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William Benedict
Gender:
Male
Born:
February 24, 1778
Died:
August 26, 1819
Home Town:
Redding, CT
Later Residences:
Bridgeport, CT
Biographical Notes:
William Benedict was the son of Thaddeus Benedict who graduated from Yale College in 1773 and was a renowned lawyer. His mother was Deborah Read Benedict, the daughter of Colonel John Read, a Revolutionary War officer for whom the town of Reading, Connecticut was named.
William was their eldest son, born in Redding on February 24, 1778. He graduated from Yale College in 1797 and attended the Litchfield Law School that same year. After completing his studies at the law school, he went to Bridgeport to finish his preparatory studies and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield County, Connecticut in 1797. He then joined his father's law practice. Benedict never married and died in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age of forty-one.
William was their eldest son, born in Redding on February 24, 1778. He graduated from Yale College in 1797 and attended the Litchfield Law School that same year. After completing his studies at the law school, he went to Bridgeport to finish his preparatory studies and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield County, Connecticut in 1797. He then joined his father's law practice. Benedict never married and died in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age of forty-one.
Quotes:
"He succeeded to some of his father's business and for a time had a fair practice, and fairer prospects. He was a young man of strict integrity and popular manners, but became the victim of bad influences and spent his later years in miserable poverty, a hypochondriac and misanthropist."
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. 5, New York, Henry Holt and Company: 1911, p. 258.
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. 5, New York, Henry Holt and Company: 1911, p. 258.
Education
Years at LLS:
1797
Other Education:
Graduated from Yale College in 1797.
Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer
Admitted To Bar:
Fairfield County, CT after 1797
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
- Deborah Read Benedict
Mother - Thaddeus Benedict
Father
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 Law School Moothall Society Records. Litchfield Law School Collection, Series 1, Subseries 3, Folder 5, 1796-1798, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.
Secondary Sources:
Benedict, Henry Marvin. Benedicts in America. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell, 1870
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. 5, New York, Henry Holt and Company: 1911, p. 258.
Murdock, Thomas Day and James Murdock. Brief Memoir of the Class of 1797. New Haven, CT: Yale College, 1848.
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. 5, New York, Henry Holt and Company: 1911, p. 258.
Murdock, Thomas Day and James Murdock. Brief Memoir of the Class of 1797. New Haven, CT: Yale College, 1848.
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