George Carter Barrett (July 28, 1838 – June 7, 1906) was an Irish-American lawyer and judge from New York.
Life
Barrett was born on July 28, 1838 in
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
. He was the son of English Rev. Gilbert Carter Barrett of the
Church of England and Irish Jane M. Brown.
In 1847, after his mother's death, Barrett moved to
Canada with his father, who was assigned a missionary among the
Muncey, and they settled in the
Thames River. His father lost his voice to a cold shortly afterwards, and as he became proficient in the Muncey language he translated and read his father's writings to the people. He developed close ties with an old chief, who for many years would send him presents for Christmas.
He also attended school in
London, Ontario.
After his father finished his missionary activities, Barrett immigrated to America and moved to
New York City, New York with his uncle, lawyer William C. Barrett. In 1852, he went to
Columbia Grammar School
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School ("Columbia Grammar", "Columbia Prep", "CGPS", "Columbia") is the oldest nonsectarian independent school in New York City, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (5 West 93rd Street). The school serves gr ...
. He then went to
Columbia College,
but left to study law in the office of Van Cott, Cady & Smales.
After he was admitted to the bar, he began to practice law. He also befriended
Charles G. Halpine and under his influence started writing for the city press as well. In 1863, when he was 25, he was elected Civil Justice of the Sixth Judicial District. In 1867, he was then elected to the Court of Common Pleas to fill a vacancy. After his term expired in 1869, he returned to his law practice for the next two years.
Barrett was president of the Young Men's Municipal Reform Association while they were fighting the
Tweed Ring. He was a member of the
Committee of Seventy and, together with A. R. Lawrence, Francis C. Barlow, and
Wheeler H. Peckham
Wheeler Hazard Peckham (January 1, 1833 – September 27, 1905) was an American lawyer from New York and an unsuccessful nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Early life
Peckham was born in Albany, New York, on New Year's Day ...
, was its counsel. He was also counsel for John Foley in the latter's injunction against the ring.
In 1871, Barrett was elected Justice of the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
. He was re-elected Justice in 1885. He also wrote the play ''An American Marriage'' in 1883. In 1896, when the
Appellate Division was organized, he was one of the first five judges in the
First Judicial Department. In 1900, although Governor Roosevelt reappointed him to serve an additional five years in the Appellate Division, he asked to be transferred back to the Supreme Court. He retired from the bench in 1906.
Barrett was a founder of the
New York City Bar Association
The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...
.
He was a member of the
Century Club, the
Metropolitan Club, the
Manhattan Club, and the
Mendelssohn Glee Club
The Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City, founded in 1866, is the oldest surviving independent musical group in the United States after the New York Philharmonic. Their concerts, given in very high-society settings, featured the new (to America ...
. In 1866, he married Gertrude F. Vingut, widow of Professor Francisco Javier Vingut and daughter of writer and poet
Sumner Lincoln Fairfield. They had a daughter, Angela Carter Barrett, who was dead by 1900.
Barrett died of
tuberculosis in his summer cottage in
Saratoga on June 7, 1906. He was cremated in Fresh Pond,
and the ashes were buried in
Woodlawn Cemetery.
References
External links
*
The Political Graveyard'
George C. Barrettat ''
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, George C.
1838 births
1906 deaths
Lawyers from Dublin (city)
Irish people of English descent
Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario
Irish emigrants (before 1923) to the United States
Lawyers from New York City
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School alumni
19th-century American lawyers
19th-century American judges
20th-century American judges
New York Supreme Court Justices
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in New York (state)
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department justices