Background

Benjamin Vaughan Abbott was born on June 4, 1830 at Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the eldest son of Jacob Abbott and Harriett Vaughan, and brother of Austin Abbott, Edward Abbott, and Lyman Abbott.

Education

Abbott's early education was acquired under the supervision of his father, and in 1846 he entered New York University, graduating in 1850. He then spent a year at the Harvard Law School, completing his legal studies in New York City.

Career

On admission to the New York bar in 1852, Abbott commenced practice in that city in partnership with his brother Austin. Of his earliest literary efforts, two works of fiction, Cone Cut Corners; the Experiences of a Conservative Family in Fanatical Times (1855) and Matthew Caraby (1859), were written in conjunction with his brothers, Austin and Lyman, and published under the pseudonym "Benauly. "

In 1855, at the instigation of John S. Voorhies, the law publisher, he and Austin Abbott prepared the first of a series of New York practice reports which developed into Abbott's Reports of Practice Cases in the Courts of the State of New York, in nineteen volumes covering the period 1854-1865, and continued to 1876 in Reports of Practice Cases, New Series, in sixteen volumes, the last nine volumes being by Austin Abbott alone. For fifteen years the two brothers, in collaboration, assiduously wrote treatises, compiled digests, and prepared reports which placed them in the front rank of contemporary legal authors. In rapid succession they produced a volume of Reports of Cases in Admiralty, United States District Court for Southern New York, 1847-1850 (1857) and A Collection of Forms of Pleadings in Actions (1858).

In 1860 appeared their Digest of New York Statutes and Reports, in five volumes, which in arrangement and method of treatment departed entirely from the form hitherto universally used. The cases were fitted into an analytical framework, showing the history of the law as developed by them; the addition of the state statutes was another novel feature. The work met with immediate success, and its plan has been followed in all subsequent legal digests. The first edition embraced cases and statutes to 1860, three supplements bringing it to November 1869, after which Austin Abbott continued it to January 1896. Their next joint production was A Collection of Forms of Practice and Pleading in Actions (1864), in two volumes, followed by a book of forms, The Clerk's and Conveyancer's Assistant (1866).

In 1867 they issued the first volume of a work designed to do for the federal courts and laws what they had achieved for New York, a Digest of the Reports of the United States Courts and Acts of Congress, the first four volumes only of which were compiled by them jointly. Subsequently B. V. Abbott prepared four additional volumes bringing the work to 1880. Contemporaneously they prepared a volume of Enactments Relative to the Federal Courts (1869). The last works in which they collaborated were General Digest of the Law of Corporations (1869) and A Treatise upon the United States Courts and their Practice (1869), Volume II being by B. V. Abbott alone.

In 1864, having withdrawn from active practice, he had been appointed secretary of the New York Code Commission and drafted a penal code which was placed before the legislature and became the basis of the existing law.

In June 1870 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the Statutes of the United States, a work which occupied three years and resulted in the consolidation of sixteen volumes into one large octavo. The major part of this work was undertaken by him and he was recognized as the real author of the revision. He had the same year issued a Digest of Reports of Indiana to the Year 1871, followed by Reports of Decisions Rendered in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States 1863-1871 in two volumes (1870-1871). He now devoted six years to a new United States Digest, which was issued in 1879 in fourteen volumes and subsequently kept up to date by nine annual supplements, the last being published in 1889.

The year 1879 also saw the publication of his Dictionary of Terms and Phrases used in American or English Jurisprudence and General Digest of English and American Cases on the Law of Corporations 1868-1878. His Judge and Jury, a popular exposition of leading legal topics, and The Year Book of Jurisprudence, a compend of general information, appeared in 1880, and a lighter work, The Travelling Law School, first lessons in government and law, four years later. In 1884 he also issued his National Digest of the decisions of United States courts up to that year in four volumes, subsequently continuing the digest to 1888 in a supplementary volume (1889).

For the greater part of his life Abbott lived in Brooklyn, and died there February 17, 1890.

Achievements

• For many years Abbott contributed articles to the daily and weekly press and current periodicals, in addition to occasional editorial work for the Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company of Rochester in connection with the Central Reporter, volumes I to III.

Works

More photos

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  • Judge and Jury: A Popular Explanation of Leading Topics in the Law of the Land (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Judge and Jury: A Popular Explanation of Lea...)

  • Abbott's Practice Cases, Volume 18

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

  • Abbott's Practice Cases, Volume 11

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

  • Abbott's Practice Cases, Volume 12

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

  • Abbott's Practice Cases, Volume 1

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

  • Abbott's Practice Cases, Volume 13

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • A Collection of Forms Practice and Pleading, Vol. 1: In Actions, Whether for Legal or Equitable Belief, and in Special Proceedings; Prepared With ... Practice in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Iow

    (Excerpt from A Collection of Forms Practice and Pleading,...)

Personality

Abbott never actively interested himself in public life.

Interests

• Apart from Abbott's legal avocations his only interest was music, for which he had a discriminating taste, and which formed his only relaxation.

Connections

Abbott married in 1853 Elizabeth, the daughter of John Titcomb of Farmington, Maine. They had four children.

Father:

Jacob Abbott

Mother:

Harriett (Vaughan) Abbott

Spouse :

Elizabeth (Titcomb) Abbott

Daughter :

Florence Vaughan Abbott

Daughter :

Alice Dane Abbott

Brother:

Edward Abbott

Brother:

Austin Abbott

Brother:

Lyman Abbott

Son :

Edwin Dane Abbott

Son :

Arthur Vaughan Abbott

References

• Who Was Who in America Historical Volume 1607-1896 Revised Edition 1967: Historical Volume/a Component Volume of Who's Who in American History