Biography of John L Barbour
FROM OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
A DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE SARATOGIAN
THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1899
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Barbour, John L., was born in Saratoga Springs and received his early education at a private school He studied
law with his father and also in the office of Hon. John W. Crane, and was admitted to the bar in 1867, since which
date he has pursued the practice of his profession in Saratoga Springs. Mr. Barbour is a member of the Jeffersonian
Democratic Club of Saratoga Springs, and of the Saratoga Club. He was police justice from 1884 to 1888. Mr. Barbour’s
parents were Oliver L. and Elizabeth Wells (Berry) Barbour.. His father, Oliver L. Barbour, LL. D., was one of
the greatest law authors this country has produced. He was born in White Creek (now Cambridge), Washington county.
N. Y., July 12, 1811, of New England and Scotch ancestry. His father was Oliver Barbour, a manufacturer of woolen
goods. The deceased passed his boyhood in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, where he obtained his early education. When
fourteen years old he began the study of law in the office of Judge Osborne, of Mayville, in the same county. He
afterward pursued the study of law with Barnes & Noyes in Rome, Judge Storrs in Whitestown and Roderick N.
Morrison in Penn Van. He was admitted to the bar in 1832. In the spring of 1883 he came to Saratoga Springs and
entered the office of Chancellor Walworth, who was Mr. Barbour’s uncle on his mother’s side. He was the chancellor’s
clerk for several years, and also practiced in his court, and took up his lifework of compiling law books. The
degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by Hamilton College in 1859. His first work was The Equity Digest,
four volumes. Second, Treatises on Criminal Law, embracing the practice in justice’s court in criminal cases, of
which three large editions were published. Third, Treatise on Practice in Court of Chancery, three volumes. Fourth,
a Treatise on the Law of Set-Off. Fifth, three volumes of Chancery Reports. In 1848 he became the reporter of the
Supreme Court and published sixty-seven volumes of the reports, and three volumes of digest of those decisions.
In 1864 he wrote a treatise on the Law of Parties to Actions, of which a second edition was issued in 1884. These
comprise no less than one hundred and twenty volumes of standard law books, besides which he has edited. upwards
of twenty volumes which have appeared under the names of others. He regarded his treatise on criminal law as his
most valuable production. His chancery practice still stands in Michigan. New Jersey and several other States.
The Chancery Re• ports were also highly endorsed by Judge Story of the United States Supreme Court in 1844, and
by Vice-Chancellor Sanford of New York city in 1846, for their accuracy and exhaustiveness. He died December, 17,
1889.
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