Royal Tyler Sprague (January 23, 1814 – February 24, 1872) was the 11th
Chief Justice of California.
Biography
Sprague taught elementary school in
Potsdam, New York and later opened a school in
Zanesville, Ohio. In 1838 he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in Ohio. The finding of gold in the Sierra Nevada prompted Sprague to become a "
Forty-Niner". After arriving in California in September 1849, Sprague worked a claim on
Clear Creek on the
Sacramento River. He settled in Reading's Springs, now
Shasta, California, and once again became an attorney.
In 1852, he was elected to the
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Cal ...
representing the
18th District, and in 1855 served as its
President pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
.
In 1867, Sprague was elected to the
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
as a Democrat; he was chosen to be Chief Justice in January 1872 and died the next month. He is interred in
Sacramento Historic City Cemetery
The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery (or Old City Cemetery), located at 1000 Broadway, at 10th Street, is the oldest existing cemetery in Sacramento, California. It was designed to resemble a Victorian garden and sections that are not locate ...
.
A collection of his journals is in the Bancroft Library at the
University of California, Berkeley.
Personal life
On, May 30, 1844, he married Francis Blocksom at Muskingum, Ohio. In 1852, Sprague returned to Ohio briefly to retrieve his wife and their family; they returned to California with him. The couple had four children: Anna Maria Sprague (1845–1879); Arthur Hale Sprague (1848–1922); Ella Sprague (1853-1855); and Frances Royal Sprague (1864–1957).
Royal Sprague genealogy
Retrieved July 10, 2017.
References
External links
In Memoriam Royal T. Sprague
43 Cal. Rpts. 3 (1872). California Supreme Court Historical Society. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
See also
* List of justices of the Supreme Court of California
* Joseph B. Crockett
* William T. Wallace
William Thompson Wallace (March 22, 1828 – August 11, 1909) was the 12th Chief Justice of California and the 6th Attorney General of California. He served on the Supreme Court of California from 1871 to 1879 and as Attorney General from 1856 to ...
* Jackson Temple
Jackson Temple (August 11, 1827 – December 25, 1902) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. He served three separate terms on the court between 1870 and 1902.
Early life and education
Temple was born in the town of Heath ...
1814 births
1872 deaths
Chief Justices of California
People of the California Gold Rush
People from New Haven, Vermont
U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
Justices of the Supreme Court of California
19th-century American judges
Superior court judges in the United States
Democratic Party California state senators
19th-century American politicians
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