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America’s First Court Reporter
Ephraim Kirby
 Ephraim Kirby is best remembered for
compiling the first volume of law reports in America. Kirby was much
more during his 47 years – farmer, soldier, attorney, state
legislator, candidate for Governor, and Judge of the Mississippi
Territory. He died at Fort Stoddert, Mississippi Territory, before
learning that President Jefferson had appointed him Governor of the
Mississippi Territory.
Judge Kirby served in the Revolutionary
War, volunteering just after the Battle of Lexington. He was present
at numerous battles from Bunker Hill to Germantown. After the war,
Kirby studied law at Yale and was admitted to the bar where he
practiced in Litchfield, Connecticut. Following American
independence, the need for a written record of court decisions
developed in order to distinguish American common law from English
common law. When the Connecticut legislature passed a law in 1785
requiring judges to prepare their decisions in writing, Kirby had
already begun his own compilation for private use. He was persuaded
to expand his task for publication, and so, Kirby’s Reports
were born.
Published in 1789, Kirby’s Reports
or Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Superior Court of the
State of Connecticut, from the year 1785, to May, 1788, with some
Determinations in the Supreme Court of Errors is a fascinating
record of the legal history of Connecticut’s courts. Kirby wrote in
his preface, "…I have avoided technical terms and phrases as much as
possible, that it might be intelligible to all classes of men."
Ephraim Kirby has the distinction of
being the first Superior Court judge in what is now Alabama and is
so honored in the archives of the state. His life is chronicled at
their web site,
http://www.archives.state.al.us/al_sldrs/k_list.html. In
addition, his correspondence with President Jefferson can be read in
the Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the
Library of Congress at
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html. For other
reading about the early Connecticut Reports, see 70 Conn. Bar J.
407.
Dose
of Connecticut Legal History
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