Reeve Family Papers

Collection, Ms 18

Date1767 – 1866

Administrative/Biographical History ElementThis collection includes correspondence and other papers of the Tapping Reeve family of Litchfield, CT and also includes items from Aaron Burr and Lyman Beecher.

Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), the son of Presbyterian minister Abner Reeve, was born in Brookhaven, NY and educated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He moved to Connecticut in 1771, was admitted to the bar in 1772, and moved to Litchfield in 1773. Tapping Reeve is noted as the founder and first teacher of the Litchfield School of Law, as judge of the Connecticut Superior Court, and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors. He was active in the political, civic and religious affairs of his community, publishing many legal and political works throughout his lifetime. He was noted as an advocate of equal education and equal legal rights for women.

Sarah (Sally) Burr Reeve (1754-1797), first wife of Tapping Reeve, was the daughter of President Burr of Princeton and sister of Aaron Burr (1756-1836). She was in poor health throughout much of her adult life.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Thompson Reeve (1774-1842) was Tapping's second wife and was born in Watertown, CT. They married in Bethlehem in 1798. She may have been his housekeeper at one time.

Aaron Burr Reeve (1780-1809), only child of Tapping Reeve, married Annabelle Shelton (1798-1849). Their son Tapping Burr Reeve (1809-1829) died while a student at Yale College.

Amelia Ogden (1779-1866) was described by Lyman Beecher's daughter as "another inmate of the family...an orphan who held the place of a daughter in the household."

Bibliography

A Genealogical Register of the Inhabitants of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut by George C. Woodruff, Hartford Press, 1980.

Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. of Lyman Beecher, D. D., ed. by Charles Beecher, New York, Harper and Sons, 1865.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's, New York, 1935.

The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909, by Dwight C. Kilbourn, Litchfield, 1909.

Scope & contentThis list is made up primarily of personal letters coming in to Tapping Reeve and his immediate family, and to and from Aaron Burr. There are also bills, receipts, notes and one deed belonging to Tapping Reeve, a few outgoing letters and some miscellaneous items.

ArrangementThe letters are arranged alphabetically by correspondent under the Reeve family members listed in the biographical note and Aaron Burr. Much of the collection has been transcribed. The final two folders hold copies of Amelia Ogden's will and probate records and the sermon preached at the funeral of Tapping Reeve by Lyman Beecher. Some of the letters, bills and checks have been laminated.