Austin Abbott

Austin Abbott

Austin Abbott (born December 18, 1831 in Boston , Massachusetts , † April 19, 1896 in New York City ) was an American lawyer and writer.

Life

Austin Abbott was the second son of the American youth writer Jacob Abbott and his wife Harriet. He went to school first in Boston, then in Roxbury and Farmington as he and his family moved to those cities one by one. In 1851 he graduated from New York University , which he had attended since 1847. Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1852 and now ran the law firm Abbott Brothers with his brother Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, who was one and a half years older . His two younger brothers, Lyman Abbott and Edward Abbott, devoted themselves primarily to a spiritual career. In 1854, Austin Abbott married Ellen Louise Dummer Gilman.

In addition to his early involvement in two novels, the tall and slim Austin Abbott wrote legal textbooks and reports as a prolific author in the 1850s and 1860s together with his brother Benjamin Vaughan. At that time he was also working as a very recognized lawyer. In 1865 he helped the commissioners charged with drafting the New York State Code . After his brother left, he continued to run the law firm on his own.

In the 1870s, Austin Abbott, who also pursued musical interests such as playing the organ, began creating legal works on his own, some of which were widely used. He appeared in many significant trials and gained a national reputation in 1875 through his successful defense of the congregational preacher Henry Ward Beecher , who had been accused of adultery with his wife Elizabeth Tilton by his former friend Theodore Tilton (1835-1907). In 1881, the lawyer, who had been married to Anna Rowe Worth for the second time in 1879, acted as a government advisor in the court case against Charles J. Guiteau for his murder of US President James A. Garfield . In 1891 he became professor and dean of the law faculty at New York University and, in this role, he was responsible for the incorporation of vocational elements into the curricula. He died in 1896 at the age of 64.

Works

Austin Abbott wrote the following novels, published under the pseudonym Benauly , with his brothers Benjamin Vaughan and Lyman Abbott :

• Cone cut corners; The Experiences of a Conservative Family in Fanatical Times , 1855
• Matthew Caraby , 1859

Abbott's legal writings include:

• Reports of Practice Cases Determined in the Courts of the State of New York , Volume 1, 1855 (with his brother Benjamin Vaughan Abbott)
• Reports of Decisions of the Court of Appeals of New York, 1850–1869 , 4 volumes., 1873–1874
• Abbott's Digest of New York Statutes and Reports , new edition in 6 volumes, 1873, expanded by 8 supplementary volumes to 1896
• New Cases, Courts of the State of New York , 31 Volumes, 1876-1894
• Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher , 2 volumes, 1875
• Trial Evidence, The Rules of Evidence Applicable on the Trials of Civil Actions , 1880
• Brief for the Trial of Civil Issues before a Jury , 1885
• The Principles and Forms of Practice in Civil Actions , 2 volumes, 1887–1888
• Brief for the Trial of Criminal Cases , 1889
• Brief on the Mode of Proving the Facts most Frequently in Issue or Collaterally in Questions on the Trial of Civil or Criminal Cases , 1891
• Brief for the Argument of Questions Arising upon the Pleadings on the Trial of Issues of Law or Fact in Civil Actions , 1891
• Select Cases on Code Pleading , 1893
• Select Cases on the Law of Evidence as Applied During the Examination of Witnesses , 1895

literature

• Abbott, Austin . In: Dictionary of American Biography , Vol. 1 (1928), pp. 15f.