Seth Preston Beers

Male

July 1, 1781

September 9, 1863

Woodbury, CT

Litchfield, CT

Belinda Webster Beers (September 23, 1807)

Seth Preston Beers was the first child of Josiah Beers and Elizabeth Preston Beers. He was born on July 1, 1781 in Woodbury, Connecticut. Beers attended the Litchfield Law School in 1803 and was admitted to the bar in 1805. His brother Frederick attended the Litchfield Law School in 1809.

Besides his legal profession, Beers pursued an active political career within the state as well. From 1820 to 1825, he served as the State's Attorney. Also, from 1820 to 1823, Beers was a member of the Connecticut State House of Representatives where he served both as the Clerk in 1821 and as the Speaker of the House in 1823. After a brief term in the Connecticut Senate in 1824, Beers spent the next twenty-five years as the Commissioner of the Connecticut School Fund.

In May of 1824, ...the Connecticut General Assembly appointed Beers, along with his colleagues Thomas Day and Lemuel Whitman (both attorneys) to a committee whose purpose was to reprint the Revised Statutes of the state. They were given the power to edit for errors in the previous edition (printed 1821) and to update any changes to the laws, and improve the Index. This was published in November of the same year.

Beers also led an active life outside of politics. He was director of the Litchfield Savings Bank for a time, Director of Phoenix Bank, director of Walcott School for Boys, and a trustee of the Litchfield Female Academy. He was also the first president of the Litchfield County Historical and Antiquarian Society, the predecessor to the Litchfield Historical Society.

On September 23, 1807, Beers married Belinda Webster of Litchfield, Connecticut. The couple had five children, two of whom attended the Litchfield Female Academy: Julia Maria Beers and Horatio Preston Beers, who died at the age of 14. Another son, Henry A. Beers, attended the Hartford High School and later Yale College, where he later became a professor. Beers himself died in Litchfield on September 9, 1863.
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1803

Lawyer; Political Office; Business

1805 in Litchfield County Court

State's Attorney (CT) 1820-1825
State Representative (CT) 1820-1823
State Senator (CT) 1822-1823
Commissioner of the School Fund (CT) 1824
Clerk for the State House of Representatives (CT) 1821

Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1823

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849, 5.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1806, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

Beers, Seth Preston, Thomas Day, and Lemuel Whitman, eds. The Public Statute of Laws of the State of Connecticut. Hartford: H. Hartington, Jr., 1824. Accessed via Google Books.

Cothren, William. History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, From the First Indian Deed in 1659 to 1879. Woodbury, CT: Published by William Cothren, 1879.

Kilbourne, Dwight C. The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut 1709-1909. Litchfield, CT: Published by the Author, 1909.

Litchfield Enquirer, 29 Oct 1857.

Litchfield and Morris Inscriptions: A Record of Inscriptions Upon the Tombstones in the Towns of Litchfield and Morris, CT. Transcribed by Charles Thomas Payne. Litchfield, CT: Dwight C. Kilbourn, 1906.

Regan, Mary Louise. The Beers Genealogy. F.A. Regan, 1994.