Jesse Root

    Jesse Root [graduate of Princeton College, class of 1756] came to College from Massachusetts.  After preaching for three years, on account of family circumstances he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1763.  In 1777 he raised a company in Hartford and joined General Washington; he was made Lieutenant-Colonel soon after.  From May, 1779, till the close of the war, he was a member of the Continental Congress.  In 1789 he was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut, and was Chief Justice from 1796 until his resignation in 1807.

    He was, as a judge, learned and dignified--a man of warm and undoubted piety.  At the age of eighty-five he was always seen in his place in the prayer-meeting and conference.  On the evening of his death, he said, "I set out on a pleasant journey in the morning, and I shall get through to-night.["]  He died March 29, 1822.  In 1800 Yale conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon Judge Root.

    His publications are: Report of Cases adjudged in the Superior Court and in the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut from 1789 to 1798, Hartford, 1798-1803.  2 vols. 8 vo.  Illustrated by notes on adjudged points and rules of practice.

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  The above is an excerpt (slightly edited) from: Samuel Davies Alexander, Princeton College During the Eighteenth Century (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1872), pp. 41-42.

    Jesse Root graduated from Princeton during the governorship of Princeton founder Governor Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757) (governor of New Jersey, 1746-1757), who under the charter of 1748 was ex officio president of the Princeton Board of Trustees.]

Home - Policy Analysis - Christian Law Library - Christian History Library

Historical Biographies - Belcher Bulletin - Publications - Belcher History Center

About Governor Jonathan Belcher - About the Belcher Foundation - Copyright/Disclaimer - Site Index