Samuel Sumner Wilde (1771–1855) was an associate justice of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously fu ...

. Wilde was born in

Taunton, Massachusetts Taunton is a city in and the county seat of Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Taunton is situated on the Taunton River, which winds its way through the city on its way to Mount Hope Bay, to the south. As of the 2020 United States ...

, and graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1789, winning admission to the Massachusetts Bar in 1792. He practiced law in several towns of the state's Maine District before settling in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

after

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

achieved statehood in 1820. In 1815 he was appointed to the

(the state's highest), serving until he retired in 1850. He was the judge in the case of Baker v. Fales. Wilde was a prominent attorney in Massachusetts and served as a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. In 1814 he was elected as a representative to the

Hartford Convention The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which New England leaders of the Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War ...

. Wilde was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1825.

References

* People from colonial Boston Massachusetts Federalists 1771 births 1855 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Taunton, Massachusetts Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Massachusetts lawyers Dartmouth College alumni 19th-century American lawyers {{Massachusetts-state-judge-stub