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History of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law Archives and Law School History

1931 More Anent the First Law School Theodore S. Cox William & Mary Law School

Robert M. Hughes

Repository Citation Cox, Theodore S. and Hughes, Robert M., "More Anent the First Law School" (1931). History of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. 19. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/history/19

Copyright c 1931 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/history --- ~

Odober, 1931 THE LAW STUDENT

More Anel1t the First Law School

Believing tilat our readers wi ll be interested in the dis­ the College of W illiam and Mary died p ri or to 1833, the cussion relative to the first American law school, we present date of the disconrinuance of the . herein additi onal c1ata received foll owing the publi cation of W ith no desire to enter into a controversy, either in you r Mr. Walter Mack's lc:tter in the January 1931 issue. Due to pages or elsewhere, I am g iving below a brief summa ry of lack of space we were unable to publish this information the history of the law school of the Coll ege o f Wi lli am a nd ea rl ier. Mary. In an article by Robert M. Hug hes, ES l]., entitled Col lege o f " W ill ia m and Mary, The first W ill iam and Mary A meri can Law School", 2 Jr'iiiirilli (/lid iH(/ry Qllarterly, Sc hool of J urisprudence, 2d ser. rf0-48 w ill be found February 10, 1931. citation o f authoriti es: The A merican Law Book T he Sc hool of Law of the Company, Brooklyn, N. Y. Col lege o f William and Mary Gentlemen : was establi shed December I would like to call to your 1779, under Jeffersonian in­ attention a number of inac­ flu ence, George Wythe being curacies in the articl e en­ appoi nted Professor" of Law titled " The First American and Poli ce. He began hi s in­ Law School", which appeared structi on almost immediately in the January iss ue of The and continued until 1789 La/(} Student, a periodical pub­ when he removed to Rich­ lished by your company. I am College of William and Mary mond to become sole Chan­ not unmindful of the fact tbat Main Building cell o r of V itg inia. He was the arricJe in (luestion is latge­ succeeded by St. George T uck- ly in the form of a letter to er and the law school, under the editor, for which you might disclai m responsibility, but various professors, functioned continuously umil May 1861 it is disconcerting to find in a publicati on of an eminenr law w i'l en the Coll ege closed on account of the Civil War. T he publi shing company, without so llluch as footnote by way Co ll tge reopened in 1865, but during the preGlrious years of correCtion, such obvious errors as are noted below : w hi ch fo ll owed, the law school remained do tmant. It was (1) T he caption "Litchfield Law School- 1763" h ardl y rev ived in 19 22 and shortly thereafter the name was changed coincides w ith the statcmenr that " Aaron Bu rr, later V ice to the School of Jurisp rudence. It functions today, supple­ Pres idcnr of the . .. was the first student" , for menting the study of history, economi cs, and governme llC, Mr. Burr, being born in 1756, would have been seven years as well as allording professional training in the law. In­ o ld when rhe law school of wh ich he was the first student is cid entall y, since :I 792 at least, and p robably from its estab­ alleged [() have bcen established; li shment, an aca demic degree has been a prel"Ctlui site fo r a . I ( 2 ) J3L1t further along in the a rti cl e there is a contradic­ law degree. tion of the starement that the Li tc hfield Law School was es­ That p ri vare inst[l1 ction in law was g iven in the United tablished in 1763, for if g raduared frolll Sta tes prior to C hancell or Wythe's appointmellC to the Prin ceton in 1763 (as stated), and te n years after his g rad­ fa culty of rhe Coll ege of \Xl i II ialll and Ma ry undoubted ly is ualion moved [() Litchfield (as stated) , and three years larer tru e.:, but [0 maintain th:lt Judge Reeve by teaching hi s began teaching Jaw to , hi s brother-in-l aw, (as brmher-i 11 -la w rhereby became tile Ii rst professor of la w j n fu;ther stated) , then the earli est poss ib le date (acco rd ing to lh e.: U nited SlatCS and hi s home the firs[ American la w these statements) w hich ca n be claimed for the Litchfi e.: ld school seems eX lravagant. Law School wou ld be ] 776, thineen yea rs later than the darc V ery truly you rs, ca rr ied in yO Llr arti cle; incidental ly, Mr. Burr began hi s law TIIEODOH Ii S. Cox, study in 1774 and the next yea r went In to the Revo lu tIon Professor of Jurisprudence a nd (3 Diet. oj / 1111 I3iog. 3 11-5 ) ; H ea d of School. ( 3) The law school of the Coll ege of W illiam and Mary never was known as the T homas Jefferson Sc hool and, fur­ thermore, the Coll ege of William and Mary since its found­ The fo ll owing is a co py of a letter sent to M r. Mack by ing in I (,93 has been located in W illi amsburg, the o ld col­ Mr. Robert M. Hug hes at til e rcc]u es t of Governo r P oll ard ()Ilia l ca pital of Vi rg in ia, and not at W illi amson, W est Vi r­ of V irg ini a: g ini a, as your readers mi g ht be led to believe. (-1) Tr is wholl y inaccurate to state that the la w school of (ColllillllCd OlllleXI p(/.~e ) p

l4 THE LAW STUDENT October, 193 1

November 5, 1930. some of the earlier alumni, such as John Marshall and Bush­ Me Walrer Mack, rod Washington. Indianapol is, Indiana. The Marshall-Wythe School of Government and Citizen­ Dear Sir: ship, intended to teach the young the necessary learning fot My fr iend, Governor Pol lard, has referred to me your rhe pmper exercise of the suffrage, w hether they intend to favor of October 30, 1.9 30, in reference to rhe question study 1a w or not. wherher the W illi am and Mary Law School or the Lirchlield Bu ll erin of the Coll ege for August 1926, full of interest­ Law Sc hool was the first American Law School. I am fami li ar ing info rmation. wirh the li terature on the subjecc, whi ch aCCO U11[S for the reference to me. Roll of Fame of the Coll ege, showing the distingui shed In my judg ment tbere can be no l]u esrion rhat rhe William men who were educated there. and Mary School is the oldest, having been founded in 1779. N ew York World editorial of June 9, 1920, in reference Your letter says rhar the Litchfield Schoo l was founded in (0 the ca mpaig n (0 raise an endowment for the College. (Irs l 7()3. In this you are mistaken. You were mi sled by a n present endowment is only $300,000). ambig uous sentence in the quotarion contained in your. letrer On the subject of the Law School specially> I refer YOll to which reall y means that Reeve a di sc ll ss ion between H on. graduated at Princeton in 1.763, Hampton L. Carson, of Phila­ not rhar he started hi s sc hoo l del phia, and myself, in which then. As he was born in 1744, he contended that rhe Law he waS hardly old enoug h to School of the University of teach law especially as Prince­ Pennsy lvania was the oldest. It ron did not teach law. You arc was published in the William also mi staken that the school and .iYIary Quarterly for Janu­ was discontinued in ' 1 83 :~ "be­ ary, 1. 922, p. 40. Ie is specially fore which dale the law course informing because ir quotes rhe at W il liam and Mary Col lege contemporary documentary ev i­ had been bom and had died." dence. T he Wil li am and Mary School See also Bulletin No. 15 (A. was in continuous existence ti II D. 1. 92 1) of the Ca rneg ie Foun­ the spring of 1.8()1. The Vir­ darion for the advancement of g inia Peninsula then became teaching, pp. ll G- 11 7. This the scene of hostd Ill es in rh e g ives the priority to William war between the sections, and and Mary . . the Coll ege was closed . In Sep­ See also " History of the rember, 1862 it was ser on lIre American Bar" by Charles War­ by Northern rroops, as a resulr ren (Little Brown & Co., of whi ch only the wall s were Litchfield Law School 19 13), p. 343, w hi ch g ives rhe left standing. At rhe close of. . prim'iry (0 William and M ary. the war its endowment, already II npalfed, had to be usel! You wi ll obse rve from Mr. W oodruff's letter thar he does in rebuilding, as the insurance was nor re cov~rable for an not deny our priority, but atrempts (0 get around it by rhe 'lct of war; and rhe Coll ege reopened 111 a cnppled condI ­ co ntention that out course was merely part of a libera l edu­ tion without funds to reopen the law department. It had to catiol! and not intended as it preparation for practicing law. sus\)end in l R8 1. for lack of fU lld s, but was reopened in 1Ril~: The letr ers from students under Wythe (quoted in my unl er a small state appropriation whi ch did not permir rhe reopening of the law school. For the I?ast few yea rs it has reply) disprove this contention. Many took law rhere w ho been ljuire prosperous and the Law School has been re had not taken the academic cou rse. Some came there to take opene(, thoug h under every d isadvantage due to la ck of law after having taken an academi c colltse at other coll eges. funds. I pres ume you can find the books to which I refer in your Coming now to the question of priority, the fa culty min­ public library. lites and contemporaneous publications show the establi sh­ I have w ritten you thus fully because we are anxious fo r ment of the William and Mary School in l 779 under Wythe everyone ro understand rhe claims of the Coll ege on the (<1 Signer) as professor. T hand you the fo ll owing li rerature sympathy of the public. Its suspension broke its continuity on the subject: and made ir like an ,old lawyer who had retired from prac­ P hotostat of co rrespo1ldence between Mr. Woodruff and ri ce ancl rried larer to resume practi ce. During its adversiry myself on the question of priority. it had 110 funds for publicity and was almOS t forgotten. Its Article of min e on the W illiam and Mary School pub­ on ly endowment is its hi story and traditions, and Ollt am­ li shed in the American lJar Associarioll Journal, June ,i 92 1. bition is to bring it back into publi c notice. Carbon copy of arriclc of mine wtirren at the rellu esr of a I have 11 0 oHi cial co nnection with the Cullege, my only friend. It is substantiall y rhe same as the Bar .Journal article, inreres r being that of an alumnus. except thar ir g ives a li st of some of the di sting ui shed men Yours truly, who took the law course at Wi lli am and Mary. ROIIT. M. H UGHES. The Fi fry Founders of Phi Beta Kappa. This descri bes (Cf) lIlilllled on /l ex! IJr' ,l!..e ) Ocrober, 193 1 THE LAW STUDENT 15

T he articl e below which appeared in the July 19th issue 1772, began the practice and teaching of law, and bu ilt a of the N ew York Times states that the Litchfield Law School home. U ndet him his brilliant brother-in-law, Aaron Burr, was built in 1784, and that Judge Tapping Reeve began the studied for the bar, and soon Me. Reeve's classes held twenty teaching of law in 1772. sru dems. In 1784 he erected the law sc hool in whi ch co ac­ co mmodate them. For fifty years the sc hool fl ourished, 1,000 pupil s at­ I~irst Law School in America to be Reopened rended it, co ming fro m all parts of the U nited Sca tes . Few as a Museum institu tions, ir is held, contributed more di stingui shed men to this country. John C. Calhoun, a V ice President, studied there. Three of its pupils became Justices of the United The Tapping Reeve house at Litchfield, Conn., and the States Supreme Court, six were members of Cabin ets, twenty­ li ttl e bui lding adjacent to it that once housed the first law fi ve became Senarors, twelve were Governors of States and sc hool in A meri ca are to be opened to the public in August eig hty-eig ht members of Cong ress. as a permanem memori al to Judge Tapping Reeve founder In 1798 Mr. Reeve, then a judge, was joined by James of the school, and Judge James Goul d, who later helped to Goul d, a g raduate of Yal e in the class of 179 l, and they co nduct ic. H ere men famous in Colonial law, policics and co nducted the school tOgether unti l l 820, w hen Judge Reeve pedagogy we re trained, and the sc hool has long been an reti red. El even years later the school was disco ntinued. obj ect of curi os ity to rhe hi stori call y minded. The Litch­ After rhe dearh of Judge Reeve·s \\fidow the property was field Historical Soc iety has arranged for its use as ,l museum. acc1uired by Lewis B.Woodruff of , and in 1927 Tapping Reeve, a graduate of the coll ege of New Jersey it passed into rli e hands of . It was accluired (Princeton) in the class of 1763, sertl ed in Litchfield in by (li e Litchfi eld Hiscori cal Soc ie(y in 1929.