author
Simon Greenleaf
1783–1853
Remembered as one of early America’s most influential legal scholars, he helped shape how courts think about evidence and proof. His career joined practical law, teaching, and writing in a way that left a lasting mark on Harvard Law School and American jurisprudence.
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About the author
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on December 5, 1783, he grew up in Maine, studied law, and began practicing in 1806. He built a strong reputation there as a lawyer and legal scholar, and from 1820 to 1832 served as reporter for the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, publishing important court reports.
In 1833 he joined Harvard as Royall Professor of Law, where he worked closely with Justice Joseph Story and became a major force in strengthening Harvard Law School. After Story’s death, he became Dane Professor of Law. He was especially known for his influential writings on evidence, including A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, a work that helped define the field for generations.
Greenleaf is also remembered by many readers outside legal history for The Testimony of the Evangelists, which applied legal reasoning to the Gospel accounts. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 6, 1853, but his name still comes up wherever the history of evidence law is discussed.