelps, married Roger Sherman's granddaughter Betsey Law Sherman)
Horatio Seymour, 1798
Roger Sherman, Jr., 1792 (son of Roger Sherman)
Roger Minott Sherman, 1794 (son of Rev. Josiah Sherman, the brother of Roger Sherman)
John Burr Skinner, 1820 (grandson of Roger Sherman)
Oliver Skinner, 1800 (grandson of Roger Sherman)
Richard Skinner, 1798
Roger Sherman Skinner, 1815 (grandson of Roger Sherman)
Perry Smith, 1807, U. S. Senator
Truman Smith, 1817, U. S. Senator
Frederick A. Tallmadge, 1811
Uriah Tracy, 1778
Stephen Upson, 1805
Nicholas Ware, 1792
Lemuel Whitman, 1805
Elisha Dana Whittlesey, 1813
Frederick Whittlesey, 1819
Thomas T. Whittlesey, 1818
Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 1778
Levi Woodbury, 1809, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Senator, Secretary of the Treasury and Navy, and Governor of New Hampshire.
Augustus Romaldus Wright, 1833

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