He was born on August 8, 1850 at North Stonington, Connecticut, United States, the son of Chester Smith and Lucy (Crary) Prentice and a descendant of early New England colonists, among whom were Thomas Prentice who emigrated from England to Boston before 1649 and was made a freeman of Cambridge in 1652 and Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower.
His education was obtained in the schools of North Stonington and at the Norwich Free Academy and finally at Yale College (A. B. , 1873) and at the Yale School of Law. Upon his graduation from the law school in 1875 he received a Townsend prize for the best oration at Commencement.
He was admitted to the bar in June 1875 and for a year was law clerk in a Hartford office. In 1876 he formed a partnership with Elisha Johnson which lasted until his appointment to the bench. He was prominent and active in the political and legal life of his community, serving from 1882 to 1889 as city attorney of Hartford and from 1875 to 1889 as clerk of the Hartford County bar. He was also chairman of the Republican committees of the town and state and delegate of the state conventions.
In 1889 he was executive secretary to Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley, and that same year was appointed to the superior court of the state. His judicial career thus begun was long and distinguished. For twelve years he acted as trial court judge. In 1901 he became associate justice of the supreme court of errors, and in 1913 he was appointed chief justice by Gov. Simeon E. Baldwin, his former colleague and chief on that court. In 1920, then in active vigor, he was retired in accordance with the provision of the Connecticut constitution requiring the retirement of all judges at the age of seventy.
In 1896 Prentice was appointed instructor in pleading in the Yale School of Law and he served as professor of that subject from 1901 to 1915. He was a member of the bar examining committee of the state bar from its formation in 1890 and was chairman from 1898 to 1913.
He died November 2, 1924.
Samuel Oscar Prentice's outstanding service to his state was as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. His opinions were carefully reasoned, were clear and convincing, and felicitously expressed. He was also involved with many charitable and professional organizations, serving as president of the Hartford Public Library, president of the Watkinson Library, president of the Connecticut Humane Society.
Of striking and imposing physique, he was in appearance and action the ideal judge. He possessed clarity of thought and facility of expression.
He was married on April 24, 1901, to Anne Combe Post of Jersey City. They had a happy married life. She died in 1924.
