George Sharswood (July 7, 1810 – May 28, 1883) was a

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme ...

. He was also the Dean of the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

Biography

Sharswood was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1828. On September 5, 1831, he was admitted to the bar of the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

. He served as a member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

in 1837. He was a district judge in Pennsylvania from 1845 to 1867. In 1850 he became a Professor of Law at and reorganized the

, where he served for 18 years.Faculty: Fellowships • Penn Law
/ref> He was Dean of the Law School from 1852 to 1868. He was senior professor of law there until 1867, when he resigned his chair. In 1851, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. 'During his tenure he was a respected author, editor and commentator. In 1859, then Professor George Sharswood published through Childs and Peterson in Philadelphia a two-volume edition of ''Blackstone's Commentaries'' which weeded and gleaned the notes and commentaries of the prior English editors and added a treasure trove of new notes and observations on the application or divergence of the various sections of the ''Commentaries'' in America from the founding of the country to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, collecting American cases and references to ''Kent's Commentaries'' to illustrate his observations. This effort continued in subsequent editions after he became an Associate Justice, at least through the publication of an 1872 edition by Lippincott & Co. in 1872. He was appointed to the

in 1868, and was named Chief Justice in the court in 1879. He retired in 1882. Justice Sharswood is buried in Philadelphia's

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

, Section R, Plots L501 & 503.The Political Graveyard
/ref>

Sources

Biography of George Sharswood by Samuel Dickson

References

External links

Portrait at the University of PennsylvaniaThree volumes of handwritten letters from George Sharswood to his children, George and Jane, while the latter were on a tour of Europe, 1875-1876. The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections
* * 1810 births 1883 deaths Politicians from Philadelphia Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania lawyers Pennsylvania state court judges American Presbyterians Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Chief Justices of Pennsylvania Deans of University of Pennsylvania Law School Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers {{Pennsylvania-PARepresentative-stub