The notes of certain Litchfield students overlap in time, sometimes so precisely that the students might have been seated side by side while attending the same lecture. This coincidence is particularly striking for 1812 and 1813, years for which the notes of eleven students have survived. These were also years of heavy enrollment at the school, with 39 students in 1812 and 52 in 1813. Although none of these students kept perfectly dated or complete notebooks, nor have they consistently recorded the name of Reeve or Gould as lecturer, nevertheless from their 42 surviving notebooks it is possible to produce a snapshot of the contents of the full curriculum presented by Tapping Reeve and James Gould.
The eleven students are:
Charles Adams (1795-1821) 1 volume
William Stutson Andrews (1793-1872) 3 volumes
Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793-1863) 5 volumes
William Key Bond (1792-1864) 5 volumes
Samuel Cheever (1787-1874) 2 volumes
Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791-1858) 7 volumes
Timothy Follett (1793-1857) 6 volumes
Henry Holton Fuller (1790-1852) 2 volumes
A. Bruyn Hasbrouck (1791-1879) 1 volume
Nathaniel Mather (1788-1837) 6 volumes
Elisha Dana Whittlesey (1792-1823) 4 volumes
There is a range in age of these students, from the youngest, Charles Adams who had just turned 18, to the oldest, Samuel Cheever at 25. Neither Adams nor Cheever had attended college, nor had William Key Bond. The remainder held degrees from Harvard, Yale or the University of Vermont. Variation in the number of volumes can also be explained. A certificate of attendance in Charles Adams’ sole volume states that he was in Litchfield from June 13 to August 4, 1812. His 384 page volume contains legal titles most often found in any student’s first volume, those of municipal law, baron and feme, parent and child, guardian and ward, master and servant, sheriff and jailer. His brief attendance probably accounts for the single volume. It is hard to believe there was not a fourth volume belonging to Harvard graduate William S. Andrews. As it stands, his preserved notes lack three major titles: executors and administrators, contracts, and public wrongs. Henry Holton Fuller originally wrote 3 volumes, but only volumes 2 and 3 have survived. Of the men on this list, Fuller was the most meticulous student. He consistently numbered and dated the lectures, as well as recorded the name of Reeve or Gould. Because Fuller numbered lectures continuously, we can infer that there were 67 lectures in his missing first volume. One regrets very much the absence of that notebook. Regarding the two volumes of Samuel Cheever, one can suppose either that other volumes were lost or that he chose not to remain a longer time as a student in Litchfield. Since Litchfield was not a degree granting institution (Reeve gave his students certificates of attendance), there was no compelling need to stay for a full round of lectures. Bruyn Hasbrouck’s work is represented by a single volume containing devises, Lex Mercatoria, pleas and pleadings, criminal law and private wrongs.
No complete set of lectures exists within the notes of a single student. Major or minor titles are missing from the pages of each. Sometimes a reason is given. Writing in 1813, Elisha Whittlesey noted that: “It was intimated by Judge Reeve that he had it in contemplation to publish his comments upon the Law of Domestic Relations, and for that reason his Lectures on that subject were not transcribed. It was the practice of the venerable Judge to lecture upon this title and to dwell upon the rights & liberties of the wife, with much emphasis.” Reeve’s treatise on the law of husband and wife appeared in print in 1816. In addition to omitting baron and feme, Whittlesey’s four volumes also lack lectures on criminal law and on real property. His fourth volume contains a comprehensive list of titles. Using that list as a framework, it is possible to reconstruct the complete curriculum selecting the best examples of lectures and notes taken by these 11 students. The order of legal titles given below follows the list from Whittlesey’s fourth volume. One further topic has been added, that of Practice in Connecticut, found in the notes of Roger Sherman Baldwin and Nathaniel Mather, but not in Whittlesey, who left Connecticut to practice in Waterloo, New York.
There is no fixed form or appearance to these notebooks. Charles Adams and Henry Holton Fuller have recorded each title lecture by lecture, generally both dating and numbering lectures along with the name of Reeve or Gould. In the five volumes of Roger Sherman Baldwin, on the other hand, there is no evidence of separate or enumerated lectures. His notes, and those of Nathaniel Mather and Elisha Whittlesey, are written as continuous text, often divided by topical subheads. In the 80 page title of “Executor & Administrator,” for example, there are such subheads as “lapsed and vested legacies” and “who may be an executor.” This manner of recording legal titles creates the impression of an English legal treatise, while the notebooks filled with dated lectures appear like school texts. Books of Samuel Cheever, William Key Bond and Henry Leavitt Ellsworth combine a mixture of these two styles, with some enumerated lectures and some legal titles written as unbroken texts, with the aid of descriptive subheads. Whatever method was chosen for copying or transcribing notes, the results were useful books to keep for reference and in some cases, for adding updates of pertinent decisions.
Within this group of eleven students and their 42 notebooks, no one title is common to all, probably because of the chance nature of preservation of the notebooks. The most frequently occurring title, recorded by all except Charles Adams, is pleas and pleadings. These were lectures by James Gould which served as the basis for his treatise on the subject. Titles of baron and feme, practice of chancery, evidence, municipal law, and guardian and ward are found in the notes of nine students.
Several students made remarks or included extra material. In volume four, Timothy Follett recorded the powers of chancery twice, once in eleven lectures of Reeve, dated in May, 1813, and secondly, a version by Gould, in continuous text with no lectures breaks and no dates. Samuel Cheever, whose notes on powers of chancery also date from May 1813, wrote that the last 10 pages of this title were copied directly from Judge Reeve’s notes. William Key Bond ceased copying lectures on mortgages on February 22, 1812 in order to attend the dinner in honor of General Washington’s birthday. Nathaniel Mather’s notes contain the only references to moot hall during this time, when he wrote down questions discussed along with arguments and authorities and the opinions of Judge Reeve and Mr. Gould. Sessions of moot hall were held on August 27, September 3, and October, 1812.
One student copied a quote about the difficulties and satisfaction of studying law. On the second page of his notebook, William Key Bond wrote this inscription: “Melancholy and untrue is the picture which they draw of the legal study, who represent its prominent features to be those of subtlety and impudence, and of a labour dry and barren. Rather would I compare it to a mountain, steep and toilsome indeed in its first approaches, but easy and delightful in it superior ascent, and the whole top is crowned with a rich and lasting verdure. Study and Practice of Law.” Bond was unable to identify the author because no name appeared on the title page of the quoted source. Later the author was identified as John Raithby, The study and practice of the law considered, in their various relations to society. In a series of letters. By a member of Lincoln’s Inn. London, 1798. An American edition was printed in Portland, Maine in 1806.
Whitney S. Bagnall September 30, 2013
Municipal Law (Roger Sherman Baldwin, 1812) [lectures by James Gould]
Interpretation of law
Unwritten law
Common law
Particular customs
Particular Laws used in particular jurisdictions
Public & private statutes
Lex scripta or written law
Kinds of statutes
Penal and beneficial statutes
Construction of statutes
Penal law of one State not noticed in another
Repeal of statutes
Special powers created by statute
Pleading statutes & mode of prosecuting upon them
Who may prosecute upon a penal statute
Popular actions
In what cases qui tam actions will lie
Actions on penal statutes
Private Relations-Husband & Wife (Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, 1812) [lectures by Tapping Reeve]
The right which the husband acquires to the personal property of his wife
Husband is administrator on his wife’s property
Wife’s chattels real
What the wife gets by marrying the husband
Husband cannot convey away his lands by deed in mortgage
When the wife lives under articles of separation
After execution, can the wife by discharged upon common bail
Contracts of the wife
Debts due to the wife by the husband before coverture
Conveyances of the husband to the wife
Separate maintenance for the wife
Wife’s executory power
Cases where husband & wife must join in a suit
Whether wife may devise away her real property w/o the consent of her husband
Settlements made by husband & wife upon their separation
Celebration of marriage
What is lawful marriage
Master & Servant (William S. Andrews, 1813) [lectures by James Gould]
Definition: a servant is one who is subject to the personal authority of another; a master is one who excercises that authority.
Slaves
Apprentices
Menials
Day laborers
Agents, factors, brokers
Autioneers, attorneys
Debtors assigned in service
General relations of master & servant
Contracts of servants
Servant’s own liability
Master’s remedies by others for injuries to his servant
What acts the master & servant may justify in each other
Parent & Child including Guardian & Ward (Charles Adams, 1812) [lectures by James Gould]
Definition of infancy: an infant or a minor by the common law of England is anyone, male or female, who is under the age of 21 years.
Privileges & disabilities of infants which are of a miscellaneous nature
Contracts of infants
When infants are not bound by contract
Penal bonds executed by infants
Time & manner of avoiding contracts by infants
What offices an infant may hold
When a judgment goes against an infant
Relative rights & duties of parents & children
Rights & incapcities of bastards or illegitimate children
Duty of protecting one’s children
Action for seduction of daughter
Appointment of guardian, kinds of guardian
Settlement of infants
Guardian & Ward
Sheriff & Jailer (or Gaoler) (Charles Adams, 1812) [lectures by James Gould]
Definition: the word sheriff is derived from “shire,” a county and “reeve,” a keeper or governor, denoting in its original sense a keeper or governor of the shire or county.
Nature of office & manner of appointment
Liability for prisoner’s escape after death of sheriff
Law of escapes
Negligent escapes
Voluntary escapes
Rules of common law
Executors & Administrators (Roger Sherman Baldwin, 1812) [Reeve & Gould]
Duties of an executor
Legacies: pecuniary, specific, lapsed, vested,
Lands devised to pay debts
Statute of distribution
Advancement
Differences between English law and Conn law regarding settlement of estates
Who may be an executor
Who may be an administrator
Executor de son tort
Co-executors
Consequence of making a debtor one’s executor
Consequence of making a creditor one’s executor
Additional duties of executor & administrator
Contracts (William Key Bond,1812) [lectures by Reeve and Gould]
Definition: A contract is simply an agreement between two or more persons upon sufficient consideration to do or not to do a particular thing.
Requisites to a contract
Void or voidable contracts (lunatics, infants, femes coverts)
Who may bind others as well as themselves by assent to contracts
Subjects of contracts: distinction between executed and executory contracts
Contracts against the law of the land as being against public welfare.
Of the nature and kinds of contracts
Contracts are divided into express, constructive, and implicative by Powell
Contracts impossible at the time of making them
Statute of frauds and perjuries
Classes of contracts required to be in writing
General rules applying to all classes of contracts
Of consideration in contracts
Interpretation of contracts
How contracts may be discharged, annulled or voided
Actions upon contracts
Covenant broken (Timothy Follett, 1812) [nine lectures by James Gould]
General nature of covenants & how they may be created
Construction of covenants
Covenants used in conveyances
Covenants & other contracts to pay money by installments
Liability of assignees
Covenants in a deed
Account
Assumpsit
Debt
Detinue
The action of detinue lies for the recovery of a specific chattel and thus far, it is in the nature of a bill in Chancery in its effect.
Notice & request
Defences to actions founded on contracts (Elisha Whittlesey, 1813) [lectures by Tapping Reeve]
Tender
Accord & satisfaction
Statutes of Limitations
Infancy
Duress
Lunacy and non sane memory
Coverture
Illegality
Usury
Release
Foreign attachments
Want of consideration
Impossible contracts
Composition with creditors
Higher securities
Former judgment,
Discharge & payment
Bankruptcy
Award
Bailments & Inn keepers (Timothy Follett, 1812) [9 lectures by James Gould]
Definition: a delivery of goods, on a condition express or implied, that they shall be restored by the bailee to the bailor, or according to his order or direction, whenever the purpose for which they were bailed shall be answered.
Different kinds of bailment: (depositum, commodatum, locatio et conductio, vadium or pawn, delivery of goods to be carried, mandatum)
Liability of common carriers
Rights of third persons in contracts of bailment
Remedies for bailor and bailee vs. strangers and each other
Inns & innkeepers
Private wrongs & remedies (William S. Andrews, 1813) [lectures by James Gould]
[In his notebook, Andrews wrote that the title of private wrongs was copied from a copy of Gould’s own notes, September 1813.]
Slander
Libel
Trover
Assault & battery
Trespass vi et armis for false imprisonment
Malicious prosecution
Trespass for injuries to personal property
Prerogative writs (Nathaniel Mather, 1812) [lectures by James Gould]
Mandamus
Prohibition
Habeas corpus
Audita querula
Quo warranto
Pleas & Pleadings (Samuel Cheever, 1812-1813) [ 30 lectures by James Gould]
Definition: pleadings are the mutual altercations between plaintiff and defendant put into the legal form and set down in writing.
Writ
General rules
Declaration
Joinder of parties
Courses of action that cannot be joined
Dilatory pleas
Pleas in abatement
Non or misjoinder
Pleas to the action
Modo et forma
Pleas stating special facts
Special pleas in bar
Novel assignment
Traverse
Inducement
Duplicity
Profert & oyer
Departure in pleadings
Demurrer
Demurrer to evidence
Arrest of judgment & repleader
Causes of arresting judgment
New trials (Henry H. Fuller, 1813) [lecture by Tapping Reeve]
Granting a new trial
Causes for granting a new trial
Discovered testimony
Misconduct of parties
Writs of error (Henry H. Fuller, 1813 [lecture by Tapping Reeve]
Defintion: a writ of error is a commission given to the judge of a superior court by which they are authorized to examine the errors upon which the judgment was given.
Effect of a reversal
Errors in law
Bills of exceptions (William Key Bond, 1812) [one lecture by James Gould]
A bill of exception is a statement of facts and of some interlocutory judgment founded on them, annexed to the record for the purpose of laying a foundation for a writ of error. [At the end of this lecture is a form of a bill of exceptions in Litchfield County Superior Court.]
Evidence (Henry Holton Fuller, 1813) [12 lectures by Tapping Reeve]
General observations: An infinite variety of new questions will arise on this subject, and we can only lay down general rules; there are numerous wrong decisions on this subject.
Plaintiff & defendant as witnesses
Impeaching credit of a witness
Escaper as witness
Trustee as witness
Exclusion of witnesses
Character of witness
Parents as witnesses
Affidavits
Depositions in Connecticut
Delivery of a deed
Parol testimony
Real Property
Kinds of estates
Fee Simple
Fee Tail
Life estate
Tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct
Curtesy
Dower
Estate for years
Estate at will
Estate at sufferance
Remainder
Reversion
Joint tenancy
Coparcenary
Tenancy in common
Mortgages
Title by deed (Timothy Follett, 1813) “from Mr. G’s notes”
Purchase includes every mode of acquiring an estate except that of descent
Nature of deeds
Consideration
Construction of deeds
Title by execution
Estates on condition
Descent
Devises
Alienation by Deed (Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, 1812) [James Gould]
Two modes of acquiring lands, tenements, and heriditaments: first by descent, second by purchase.
Nature of deeds
Requisites of deeds
Consideration
Covenants
Delivery
Deed Escrow
Deed Construction
Fraudulent conveyances (Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, 1812) [nine lectures by James Gould]
All conveyances of property made to deceased creditors are void against them
Marriage in law is always a valuable consideration
Who can take advantage of the statute of 27 Elizabeth
To constitute a purchaser used anything, the purchase must be of the identical thing
Voluntary bond
Badges of fraud
How far fraudulent conveyance is binding upon the parties
Remedies for injuries done to real property (W.S. Andrews, 1813) [lectures by Gould & Reeve]
Trespass
Nuisance
Waste
Ejectment
Forcible entry & detainer
Lex Mercatoria (William Key Bond, 1812) [24 lectures by Tapping Reeve]
Merchant law is common to commercial countries
Belligerent & neutral vessels
Risk to ships on voyages
Insurance
Warranty
Misrepresentations
Loss by general average
Abandonment of vessels
Insurance on lives
Bills of exchange
Illegal consideration
Acceptance of bill
Partnership
Factorage
Stoppage of goods in transitu
Powers of Chancery (Timothy Follett, 1813) [eleven lectures by Tapping Reeve]
General powers incapable of definition
Marriage contracts entered into for the settlement of estates
Matters of fraud
Power of marshalling assets
To relieve against penalties
Application for payment of penalties
Power of issuing injunctions
Criminal law/Public wrongs (Henry Holton Fuller, 1813) [eleven lectures by Tapping Reeve]
Definition: A crime is said to be an act in violation of some public law, or an omission to do what is required by law. Crimes may be violations of statutes or of common law.
Felonies
Persons exempt from punishment
Principal and accessories
Arson
Burglary
Perjury, subornation of perjury
Forgery
Larceny
Piracy
Riots, routs, unlawful assembly
Affray
Battery
Barratry
Champerty
Usury
Libels
Cheating
Adultery
Bigamy
Treason
Offences against religion
Homicide
Murder
Manslaughter
Excusable homicide
Justifiable homicide
Binding over
Commitment by courts
Bail
Practice in Connecticut (Roger Sherman Baldwin, 1813)
Jurisdiction of our courts in civil law cases
Single magistrates
County courts
Superior court
Supreme Court of Errors
General Assembly
Proceedings to enforce civil rights
Bail and special bail
Defences in pleading
Changing and altering pleas
Issue and trial
Verdict
Costs