John Bouvier in Europe

John Bouvier (1787-1851) was a writer, publisher and lawyer. He was born in Codogno, France, in 1787. He immigrated to Philadelphia, with his (quaker) family, when he was fifteen. Bouvier oppened his own press, after working as apprentice to a printer, in 1808. He started in 1814 a weekly newspaper, “The American Telegraph”. Two years later he married Elizabeth Widdifield, daughter of a prominent Philadelphia Quaker family. The Bouviers had one child, Hannah Mary Peterson (1811-1870), who became an accomplished astronomer, the author of Familiar astronomy, or an introduction to the study of heavens (Philadelphia, 1857). In 1814 Bouvier moved to Brownsville to publish the American telegraph, and in 1818 he moved to Uniontown, where he launched the Genius of American liberty. That same year he was admitted to the bar. Then, he discovered that much of what he needed to know as a lawyer was information he couldn’t easily find. Writing of himself in the preface to the first edition of his dictionary, he explained that his efforts to get ahead were “constantly obstructed and … for a long time frustrated for want of that knowledge which his elder brethren of the bar seemed to possess.”

He looked in English law dictionaries of the time, but they were not useful: “What … have we to do with those laws of Great Britain which relate to the person of their king, their nobility, their clergy, their navy, their army; with their game laws; their local statutes…?. His French origin opened his mind to the value of writing down the law as a civilist, and to the prospect and utility of a comprehensive treatise on local law as Robert-Joseph Pothier had done.

Bouvier was permitted to practice before the Philadelphia Supreme Court in 1822, and was recorder of Philadelphia in 1836, and associate justice of the court of criminal sessions in Philadelphia in 1838 — a position he held until his death in 1851.

In 1838 he became judge of the Court of Criminal Sessions (1838). John Bouvier became active with the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Capital Punishment and the temperance movement.

Alternative Biography

John Bouvier was born in the small French village of Codognan, department du Gard. Of his life before the age of fifteen little is known, except that he attended school in Nimes. His father, Jean (1760-1803) was a man of considerable means, having inherited property from his uncle and money from his grandfather. Bouvier’s mother, Marie Benezet (1760-1823), also brought a respectable dowry into her marriage with Jean. Husband and wife farmed for a living, adding to this income money earned from a distillery and from a farm products and manufacturing exchange enterprise. As a result of his fortune, Jean Bouvier was one of the principal men of his village, occupying at one time or another almost all of the village offices. However, when he attempted to feed his friends and finance relief from the distress occasioned by the French Revolution (with which he sympathized), a series of misfortunes crushed the family. Thus circumstanced, Jean and Marie applied for passports to America in 1800, finally making the voyage in 1802 with their two sons, John and Daniel (c. 1795-1825). John’s father died less than a year later, while his mother returned to France and died in 1823.

Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia, John Bouvier was apprenticed to Benjamin Johnson, printer and bookseller, until he was twenty-one. He seems to have read voraciously during this period. In 1808 friends helped him to establish his own business in Philadelphia. Two years later he married Elizabeth Middifield (1787?-1840?), daughter of James and Hannah Middifield, prominent Philadelphia Quakers. The union issued one child, Hannah Mary (1811-1870), who grew to become an accomplished astronomer and author of FAMILIAR ASTROW: OR An Introduction to the Study of the Heavens.

About 1814 Bouvier moved to Brownsville to publish the American Telegraph, moving again in 1818 to Uniontown, where he established the Genius of American Liberty with John M. Austin. That same year he was admitted to the bar, and four years later he was permitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Returning to Philadelphia in 1823, Bouvier published an abridgement of Blackstone. Sometime later he became active with the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Capital Punishment, the Apprentices Library of Philadelphia, and the temperance movement. It seems that he was also interested, if not active, in Pennsylvania Democratic-Republican politics, for between 1820 and 1824 he received regular correspondence from James Todd, a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, about legislative proceedings and politics. A letter from former-governor Joseph Ritner is also suggestive.
But the highest offices which Bouvier himself attained were City Recorder and associate judge of the court of criminal sessions (1838). A year later his famous Law Dictionary appeared, going through numerous editions. Between 1841 and his death in November, 1851, he managed to publish two more works: a new edition of Mathew Bacon’s Abridgement of the Law (1841-1845) and Institutes of American Law (1851).

Bouvier´s Law Dictionary

In 1839, John Bouvier wrote and published “A Law Dictionary Adapted To The Constitution And Laws Of The United States Of America And Of The Several States Of The American Union With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law”. The dictionary written by Bouvier was revised by later editors, including Francis Rawle and William Edward Baldwin: a 2nd in 1843 and a third in 1848. It had 6,600 legal terms. When Bouvier died, copious material was found in his office. His estate was able to put out a 4th edition of his Law Dictionary in 1852.

Many editions followed such as the 5th edition (1892) and the “new edition” of Francis Rawle in 1897 (now, with the title “Bouvier’s Law Dictionary”), and the last one, in 1914, with the title Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia, 1914, also edited by Francis Rawle. This last one was the 8th. edition of the legal Dictionary.

Until middle of the XIX century, the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary was, together with Black´s Law Dictionary, an essencial law reference resource in the United States. It was used, among others, by Abraham Lincon and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

It was first cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1847 (Jones v. Van Zandt, 46 U.S. 215, 227) and it was cited afterwars occasionally, specially until the 1950s (See e.g. United States v. Leal-Felix, 625 F.3d 1148, 1159 (9th Cir. 2010) and vac. 641 F.3d 1141 (9th Cir. 2011))

Other works

Like Black, he published several other law books, being the first law book an abridgment of Blackstone’s famous work. His most famous being his Law dictionary, as Black. John Bouvier wrote and published a 13-volume Index to Mathew Bacon’s New Abridgment of the Law, between 1842 and 1846. In 1851, he completed the Institutes of American Law, a 4-volume set.

John Bouvier collection and archives

The Huntington Library in San Marino, California houses the John Bouvier collection and archives and presents this summary of the circumstances of his father’s immigration:

“As a result of his fortune, Jean Bouvier was one of the principal men of his village, occupying at one time or another almost all of the village offices. However, when he attempted to feed his friends and finance relief from the distress occasioned by the French Revolution (with which he sympathized), a series of misfortunes crushed the family. Thus circumstanced, Jean and Marie applied for passports to America in 1800, finally making the voyage in 1802 with their two sons, John and Daniel (c. 1795-1825). John’s father died less than a year later, while his mother returned to France and died in 1823.”

See Also

• Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia, 1914
• Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law
• Law Dictionaries
• Legal dictionary
• Black’s Law Dictionary

Further Reading

• Allibone, S. Austin, “Review of Bouvier’s Law Dictionary”, North American Review, July 1861
• National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 8 and 16 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1907)
• Marlyn Robinson, Language and the Law (2003), p. 68-75.
• Brigham, Clarence. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers. Vol. 2. pp. 978-979.
• Dictionary of American Biography. Vol 2. pp. 490-491.
• North American Review; July, 1861. pp. 71-82
• Simpson, Henry. The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians. pp. 111-123.