Theodore William Dwight

Theodore William Dwight (1822–1892) was an American jurist and educator, cousin of Theodore Dwight Woolsey and of Timothy Dwight V. Biography Theodore William Dwight was born in Catskill, New York on July 18, 1822. His father was Benjamin Woolsey Dwight (1780–1850), a physician and merchant, and his grandfather was Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817), a prominent theologian, educator, author, and president of Yale University from 1795-1817. Theodore Dwight graduated from Hamilton College in 1840. He also later studied physics under Samuel F.B. Morse and John William Draper. Dwight taught classics at Utica Academy in 1840–1841. He studied law at Yale and was admitted to the bar in 1845. Between 1842-1858, he taught at Hamilton, first as tutor and later as professor of law, history, civil polity, and political economy. In 1853 he became dean of the Hamilton Law School. In 1858, he accepted an invitation to develop a department of law at Columbia. In 1860, the New York State Legislature passed a law allowing graduates of the program to bypass the bar exam and be seated to the New York Bar. However, this was declared unconstitutional by state court judges a decision that was appealed by Professor Dwight. By 1864, graduates of the program could be admitted to the bar without further examination.