Greenleaf, Simon

Born: 1783-12-05 Newburyport, Massachusetts

Died: 1853-10-06 Cambridge, Massachusetts

Flourished: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Simon Greenleaf was a lawyer, jurist, state legislator, professor, and author. Greenleaf spent his formative years in his hometown of Newburyport and Maine. He began reading law in 1801, and entered into practice in 1806. Greenleaf practiced law first in Standish, Maine, next in Gray, and in Portland starting in 1818. Identifying with and gravitating toward the Federalist Party, he ran unsuccessfully for the Massachusetts Senate, served one term in the Maine State Legislature, then retired from politics. In 1820, Governor William King of Maine appointed Greenleaf law reporter of the Maine Supreme Court, a position he held until 1832. In this capacity, Greenleaf complied, edited, and annotated decisions of the court, publishing them as Reports of Cases Argued and Determined by the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine in nine volumes from 1830 to 1832. In 1833, Greenleaf became Royall Professor at the law school of Harvard, and in 1846, he succeeded Joseph Story as Dane Professor. A devout Episcopalian, Greenleaf was a member of various reforming societies dedicated to Bible distribution, colonization, peace, temperance, and other causes. In addition to his reports of Maine legal cases, Greenleaf authored numerous legal treatises. His most famous, the three-volume Treatise on the Laws of Evidence (1842-1853), became a standard text for aspiring lawyers; Abraham Lincoln recommended it to a prospective pupil in 1858. Greenleaf also published works on Christian apologetics, women's rights, and freemasonry.

Greenleaf married Hannah Kingman in 1806. The couple had two daughters. Citing ill health, Greenleaf retired from Harvard in 1848. Seemly recovered, Greenleaf died a short time later.

David J. Langum, "Greeanleaf, Simon," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 9:542-43; H. W. Howard Knott, "Greenleaf, Simon," Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 4:583-84; Abraham Lincoln to James T. Thornton; Abraham Lincoln to James T. Thornton; Gravestone, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA.