Nathan Davis Abbott

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Name Nathan Abbott
Role Author
Birth year 1854
Death year 1941
Book title The undergraduate study of law : a paper read before the Section of Legal Education / by Nathan Abbott
Publication year 1901
Publisher [s. l.] : American Bar Association
Topics Law -- Study and teaching, United States
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044074352675

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Nathan D. Abbott was an American lawyer from the U.S. State of Maine.
He was the co-founder of Stanford Law School, where he also served as its first dean.

Abbott was born in Norridgewock, Maine, the son of Abiel Abbott and Sarah Smith Abbot on 11 July 1854.
He studied in Norridgewock public schools until the age of 16.
That year, in 1870, he moved to Andover, Massachusetts to study at Phillips Academy.
After three years there, in 1873 he was admitted and studied at Yale College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1877.
At Yale, he was a member of Scroll and Key secret society and Psi Upsilon fraternity.

His legal education consisted of a mixture of reading law at his father's practice in Boston as well as attending Boston University School of Law.
He graduated from the latter in 1883 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
On April 23, 1884 he married his wife, Frances Field.

Abbot practiced law in Boston for about seven years until 1891, when he accepted a position to teach law at the University of Michigan, but held the position for only one year when he resigned to accept a professorship of law in Northwestern University.

After teaching at Northwestern for just two years, in 1895 Abbot was asked to form a Department of Law at Stanford University by its then President, David Starr Jordan.
Upon his arrival, Stanford was suffering widespread financial cuts and layoffs as a result of a dispute over the finances of Leland Stanford's estate as well as the economic fallout from the Panic of 1893.
Abbot was forced to perform a wide array of unusual duties to begin work on his new law school, including building furniture for the school himself.
The law school grew quickly during its formative years, reaching 100 students by the turn of the millennium. The department was also unique in that it accepted students regardless of race or gender; Abbot accepted students who were Hispanic, Chinese, Japanese, and female.

Abbot was a personal friend to famous philosopher William James, who, in fact, was visiting in Abbot's home during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

He held that position until 1907, after which time he was a member of the law faculty of Columbia University, New York City.
He was a legal scholar of wide reputation and a recognized authority on the English and American Law of Real Property.

Abbot retired in 1922 around the age of 68. He died in 1941 due to complications from Pyelonephritis

Nathan Davis Abbott, B.A. 1877. Born July 11, 1854, in Norridgewock, Maine Died January 29, 1941, in San Diego, Calif.
Father, Abiel Abbott, a lawyer in Boston, son of Benjamin and Phebe (Abbot) Abbott of Watertown, Mass. Mother, Sarah Smith (Davis) Abbott; daughter of Nathan Smith and Elizabeth (Cooper) Davis Philips-Andover

Class baseball team four years, judge fall regatta Senior year;
Class supper historian Freshman and Junior years,
Senior Promenade Committee, member Sophomore Debating and Class Yacht clubs,
Gamma Nu, Delta Beta Xi, Alpha Sigma Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Scroll and Key
Traveled abroad 1877-78,
studied in his father's office 1878-79;
attended Boston University School of Law 1879-82 (LL B 1893),
admitted to Massachusetts bar 1882, Michigan bar 1891, and Illinois bar 1892;
lawyer in Boston 1882--91, Ann Arbor, MI, 1891-92, and Chicago 1892-94;
Tappan Professor of Law University of Michigan 1891-92,
professor of law Northwestern University 1892-94,
dean Stanford University Law School 1893-1907;
lecturer in law Columbia University 1906-07, professor of law 1907-16,
Nash Professor of Law 1916 until retirement 1922; author.
A Selection of Authorities on Descent, Wills, and Administration (1894);
editor: Brief Making and the Use of Law Books (1906);
resided in San Diego 1930-41,
interested throughout his life in the study of Greek culture,
in recent years he had worked on the manuscript of a book dealing with the genealogy of the Greek gods, member 14 Yale University
Obituary Record
San Francisco Bar Association (president 1903-04),
State Bar of California,
American Bar Association,
and Congregational Church, Watertown.

Married (1) April 23, 1884, in Boston, Frances, daughter of Charles and Henrietta Frank (Armstrong) Field.
Mrs. Abbott died July 6, 1924.
Married (2) November 25, 1937, in Tijuana, Mexico, Olive Ruth, daughter of Charles Seaford and Olive (Johnson) Drake. Death due to pyelitis.
Ashes scattered to the winds.

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• Residence: Belmont, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States - 1860
• Residence: Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States - 1865
• Residence: Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States - 1870
• Residence: Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States - 1880
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 23 2022, 18:34:09 UTC

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