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George Griffin


Gender:
Male
Born:
January 14, 1778
Died:
May 6, 1860
Home Town:
East Haddam, CT
Later Residences:
Wilkesbarre, PA
New York, NY
Marriage(s):
Lydia Butler Griffin (July 3, 1801)
Biographical Notes:
George Griffin was the son of George Griffin, a well-to-do farmer of East Haddam, CT and his wife Eve Dorr. Griffin was born in that same city on January 14, 1778. He graduated from Yale in 1797 and went to study in Litchfield some months later. After he was admitted to the bar in 1799, Griffin moved to Wilkes-Barre, PA in the summer of 1800. He worked as a lawyer there for the next six years. While in Wilkes-Barre, he met his future wife Lydia Butler and they were married on July 3, 1801. In 1806, Griffin and his wife moved to New York City where he practiced law for the next fifty-two years. Griffin received an honorary LLS from Columbia in 1837. He and his wife had four sons and four daughters. Griffin died at New York City on May 6, 1860.

Education
Years at LLS:
1798
Other Education:
Prepared for college with Rev. Frederick W. Hotchkiss and attended Yale College in 1797.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Agriculture
Admitted To Bar:
December 1799
Training with Other Lawyers:
After graduating from Yale College he studied the law with Noah B. Benedict, Esq. of Woodbury, CT before attending the Litchfield Law School.

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
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:
Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, 1849), 3.; "Moothall Society Record Books." Litchfield Law School Collection, Series 1, Subseries 3, Litchfield Historical Society.
Secondary Sources:
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 5. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911.; Day, Thomas and James Murdock. Brief Memoirs of the Class of 1797. New Haven, CT: Yale College, 1848.

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