author
David Daggett
1764–1851
A leading Connecticut lawyer and Federalist statesman, he helped shape public life in the early United States while also playing a founding role in what became Yale Law School. His career moved between politics, the bench, and the classroom, leaving a strong mark on New Haven and the state.
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About the author
Born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1764, David Daggett graduated from Yale in 1783, taught school for a time, and then studied law before building his career in New Haven, Connecticut. He became a prominent lawyer and an active public figure during the early republic.
Daggett served in the Connecticut legislature, represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate as a Federalist, and later became mayor of New Haven. He also rose to the state judiciary, serving on the Connecticut Supreme Court and eventually as chief justice. Alongside his legal and political work, he was one of the founders of Yale Law School and taught law there, helping to shape legal education in its early years.
He is remembered as an influential figure in Connecticut's civic and legal history: a man whose work connected government, courts, and higher education at a formative moment in the country's development.