Hillhouse family.

James Hillhouse was born October 20, 1754, in Montville, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1773, studied law, and served in the militia in the American Revolution. Hillhouse served in the Connecticut General Assembly and was elected to Congress (1790-1795). He served as U.S. Senator (1796-1810), Commissioner of the Connecticut School Fund (1810-1825), and Treasurer of Yale College (1782-1832). He died in New Haven on December 29, 1832.

James Abraham Hillhouse was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on September 26, 1789. He received a B.A. from Yale College in 1808 and an M.A. in 1811. Hillhouse was a poet and dramatist who was also engaged in the hardware business in New York City. He died in New Haven, Connecticut on January 4, 1841.

Augustus Lucas Hillhouse was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 9, 1791. He graduated from Yale College in 1810 and went to France in 1816 where he remained until his death on March 14, 1859. He was the author of several works, some of them unpublished.

James Hillhouse was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 19, 1854. He received a B.A. from Yale College and a LL.B. from Columbia University in 1878. Hillhouse practiced law in New York City until his retirement in 1905. He then moved to New Haven where he remained until his death on September 17, 1938.

AUGUSTUS LUCAS HILLHOUSE, the younger son of the Hon. James Hillhouse (Yale 1773), of New Haven, was born in New Haven on December 9, 1791. He was prepared for College by Henry Davis (Yale 1796), and at first entered the Class of 1807. His elder brother was graduated in 1808.

He was distinguished as a student for scholarship and poetical genius, and seemed to be entering on life with the fairest hopes.

After graduation he became a victim of severe chronic dyspepsia, and fell into a state of physical and mental depression. He was elected to a tutorship in College in 1812, and would have succeeded to the office in 1814, had he not declined. In the hope that Change of scene and of climate and the excitement of foreign travel might benefit him, his father consented to his going abroad, in 1816.

He landed at Bordeaux, traveled through the south of France, tarried a short time in Geneva, and by early fall was settled in Paris, in or near which was his home for the rest of his life.

In his first years there he interested himself actively in efforts for the diffusion of evangelical influences among the French people. A little later, he gave considerable time to the translation of a new work on the forest trees of North America, and in that connection tried to promote the cultivation of the olive in the Southern part of the United States.

About 1823 he set about the composition of a philosophical work, to be entitled. "A Demonstration of the Natural Method in Politics, or, the Political Experience of the United States, applied to Europe," which occupied him for the rest of his life. He withdrew from society, and postponed his return to his family home until his great work should be completed.

In July, 1853, he made an arrangement by which his unimproved real estate in New Haven was transferred to Yale College, in return for an annuity of $1,200; the property was held for many years, but ultimately realized much more than the amount paid to Mr. Hillhouse.

In his lonely life he found his chief pleasure in beneficence to the poor; and when he died on March 14, 1859, in his 68th year, he was sincerely mourned by the peasants of the little village of Eragny, where the event occurred, on the left bank of the Oise, about fifteen miles northwest of Paris.

He was never married. His body was brought to America for burial, in accordance with his own expressed wish.

He left behind him a large collection of manuscripts, but not in condition to be printed.

He printed:

1. Description of the European Olive Tree. [Paris, 1818.] Large 8°, pp. 43 + Pl. [ B. Publ. Harv. Y. C. This article was written for the North American Sylva, by F. A. Michaux, and appears in Mr. Hillhouse's translation of that work, volume 2, PP 156-204.

Another edition is:-

An Essay on the History and Cultivation of the European Olive Tree. Paris, 1820. 8°, pp. 54 + pl. [ B. Publ. M. H. S.

2. A Hymn. In the Christian Spectator, vol. 4, pp. 195-196. New Haven, April, 1822. 8°.

Seven stanzas, of four lines, signed with initials only. See the biographical article on the author, by the Rev. Dr. Bacon, in the New Englander.

3. The Natural Method in Politics, being the abstract of an unpublished work. Paris, 1826.

Said to have been privately printed, in a very small edition.

He was also the author of the following anonymous translation from the French:-

4. The North American Sylva, or a description of the forest trees, of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the Arts and their introduction into Commerce; to which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees. .. By F. Andrew Michaux. Philadelphia and Paris, 1817-1819. 3 vols. 8°.

[Harv. Philad. Libr. Co. U. S.]

About the same date he translated and adapted from the English into French, numerous tracts by Hannah More.

AUTHORITIES.

Dwight Family, ii, 1092. Hist. Biogr. Record, iv, 146. Walworth Magazine, iii, 192. New Englander, Hyde Family, ii, 929. xviii, 557-572. N. Y. Geneal. and

Franklin B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. VI, 1805-1815 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912), pp. 331-333.

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JAMES HILLHOUSE (1854-1938)i, B.A. 1875

Born November 19, 1854, in New Haven, Conn.

Died September 17, 1938, in New Haven, Conn.

Father, William Hillhouse (M.D., New York University 1845; M.A. Hon. Yale 1849), a physician in New Haven; son of Thomas and Anne VanSchaick (TenBroeck) Hillhouse of Watertown, N.Y. Mother, Frances Julia (Betts); daughter of Samuel Rossiter Betts, LL.D. (B.A. Williams 1806), and Caroline Abigail (Dewey) Betts of New York City. Yale relatives include: James A. Hillhouse (BA. 1749) (great-great-uncle); James Hillhouse (B.A. 1773) and William Hillhouse (B.A. 1777) (great-uncles); Francis Betts Hillhouse, '25 (nephew); and John TenBroeck Hillhouse, '69, and Samuel Rossiter Betts, '75 (cousins).

Hopkins Grammar School. Second premium for English composition Sophomore year; philosophical oration appointment Junior and Senior years; Townsend Prize; Commencement speaker; member Class walking club; Kappa Sigma Epsilon, Phi Theta Psi, Psi Upsilon, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Traveled abroad 1875-76; attended Columbia University School of Law 1876-78 (LL.B. 1878); admitted to New York bar as attorney at law 1878 and as counselor at law 1879; in office of Hill [James K.,'54], Wing & Shroudy, New York City, 1878-79; associated with George F. Betts January-September, 1879, with Horatio F. Averill 1879-1880, and with A C. Fransioli 1880-81; managing clerk Chittenden, Townsend [James M., '74] & Chittenden [Horace H., '74] 1881-82 and with Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie 1882-88; engaged in independent practice in New York City 1888-1905; lecturer on parliamentary law and procedure New York University School of Law 1896-97 and professor of law 1897-1899; retired from practice of law in 1905 and had since resided in New Haven; Class secretary for a short time after graduation; member Mayor's Committee on New Haven Tercentenary Celebration and on the Committee for the State of Connecticut; member New York Bar Association, American Bar Association, New Haven Chamber of Commerce, and St. Thomas' Church (Episcopal), New Haven (vestryman since 1919 and member building committee since 1930).

Married October 3, 1894, in New York City, Hildegarde, daughter of Albert and Matilda Livingston (Rogers) Speyers. No children.

Death due to arterial sclerosis of the heart. Buried in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven. Survived by wife and a brother, Francis Hillhouse, '79 S. Another brother, Charles Betts Hillhouse, '78 S., died December 28, 1937.

In 1931 Mr. Hillhouse gave to the Yale Law Library his law library of 2,400 volumes, including many rare and out of print items.

Yale University Obituary Record, 1938-1939. pp. 14-15.

From the guide to the Hillhouse family papers, 1707-1943, (Manuscripts and Archives)