Isaac Royall, Jr.

Portrait of Isaac Royall, painted in 1769 by John Singleton Copley

Isaac Royall, Jr. (1719–1781) was a colonial American slaveholder who played an important role in the creation of Harvard Law School.

Life

Isaac Royall and relations by Robert Feke. His wife and daughter are by his side.[1]

He was the son of Isaac Royall, an Antiguan slaveholder who moved his family to Medford, Massachusetts, in the 1730s.[2] He took over his father's estate, "Ten Hills Farm," which is now the Isaac Royall House, a museum containing the only slave quarters in the northeast United States.[3] During the Revolution, Royall, who had patriot sympathies but significant Loyalist connections, was named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778 and fled to Nova Scotia and then to England, where he died of smallpox in 1781.[2]

There is a portrait of Royall by John Singleton Copley and another of his wife, Elizabeth. Robert Feke also painted a family group which includes him, his wife and his daughter. This daughter Harriet married into the Pepperell family and their daughter married a Palmer baronet in Wanlip in Leicestershire.[1]

In his will of 1779, Royall left land to Harvard College to establish the first professorship in law at the school. This bequest resulted in the founding of Harvard Law School.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Palmer family of Wanlip, Leics.goc.uk, retrieved 29 June 2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Royalls". The Royall House and Slave Quarters. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Royall House and Slave Quarters". The Royall House and Slave Quarters. Retrieved December 27, 2012.