Author: Littell, William
Biography:
Littell, William (1768-1824: WBIS)
There is no reliable record of the names of his parents, but he was born in New Jersey, travelled to western Pennsylvania with his father, then moved to Kentucky, where at first he practised medicine but in 1799 was admitted to the bar and began his career as a lawyer. In 1806 he published two historical studies in support of the Republican side in a political dispute, as well as a prose satire, An Epistle from William, surnamed Littell, to the People of the Realm of Kentucky. He won a contract from the state legislature for a compilation of Kentucky statutes and produced his major work, "Littell's Statutes," five volumes of The Statute Law of Kentucky (1809-1819), followed in later years by a digest and by six volumes of decisions of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In 1810 he was awarded an LLD by Transylvania University. Littell married twice: first, in 1816, Martha Irwin McCracken, and then after her death, in 1823, Eliza P. Hickman, who was the mother of his one surviving child. He died in Frankfort, KY, apparently in poverty. The state legislature passed a law for the relief of his family. (ANBO 17 Nov. 2019; Kurt X. Metzmeier, "Littell, William," Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law [2009] 341-2)