Elisha phelps
Elisha Phelps Portrait
Elkanah Tisdale

Elisha Phelps

Gender:
Male
Born:
November 16, 1779
Died:
April 6, 1847
Home Town:
Simsbury, CT
Later Residences:
Simsbury, CT
Marriage(s):
Lucy Smith Phelps (1818)
Biographical Notes:
Elisha Phelps was the son of General Noah and Lydia (Griswold) Phelps. He was born in Simsbury, Connecticut. In 1800, he was graduated from Yale College and from Litchfield Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1803 and began practice in Simsbury.

Phelps was member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1807, 1812, and 1814-1818. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Sixteenth Congress (March 4, 1819-March 3, 1821). He was again a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1821 and served as speaker. He served in the Connecticut Senate 1822-1824 and was elected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses (March 4, 1825-March 3, 1829). He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1828.

After leaving Congress, he was ...
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Education
Years at LLS:
1801
Other Education:
Graduated from Yale College in 1800.
Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office; Doctor
Admitted To Bar:
1803
Political Party:
Republican; Adams
Federal Posts:
U.S. Representative (CT) 1819-1821, 1825-1829
State Posts:
State Representative (CT) 1807, 1812, 1814-1818, 1821, 1825, 1829
State Senator (CT) 1822-1824
Comptroller (CT) 1831-1837
State Committees:
Commissioner to Revise and Codify Statutes of Connecticut in 1835. Speaker of the State House of Representatives in 1821 and 1829.
Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1801, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, 1849), 4.
Secondary Sources:
Loomis, Dwight and J. Gilbert Calhoun. The Judicial and Civil History of Connecticut. Boston: The Boston History Company, 1895

Phelps, Oliver Seymour and Andrew Tinkey Servin. The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors. Eagle Publishing Co., 1899.
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