Peleg Chandler

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Peleg Chandler | image = Peleg Whitman Chandler.png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Peleg Whitman Chandler | birth_date = {{Birth date|1816|04|12}} | birth_place = New Gloucester, Maine | death_date = {{Death date and given age|1889|05|28|1816|04|12}} | death_place = Boston, Massachusetts | resting_place = | other_names = | occupation = Lawyer, politician | spouse = {{Marriage|Martha Ann Bush|1837}} | children = | awards = | education = {{Plainlist| * Bangor Theological Seminary * Bowdoin College * Harvard Law School }} | signature = Signature of Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816–1889).png | party = | office = Member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council | term = 1850 | office1 = Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | term_start1 = 1844 | term_end1 = 1845 | term_start2 = 1862 | term_end2 = 1863 | office3 = President of the Boston Common Council | term3 = 1841–1845 | predecessor3 = Edward Blake | successor3 = George Stillman Hillard }} '''Peleg Whitman Chandler''' (April 12, 1816 – May 28, 1889) was an American lawyer, legal news reporter and editor, Boston's city attorney (solicitor), and a two-term state legislator in the Massachusetts General Court.

As City Solicitor, Chandler defended Boston's exclusion of African American students from its public schools in the legal case of ''Roberts v. City of Boston''.

==Life== Chandler's father and grandfather were also named Peleg Chandler;<ref name="memoir">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QY8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA281|title=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society|year=1908|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|access-date=June 1, 2018}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}} his mother was Esther Parsons Chandler.

Born in New Gloucester, Maine, he studied at Bangor Theological Seminary and received his degree from Bowdoin College in 1834. He studied law with his father, in the law office of Theophilus Parsons, and at Harvard Law School. Chandler was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1837, in which year he also married Martha Ann Bush, with whom he went on to have four children.<ref name="hayes">[https://www.rbhayes.org/collection-items/gilded-age-collections/chandler-peleg-w. Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums-Peleg W. Chandler Gilded Age Collections, Biographical Sketch]</ref>

Chandler practiced law in Boston, contributed law reports to the ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' and also founded the ''Law Reporter'' journal, which was the first magazine on law to be successful in the US. He served on the Boston City Council from 1843 to 1845 and in the Massachusetts Governor's Council in 1850. He was also a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for 1844-1845 and 1862-1863.<ref name="hayes"/>

In 1850, as City Solicitor, Chandler defended Boston's exclusion of African American students from its public schools in the legal case of ''Roberts v. City of Boston''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://repository.lib.neu.edu/downloads/neu:rx913v20v?datastream_id=content |title=Boston school boycotted in 1840s |date=February 23, 1964 |newspaper=Boston Globe |page=Section A page 5}}</ref>

Chandler died at his Boston home from heart failure, after a long illness, on May 28, 1889.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66003199/useful-and-upright/ |title=Useful And Upright-The Long Life of The Hon. Peleg W. Chandler-Which Ended Quietly at His Residence This Morning |newspaper=The Boston Daily Globe |date=May 28, 1889 |page=5 |access-date=2020-12-25 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[File:Historic American Buildings Survey Gerda Peterich, Photographer November 1962 SOUTH ELEVATION - Bowdoin College, Massachusetts Hall, Bath Street, Brunswick, Cumberland County, ME HABS ME,3-BRU,1-1.tif|thumb|Photograph of Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin College from the Historic American Buildings Survey]]

==Publications== Among Chandler's published writings are: *{{WorldCat|oclc=78897015|name=''American Criminal Trials''}} *{{WorldCat|oclc=574002|name=''Memoir of Governor Andrew''}} *{{WorldCat|oclc=982157|name=''The Morals of Freedom''}} *{{WorldCat|oclc=43014207|name=''The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Boston''}} *{{WorldCat|oclc=11870492|name=''A Statement in Reply to Mr. Stevenson's Letter to the Wednesday Evening Club''}} *{{WorldCat|oclc=7834833|name=''The Bankrupt Law of the United States''}}

==Philanthropy== In 1872, Chandler funded the refurbishment of Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin College according to designs by A. C. Martin. The works included removal of a staircase, the creation of a first-floor recitation room and space to house the Cleaveland Cabinet of mineral and natural history specimens. Cleaveland was his father-in-law.<ref>{{cite web|last=Cross |first=John |url=http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/2017/10/whispering-pines-one-hearth-many-lives/ |title=Whispering Pines: One Hearth, Many Lives |publisher=Community.bowdoin.edu |date=2017-10-03 |access-date=2018-05-21}}</ref>

==Papers== Chandler's papers are kept several institutions including the Phillips Library,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://phillipslibrarycollections.pem.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15928coll1/id/1832 |title=Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889) Papers |website=phillipslibrarycollections.pem.org |publisher=Phillips Library}}</ref> Massachusetts Historical Society,<ref name="masshist">{{cite web |url=http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0196 |title=Peleg W. Chandler Legal Papers |website=masshist.org |publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society}}</ref> the Hayes Presidential Center,<ref name="hayes"/> and the Bowdoin College Library.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/pwcg.shtml |title=Chandler Family Papers M029 |website=library.bowdoin.edu |publisher=Bowdoin College}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *Reviews of ''American Criminal Trials'' in: :*[https://books.google.com/books?id=1KU2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA199 ''North American Review''] :*[https://books.google.com/books?id=w7xFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA417 ''The American Jurist''] :*[https://books.google.com/books?id=SJcvAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA269 ''The Law Magazine and Review''] :*[https://books.google.com/books?id=UhcZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA410 ''The Christian Examiner and General Review''] :*[https://archive.org/stream/pioneerliteraryc01lowe#page/46/mode/2up/search/Peleg ''The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine'' (p. 46)]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandler, Peleg}} Category:1816 births Category:1889 deaths Category:People from New Gloucester, Maine Category:Lawyers from Boston Category:Politicians from Boston Category:Journalists from Massachusetts Category:Bowdoin College alumni Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Presidents of the Boston Common Council Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:Members of the Massachusetts Governor's Council Category:Writers from Boston Category:Writers from Maine Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court