KENT, James, American jurist: b. Philippi, Putnam County, N. Y., 31 July 1763; d. New York, 12 Dec. 1847. Kent was graduated at Yale College in 1781, studied law, was admitted in 1785 as an attorney, and in 1787 as a coun sellor and commenced the practice of his pro fession in Poughkeepsie. He soon became re markable among his contemporaries for his legal learning and literary attainments. He was elected successively in 1790 and 1792 a member of the legislature for Dutchess County. Kent became an active and leading Federalist, at tracting the notice and confidence of Hamilton and Jay. It was by Hamilton's counsel that the reading of the young lawyer was directed to the doctrines of the civil law and the treatises of the jurists of continental Europe. In 1793 Kent removed to New York, was appointed one of the two masters in chancery for the city of New York. In 1796 he became a member of the legislature. He was also elected professor of law in Columbia College. The body of his lectures at Columbia formed in after years, in some degree, the basis of his celebrated 'Com mentaries.) In 1797 he was appointed recorder of the city and in 1798 judge of the Supreme Court. He continued a member of this tri bunal till 1814, having been from 1804 chief justice. The Supreme Court at that time dif fered widely from the court as at present con stituted. It was formed after the model of the English King's Bench, being composed of five judges, who rode the circuits to try jury cases, and convened during the year at four appointed terms to decide reserved questions of law. There were no American law books and no reports of American decisions, except those of Dallas just commenced. The proceedings of the court were languid and dilatory, and re sort was had for rules of procedure and prin ciples of law almost exclusively to English precedents and decisions. The accession to the
bench of a young, energetic and able judge produced a striking change. It was the task of the court to expound the principles of the common law, as applicable to American institu tions; to define and limit our new constitutional provisions; to construe recent statutes; to bring the principles of commercial law to bear upon transactions of trade and commerce; to devise rules of practice, and in short, to adapt to a young and rising nation a complicated yet practical code of laws. By the constitution of New York as it then existed an important political duty was imposed on the judiciary of the State. The judges of the Supreme Court and the Chancellor formed with the governor a council of revision with a qualified veto on legislative acts. This council was abolished in 1822. In 1814 Kent became chancellor and the seven volumes of Johnson's 'Chancery Re ports,' which contain Chancellor Kent's de cisions, afford a profound exposition of the system of equity law. His term of office as chancellor expired in 1823, and returning to New York he resumed his professorship at Columbia and his lectures there were given to the world, in his 'Commentaries on American Law) (1826-30). This work has since passed through 14 editions and acquired a world-wide celebrity. It has assumed in the United States the position which Blackstone in his own coun try has long filled by his 'Commentaries on the Laws of England.' It embraces not merely the jurisprudence of the Federal Union, but the municipal law, written and unwritten, of the several States. Consult Kent, William, 'Me moirs and Letters of Chancellor Kent> (1898).