See GAME, 2. KENT, JAMES. Was born in Putnam county, New York, July 31, 1763, and died December 12, 1847. His grandfather was a clergyman, his father a lawyer; and both were graduates of Yale college. He entered Yale in 1777, and was graduated with distinction in 1781. In July, 1779, the students being dispersed by the invasion of New Haven by the British troops, he withdrew to a small town, where he chanced to read a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries, the perusal influencing him in deciding to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1785, and began the practice at Poughkeepsie, where he had pursued his studies. In 1790, and in 1792, he was elected to the legislature from Duchess county. He was an active Federalist, and had the friendship of Jay and Hamilton. In 1793, he removed to New York city, and in the following year began to deliver lectures in the law department of Columbia college. The attendance upon the course for 1795 did not encourage him to deliver another course. The first three lectures were afterward published, but the sale of copies did not repay the expense of publication. In 1796, he was appointed one of the two masters in chancery in New York city, and was also re-elected to the legislature; and the next year he was made recorder of the city. In 1798, he was appointed a judge of the supreme court, in which capacity he continued sixteen years, during ten of which he was chief justice. At that time there were neither reports nor precedents of the court; the judges pronounced their opinions orally and at very irregular intervals; the law itself was embryonic and unsettled. Kent decided cases without delay, and, in cases of importance, delivered written opinions. The most of these opinions have been preserved in the three volumes of Johnson's Cases (1779-1803), the fourteen volumes of Johnson's Reports (1806-1817), and the seven volumes of Johnson's Chancery Reports (18141823). The large number of per curiam opinions in eighth Johnson, all of one term, are by him, although not so indicated. "English authorities did not stand high in those feverish times, and this led me," he wrote, "to bear down opposition, or to shame it, by 1 Stevens v. People, 67 III. 590 (1873). 2 Barrett v. Malden, &c. R. Co., 3 Allen, 101 (1861); Commonwealth v. Palmer, 134 Mass. 537 (1883); Cummings v. Riley, 52 N. H. 369 (1872); Grant v. Ricker, 74 Me. 488 (1883). D E