Reuben Hyde Walworth

Background

Reuben Hyde Walworth, a descendant of William Walworth who came to Connecticut in 1689, was born in Bozrah, Connecticut, the third son of Benjamin Walworth, a veteran of the Revolution, and Apphia (Hyde) Walworth. When still a child, he went with his family to Hoosick, Rensselaer County, N. Y. , where he worked on his father's farm until he was seventeen.

Education

He was educated in the local schools. Princeton University would award him an honorary LL. D. degree in 1835, Yale University in 1839 and Harvard University in 1848.

Career

He acquired the rudiments of Latin from a half-brother, supplemented his farm work with work in a country store, and then entered the law office of John Russell in Troy. Admitted to the bar in 1809, he removed the following year to Plattsburgh, where he took up practice. Two years later he accepted an appointment as master in chancery and also served as justice of the peace for Clinton County. During the War of 1812 he served as adjutant-general of the state militia, distinguishing himself in the land battles at Plattsburgh, September 6 and 11, 1814. From 1821 to 1823 he represented his district in Congress as a Democrat. He defended Jackson's conduct as governor of Florida and advocated recognition of the Spanish-American states, but in the main his activities in Congress were unimportant. In 1823 he accepted an appointment as circuit judge of the supreme court for the fourth judicial district of New York, which he held until his appointment in 1828 as chancellor. Coming into office five years after the enforced retirement of James Kent, and occupying the chancellorship for twenty years, Walworth contributed significantly to the system of New York equity jurisprudence which had been erected by Chancellor Kent. His achievements as a jurist are recorded in the eleven volumes of Paige's and the three volumes of Barbour's Chancery Reports, and in the decisions of the court of errors reported by Wendell, Hill, and Denio. In the law of evidence and in equity pleading and practice, Walworth's decisions filled numerous gaps in the New York law, and he added materially to the law relating to injunctions, to arbitration in equity matters, and the adoption of statutes in the Northwest Territory. Both Kent and Joseph Story valued his judicial labors very highly. A large number of appeals were taken from his decisions to the court of errors and in about one-third of these cases his decisions were reversed. In Gable et al. vs. Miller et al. the court of errors criticized his learned exposition of theological doctrines to determine whether church trustees were diverting property from the purposes for which it was originally intended, holding that his discussion of such matters would lead to controversies throughout the state. Walworth did not appear to be especially sensitive about appeals from his decisions, declaring that they "should be allowed in every case not manifestly frivolous, " since only thus could the court of chancery be preserved. Though in private life Walworth was courteous and refined, on the bench he was highly unconventional and frequently harassed counsel with pointed interrogations and biting sarcasm. This habit won him a host of enemies, and when President Tyler sent his name to the Senate in 1844 to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, Thurlow Weed, writing with Whig animus to Senator Crittenden, said: "He is recommended by many distinguished Members of the Bar of the State merely because they are anxious to get rid of a querulous, disagreeable, unpopular Chancellor. Indeed so odious is he that our Senate, when a majority of his own political friends were members, voted to abolish the office of Chancellor. Those who recommended him admit and avow that they did so to get him out of his present office". Weed's suggestion that the matter be tabled in order that a better selection be made was actually followed. The abolition of the court of chancery under the New York constitution of 1846 has been attributed in large measure to the desire of the bar to retire Walworth to private life. Thus, ironically enough, he contributed to one of the most important reforms in nineteenth-century law, the merger of the courts of law and equity. Upon his retirement from office in 1848 he was the candidate of the Democratic party for governor, but ran third in the election in which Hamilton Fish was victorious, his defeat being due in large measure to the defection of the Free-Soilers. He then retired from political life, later declining a place in the cabinet of President Buchanan. At the outbreak of the Civil War he advocated conciliation and was a prominent delegate to the peace convention. Unlike Kent, who made use of his forced retirement to write the Commentaries, Walworth turned from judicial labors to write an extensive genealogy of his mother's family, the Hydes, who traced their descent from Mary Chilton, a passenger on the Mayflower. This work, Hyde Genealogy, he completed at his Saratoga residence, "Pine Grove, " the rendezvous of many celebrities, which had been an informal court during his term as chancellor.

Achievements

• Known for his simplification of equity law in the United States, Walworth served as a chancery judge in New York for more than three decades, including nearly two decades as Chancellor of New York (1828 to 1847) before a new state constitution abolished that highest statewide judicial office.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hyde Genealogy, or the Descendants, in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines, From William Hyde, of Norwich, Vol. 2 of 2: With Their Places of ... of Them and Their Families and Ancestry

    (Excerpt from Hyde Genealogy, or the Descendants, in the F...)

  • Hyde Genealogy, or the Descendants, in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines, From William Hyde, of Norwich, Vol. 1 of 2: With Their Places of ... of Them and Their Families, and Ancestr

    (Excerpt from Hyde Genealogy, or the Descendants, in the F...)

  • Hyde genealogy: or, The descendants, in the female as well as in the male lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich

    (Hyde genealogy or, The descendants, in the female as well...)

  • Hyde Genealogy or The Descendants in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines

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

  • Hyde genealogy; or, The descendants,in the female as well as in the male lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich .. Volume v.1

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

  • Hyde genealogy, or, The descendants, in the female as well as in the male lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich ... Volume 1

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

Religion

He was an active Presbyterian, an incorporator of the American Board of Foreign Missions, a vice-president of the American Bible Society and of the American Tract Society, and president of the American Temperance Union.

Connections

By his first wife, Maria Ketchum (Averill), whom he married January 6, 1812, Walworth had six children, one of whom was Clarence A. Walworth. By his second marriage, April 16, 1851, to Sarah Ellen (Smith) Hardin of Kentucky, widow of John J. Hardin, he had one son, who died in infancy.

Father:

Benjamin Walworth

Mother:

Apphia (Hyde Cardell) Walworth

Spouse:

Maria Avery

Spouse:

Maria Ketchum (Averill)

Spouse:

Sarah Ellen (Smith) Hardin

child:

Clarence A. Walworth

child:

Clarence A. Walworth

child:

Mansfield Tracy Walworth