Francis Hermann Bohlen (July 31, 1868 – December 9, 1942) was an American legal scholar from Pennsylvania who specialized in

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

law and served as the Algernon Sydney Biddle professor of law at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

Biography

Bohlen was born in Chestnut Hill,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, to John and Priscilla Murray Bohlen. He was a descendant of the von Bohlen family of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. He attended Miss Havens School in Philadelphia. He graduated from St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire (1884), the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(Bachelor of Laws, 1892), and the

(Doctor of Laws, 1930). Apart from his scholarship, he was a well-known

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

player who was considered one of the best amateurs in America, traveling to compete in England and playing for

London County Cricket Club London County Cricket Club was a short-lived cricket club founded by the Crystal Palace Company. In 1898 they invited WG Grace to help them form a first-class cricket club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and ...

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Will ...

, and the

Philadelphian cricket team The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, t ...

. Bohlen was the Algernon Sydney Biddle professor of law at the

."FRANCIS HERMANN BOHLEN,"
''

University of Pennsylvania Law Review The ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been publishe ...

''. He was an expert on the law of torts, and also taught evidence and contracts. He retired from teaching in 1937. He was known as a leading theorist of the Realist years in torts theory, though he was not a Realist himself. Among his writings were ''A Short Selection of Cases on the Law of Torts: Texas, and Other Cases on Torts'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1933), ''Commentaries on Torts: Restatement, Issue 3'' (American Law Institute, 1927), and ''Studies in the law of torts'' (Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1926). Bohlen Family Plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery

Bohlen Family Plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery

He died on December 9, 1942, in

Wynnewood, Pennsylvania Wynnewood is a suburban unincorporated community, located west of Philadelphia, straddling Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The community was named in 1691 for Dr. ...

, at age 74. He is interred in the Bohlen family crypt at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohlen, Francis 1868 births 1942 deaths 20th-century American lawyers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers American legal scholars American people of Prussian descent Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Cricketers from Philadelphia Lawyers from Philadelphia London County cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Philadelphian cricketers Scholars of contract law Scholars of tort law Scholars of evidence law St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty American cricketers