Benjamin Vaughan Abbott was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer and author noted for his efforts in drawing up the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 penal code.
He was the son of Jacob Abbott

Jacob Abbott

Jacob Abbott was an American writer of children's books.-Biography:Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott...

.

Biography

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 in 1850, and Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 in 1851. He was admitted to the bar the following year, and became a partner in the firm Abbott Bros. with his brother Anthony Abbott. He was the secretary of the New York Code Commission, which drew up the state's penal code in 1864. He also served on a commission created to revise the statutes of the United States from 1870-1872. He died in Brooklyn in 1890.

He is the author of several books, including the following novels:

• Come Cut Corners: The Experiences of a Conservative Family in Fanatical Times, 1855 (with Austin Abbott), and
• Matthew Caraby (with brother, under the pseudonym Beanauly).

His non-fiction works include:

• Abbott's Reports of Practice Cases in the Courts of the State of New York, 1855 (with Austin Abbott
  Austin Abbott
  Austin Abbott, LL.D. was a lawyer and academic born in Boston, Mass., the son of Jacob Abbott. He is probably best remembered as being the government counsel in the trial of Charles J. Guiteau for the assassination of President James Garfield.-Biography:He graduated from New York University in 1851...
  
  ),
• Reports of cases in Admiralty, United States District Court for Southern New York, 1847-1850, 1857,
• A Collection of Forms of Practice and Pleading in Action, 1858,
• Digest of New York Statutes and Reports, 5 volumes, 1860,
• A Collector of Forms of Practice and Pleading in Actions, 1864,
• The Clerk's and Conveyancer's Assistant, 1866,
• Digest of the Reports of the United States Courts and Acts of Congress, 4 volumes, 1867,
• General Digest of the Law of Corporations, 1869,
• Digest of Reports of Indiana to the Year 1871,
• Reports of Decisions Rendered in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, 1863-1871, 2 volumes, 1870-1871,
• United States Digest, 14 volumes, 1879,
• Dictionary of Terms and Phrases used in American or English Jurisprudence, 1879,
• General Digest of English and American Cases on the Law of Corporations, 1868-1878, 1879,
• National Digest, 4 volumes, 1884, containing court decisions of the year 1884, with a later supplement published in 1889,
• 1884: The Patent Laws of All Nations, 2 volumes, 1886, and
• Decisions on the Law of Patents for Inventions, English Cases, 1662-1843, 3 volumes, 1887.

External links

• Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889