Background
Bartlett, Willard was born on October 14, 1846 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of William O. and Agnes E. H. (Willard) B.
Bartlett, Willard was born on October 14, 1846 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of William O. and Agnes E. H. (Willard) B.
LL B., New York University, 1868. A.B, Columbia, 1869; (Doctor of Laws, Hamilton College, 1894, New York University, 1904, Columbia, 1904).
He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. He practiced law in partnership with Elihu Root from 1869 until his election to the bench. From 1871 to 1873, he was a drama critic for the old New York Sun, and later wrote editorials on legal topics and book reviews for this paper.
He was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (2nd Doctorate) from 1884 to 1907.
From 1887 on, he sat on the General Term (First Department) and, after the re-organization of the court system by the State Constitution of 1894, on the Appellate Division, 2nd Department from 1896 to 1907. In January 1906, he was designated to the Court of Appeals under the Amendment of 1899.
In November 1907, he was elected on the Republican and Democratic tickets to a 14-year term as judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and was Chief Judge from 1914 to 1916, elected in November 1913 on the Democratic ticket. He retired from the bench when he reached the constitutional age limit of 70 years, and resumed his law practice with Elihu Root.
Bartlett died in Brooklyn, New York aged 78.
He was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences.
Married Mary Fairbanks Buffum, October 26, 1870.