John Pierce Brace


Gender:
Male
Born:
February 10, 1793
Died:
October 18, 1872
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Litchfield, CT
Marriage(s):
Louisa Moreau Brace (March 1860)
Lucy Porter Brace (November 1819)
Biographical Notes:
John Pierce Brace was the grandson of Captain Abel Brace. His father was James Brace, a writing master at the Litchfield Female Academy. His father James married Susan Pierce, sister of Sarah Piece, the founder of the Litchfield Female Academy.

Brace studied military and medical subjects at Williams College. He returned to Litchfield where he attended the law school and in 1814, became a teacher at the the Litchfield Female Academy. He eventually became the head of the school, and remained there until 1832. When the Litchfield Female Academy was incorporated in 1827, he became Secretary of the Board of Trustees. In 1832, Brace moved to Hartford, Connecticut where he acted as the head of Catherine Beecher's Hartford Female Seminary for the next fifteen years. He then taught at an ...
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Quotes:
"I was lazy to dance so few girls there that almost all were belles." He "danced volunteers" with several girls and danced twice with Sarah Sanford, "marched with her and waiter upon her down to supper."

Regarding the Litchfield Law School ball managed by Edward King, Chester Ashley, and John Young Mason, December 9, 1814.

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, More Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833, Being an Added History on the Litchfield Female Academy Kept by Miss Sarah Pierce and Her Nephew, John Pierce Brace Hardcover (1927) p.112.

"...all the school almost" attended a cotillion party on the evening of Militia Day.
John Pierce Brace's journal, 1814

"Their stage was in true theatrical style and their scenery elegant."

Regarding ...
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Additional Notes:
On April 13, 1819, Catharine Beecher wrote to Samuel Foote about a planned trip to Maine and Boston with her “mother’s sister Lucy” [Porter] and her upcoming nuptials to John.

“She is a lovely girl about my age & has spent the winter here. She will be married next fall to Mr. John Brace & will settle here which will be a great comfort to mama & all of us…"

Stowe-Day Acquisitions

Education
Years at LLS:
1812
Other Education:
Graduated from Williams College in 1812.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Educator; Editor; Arts


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.

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

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849, 10.
Secondary Sources:
Brace, Emma, ed. The Life of Charles Loring Brace. Ayer Publishing, 1976.

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