A question that is frequently asked of us here at the archives is whether or not there was ever a “Law School.” The answer to that is, not really!
Initial attempts to create a law school at the College of New Jersey (as Princeton University was then known) were unsuccessful. The College trustees appointed a committee to hire a law professor in 1824, but the first two choices (Richard Stockton ‘1779 and John Van Cleve ‘1797) both died before they could begin classes. In 1835 James Kent declined to take the position offered, as did Justice Smith Thompson, Theodore Frelinghuysen, and retired governor Samuel L. Southard ‘1804 in 1839.
After these unsuccessful attempts, the College finally established a law school in 1846. The school boasted three prominent professors, James S. Green, a U.S. attorney; Richard Stockton Field ‘1821, the New Jersey Attorney General; and Joseph C. Hornblower, the retired Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Field built the law school building at his own expense on a piece of his family’s land and named it Ivy Hall. The building, now maintained by Trinity Episcopal Church, still stands in Princeton at its original location on Mercer Street facing Alexander Road .
The law school was largely independent from the College. The College could not afford to contribute any funding to the law school, and it did not intervene in curriculum or degree decisions. None of the law faculty ever attended even a single faculty meeting at the College. Law students were allowed, however, to attend chapel and lectures at the College and use its library.
The professors designed the program to be completed in three years, although it could be finished in two. On the recommendation of the law faculty, the College awarded a bachelor of laws degree to students who had completed the program. Seven law students graduated before instruction at the law school was discontinued, due to lack of funds, in 1852. The school officially closed in 1855.
In 1871 the trustees instructed the business committee to look into reviving the law school, but the issue did not receive serious attention. In 1890 President Francis Landey Patton remarked to a gathering of alumni, “We have Princeton philosophy, Princeton theology, but we have to go to Harvard and Columbia for our law. Gentlemen, that is a shame. Just as soon as I find a man with a half a million, I am going to found a law school.” Nothing came of this pronouncement either, probably because a man with half a million never showed up. Patton’s successor, Woodrow Wilson (who was elevated to the presidency from his position as professor of jurisprudence), also wanted to start a law school, but was too busy battling faculty, trustees, and alumni over the graduate school and the residential college plan to concentrate on forming a new school.
World War I clouded hopes of acquiring a law school in New York City in 1918, but a proposal to create a law school was seriously considered from 1923 to 1925. However, in 1926 the idea was abandoned in order to conserve funds. Professor John Dickinson’s proposal for a law school in 1929 received little attention. On the recommendation of President William G. Bowen in 1974, the trustees appointed a committee to determine the resources necessary to establish a law school. The president and the trustees decided, after the committee issued its report, that Princeton ought to focus on maintaining the quality of its current programs instead of adding new ones during that time of fiscal insecurity.
Related Sources
Board of Trustees Minutes and Records, 1746-Present. Entries on the following dates, at least, contain references to creating a law school: June 26, 1871; January 23, 1897; December 14, 1899; October 24, 1918; April 12, 1923; April 11, 1929; and September 1974 (restricted until 2024).
Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the College of New Jersey (Princeton, New Jersey: John T. Robinson, printer). Volumes for the years 1846-1847 to 1854-1855 contain the names of the law professors, students, and a description of the program.
Historical Subject Files Collection, 1746-2005
Leitch, Alexander. A Princeton Companion. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976). Also available online.
Link, Arthur S., ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press). Vol. 7, 1969. Pages 63-68 discuss Princeton University President Francis Patton’s and Woodrow Wilson’s attempts at establishing a law school.
Office of the Dean of the College Records, 1919-2001
Office of the President: William G. Bowen Subgroup, 1940-1998
Office of the Provost, 1953-1996
Office of the Secretary Records, 1852-2001
Princeton Alumni Weekly. Entries on the following dates, at least, contain references to the topic of a law school: November 26, 1974; March 11, 1975; and December 8, 1975.
Waller, Amelia Carpenter. “Princeton for the Nation’s Service”: The Debate Over Legal Education at Princeton.Waller’s senior thesis (110 pages) was submitted to the History Department of Princeton University in 1979. This thesis can be viewed on request at the Mudd Manuscript Library and can also be found in the “Law School” files of the Historical Subject Files. For information on how to request a photocopy of this thesis please click here.
Wertenbacher, Thomas Jefferson. Princeton : 1748-1896 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1946). Pages 229-232 and 377-378.
Note: This post, authored by Matthew Reeder, was previously on the Mudd Manuscript Library’s FAQ website and has been moved to our blog as part of our website upgrade.
5 responses to “Is or was there a Princeton Law School? Not really!”
[…] October 13, 1848—Fees for attending the Law School of the College of New Jersey in Princeton are advertised at $50 per session. After two years of study, students will be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Laws, unless they are already admitted to the bar, in which case only one year will be required. (Princeton’s Law School will close in the 1850s.) […]
[…] law school from 1846-1855. Plans to revive the defunct program in the late 19th century did not come to fruition. Historical Photograph Collection, Grounds and Buildings Series (AC111), Box MP52, Image No. […]
Preface: I am a PhD Candidate doing preliminary research for my dissertation. I have a question regarding a Congressman from New York, Walter G. Andrews, whose biography states he graduated “from the Law Department at Princeton University” in 1913. Having attended Princeton, and knowing there was no Law School there, my red flag is rising. Did this Congressman embroider his biography? Did someone else do it for him? (There are other questionable facts in his CV.) Or was there really a Law Department (undergrad) at the university at the time?
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[…] As Princeton University celebrates 50 years of undergraduate women, it is worth looking back a bit farther to examine how women pursued higher education in town prior to the mid-twentieth century. A variety of options have been available to Princeton’s women over the century that preceded the first female undergraduate admission in 1969. Some of the earliest records we have found relate to another largely forgotten chapter in Princeton’s history: its law school. […]