Samuel Dennis Warren II (January 25, 1852 – February 18, 1910) was an American lawyer and businessman from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts.

Early life and family

Childhood and education

Warren was born in

on January 25, 1852, the son of Susan Cornelia (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Clarke) and Samuel Dennis Warren. His father and namesake founded the Cumberland Paper Mills in Maine. He had four siblings:

Henry Clarke Warren Henry Clarke Warren (November 18, 1854 – January 3, 1899) was an American scholar of Sanskrit and Pali. He was a co-founder of the ''Harvard Oriental Series''. Biography Born in Boston, Warren was a son of Susan Cornelia Clarke (1825–1901) a ...

, scholar of Sanskrit and Pali;

Cornelia Lyman Warren Cornelia Warren (March 21, 1857 – June 4, 1921) was an American farmer and an educational and social service philanthropist, widely known for her investment in social improvement projects. She was a trustee of Wellesley College, bought the loc ...

, philanthropist; Edward Perry Warren, art collector; and Fredrick Fiske Warren, political radical and utopist. Warren graduated from the

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

, after which he entered

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

, earning his undergraduate degree in 1875. He graduated second in his class at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1877. The first-place student was his friend

Louis Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis ( ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to ...

, later a justice of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

. Warren was editor of ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

''.

Marriage

Warren married Mabel Bayard, the eldest daughter of United States Senator from Delaware Thomas F. Bayard, at the Church of the Ascension in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on January 25, 1883. The couple went on to have six children.

Career

Warren and Brandeis founded the prominent Boston law firm of

Nutter McClennen & Fish Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP is a long-standing law firm in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm has a wide variety of practice areas including intellectual property, technology, business, and real estate law. Nutter was co-founded by Samuel D. Warren ...

in 1879. At the end of 1890 they published their famous law review article " The Right to Privacy" in the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...

''. It is "one of the most influential essays in the history of American law" and is widely regarded as the first publication in the United States to advocate a right to

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

, articulating that right primarily as a "right to be let alone" which referred to paragraph 11 of the 1868 law of the press of France. Brandeis later acknowledged that the idea for the essay originated with Warren's "deep-seated abhorrance of the invasions of social privacy" on the part of the press. In 1899, he left law to oversee the family's paper production business. He managed the family trust established in May 1889 with the legal assistance of Brandeis to benefit his father's widow and 5 children. In 1906, Warren's brothers

Edward Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...

and

Fiske Fiske is a surname of Scandinavian origins. According to ''Burke's Peerage'', "The family of Fiske has long flourished in the counties of Norfolk (recorded as landowners in the Domesday Book) and Suffolk n England and derives from the old Old Nor ...

charged that Brandeis had structured the trust to benefit Samuel at the expense of his siblings. Warren served from 1902 to 1906 as president of the trustees of the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

Death and aftermath

Warren committed suicide by firearm at his

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a New England town, town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. First settled by E ...

, country home on the night of February 18, 1910, putting to an end the dispute over the family trust. His family disguised his suicide and the date of his death. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that he died of apoplexy on February 20. Following a funeral service at his Boston residence, he was buried in

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark. Dedicated in ...

on February 23. The Warren Trust case became a point of contention during the 1916 Senate hearings on the confirmation of Brandeis to the Supreme Court, and it remains important for its explication of legal ethics and professional responsibility.

References

External links

* *
Louis Brandeis & Samuel Warren," The Right to Privacy," 4 Harvard Law Review 193-220 (1890-91)

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP
the law firm founded by Brandeis and Warren
Samuel Dennis Warren
at FindAGrave.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Samuel D. 1852 births 1910 deaths 1910 suicides Harvard Law School alumni Lawyers from Boston Harvard College alumni Suicides by firearm in Massachusetts 19th-century American lawyers Lawyers from Dedham, Massachusetts Businesspeople from Dedham, Massachusetts