Harvard Law School is established in Cambridge.

Its creation is supported by a 1778 bequest from Isaac Royall Jr., the son of an Antiguan planter and a slave owner. It is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the U.S. (the College of William and Mary was established in 1779, but closed during the Civil War). Isaac Parker is the first faculty member, and later becomes Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, whereupon he is described by Joseph Story as “A good-natured lazy lawyer [who had become] a good-natured lazy judge.” Enrollment at the school drops to a single student in 1828. Attempts to rejuvenate it begin in 1829,* but the school does not begin to thrive until a new curriculum is introduced in 1870.*