William Callyhan Robinson

Background

William Callyhan Robinson was born at Norwich, Connecticut, the son of John A. and Mary (Callyhan) Robinson.

Education

He was educated in the public schools of his native town, at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and Dartmouth College, whence he graduated in 1854. Entering the General Theological Seminary in New York City, he prepared for the priesthood of the Episcopal Church to which he was ordained on February 9, 1859 He had been reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his adherence to Anglicanism proved but the half-way house in a profound change of religious conviction. That he was of a speculative turn is evident from his Clavis Rerum (printed anonymously at Norwich in 1883), which probably represented the results of a long period of reflection and internal conflict and in which he sought to reconcile the fundamentals of orthodoxy with the new ideas of science, then just becoming popularly known.

Career

he declared therein that "the law of life is a law of evolution"; but he also asserted that he was "permanently committed to no theory or hypothesis. " Whatever the process, it led him eventually to adopt the Roman Catholic viewpoint and, after a few years in the Episcopal ministry, as missionary at Pittston, Pa. , and rector at Scranton, where he came into contact with some of the Paulist Fathers, he left that fold for the former. Undoubtedly he would have entered the Catholic priesthood but for the bar of marriage. That necessitated a complete change of vocation and he chose the law. Entering upon the study of his new profession in 1862, he was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County, Pa. , two years later and began practice at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1865. For a time he served on the city and common pleas courts of New Haven County, and in 1874 sat in the Connecticut House of Representatives. Meanwhile the Yale Law School had reached a crisis in its history and Robinson was one of three selected in 1869 to take charge of it. In 1872 he became a full professor there teaching elementary, criminal, and real property law, and pleading, to undergraduates, and patent and Canon law to graduate students. In 1875 he published Notes on Elementary Law, expanded into a book in 1882, with a larger edition in 1910. The work met a longfelt want by reason of the growing disuse of Blackstone's Commentaries and because the "case method" of instruction had not yet come into general use. From 1884 to 1886 he was chairman of the Connecticut Tax Commission, and its Report, signed by Robinson and eight others, was published in 1886. In 1890 he published a three-volume work, The Law of Patents for Useful Inventions. His Forensic Oratory followed in 1893. Robinson remained at Yale for twenty-seven years; but the establishment of the Catholic University of Washington called for an eminent non-clerical jurist to head its Law Department. Robinson was chosen, accepted the position in 1896, and remained in it for the rest of his life. He not only gave direction to the new school but found ampler opportunity to continue his legal literary work. His Elements of American Jurisprudence appeared in 1900 and his edition of Andrew Horne's Mirrour of Justices in 1903, both representing a high order of workmanship and the latter affording a real contribution to the source books of early English law.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Law of Patents for Useful Inventions; Volume 1

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

  • Forensic Oratory: A Manual for Advocates (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Forensic Oratory: A Manual for Advocates I ...)

  • The Law of Patents for Useful Inventions, Volume 3

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

  • Elementary Law 1882

    (Originally published in 1882. This volume from the Cornel...)

Religion

He had been reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his adherence to Anglicanism proved but the half-way house in a profound change of religious conviction.

Whatever the process, it led him eventually to adopt the Roman Catholic viewpoint and, after a few years in the Episcopal ministry, as missionary at Pittston, Pa. , and rector at Scranton, where he came into contact with some of the Paulist Fathers, he left that fold for the former.

Connections

On July 2, 1857, Robinson married Anna Haviland of New York City. After her death he was married, on March 31, 1891, to Ultima Marie Smith of New Haven. There were five children by the first marriage and four by the second.

Robinson died in 1911 in his seventy-eighth year.

Wife:

Ultima

After her death he was married, on March 31, 1891, to Ultima Marie Smith of New Haven.

Wife:

Anna

On July 2, 1857, Robinson married Anna E. Haviland of New York City.