Skinner
Richard Skinner Portrait

Richard Skinner

Gender:
Male
Born:
May 30, 1778
Died:
May 23, 1833
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Manchester, VT
Marriage(s):
Frances Pierpont Skinner (unknown)
Biographical Notes:
Richard Skinner was the son of General Timothy Skinner and his first wife Susannah P. Marsh. He moved to Manchester, VT after attending the Litchfield Law School and practiced law there. He was greatly involved in state politics and retired from public office in 1829. Skinner has also been active at Middlebury College, serving as a trustee from 1817 to 1823. Skinner died in Manchester, VT when he was thrown from a carraige in the Green Mountains.
Additional Notes:
John Pierce Brace wrote a satirical poem about Richard Skinner in his History of Poetry, Volume 1, Litchfield Historical Society.
Education
Years at LLS:
1798
Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office
Admitted To Bar:
1800
Political Party:
Republican
Federal Posts:
U.S. Representative (VT) 1813-1815
State Posts:
State's Attorney for Bennington County (VT) 1801-1813, 1819
Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court (VT) 1815-1816
State Representative (VT) 1815, 1818
Governor (VT) 1820-1823
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (VT) 1823-1828
Judge of Probate for the Manchester District (VT) 1806-1813
State Committees:
Speaker of the State House of Representatives in 1818.
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
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:
Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, 1849), 3.
Secondary Sources:
Kilbourne, Dwight C. The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut 1709-1909. Litchfield, CT: Published by the Author, 1909.

Watson, Winslow C., The life and character of the Hon. Richard Skinner; a discourse read before and at the request of the Vermont Historical Society, at Montpelier, October 20, 1863 Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1863.

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 8. New York: James T. White & Company.

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