David Torrance (March 3, 1840 – September 5, 1906) was a soldier, lawyer, politician, and chief justice of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in Connecticut. Torrance was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on March 3, 1840. Torrance's widowed mother emigrated to the United States in 1849 with her five children, settling in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, Connecticut. Torrance worked in cotton and paper mills to support his family, receiving little formal education. In 1862 he enlisted in the Union army as a private, but he rapidly rose in rank. He was captured at the Second Battle of Winchester and spent time in

Libby Prison Libby Prison was a Confederate States of America, Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. In 1862 it was designated to hold officer prisoners from the Union Army, taking in numbers from the nearby Seven Days battl ...

, but was soon paroled. In January 1864 he was commissioned a captain in the 29th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, commanded by William B. Wooster, a lawyer in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

. By the end of the war Torrance was lieutenant colonel under Wooster. Torrance began to study law under Wooster during the war, and moved to Derby after the war to study law with him. In 1868 they formed the lawfirm of Wooster & Torrance and remained in practice with each other until Torrance became a judge in 1885. Torrance represented Derby in the General Assembly in 1871 and 1872. In 1879 he was elected Secretary of State, serving until 1881. In 1881 he was appointed Judge of Common Pleas in New Haven County; in 1885 he was appointed to the Superior Court, and in 1889 to the Supreme Court. He was appointed Chief Justice in 1901 and served until his death in 1906.http://www.cslib.org/memorials/torranced.htm Connecticut State Library bio, from the Connecticut Reports He was awarded an honorary M.A. by

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

in 1883; he became a law school instructor there in 1893 and a professor in 1898. Torrance married Annie France in 1864; they had three children.

References

External links

bio of Torrance with quotes and pictures
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Torrance, David Secretaries of the state of Connecticut Connecticut state court judges Chief justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court Connecticut lawyers Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives 1840 births 1906 deaths People of Connecticut in the American Civil War Scottish emigrants to the United States Military personnel from Connecticut 19th-century Connecticut state court judges 19th-century members of the Connecticut General Assembly