This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Newyorkbrad (talk | contribs) at 18:27, 3 July 2006 (First draft, slightly more than a stub, but needs additions). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 18:27, 3 July 2006 by Newyorkbrad (talk | contribs) (First draft, slightly more than a stub, but needs additions)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Peter J. Hamilton (-1928) was an ] ] and historian who also served as Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico from 1913 to 1921.
Hamilton was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied at Princeton University and the University of Leipzig before obtaining advance law degrees at the University of Alabama. Hamilton's books during his Alabama years included Colonial Mobile: An Historical Study (1897), Early Southern Institutions (1898), and Mobile of the Five Flags (1913).
Hamilton, a Democrat, was appointed as the federal judge for Puerto Rico in 1913 by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, who was his classmate at Princeton Univeristy. Hamilton served two four-year terms as Judge, obtaining reappointment from President Wilson in 1917. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding, a Republican, declined to reappoint Hamilton to a third term. He was succeeded by Arthur Odlin.
Hamilton remained in Puerto Rico for the remainder of his life. In addition to practicing law, in 1922 he published Origin and Growth of the Common Law in England and America. He also wrote a series of articles for the Harvard Law Review comparing the common law and civil law systems. He died in 1928.
There is no full-length biography of Hamilton, but he is the subject of published articles by his daughter, Rachel Duke Hamilton, and by Puerto Rican historian Carmelo Delgado Cintron.