Asa Child (December 2, 1798 – May 11, 1858) was an American attorney who served as the

United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeals ...

under

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

Biography

Asa Child was born on December 2, 1798. He was the oldest of nine children born to a farmer Rensselaer and Priscilla (Corbin) Child, of (North)

Woodstock, Connecticut Woodstock is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,221 at the 2020 census. History 17th century In the mid-17th century, John Eliot, a Puritan missionary to the Native Americans, established "praying town ...

. He began studying law, with Judge Calvin Goddard a graduate of

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, a former senator and at that point in time, the

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Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, which was followed by his

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

enrollment. During his time at Yale he learnt under

Seth P. Staples Seth Perkins Staples (Aug. 31, 1776- Nov. 6, 1861) was an American lawyer and politician. He founded what became the New Haven Law School, which was absorbed by Yale University as their Yale Law School. He was the brother-in-law of Roger Sherman J ...

a Yale graduate, from

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. He graduated in 1821 and was admitted to the

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in June, 1823. He then began practicing law in Norwich, where he married Alice Hart daughter of Alice Cogswell (Hart) Goddard and his former teacher Calvin Godard and sister of George C. Goddard a fellow Yale graduate on February 13, 1826. His life in Norwich was interrupted by his appointment as

United States District Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for

under

President Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

, which involved his residence in Hartford from 1829 to 1831. He then returned to Norwich, but in 1843 removed to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, and thence to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1845.

Death

At the end of his life he returned to Norwich, where he died on May 11, 1858, when he was 60.

Children

His oldest child, his daughter Julia Goddard Child, was born on April 20, 1825, in Norwich. She married Levi W. Allen of

South Hadley, Massachusetts South Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. South Hadley is home to Mount Holyoke Colleg ...

, a great-grandson of Oliver Wolcott in 1852 and together they had two children. The second oldest, Edward Child, died in infancy. His third child, Alice Hart Child, died when she was 40 and she may have married Levi Allen after her sister died. Calvin Goddard Child named after Asa's father in law Calvin Goddard, would go on to become a judge and also fill his fathers position as

after graduating from his father's alma mater, Yale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Child, Asa 19th-century American lawyers 1798 births 1858 deaths Connecticut lawyers New York (state) lawyers Lawyers from Baltimore People from Norwich, Connecticut People from Stamford, Connecticut United States Attorneys for the District of Connecticut Yale College alumni