Reeve, Tapping

Reeve, Tapping

(1744–1823) law professor, jurist, author; born in Brookhaven, N.Y. After graduating from (1763) and teaching at (1764–71) the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), he practiced law in Litchfield, Conn. In 1784 he established the Litchfield Law School, one of the first two law schools in America and for many years the most influential. When he became a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court (1798–1814), he assigned many of the school's functions to James Gould. Reeve was a staunch Federalist who was once indicted (1801) for having libeled President Jefferson in one of his vitriolic newspaper articles. Reeve was also a devout Christian and was responsible for bringing the Reverend Lyman Beecher to Litchfield. He wrote extensively on the law.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.