Inductees in Law / Legal Pioneers

 
  1. Chief Justice Samuel Ames (1806-1865)

    Inducted in 2002

     Ames, Samuel, 1806-1865

    Chief Justice Samuel Ames (1806-1865) of Providence served in many public capacities including state legislator, speaker of the house, and quartermaster general of the state militia. His most significant service was as chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (1856-1865).
     
    Ames studied at Phillips-Andover Academy and graduated from Brown University in 1823. He read law for two years under the direction of Samuel W. Read more >
  2. Joseph K. Angell (1794-1857)

    Inducted in 2001

    Angell, Joseph K. (Joseph Kinnicut), 1794-1857

    Joseph K. Angell (1794-1857) of Providence was one of America’s foremost legal scholars of his era.  Most of his many legal treatises dealt with changes in the law occasioned by the transformation of the American economy from a commercial to an industrial base, and he was the nation’s leading authority on riparian law. Read more >

  3. Chief Justice Charles Smith Bradley

    Chief Justice Charles Smith Bradley (1819-1888)

    Inducted in 2006

     

    Bradley, C. S. (Charles Smith), 1819-1888

    Charles Smith Bradley (1819-1888), was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  He graduated first in his class at Brown University in 1838, then obtained a master’s degree from Brown and, eventually, a law degree from Harvard. Read more >

  4. Justice Walter Snow Burges

    Justice Walter Snow Burges (1808-1892)

    Inducted in 2006

     

    Burges, Walter S. (Walter Snow), 1808-1892

    Justice Walter Snow Burges (1808-1892) was a native of Rochester, Massachusetts.  His uncle, Congressman Tristam Burges, a former chief justice, oriented Walter toward Rhode Island and Brown University, where Tristam was a professor of oratory.

    Walter Burges graduated from Brown with honors in 1831, and then taught school for four years while studying law. Read more >

  5. Justice Antonio Caposto (1879-1962)

    Inducted in 2014

    Justice Antonio Capotosto, 1879-1962, Harvard-educated lawyer and first Italian-American member of the Rhode Island Bar Association, assistant attorney general, Superior and Supreme Court justice, founder and first president of the Aurora Club.

    Chief Justice Edmund W. Flynn, 1890-1957, Rhode Island’s longest-serving chief justice, graduate of Georgetown Law School, state representative from South Providence, legal scholar, architect of the “Bloodless Revolution,” and a draftsman of the two most recent digests of Rhode Island’s general laws (1938 and 1956).

    After graduation from Holy Cross College and Georgetown Law School, he served five years as a Democratic state representative from South Providence. Flynn was elevated to the position of chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court on January 1, 1935, as part of the "Bloodless Revolution. Read more >

  6. Charles E. Gorman (1844-1917)

    Inducted in 2005

     

    Gorman, Charles Edmund, 1844-1917

    Charles E. Gorman was Rhode Island’s foremost constitutional reformer of the late 19th century. He was born in Boston in 1844 to an Irish immigrant father for whom he was named and a Yankee mother, Sarah Woodbury, who traced her Massachusetts ancestry to the Cape Ann colony of the early 1620s.

    Gorman was three years old when his parents came to Providence. Read more >

  7. Judge David Howell

    Judge David Howell (1747-1824)

    Inducted in 2012

     

    Howell, David, 1747-1824

    David Howell had a distinguished legal and academic career that extended from the Confederation Era through the Early National Period. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on January 1, 1747, the son of Aaron and Sarah Howell. He received his early education at Hopewell Academy in Hopewell, New Jersey, a Baptist school established by clergyman Isaac Eaton. Howell then went to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1766. Read more >

  8. Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes

    Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes (1818-1875)

    Inducted in 2004

    Jenckes, Thomas A. (Thomas Allen), 1818-1875

    Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes (1818-1875) is regarded nationally as “the father of civil service reform.”  He was born in Cumberland, was educated in the public schools of that town, and graduated from Brown University in 1838 where he distinguished himself in mathematics and the physical sciences.

    Jenckes studied law under Samuel Y. Read more >

  9. U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy

    U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy (1875-1967)

    Inducted in 2015

    U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy, 1875-1967, Congressman Ambrose Kennedy was a rarity in early twentieth century Rhode Island politics--a devout Irish Catholic Republican politician of high standing. Read more >

  10. Frank Licht (1916-1987)

    Inducted in 1996

Search Inductees
Browse through our collection of 600+ amazing Rhode Islanders:

Search by Name or Keyword:


Area of Accomplishment:

African Americans | Agriculture / Farming | Architects & Designers | Artists & Painters | Banking / Finance | Business / Entrepreneurs | Civic Leaders | Civil Engineer | Civil Rights / Abolitionists | Craftsmen | Criminals / Rogues | Dance | Econonomics / Theory | Education & Universities | Entertainment Development | Explorers & Adventurers | Famous RI Families | Food / Culinary | Founders of Rhode Island | Government & Politics | Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation | Immigrants: Chinese | Immigrants: Irish | Immigrants: Portuguese | Industry - General | Industry - Jewelry | Industry - Maritime | Industry - Textiles | Inventors & Inventions | Labor / Unions | Law / Legal Pioneers | Literature / Writers / Newspapers | Medicine & Health Care | Military | Music (Singers, Composers) | Native Americans | Olympic Athletes | Philanthropists | Religion & Churches | Retail Pioneers | Sports - Baseball | Sports - Basketball | Sports - Football | Sports - Golf | Sports - Hockey | Sports - Other | Technology & Science | Theater | TV & Radio | Women |



Browse Years of Induction: