James S. Green (attorney)

James Sproat Green (July 21, 1792 — November 8, 1862) was an American lawyer who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1835 to 1850. He was the father of New Jersey Governor Robert Stockton Green.

Biography

Green was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1792, the son of Ashbel Green and Elizabeth (Stockton) Green. His father was Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives from 1792 to 1800 and President of Princeton University from 1812 to 1822. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1811. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1817, as counsellor in 1821, and as sergeant in 1834.

In 1835, Green was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey by President Andrew Jackson. He continued to serve until 1850.

In 1844, he was nominated by President John Tyler to be Secretary of the Treasury, but the nomination was not confirmed by the Senate.

He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) from 1828 to 1862. In 1847, when Princeton Law School was founded, Green was named professor of jurisprudence on a faculty that also included Joseph Coerten Hornblower and Richard Stockton Field. He held the professorship until 1855.

He married Isabella Williamson McCulloh (1792–1865) on January 25, 1825. They had five children:

• Ashbel Green (1825–1898)
• Anna McCulloh Green (1827-?)
• James Sproat Green (1829–1892)
• Robert Stockton Green (1831–1895), Governor of New Jersey
• Isabella Green (1834–1906)

Green died in Princeton in 1862.