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Samuel Howe


Gender:
Male
Born:
June 20, 1785
Died:
January 20, 1828
Home Town:
Belchertown, MA
Later Residences:
Worthington, MA
Marriage(s):
Sarah Robbins Howe (October 10, 1813)
Susan Tracy Howe (September 13, 1807)
Biographical Notes:
Samuel Howe was the son and youngest child of Estes and Susannah [Dwight] Howe of Rutland, MA. Howe married Susan Tracy, the daughter of Uriah and Julia [Bull] Tracy of Litchfield, CT. Her father had been one of the earliest students to attend the Litchfield Law School. They moved to Worthington, MA where Howe built a successful practice. Susan died in childbirth only four years later in 1811. Their infant son survived and they had one daughter as well. In 1813, he married Srah Lydia Robbins, the daughter of Lt. Governor Edward Hutchinson and Elizabeth [Murray] Robbins of Milton, MA. Howe then moved his family to Northampton, MA and begame the legal partner of the Hon. Elijah Hunt Mills, a U.S. Senator and Congressman. In 1833, Howe opened a law school in Northampton with his partner Mills ...
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Education
Years at LLS:
1805
Other Education:
Attended public schools in Belchertown and then New Salem, studied at Deerfield Academy, and graduated from Williams College in 1804.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Educator; Political Office
Admitted To Bar:
1807
Training with Other Lawyers:
After completing his studies at the Litchfield Law School he studied with Judge Sedgwick at Stockbridge, MA.
State Posts:
State Representative (MA) 1812-1813
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (MA) 1821-1828


help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1805, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.
Secondary Sources:
Howe, Gilman Bigelow. Howe Genealogies. New England Historic Genealogical Socity, 2000.; Ellis, Rufus. Memoir of the Hon. Samuel Howe. Boston: Wm. Crosby and H.P. Nichols, 1850.; Parker, Isaac. "Address on late Samuel Howe...Bar of Suffolk Co." 1828.; Williams, J.M. Sketch of the Character of the Late Hon. Samuel Howe, Delivered at the Opening of the Court of Common Pleas. 1828.; Durfee, D.D., Rev. Calvin. Biographical Annals of Williams College. Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1871.

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