Samuel Prentiss

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Samuel Prentiss
Samuel Prentiss

In office
March 4, 1831April 11, 1842
Preceded by Dudley Chase
Succeeded by Samuel C. Crafts

Born March 31, 1782
Stonington, Connecticut, USA
Died January 15, 1857
Montpelier, Vermont, USA
Political party National Republican, Whig
Spouse Lucretia Houghton Prentiss
Profession Politician, Lawyer, Judge

Samuel Prentiss (March 31, 1782January 15, 1857) was a United States Senator from Vermont.

Born in Stonington, Connecticut, he moved to Northfield, Massachusetts in 1786; he completed preparatory studies and was instructed in the classics by a private tutor. He studied law in Northfield and in Brattleboro, Vermont; he was admitted to the bar in 1802 and practiced in Montpelier from 1803 to 1822.

Prentiss was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1824-1825 and was an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court; he was elected chief justice in 1829. In 1831, Prentiss was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the U.S. Senate; he was reelected as a Whig in 1837 and served from March 4, 1831, to April 11, 1842, when he resigned to accept a judicial assignment. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office (Twenty-seventh Congress).

Samuel Prentiss was the originator and successful advocate of the law to suppress dueling in the District of Columbia; appointed by President John Tyler he was from April 1842 until his death, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. He died in Montpelier, and his remains were interred in Green Mount Cemetery.

John Holmes Prentiss, Samuel's brother, was a United States Representative from New York.

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Preceded by
Dudley Chase
United States Senator (Class 3) from Vermont
March 4, 1831April 11, 1842
Served alongside: Horatio Seymour, Benjamin Swift and Samuel S. Phelps
Succeeded by
Samuel C. Crafts