Male

August 31, 1776

November 6, 1861

Canterbury, CT

Catherine Wales Staples (November 1799)

Seth Perkins Staples, son of Reverend John Stapes and his wife Susanna Perkins Staples, was born in Canterbury, Connecticut on August 31, 1776. Seth attended district schools until the age of sixteen. In 1793 he began studying with Reverend Elisha Atkings in Killingly, Connecticut, and later graduated from Yale in 1797. After completing his studies at Yale he began the study of the law in the office of the Hon. David Daggett in New Haven, Connecticut for two years. During this time Seth hand-copied a set of Tapping Reeve's law notes for his own use, but never attended the Litchfield Law School as a student (a common misconception). Once his understanding of the law was adequate. Seth passed the bar in Litchfield in 1799, and then immediately opened a law office of his own in New Haven and commenced ...practice. In that same year he married Catharine Wales Staples. During their marriage the couple had six children; three sons and three daughters, one daughter of which later attended the Litchfield Female Academy. The future Yale Law School formed in the New Haven law office of Seth P. Staples. Staples owned an exceptional library (an attraction for students at a time when law books were scarce), and he began training apprentices in the early 1800s. By the 1810s his law office had a full-fledged law school. Samuel Hitchcock, one of Staples’ former students, became a partner at the office and later, the proprietor of the New Haven Law School. While practicing in Connecticut Staples was elected a member of the Connecticut Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and was a representative of the town of New Haven in the State Legislature seven or eight sessions, most of them during the war of 1812. In 1816 however, he completely removed himself from political life and focused solely on his profession as a lawyer.
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Attended district schools until the age of 16. Then in 1793 he studied with Rev. Elisha Atkings in Killingly, CT and later graduated from Yale in 1797. After that he studied law in the office of Hon. David Daggett of New Haven, CT for two years. Graduated from Yale in 1797

Lawyer; Educator

1799

David Daggett