James Kent | |
|---|---|
 James Kent byRembrandt Peale (c. 1835) | |
| Recorder of New York City | |
| In office 1797–1798 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Jones |
| Succeeded by | Richard Harison |
| Chief Justice of theNew York Supreme Court | |
| In office 1804–1814 | |
| Preceded by | Morgan Lewis |
| Succeeded by | Smith Thompson |
| Chancellor of New York | |
| In office 1814–1823 | |
| Preceded by | John Lansing Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Nathan Sanford |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1763-07-31)July 31, 1763 Fredericksburg, New York, British America |
| Died | December 12, 1847(1847-12-12) (aged 84) New York City, U.S. |
| Relatives | Moss Kent (brother) |
| Education | Yale College |
James Kent (July 31, 1763 – December 12, 1847) was an American jurist, New York legislator, legal scholar, and first Professor of Law atColumbia College.[1] HisCommentaries on American Law (based on lectures first delivered at Columbia in 1794, and further lectures in the 1820s) became the formative American law book in the antebellum era (published in 14 editions before 1896) and also helped establish the tradition of law reporting in America.[2] He is sometimes called the "AmericanBlackstone".
Kent was born in what was then the town of Fredericksburg (the present-day towns ofPatterson,Kent,Carmel,Southeast andPawling) inPutnam andDutchess Counties. His father, Moss Kent, was a lawyer in that county, as well as the firstSurrogate of nearbyRensselaer County, New York.[3] Despite interruptions caused by theAmerican Revolutionary War, Kent graduated fromYale College in 1781, having helped establishPhi Beta Kappa society there in 1780. Returning to New York, Kentread law underEgbert Benson (then the state Attorney General and later a state judge).[4]
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Admitted to the New York bar in January 1785, Kent began practicing law inPoughkeepsie, New York and neighboring areas. Voters in Dutchess County elected him in 1791 and 1792–93 as their representative in theNew York State Assembly. He was also the Federalist candidate in the January 1793 election for the5th congressional district, losing toTheodorus Bailey.[5] However, he had married and supporting his growing family based on his scholarship and nearly rural legal practice proved difficult.[6]
In 1793, Kent moved his family to New York City, where he had been appointed the first professor of law inColumbia College, where he would teach (part-time) for the next five years.[7] He was soon appointed amaster in chancery for the city.
Kent again served in the Assembly in 1796–97. In 1797, he was appointedRecorder of New York City and in 1798, a justice of theNew York Supreme Court, in 1804 Chief Justice, and in 1814Chancellor of New York. Kent was also elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1814.[8] In 1821 he was a member of theNew York State Constitutional Convention where he unsuccessfully opposed the raising of the property qualification forAfrican American voters. Two years later, Chancellor Kent reached the constitutional age limit and retired from his office, but was re-elected to his former chair.
He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1829.[9]
He lived in retirement inSummit, New Jersey between 1837 and 1847 in a simple four-roomed cottage (the original cottage no longer stands and has been incorporated into a large mansion at 50 Kent Place) which he referred to as 'my Summit Lodge', a name that has been offered as the derivation for the city's name.[10]
Kent has been long remembered for hisCommentaries on American Law (four volumes, published 1826–1830), highly respected in England and America.[11] TheCommentaries treated state, federal and international law, and the law of personal rights and of property, and went through six editions in Kent's lifetime.[12]
Kent rendered his most essential service to American jurisprudence while serving as chancellor. Chancery, orequity law, had been very unpopular during the colonial period, and had received little development, and no decisions had been published. His judgments of this class cover a wide range of topics, and are so thoroughly considered and developed as unquestionably to form the basis of American equity jurisprudence.[13]
As chancellor, Kent inspired the development of modern Americandiscovery by allowing masters to actively examine witnesses duringdepositions (rather than following the old English procedure of merely reading static interrogatories), and he allowed parties and counsel to be present for depositions. These innovations led to the modern deposition by oral examination.[14] Depositions are still one of the most unique and distinctive aspects of civil procedure in the United States and Canada.
Kent married Elizabeth Bailey, and they had four children: Elizabeth (died in infancy), Elizabeth, Mary, andWilliam Kent (1802–1861) who was acircuit judge and ran forLieutenant Governor of New York withWashington Hunt in 1852.[15][16]
His brotherMoss Kent was aCongressman.[17]
Notes
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link),Southern Law Review Vol. 1, No. 3 (1872) at p. 383.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kent, James".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 735.Sources
Further reading
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Recorder of New York City 1797–1798 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court 1804–1814 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of New York 1814–1823 | Succeeded by |
