Edmund H. Bennett - Judicial, Political and Academic Career

Judicial, Political and Academic Career

Bennett maintained an active legal practice in Taunton for many years. In May 1858, he was appointed judge of probate and insolvency in Bristol County, and he held that post until he resigned from it in 1883. In 1864 the city of Taunton was formally incorporated, and Bennett was elected the city's first mayor, he was inaugurated on January 2, 1865. Bennett was re-elected mayor in 1866 and 1867, he served until his resignation on June 19, 1867. In his political career he began as a supporter of the Whig Party and then as a founding member of the Republican Party.

From 1870-1872 he held the post of a lecturer in the Dane Law School at Harvard University. In the fall of 1872 he was appointed as the inaugural Dean of Boston University's Law School but due to ill health had to decline the appointment. He did however teach the law at Boston University, and then in 1875 assumed the post of Dean of the Law School. He held that position until his death in 1898. He lectured in many areas of the law such as contracts, constitutional law, and probate. As an experienced practitioner, judge and law school lecturer Bennett wrote a number of legal textbooks concerning agricultural law, business law, constitutional law, fire insurance, and collated various volumes of English law reports and cases in equity. He also edited and revised a number of existing legal textbooks written by earlier authorities such as Joseph Story's Conflict of Laws (1857), Story's Agency (1862), Blackwell's Tax Titles (1864), and Indermaur's Principles of the Common Law (1878). According to Jones' Index of Legal Periodical Literature (1888), Bennett is listed as the author of fifty-nine articles in various legal periodicals such as the Harvard Law Review, Law Quarterly Review and American Law Register. He also acted as an editor of various legal journals.

In 1891 Governor William Russell appointed Bennett as chairman of the Board of Commissioners for the Promotion of Uniformity of Legislation in the USA. In 1896 he was appointed by Governor Roger Wolcott as chairman of the Commission on the Revision of the Public Statutes.

Bennett was also interested in early colonial history and belonged to the Old Colony Historical Society. In 1889 he delivered the society's historical address on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of settlement in Taunton. Bennett is remembered and honored in Taunton with a public school named after him. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892.