Early Life and Family
Albert Ritchie was born on August 29, 1876 in Richmond, Virginia to relatively distinguished parents. His father, Albert, had served as a member of the Maryland Constitutional Convention in 1867, as a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland, as City Solicitor of Baltimore, Maryland, and as a judge. His mother, Elizabeth Caskie Cabell, was descended from a Governor of Virginia and from Joseph Cabell, a close associate of Thomas Jefferson.
Ritchie moved to Baltimore with his family shortly after his birth and received his early education from private schools. He received a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1896, and his LL.D from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1898. He entered into practice with the firm of Steele, Semmes, Carey and Bond in 1900, and in 1903 was appointed Assistant City Solicitor of Baltimore. The same year, he formed his own law practice with Stuart S. Janney. Ritchie continued to serve as Solicitor until 1910, and continued to practise law with Janney until 1919. In 1907, Ritchie was appointed as a professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law.
In 1907, Ritchie married Elizabeth Catherine Baker of Catonsville, Maryland. However, in June 1916, Baker filed for divorce under the charge of abandonment, since Ritchie had left her to live with his mother in 1910. He did not challenge her claim, and the divorce was finalized soon thereafter. Ritchie never remarried, nor did he have any children.
Read more about this topic: Albert Ritchie
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us may realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a cheque every month, and hoped he’d get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.”
—John Osborne (b. 1929)