Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Davis, John Chandler Bancroft

John Chandler Bancroft Davis enjoyed a long and prolific career as a diplomat, jurist, and legal historian.

The son of John Davis, a Massachusetts governor and U.S. senator, Davis was born December 29, 1822, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard College in 1840, but was suspended (unjustly, by some accounts) during his senior year. He then studied law and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1844. Three years later, he received his law degree from Harvard.

Davis practiced law in New York City until August 1849, when he was appointed secretary of the U.S. legation in Great Britain. He was also acting chargé d' affaires of the embassy for a brief time. Davis left his diplomatic post in November 1852 to resume his law practice and to become U.S. correspondent for the London Times. Illness forced him to give up his law practice, and in 1862 he and his wife settled on a farm in rural New York State.

Six...