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Samuel Cowles

Gender:
Male
Born:
June 8, 1775
Died:
November 22, 1837
Home Town:
Norfolk, CT
Later Residences:
Farmington, CT
Hartford, CT
Cleveland, OH
Marriage(s):
Cornelia Whiting Cowles (1832)
Biographical Notes:
Samuel Cowles was the son of Joseph and Sarah (Mills) Cowles. After being admitted to the bar, Cowles practiced as an attorney in Farmington, CT until 1815. During this time, Cowles also served as an attorney on the circuit court and as the Paymaster of the Connecticut Militia. After Cowles left Farmington, he moved to Hartford, CT and practiced law there for several years. Cowles then emigrated to Cleveland, OH in 1819 where he claimed a great tract of property and formed a partnership first with Alfred Kelly and later with his former law school classmate Sherlock J. Andrews. He also held strong abolitionist beliefs and in 1827 was President of the Cuyahoga County Colonization Society which hoped to return slaves to Africa. He and his wife had no children. He left his estate to the children of his half-brother Dr. Edwin Weed Cowles.
Education
Years at LLS:
1802
Other Education:
Graduated from Williams College in 1798.
Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office
Admitted To Bar:
Litchfield, CT in 1803
Local Posts:
Justice of the Peace (Farmington, CT) 1809-1815
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Cleveland, OH) 1832-1837
Related Objects and Documents
Other:
Litchfield County, County Court Papers by Subject: Admissions to the Bar
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:
Ledger. "Journals of the Barr - Litchfield County." Litchfield Historical Society.; Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, 1849), 5.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1802, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.
Secondary Sources:
Cowles, Col. Calvin Duval, comp. Genealogy of the Cowles Families in America, vol. 1. New Haven, CT: Tuttle Morehouse & Taylor Co., 1929.; Johnson, Cresfield. History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Higginson Book Company, 1993.; Durfee, D.D., Rev. Calvin. Williams Biographical Annals. Boston: Lee and Shepard, Publishers, 1871.
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