Chancellor Kent

James Kent
James Kent by Rembrandt Peale (c.1835)
Recorder of New York City
In office 1797–1798
Preceded by	Samuel Jones
Succeeded by	Richard Harison
Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court
In office 1804–1814
Preceded by	Morgan Lewis
Succeeded by	Smith Thompson
Chancellor of New York
In office 1814–1823
Preceded by	John Lansing, Jr.
Succeeded by	Nathan Sanford
Personal details
Born	(1763-07-31)July 31, 1763 Fredericksburg, Dutchess County, New York, U.S.
Died	December 12, 1847(1847-12-12) (aged 84) New York City, New York, U.S.
Relatives	Moss Kent (brother)

James Kent (July 31, 1763 in Fredericksburg, then Dutchess, now Putnam County, New York – December 12, 1847 in New York City) was an American jurist and legal scholar. He was the author of Commentaries on American Law.

Kent was the son of Moss Kent, a lawyer from Dutchess County, New York and the first Surrogate of Rensselaer County, New York. He graduated from Yale College in 1781, having helped establish the Phi Beta Kappa Society there in 1780, and began to practice law at Poughkeepsie, New York in 1785 as an attorney, and in 1787 at the bar. In 1791 and 1792-93 Kent was a member from Dutchess County of the New York State Assembly. In 1793, he removed to New York City, where he was appointed a master in chancery for the city.

Kent was the first professor of law in Columbia College in 1793-98 and again served in the Assembly in 1796-97. In 1797, he was appointed Recorder of New York City and in 1798, a justice of the New York Supreme Court, in 1804 Chief Justice, and in 1814 Chancellor of New York. Kent was also elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. In 1821 he was a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention where he unsuccessfully opposed the raising of the property qualification for African American voters. Two years later, Chancellor Kent reached the constitutional age limit and retired from his office, but was re-elected to his former chair. He lived in retirement in Summit, New Jersey between 1837 and 1847 in a simple four-roomed cottage (the original cottage today has been incorporated into a large mansion at 50 Kent Place Boulevard in Summit NJ) which he referred to as 'my Summit Lodge', a name that has been offered as the derivation for the city's name.