Tapping Reeve


Gender:
Male
Born:
October 1744
Died:
December 13, 1823
Marriage(s):
Elizabeth Thompson Reeve (April 30, 1798)
Sally Burr Reeve (1772 June 24)
Biographical Notes:
  Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), an American jurist and founder of the Litchfield Law School, helped bring order to the law through systematic and integrated instruction. Tapping Reeve, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born in Brookhaven, Long Island, in October 1744. He entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) at 15 and graduated first in his class in 1763. In 1771 Reeve left his post as tutor at Princeton to read law in the traditional way in a judge's office in Hartford, Conn. In a year he was admitted to the bar, and he moved to the remote village of Litchfield, Conn., to begin his practice. As his reputation grew, young prospective lawyers began to seek Reeve out to supervise their legal preparation.
   But he soon went beyond the usual procedures (which ...
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Education
Other Education:
Princeton 1759-1763 Graduated first in his class.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Educator
Admitted To Bar:
1772
Training with Other Lawyers:
Jesse Root
State Posts:
Judge (Supreme Court of Connecticut) 1798-1814
Chief Justice (Connecticut ) 1814-1815

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
Other:
Secondary Sources:
Reed, Alfred. Training for the Public Profession of the Law. Arno Press. 1921.

Dargo, George. Law in the New Republic. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1983.

Woodruff, George Catlin A Genealogical Register of the Inhabitants of the Town of Litchfield, Conn: From the Settlement of the Town, A.D. 1720, to the Year 1800, Higginson Book Company, 1900.

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