Amasa Angell Redfield

Background

Amasa Angell Redfield was born on May 19, 1837 at Clyde, Wayne County, New York, the son of Luther and Eliza (Angell) Redfield and a lineal descendant of William Redfin who was in Massachusetts as early as 1639 and later settled near New London, Connecticut On his mother's side he claimed descent from Roger Williams.

Education

He was educated at a school in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and at the University of the City of New York (now New York University), from which he graduated in 1860. After graduation he entered at once upon the study of the law.

Career

He was admitted to the New York bar in 1862. The following year he published A Handbook of United States Tax Law. When he began practice, which he did independently, he found that the decisions of the important surrogates' courts, which had original jurisdiction in all matters of wills and succession, had not been reported separately for some seven years.

He undertook the task of reporting them and, with the assistance of Judge Bradford, who had edited reports of earlier surrogates' decisions, published in 1864 the first volume of Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Surrogates' Courts of the State of New York.

Four other volumes followed, the last in 1882, and the whole series covered more than a score of years, "constituting a most valuable collection of decisions upon wills, trusts and administration of estates". A fitting sequel to the series was the author's Law and Practice of Surrogates' Courts (1875) which by 1903 had passed through six editions. Redfield, however, was far more than a writer of books, for this early specialization in a highly litigious field brought him clients and led to his employment in important cases.

Among them was that involving the will of Maria Forman, who, while insane, had destroyed two wills which she had executed almost simultaneously. Redfield's handling of the case, which was complicated, greatly enhanced his reputation. Meanwhile he had ventured into another field of the law for his researches. With his friend Thomas G. Shearman, he prepared and published A Treatise on the Law of Negligence (1869). Like his other textbooks, this was a marked success. It passed through five editions under his editorship and was long recognized as the leading work on the subject. His achievements at the bar enabled him to form desirable connections with various legal firms, and from 1885 to 1897 he lectured at his Alma Mater on testamentary subjects.

He also became interested in the history of the law. Before the state bar association in 1899 he described "A Case of Laesae Majestatis in New Amsterdam in 1647, " and he accumulated a large amount of material for a projected juridical history of New York. In the last decade of the nineteenth century he retired from active practice and took up his residence in Farmington, Connecticut, where he became successively senior burgess, park commissioner, and finally a delegate to the Connecticut constitutional convention of 1902, in which he took an influential part. Stricken with illness in March of that year, he lingered until autumn when he passed away.

Works

More photos

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  • Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Surrogates' Courts of the State of New York, Volume 5

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • A Treatise On the Law of Negligence, Volume 2

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Surrogates' Courts of the State of New York, 1877, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in th...)

  • Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Surrogates' Courts of the State of New York, 1879, Vol. 3 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in th...)

  • Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Surrogates' Courts of the State of New York Volume 1

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • A Hand-Book of the U.S. Tax Law: (Approved July 1, 1862) with All the Amendments, to March 4, 1863: Comprising the Decisions of the Commissioner of

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Reports Of Cases Argued And Determined In The Surrogates' Courts Of The State Of New York, Volume 2...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • A Treatise On The Law Of Negligence

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • The Law and Practice of Surrogates' Courts

    (The law and practice of surrogates' courts (1875). This b...)

Connections

His wife was Sarah Louise Cooke, whom he had married on May 6, 1863. They had two children.

Father:

Luther Redfield

Mother:

Eliza (Angell) Redfield

Spouse:

Sarah Louise Cooke