Hastings, Serranus Clinton

Hastings, Serranus Clinton (sĕr`ənəs), 1814–93, American judge, b. Jefferson co., N.Y. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1836 and moved to Iowa soon afterward. He served in the first Iowa territorial legislature and in 1846 became the first representative of Iowa in Congress. In 1849 he moved to California and became chief justice of the state supreme court while the fusion of common law and Spanish custom was being effected. He established and endowed Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, now part of the Univ. of California.