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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] James Kent Biography KENT,
James (1763-1847). An eminent American jurist, born in Fredericksburgh,
Putnam Co., N. Y., July 31, 1763, the son of Morse and Hannah Rogers Kent. His
father was a lawyer of some distinction; and the son, after graduating from Yale
College in 1781, entered upon the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1785,
and began the practice of his profession at Poughkeepsie. He was elected to the
New York Assembly in 1790, 1792, and 1796. He removed to New York City in 1793
and during the same year was chosen to fill the new professorship of law in
Columbia College. The early recognition of his abilities by Hamilton,
Jay, and other leaders of the Federalist party, to
which he had attached himself, led to his appointment and rapid advancement as a
judicial officer. In 1797 he became recorder of New York City; a year later he
was appointed a justice of the State Supreme Court by Governor Jay. In 1804 he
was promoted to the chief-justiceship, and in 1814 to the position of
Chancellor, then
the highest judicial office in the State. This office he held until 1823, when
his age reached the constitutional limit of 60 years, and compelled his
retirement from the bench. He had won a high reputation both as a common-law and
equity judge; and his judicial opinions printed mainly in Caines's and Johnson's
reports, are still regarded as valuable and authoritative expositions of legal
and equitable principles. He did more than any other judge of his time to create
an American system of equity jurisdiction based on the generous principles of
the English Chancery. Upon his retirement from the bench he was reappointed to
the professorship of law at Columbia, which had remained unoccupied since his
resignation in 1798. He entered upon his academic duties with great enthusiasm,
remodeled and expanded the lectures which he had delivered under his previous
appointment, and attracted a considerable number of students. Tiring of these
duties, as he wrote at a later period, he abandoned them in 1826 and published a
portion of his lectures in the form of volumes first and second of his famous Commentaries
upon American Law. A third volume was added in 1828, and the fourth appeared
in 1830. It has been said of these commentaries that they have had a deeper and
more lasting influence in the formation, of the national character than any
other secular book of the last century excepting Blackstone's Commentaries
on the Laws of England. They have passed through 14 editions and continue to
rank as a legal classic. Kent died in New York City Dec. 12, 1847. Kent Hall,
the building of the Law School of Columbia University, is named for him. Consult
William Kent, Memoirs and Letters of
Chancellor Kent (Boston, 1898). The New International
Encyclopaedia, Vol.
XIII
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920)
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