Thomas Day

Thomas Day (1777-1855) graduated from Yale College in 1797; He studied law at Lichfield Law School; and from September 1798 to September 1799 he was a teacher at Williams College. He was admitted to the bar in December 1799 and began practicing at Hartford. In 1809, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Connecticut, and in 1810, he was appointed Secretary, whose post he held until 1835. In May 1815, he became deputy judge of the Hartford District Court, acting in that capacity, with the exception of one year, until May 1825, when he was appointed chief justice of that court, and this continued until June. 1833. He was a judge of the Hartford City Court from 1818 to 31, and one of the members of the committee for the preparation of the statutes of 1808, as well as 1821 and 1824. He reports court decisions by mistake from 1805 to 1853. which were published in twenty volumes. He also edited several works on English law, composing a total of forty volumes in which he presented notifications of American decisions, as well as of later English cases. He was an initial member of the Connecticut Historical Society, whose president he was from 1839 until his death. He was the brother of Yale College President Jeremiah Day.