Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Simon Greenleaf

GREENLEAF, Simon (1783-1853), American jurist, was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 5, 1783. After studying law in Massachusetts and Maine, he began in 1806 to practise at Standish in the latter State, proceeding finally to Portland in 1818. There, after two years, he became reporter of the supreme court of Maine, and during his twelve years of office published nine volumes of Reports. Resigning in 1832, Greenleaf became in 1833 Royale professor, and in 1846 Dane professor of law in Harvard University, where he received the degree of doctor of laws. He retired in 1848 from his active duties, becoming emeritus professor, and after being for some years president of the Massachusetts Bible Society died at Cambridge, Mass., October 6, 1853.

Greenleaf's principal work is a Treatise on the Law of Evidence, 1842-53. He published also A Full Collection of Cases Overruled, Denied, Doubted, or Limited in their Application, taken from American and English Reports, in 1840, expanded afterwards to 3 volumes; and an Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence administered in the Courts of Justice, with an Account of the Trial of Jesus, 1846. This was republished in England in 1847.