Masonic History
Justice Oliver Ellsworth
(Apr 29, 1745-Nov 26, 1807)
Occupation: Attorney, US Supreme Court Justice.
Interred: Palisado Cemetery,
Windsor,
Connecticut
Lodge affiliation:
1765 - Charter member, St. John's Lodge, Princeton, NJ
Oliver Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticutt. He entered Yale in 1762, but transferred to the College of New Jersey, later becoming Princeton, at the end of his second year. He continued to study theology and, while attending, helped found the American Whig–Cliosophic Society along with Aaron Burr and William Paterson. He received his A.B. degree, Phi Beta Kappa after 2 years. He then turned to the law and after four years of study, he was admitted to the bar in 1771.
Ellsworth served as one of Connecticut's first two United States senators in the new federal government from 1789 to 1796.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Washington in
1796. He served until his resignation due to ill health in 1800.