Roger S. Baldwin


Other Name:
Roger Sherman Baldwin
Gender:
Male
Born:
January 4, 1793
Died:
February 19, 1863
Home Town:
New Haven, CT
Later Residences:
New Haven, CT
Marriage(s):
Emily Perkins Baldwin (October 25, 1820)
Biographical Notes:
Roger Sherman Baldwin was the descendant of John Baldwin, one of the original settlers of New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Simeon Baldwin, was a prominent politician and judge in both New York and Connecticut. His mother Rebecca Sherman died when he was only two years old on September 4, 1795, and his father married his mother's younger sister Elizabeth Sherman Burr, the widow of Sturges Burr of New York City.

Baldwin studied at the Hopkins Grammar School under his cousin Henry Sherman, and entered Yale College in 1807. He graduated from Yale in 1811 with honors when he was eighteen years old. Baldwin entered the Litchfield Law School in 1812, following in the footsteps of his brother Ebenezer Baldwin, who had attended the Law School in 1810. He was admitted to the bar in New ...
[more]
Quotes:
"The law school at present is in a pretty flourishing condition. It contains upwards of thirty students, and the number has been continually increasing since I came. It is composed of persons from about every section of the Union, who tho' they may bring with them the habits and peculiarities of the places to which they belong, appear in general quite ambitious and industrious." Roger S. Baldwin to his father, November 1, 1812, Baldwin Collection, Yale University.

Education
Years at LLS:
1812
Other Education:
Attended Hopkins Grammar School and later Graduated from Yale College in 1811.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office
Admitted To Bar:
New Haven, CT in 1814
Political Party:
Whig; Federalist; Republican
Federal Posts:
U.S. Senator (CT) 1847-1851
State Posts:
State Senator (CT) 1837-1838
State Representative (CT) 1841-1842
Governor (CT) 1844-1846
State Committees:
CT Delegate to the National Peace Conference of 1861. CT Presidential Elector in 1860.
Local Posts:
City Council (New Haven, CT) 1826

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:
Baldwin, Roger Sherman. Notes on law taken from the lectures of the Honble. Tapping Reeve and James Gould, esquire … at the Litchfield Law School, 1812-1813. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849, 10.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1812, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

MSS 63: Baldwin Family Papers, 1734-1977, New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.
Secondary Sources:
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 6. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912.

Hooker, John. Connecticut Reports, Vol. 30. Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Lockwood and Company, 1863.

Lewis, William Draper. Great American Lawyers, Vol. 3. Philadelphia, The John C. Winston Company, 1908.

White, David O. "Roger Sherman Baldwin," Connecticut State Library. Last updated April, 2003. http://www.cslib.org/gov/baldwinrs.htm [also contains an extensive bibliography]

Contact Us

Do you have more information for the Ledger?

If you have family papers, objects, or any other details you would like to share, or if you would like to obtain a copy of an image for publication, please contact us at curator@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.