1. Tapping Reeve was an American lawyer, judge, and law educator.
16 Facts About Tapping Reeve
1. 2.
Tapping Reeve was the brother-in-law of the third vice-president of the United States, Aaron Burr.
3.
Tapping Reeve was born in Brookhaven, New York, on Long Island, to Reverend Abner Reeve.
4.
Tapping Reeve graduated from the College of New Jersey with a bachelor's degree in 1763, and continued on to earn a master's degree in 1766.
5.
Tapping Reeve then accepted a commission as an officer and accompanied his recruits as far as New York before returning to his ailing wife.
6.
In 1781 Tapping Reeve worked with Theodore Sedgwick to represent Elizabeth Freeman, a slave in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in a legal bid for her freedom.
7.
Tapping Reeve then asked Sedgwick to take her case to a local court.
8.
Tapping Reeve unsuccessfully ran for Congress six times in the 1790s: he was first a candidate in the 1790 election for Connecticut's five at-large congressional seats, in which the top five candidates would win; Tapping Reeve placed sixth.
9.
In 1798, Tapping Reeve became a judge of Connecticut's Superior Court.
10.
Tapping Reeve then hired James Gould, a former student, to assist in running the school.
11.
Tapping Reeve is noted for bringing Reverend Lyman Beecher to Litchfield in 1810 to serve as a Presbyterian minister for over 25 years, during which time he became notable for his preaching against alcohol and Unitarianism.
12.
In 1814, Tapping Reeve was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut.
13.
Tapping Reeve maintained contact with the school until 1820, three years before his death.
14.
Aaron Burr Tapping Reeve went on to graduate from Yale, and became a lawyer in Troy, New York.
15.
In 1799, Tapping Reeve married Elizabeth "Betsy" Thompson, with whom he had no children.
16.
Tapping Reeve died on December 13,1823, in Litchfield, Connecticut, at the age of 79.