Peleg Chandler

Peleg Whitman Chandler (April 12, 1816 – May 28, 1889) was an American lawyer, legal news reporter and editor, Boston's city attorney (solicitor), and a two-term state legislator in the Massachusetts General Court.

Peleg Chandler
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
1844–1845
In office
1862–1863
Member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council
In office
1850
Personal details
Born
Peleg Whitman Chandler

(1816-04-12)April 12, 1816
New Gloucester, Maine
Died (aged 1816)
Boston, Massachusetts
Spouse(s)
Martha Ann Bush
​
(m. 1837)​
Education
OccupationLawyer, politician

As City Solicitor, Chandler defended Boston's exclusion of African American students from its public schools in the legal case of Roberts v. City of Boston.

Life

Chandler's father and grandfather were also named Peleg Chandler;[1] his mother was Esther Parsons Chandler.

Born in New Gloucester, Maine, he studied at Bangor Theological Seminary and received his degree from Bowdoin College in 1834. He studied law with his father, in the law office of Theophilus Parsons, and at Harvard Law School. Chandler was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1837, in which year he also married Martha Ann Bush, with whom he went on to have four children.[2]

Chandler practiced law in Boston, contributed law reports to the Boston Daily Advertiser and also founded the Law Reporter journal, which was the first magazine on law to be successful in the US. He served on the Boston City Council from 1843 to 1845 and in the Massachusetts Governor's Council in 1850. He was also a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for 1844-1845 and 1862-1863.[2]

In 1850, as City Solicitor, Chandler defended Boston's exclusion of African American students from its public schools in the legal case of Roberts v. City of Boston.[3]

Chandler died at his Boston home from heart failure, after a long illness, on May 28, 1889.[4]

Photograph of Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin College from the Historic American Buildings Survey

Publications

Among Chandler's published writings are:

Legacy

In 1872, Chandler funded the refurbishment of Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin College according to designs by A. C. Martin. The works included removal of a staircase, the creation of a first-floor recitation room and space to house the Cleaveland Cabinet of mineral and natural history specimens. Cleaveland was his father-in-law.[5]

Chandler's papers are kept several institutions including the Phillips Library,[6] Massachusetts Historical Society,[7] the Hayes Presidential Center,[2] and the Bowdoin College Library.[8]

References
  1. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  2. Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums-Peleg W. Chandler Gilded Age Collections, Biographical Sketch
  3. "Boston school boycotted in 1840s". Boston Globe. February 23, 1964. p. Section A page 5.
  4. "Useful And Upright-The Long Life of The Hon. Peleg W. Chandler-Which Ended Quietly at His Residence This Morning". The Boston Daily Globe. May 28, 1889. p. 5. Retrieved December 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Cross, John (October 3, 2017). "Whispering Pines: One Hearth, Many Lives". Community.bowdoin.edu. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  6. "Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889) Papers". phillipslibrarycollections.pem.org. Phillips Library.
  7. "Peleg W. Chandler Legal Papers". masshist.org. Massachusetts Historical Society.
  8. "Chandler Family Papers M029". library.bowdoin.edu. Bowdoin College.
  • Reviews of American Criminal Trials in:
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