Edmund Hatch Bennett

Background

Edmund Bennett was born on April 6, 1824, at Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont, the son of Adaline (Hatch) Bennett and of Miles Lyman Bennett of Sharon, Connecticut, a judge of the supreme court of Vermont for a number of years.

Education

Bennett received his early education at Manchester and Burlington Academies, proceeding thence to the University of Vermont where he graduated in 1843. After teaching for a time at a private school in Virginia, he returned to Vermont and commenced the study of law in his father's office at Burlington.

Career

Bennett was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1847, but shortly afterward moved to Massachusetts and was admitted to the Suffolk County bar, July 3, 1848. He commenced practise at Taunton, and took an active part in the public life of the community. Politically he was an adherent of the Whig party. In May 1858 he was appointed judge of probate and insolvency for Bristol County and he continued to hold this office for twenty-five years. In 1864 when Taunton was incorporated as a city he was unanimously elected its first mayor, taking office January 2, 1865, and being reelected in 1866 and 1867.

In 1870, 1871, and 1872 Bennett lectured at the Dane School of Law at Harvard. In the latter year he was offered the position of dean of the Law School which had been established in connection with Boston University, but was unable to accept, joining the faculty, however, as a lecturer. In 1876 the offer was renewed and this time was accepted. Bennett now opened a branch law office in Boston. Developing great powers of organization, he administered the Boston Law School in a remarkably successful manner. As a lecturer he developed unsuspected strength. Some of his colleagues surpassed him in erudition and knowledge of the science of law, but his great command of language and ability to impart his knowledge to others combined with an innate courtesy to make him an effective teacher and source of inspiration to students. In 1883 Bennett resigned from the judiciary. In 1891 he was appointed chairman of the Board of Commissioners for the Promotion of Uniformity of Legislation in the United States, and in 1896 he became chairman of the state commission on revision of the public statutes.

Throughout his life Bennett was an incessant writer and the list of his published works amounts to over one hundred volumes. He also edited many of Joseph Story's works. He was associated with the American Law Register of Philadelphia, and contributed a large number of articles to law periodicals. He had great literary ability, but little that he wrote was destined to be of any permanent value. Bennett died in 1898.

Achievements

• Edmund Bennett was an outstanding jurist who served as judge of probate and insolvency in Bristol County (1858-1883); the 1st Mayor of Taunton, Massachusetts (1865-1867); and dean of Boston University School of Law (1875-1898). Bennett also published many of his writings: Selection of Leading Cases in Criminal Law (vol. I, 1856) in conjunction with F. F. Heard; Massachusetts Digest, 1804-57 (1862), with F. F. Heard; Massachusetts Digest, 1857-69 (1872), with H. W. Holland; Fire Insurance Cases, being a Collection of All Reported Cases in England, Ireland, Scotland and America to Date (1872 - 77); Farm Law (1880), a lecture on the legal rights of farmers; and Massachusetts Digest, 1869-79 (1881), with R. Grey and H. W. Swift, etc.

Works

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  • Commentaries on the law of agency as a branch of commercial and maritime jurisprudence, with occasional illustrations from the civil and foreign law

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

  • The four gospels from a lawyer's standpoint

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • A Treatise on the Law of Easements

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Fire Insurance Cases: 1729-1839

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

  • English Reports in Law and Equity: Containing Reports of Cases in the House of Lords, Privy Council, Courts of Equity and Common Law; and in the Admiralty ... in Bankruptcy and Crown Cases Reserved

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

  • A Selection of Leading Cases in Criminal Law: With Notes V.2 1869

    (Originally published in 1869. This volume from the Cornel...)

Connections

Edmund Bennett was married to Sally, daughter of Samuel L. Crocker of Taunton.

Father:

Miles Lyman Bennett

He was a judge of the supreme court of Vermont for a number of years.

Mother:

Adaline (Hatch) Bennett

wife :

Sally (Crocker) Bennett

Son:

Samuel Crocker Bennett

Son:

Edmund Neville Bennett