Jonathan Leavitt

Who was Jonathan Leavitt?

Jonathan Leavitt was a prominent Greenfield, Massachusetts attorney, judge, state senator and businessman for whom the architect Asher Benjamin designed the Leavitt House, now the Leavitt-Hovey House on Main Street, in 1797.

Judge Leavitt was born in Walpole, N.H., but was raised in Greenfield, where his father Rev. Jonathan Leavitt served as a Congregational minister. Leavitt attended Yale College, taught school in New Haven, and then achieved early prominence as a lawyer in Greenfield. He subsequently served as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1812, and Judge of Probate from 1814 to 1821. Judge Leavitt used the west wing of the Leavitt-Hovey house for his business activities. He was a founder and first president of The Franklin Bank of Greenfield in 1822.

Judge Leavitt was also known for his legal writings, especially in probate law, as well as his "Summary of the Laws of Massachusetts, Relative to the Settlement, Support, Employment and Removal of Paupers", published in Greenfield in 1810. He also published two small volumes on religion.