Northampton Law School (sometimes called the Howe and Mills Law School) was a school for legal education and was located in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

. Though open for only a few years in the 1820s, it produced several prominent alumni, including

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

History

In 1823 Judge Samuel Howe (1785 – 1828) opened a

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

in Northampton which was modeled on his alma mater, the

Litchfield Law School The Litchfield Law School of Litchfield, Connecticut, was the first independent law school established in America for reading law. Founded and led by lawyer Tapping Reeve, the proprietary school was unaffiliated with any college or university. (Whi ...

. Howe operated the school from his law offices with the assistance of his partner

Elijah H. Mills Elijah Hunt Mills (December 1, 1776May 5, 1829) was an American politician from Massachusetts. Early life Mills was born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He was educated by private tutors and graduated from Williams College in 1797. Mills studi ...

. In addition, Howe also enlisted the aid of local

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

John H. Ashmun (the son of

United States Senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

Eli Porter Ashmun and brother of

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

George Ashmun George Ashmun (December 25, 1804 – July 16, 1870) was a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Ashmun was born in Blandford, Massachusetts to Eli P. Ashmun and Lucy Hooker. He graduated from Yale in 1823 and wa ...

). The school continued with Howe in the lead role until his death in 1828. When Mills decided to curtail his participation, Ashmun took on leadership of the school. In 1829 Ashmun was appointed to a professorship at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. As a result, he closed the Northampton Law School, with many of his students following him to Harvard.

Legacy

Among the prominent individuals who attended Northampton Law School during its short existence were: *

from 1853 to 1857 *

George Stillman Hillard George Stillman Hillard (September 22, 1808 – January 21, 1879) was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice (with Charles Sumner as a partner), he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Bo ...

, United States Attorney for Massachusetts from 1866 to 1870 and husband of Howe's daughter Susan * William A. Walker, United States Representative from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

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officer during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

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, United States Representative from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and father of poet

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...

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Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from 1848 to 1850Reed, George Irving
''Bench and Bar of Michigan,'' 1897, page 8

References

{{authority control 1823 establishments in Massachusetts 1829 disestablishments in Massachusetts Education in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Northampton, Massachusetts Law schools in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Independent law schools in the United States Defunct private universities and colleges in Massachusetts Defunct law schools