Blog - Page 12 of 16 - Historical Society of the New York Courts

Dutchess County’s Ancient Documents Collection: Crime & Society in the Eighteenth-Century Hudson Valley

April 26, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsDutchess County Ancient Documents Collection, Early Legal History, Historical Research, New York Legal History, Uncategorized, Blog

This article was written by Dutchess County Historian William P. Tatum III, Ph.D. Dr. Tatum received his BA in History from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, and his MA and Ph.D. in History from Brown University. He has served as the Dutchess County Historian since 2012. His duties from the gamut from researching and promoting county history through exhibits, lectures, and other programs, to archival records management. Dr. Tatum has led the Ancient Documents Project since 2013 and regularly speaks about both the records management issues involved therein as well as the human stories that are found within this collection. Samples of his on-going work can be found at the Office of the Dutchess County Historian’s landing page at www.dutchessny.gov/history.

Photo: Dutchess County Ancient Document 1015: Indemnity Bond for Cornelius Jansen, 1763

On May 18, 1763, Colonel Peter Tenbrocek and Johannes Veller traveled to the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie to swear out an indemnity bond for Cornelius Jansen. Together the men pledged £200 New York Currency to the town of Rhinebeck, to be paid by them or their heirs, a sum that dwarfed the annual income of the average farmer during this period. While the extenuating circumstances that brought these leading citizens of Rhinebeck to the county seat remain unclear, their bond straightforwardly sets out the conditions of their obligation. Cornelius Jansen was “a Negro man” who had been manumitted in 1756. An act of the colonial assembly passed in 1730 required “That all Negroes or Mulatto Slaves manumitted or set at Liberty shall bring two sufficient Surities [sic] for Indemnifying all Cities Towns Mannors [sic] precincts parishes or places within this Colony from being a Charge” in order to guarantee their continued liberty. Tenbrocek and Veller insured that Jansen would retain his gift of freedom and live peaceably in Rhinebeck (Anc Doc 1015).

Ancient Document 1015 pg 2 — Dutchess County Ancient Document 1015: Indemnity Bold for Cornelius Jansen, 1763

Cornelius Jansen’s story is one of many held within Dutchess County’s Ancient Documents Collection. Long considered the cornerstone of the county’s archival holdings, this body of material consists of records from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century county courts, which convened on the same plot of land in Poughkeepsie since approximately 1721. The courthouse that now stands at the juncture of Market and Main Streets is the fifth to occupy the same site. In addition to hosting the trials and legal proceedings detailed in the Ancient Documents Collection, the predecessor buildings also played host to New York’s convention to ratify the United States Constitution in the summer of 1788, which laid the groundwork for the Bill of Rights. Together, the courthouse and the Ancient Documents Collection stand as testaments to a vital and enduring thread of Dutchess County history.

The Continuing and Permanent Record of the Courts – Part 2

March 29, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Court Records, Early Legal History, New York Legal History1 Comment

Two weeks ago, we posted the first half of this post by Geof Huth, in which he discussed the history of court records in New York State and his role in inventorying the many early court documents held by the New York County Clerk in the Surrogate’s Courthouse. In this conclusion, he describes the documents found in the courthouse, the monumental move to the New York State Archives, and the importance of court records in understanding our history.

Photo: Supreme Court of Judicature Writ of Habeas Corpus, 1797

Then we worked. We took many hundreds of volumes and reviewed them one by one, bringing back together sets of volumes that had been separated likely for decades. We pulled many hundreds of Woodruff file drawers from their berths, vacuumed their contents of a century’s collection of dust, boxed them in order, and labeled the boxes. We sometimes spent a long time trying to determine exactly what certain records were and to bring order to boxes filled with a miscellany of sometimes fractured documents.

Court of Chancery Affidavits in the Divorce Case Eliza B. Burr and Aaron Burr (1836) — Court of Chancery Affidavits in the Divorce Case of Eliza B. Burr and Aaron Burr, 1836

As we sorted through Woodruff file drawers, inventorying documents and recreating sets of volumes that had been divided many years before, we found amazing items: A twenty-five-foot roll of attorneys consisting of dozens of pieces of parchment stitched together. Literally hundreds of documents of Aaron Burr working as an attorney in civil practice—along with case papers relating to him as a litigant, and even the extensive paperwork relating to his divorce from his second wife, Eliza Jumel. Records documenting the seizure of Loyalists’ real property after the Revolution. Pleadings to the Supreme Court of Judicature in Alexander Hamilton’s own hand, and a large detailed accounting of all the debts owed to and of Nicholas Cruger, one of the two wealthy men of St. Croix who paid Hamilton’s expenses to attend King’s College (now Columbia University). Among the most interesting items were the many parchment writs with holes chewed through them by mice trying to eat the wheat paste sandwiched between the parchment itself and its paper seal.

The Continuing and Permanent Record of the Courts – Part 1

March 15, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Court Records, Early Legal History, New York Legal History1 Comment

This article was written by Geof Huth, Chief Records Officer and Chief Law Librarian of the New York State Unified Court System. Before joining the court system in 2015, Huth worked for almost 25 years at the New York State Archives, where he oversaw the development and provision of training and publications for state agencies and local governments, the revision of guidelines for the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund grants program, and the creation of retention schedules and appraisals. Huth speaks frequently about archives and records management, particularly the management of digital records, across the state and the country.

Photo: Supreme Court of Judicature and Court of Chancery Rolls of Attorneys (1754-1847)

The New York State Unified Court System consists of thousands of courts, large and small, all across the state. When most people think of the courts, they think of the traffic fines they have had to pay, the divorce they were recently granted, or the way a lurid crime story in their area of the state played out in the news. All of those cases are part of the functioning of the courts, and all are documented in their records. Eventually, the courts destroy some of these records when no longer needed. But some are kept forever.

The records of the courts of New York State extend back at least as far as 1674, and possibly farther still. For New York City alone, thousands of colonial records of the early courts still exist, and today our courts continue to keep part of the unwritten history of the city. History, we realize, doesn’t merely exist. History must be written with these records of the courts, and their operations and the stories within the cases themselves help us write that history. We always need the record to recreate and understand the past.

For the past sixteen months, a team of people from the Unified Court System’s Office of Records Management, with support and assistance from The Historical Society of the New York Courts, has been inventorying one of the most historically significant stores of early court records in the country. These records were held by the New York County Clerk’s Division of Old Records in the Surrogate’s Courthouse for just over a century. Most of these are civil cases, primarily arguments between parties about money owed and damages due that arose during the regular course of living their lives.

My Experience as the Inaugural Winner of the Garfinkel Essay Scholarship

March 7, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsEducation, Garfinkel Essay Scholarship, Uncategorized, Blog2 Comments

This blog entry was written by Elijah Fagan-Solis, the inaugural winner of the David A. Garfinkel Essay Scholarship when it first launched in 2008. He is currently an AMPLIFY-NY Coordinator at YOUTH POWER!

Photo: Historical Society of the NY Courts Founder Hon. Judith S. Kaye and Elijah Fagan-Solis at the Court of Appeals’ Law Day in 2008

Mother Teresa is quoted as saying “peace begins with a smile.” A young, anxious version of me was fortunate enough to experience this famous quote come to life the first time I stepped foot into the New York State Court of Appeals. I had no idea what to expect. It surely was a mistake that I was even there in the first place. Did no one else see the value in the announcement of this ‘Garfinkel Essay Contest’? Did no one else submit their pieces?

To be honest, I almost did not do it myself. I was a student at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy back in the spring of 2008, setting myself up to graduate with the 60 credits I needed to enter the New York State Police Academy. I was in my last semester, and my Corrections Professor Kathryn Sullivan approached me about the opportunity. Did she confuse me with another student? Why did she think I was capable of providing a submission? After much discussion, and coming to the understanding that I wouldn’t need to submit an additional paper for class, I obliged. In retrospect, I am incredibly grateful for her seeing so much more potential in me than I ever saw in myself.

Now it was time to write. This wasn’t just another paper for a class; there was a lot at stake: being published, being honored at Law Day, winning a cash prize, and meeting state leaders. More doubts started to set in during the course of research and writing. This is one of the hardest pieces I have ever had to write! What if I let Professor Sullivan down? What if I am taking this in the completely wrong direction? What did I get myself into? I continued to think these thoughts (and more) until I had to submit my essay. Even after I did, I was afraid that I perhaps missed the deadline by a few minutes. I don’t even believe there was a time I thought I could actually win.

The Pioneering Women Judges of the Third Judicial District

March 1, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Amici Podcast, New York Legal History, Women & the Law, Women History Month

This blog entry was written by John Caher, the Unified Court System’s senior advisor for strategic and technical communications, and a member of the Gender Fairness Committee of the Third Judicial District. Under the leadership of its chair, Judge Rachel Kretser, the Committee in late 2016 and early 2017 produced a documentary on the pioneering women judges of the Third Judicial District, which includes seven counties between Albany and Kingston. Nine judges — all of them a “first” in one way or another — were interviewed on camera by a talented student from the College of St. Rose, Ethan Travis. The documentary will debut at a CLE on March 31 in Albany, entitled Balancing the Scales of Justice: The Impact of Judicial Diversity, which includes, among others, Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Stein; Presiding Justice Karen Peters of the Appellate Division, Third Department; Justice Elizabeth Garry of the Appellate Division, Third Department; and Judge Kretser, who recently retired as Albany City Criminal Court Judge. Although, by necessity, the documentary will include only “sound bites” from the nine trailblazers, the entire interviews have been converted into “Amici” Podcasts, which feature an introduction by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, and will be posted each Monday and Friday throughout March, Women’s History Month, at http://www.nycourts.gov/admin/amici/index.shtml and in the iTunes podcast library.

Photo: Hon. Karen K. Peters, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, 3rd Dept.

When we set out to interview the pioneering women judges in the Third Judicial District, I feared the interviews would quickly become redundant, with similar questions and similar answers. Rather, the nine women, from a couple of different generations, offered their own perspective on their unique journeys, weaving together a colorful tapestry of the struggle for gender fairness in the region.

The women judges first had to confront gender-bias in their careers. Judge Beverly Tobin, the first woman elected to Family Court in Albany County, discusses the days when she had to be smuggled up the back stairs of an all-men’s social club. Judge Rachel Kretser, the first woman criminal court judge in the Third Judicial District, describes how she fought for and obtained passage of a bill outlawing such gender discrimination.

Such bias was made more pronounced by casual sexism. Presiding Justice Karen Peters of the Appellate Division describes a humorously infuriating battle she had with a judge who refused to call her “Ms.,” and former Albany County Surrogate Kate Doyle tells of a fellow judge who told her to ditch her robes and go home and make babies. Former Court of Appeals Judge Victoria Graffeo revisits the frustration she felt when an adversary persisted in referring to her as his “little friend” in front of the jury. Northern District U.S. Judge Mae D’Agostino movingly recalls how pioneers, including former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Presiding Justice Peters, gave women hope.

Matthew J. Jasen: American Judge in Europe

February 15, 2017October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Court of Appeals Judges, New York Legal History

This post was written by John J. Halloran, Jr., a Trustee Emeritus of the Historical Society of the New York Courts and a Law Clerk to Judge Jasen in 1984 and 1985. Mr. Halloran extends his appreciation to Prof. Vincent Bonventre (Senior Law Clerk to Judge Jasen from 1983-1985), and Prof. John Q. Barrett (Historical Society Trustee and Board member at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York) for their insightful comments upon this post.

Michael B. Powers, Law Clerk to Judge Jasen (1982-1984) and Trustee Emeritus of the Society, interviewed Judge Jasen in 2005. He, and the law firm of Phillips Lytle LLP, have graciously given the Society permission to feature this video on the Oral History section of our website. This interview includes vivid photographs of Judge Jasen’s experience in Germany. View this oral history here.

Introduction

In 2015, our Historical Society celebrated the centennial of the birth of Matthew J. Jasen, who served as a Judge of the Court of Appeals from 1968 through 1985. At that time, we noted Judge Jasen’s service as a United States Judge in post-war Germany. At the invitation of the Historical Society, it is my privilege to expand upon the historical record of Judge Jasen’s experience in Europe in the 1940s, which exposed him to the atrocities of what came to be understood as the Holocaust — the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. For Judge Jasen, this was a searing experience that was the foundation of his jurisprudence and steadfast commitment to the rule of law.

War-Time Service in Europe

Matthew J. Jasen was admitted to the New York Bar in 1940 and, after engaging in private practice in Buffalo, NY, enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1943. Subsequent to basic training and officer candidate school (OCS), he received his commission as a Second Lieutenant (Artillery) on September 30, 1943. He was selected for the military government civil affairs training program (G-5), which was part of the U.S. government’s planning for the allied occupation of Germany, should that event occur. During full day sessions, he intensively studied German language, culture, history, and financial institutions for six months at Harvard University’s School of Civil Affairs. It was the equivalent of two years of college. He continued his studies in German culture in Manchester and Shrivenham in the United Kingdom.

Upon the completion of his training, Judge Jasen served for three years with the Seventh Army in Europe and participated in three major campaigns with a Spearhead Detachment as a Military Government Officer. After the town of Saint-Lô in France was liberated by allied troops in 1944, and it was believed to be relatively safe for military government officers to embark upon their duties, Judge Jasen began his service as a civil affairs officer in towns in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. In that capacity, he worked in cooperation with local officials to ensure the delivery of basic municipal services, including water, telephone, and electricity.

Thereafter, Judge Jasen and his detachment entered Germany, which was subject to military control. While on a reconnaissance mission to set up a government in Augsburg, Germany, his detachment helped liberate an abandoned prisoner of war camp, and grateful ex-prisoners celebrated their freedom by tossing Judge Jasen in the air — an image that was captured by a British photographer and later published. Judge Jasen, in characteristically modest style, later told Judge Eugene Pigott: “That was about as close to getting injured during the war as I ever was — I thought they were going to drop me.”

Judge Jasen on the shoulders of liberated prisoners of war near Augsburg, Germany.

Kaye on Kaye: Luisa Kaye Talks About her Mother, Judith S. Kaye, in Latest Amici Podcast

December 7, 2016October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsBlog, Amici Podcast, Court of Appeals Judges, New York Legal History, Public Events, Uncategorized

This blog entry was written by John Caher, the Unified Court System’s senior advisor for strategic and technical communications. It discusses his recent interview with Luisa Kaye, the daughter of our late Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye. Like both of her parents, Luisa is a commercial litigator in Manhattan and partner at Wrobel Markham Schatz Kaye & Fox. On Dec. 12, Ms. Kaye will introduce the inaugural event of a new series by The Historical Society of the New York Courts, Judith S. Kaye Program: Conversations on Women and the Law. This series, sponsored by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom — where Chief Judge Kaye finished her career — will examine her legacy from the perspective of her clerks. The interview was converted into an “Amici” Podcast, one of a series produced by the court system and maintained at http://www.nycourts.gov/admin/amici/index.shtml.

Photo: © Annie Leibovitz / Contact Press Images

I remember quite clearly many years ago when famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz photographed Chief Judge Kaye for Vanity Fair magazine. Judge Kaye told me that Annie basically drove her nuts, asking her to do this and that, and incessantly taking pictures, changing settings, and monopolizing more time than the Chief Judge had to spare. By the end of the session, Judge Kaye told me, she was willing to do just about anything if Annie would just go away and let her get back to work. It was then that Leibovitz got the picture — an uncharacteristically provocative photo — that would appear in Vanity Fair. In my recent interview with Luisa Kaye, I reminded her of that photo, which is on the invitation for the Dec. 12 event:

John Caher:
I got a kick out of the invitation because on the invitation is a briefly infamous and later famous photo of your mother by Annie Leibovitz, one of the greatest portrait photographers ever, in my opinion. In this photo, your mom is sitting at the bench wearing her trademark red shoes and her robe, and showing a bit of leg…

Luisa Kaye:
Yes. Actually, it’s a lot of leg (laughs)!

John Caher:
If I recall correctly, she was at first mortified when the picture appeared in Vanity Fair and then, if I remember what she told me correctly, she came to love it because of something you said. Can you tell us that story?

Unearthing Chancellor Kent

November 16, 2016October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Early Legal History, Historical Research, New York Legal History

This article was written by Robert Murphy, president of the Beacon Historical Society.

Photo: Descendants of Chancellor James Kent standing before his restored gravestone at a ceremony, presented by The Historical Society of the New York Courts and the Beacon Historical Society, which took place on October 30th, 2016 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Beacon, NY.

(L-R): Mary V. Turner Cattan (4th Generation); Harry Boers; Anne Turner (5th Generation); Kent Turner (4th Generation); Katharine Turner Berger (5th Generation); Elizabeth Berger (6th Generation); Deborah Smith (5th Generation); Ellen Turner; Jean Shea (5th Generation); Amy Turner (6th Generation); Ryan Miller

Attending the unveiling of the Kent Gravestone, along with the Kent family and representatives of the Beacon Historical Society, were the staff of The Historical Society of the New York Courts, Marilyn Marcus, Executive Director, Daniel O. Sierra, Marketing Director, and Allison Morey, Administrative Director; the President of the Society, Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt; and Society Trustees Hon. Helen Freedman and Frances Murray.

“Here Lies Beacon’s Most Illustrious Son” reads the headline over the photo of a gravestone in a 1939 edition of Beacon’s (New York) local newspaper. The headline was referring to James Kent, the eminent jurist and the former Chancellor of New York, and most famously, “the American Blackstone” — author of the seminal nineteenth-century law literary work, Commentaries on American Law. The newspaper lamented back in 1939 (about ninety years after his death) that Kent and his legacy had all but been forgotten by local townspeople, as evidenced by the toppling of his large, marble table top stone that even then was sinking into the sod.

Speed forward to 2013, and the headline might read: “James Kent — Buried, Forgotten and Missing”… for by that date his stone had disappeared, covered over by the grasses of St. Luke’s Church Cemetery. The year 2013 also happened to be the city of Beacon’s centennial, and the Beacon Historical Society’s cemetery committee, spurred on by the 1939 news photo of Kent’s stone, was determined this was the opportune time to find the missing grave of our city’s most Illustrious Son.

How did James Kent happen to be buried in Beacon, New York? Contemporary accounts tell us that Chancellor Kent’s funeral took place on the 15th of December in 1847, with his internment in New York City’s Marble Cemetery following an “immense procession, consisting of Judges of our local courts, and leading members of the Bar,” according to the New York Herald. At Marble Cemetery, Kent’s body and, four years later, the remains of his wife Elizabeth Bailey, were placed in the family vault to rest there for eternity, it would seem. But the Kent connection, and the Chancellor’s eventual removal to Beacon, began in 1853, the year Judge William Kent, the Chancellor’s only son, bought “Beaconside,” his summer estate in Matteawan (now Beacon). And from the windows of Beaconside an easy view of St. Luke’s Church was to be had.

Chancellor Kent gravestone, grass-covered, soon after it was rediscovered in 2013

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was designed by noted architect Frederick Clarke Withers just after the Civil War, and its grounds were laid out by its most wealthy and famous summer parishioner, Henry Winthrop Sargent, a pioneer horticulturalist and landscape gardener from Boston. Here in the village of Matteawan, in the newly adopted home of son, Chancellor Kent and his wife were to be reinterred about 25 years after his death in the beautifully landscaped setting of St. Luke’s Cemetery. In a letter written in 1873 by the church’s rector, the Rev. Henry E. Duncan, we learn of the Kent family plot:

It is a quiet burying-ground, near the village, though, removed from the bustle and noise of the community, and removed only the fourth of a mile from the foot of the somber mountains. Our beautiful stone church is only a few rods from his grave, the villagers pass on a Sunday morning along the path which conducts by grave to the north door of the edifice. The spot is retired, planted with evergreens—all that one could wish for a last home when the business of life was ended.

Thank you, Judge Kaye

November 2, 2016October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsJudith S. Kaye Fellow, New York Legal History, Uncategorized, Blog, Education3 Comments

This article was written by Julia Rose Kraut, J.D., Ph.D. Julia is the inaugural Judith S. Kaye Fellow and will continue teaching “Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and the Empire State” at the Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) Queens campus this spring. She is a legal historian living in New York City and earned her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and her Ph.D. in History from New York University. Julia is currently writing a book on the history of ideological exclusion and deportation in the United States, which is under contract to Harvard University Press.

Fifteen years ago, I met New York State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, and she changed my life. At the time, I was an undergraduate at Columbia University, and I had decided to attend a panel discussion on the freedom of the press in New York. When I arrived, everyone was invited to sit around a large table, and one by one they began to introduce themselves. I soon discovered that I was not only sitting with prominent judges and lawyers, including the counsel for the New York Times, but that I was also the only student in attendance.

When it was my turn to introduce myself, I nervously explained that I was a sophomore in college who had heard about this panel in one of my classes, and I had decided to attend because I wanted to learn more about First Amendment law. I glanced around the table and saw blank faces staring back at me, except for one that was smiling. That face belonged to Judge Kaye. She was presiding over the panel, and when she stood up and announced that the discussion would begin, Judge Kaye turned to me and said, “I just want to let the college sophomore know that after we all finish talking, I want to know what she thinks about our discussion and what she has to say.” Stunned, I looked up at Judge Kaye, and she smiled again and winked.

After a stimulating discussion, Judge Kaye motioned to me, and I provided a few thoughts and comments, which I do not remember and only hope were somewhat intelligible. What I do remember was Judge Kaye. I remember her warm smile and wink. I remember how she included me in the discussion and reached out to a student who was interested in learning about the law. I remember how I hoped that one day I would have the opportunity to inspire and encourage a student, just as Judge Kaye had inspired and encouraged me.

Fifteen years later, I jumped at the chance to apply for a new fellowship from the Historical Society of the New York Courts to teach a law course to public high school students at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan. Since meeting Judge Kaye, I had pursued my interest in history and law and become a legal historian. While obtaining my J.D. and Ph.D., I made sure to spend as much time in front of a classroom as I did in the library. In law school, I taught high school students about constitutional law, and in graduate school, I taught undergraduates how to conduct legal research, as well as how to brief cases and place them in historical context. I loved teaching, and I was excited to have the opportunity to bring my skills and enthusiasm to Bard and to work with the Historical Society founded by Judge Kaye.

Restoring the Gravestone of the Father of American Law

October 26, 2016October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Early Legal History, New York Legal History, Public Events

Chancellor James Kent, widely regarded as the father of American Law, was laid to rest in Beacon, New York in 1847. However, over the subsequent century and a half, his grave marker had fallen into great disrepair. The marble marker had fallen off the posts it originally rested on in the 1930s. Cracked into four pieces, grass began growing between the fragments. More recently, the Beacon Historical Society decided to begin the restoration of Kent’s gravestone. The disrepair was brought to the attention of the Historical Society by President, Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt, who secured the Society’s help for the restoration project with the Beacon Historical Society. The Society contributed a portion of the restoration funding as well as helped Beacon Historical Society with locating James Kent’s descendants, who also donated the majority of the funding necessary to complete this restoration. The project was completed last month by restoration experts Ricardo and Ta Mara Conde of Historic Gravestone Services in Massachusetts.

Born in Doanesburg, New York in 1763, James Kent came of age during the Revolutionary War. In fact, his childhood home was burned by the British in 1779, causing many distractions during his education. He graduated from Yale in 1781 and was admitted to the bar four years later. In 1791, he was elected to the New York Assembly, where he served two consecutive terms and was elected again in 1796. However, in 1796, Governor John Jay had a different plan; he appointed Kent as Master in Chancery. The following year, Jay appointed Kent as Recorder of New York City.

James Kent continued moving up into New York’s legal hierarchy. In 1798, he became a Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature. In 1804, he became Chief Justice of the same court. As Chief Judge, Kent authored important opinions, including Hitchcock & Fitch v. Aicken (1803), People v. Croswell (1804), Yates v. Lansing (1810), and People v. Ruggles (1811). In 1814, he became Chancellor of New York. Because the mandatory age of retirement at that time was 60 years old, Kent retired in 1823. However, retirement did not slow him down; he taught at Columbia College, and his lectures became the basis of his treatise on the American common law, Commentaries on American Law. At the time of his death in 1847, he had completed the sixth edition of the treatise. This work shaped the way the judges of the New York courts and the United States courts view their roles in jurisprudence and is still referred to today.