The next complete change was in 1813, when the Federalists having regained con trol of the State elected three of their own party, Chipman, Farrand and Hubbard; but losing it in 1815, the Republicans elected Asa Aldis, Skinner and Fisk. The only other complete change since that time was in 18 17, when Dudley Chase, Chief, Joel Doolittle and William Brayton, assistants, were elected. This was not a political change. Judge Fisk was elected senator. Judges Skinner and Palmer were re-elected and declined. Robert Temple of Rutland was elected and declined. Dudley Chase, who was elected Chief, was then serving as United States senator, a position which he resigned to accept the judgeship. In these five complete changes, but one member was elected at either who had pre viously served as judge, Nathaniel Chipman in 1789 and in 181 3. In the other com plete changes no one of the new judges had ever acted as such, prior to his election. Three judges, who had never performed judicial service, were chosen at each elec tion, when the courts were reorganized in 1825 and 1857. Except in these instances, there has never been, since 181 7, a change of two judges at the same time, save when Hutchinson and Baylies retired in 1833, Wilson and Steele in 1870, and H. E. Royce and Powers in 1890. There was no change in the personnel of the court from 1852 to 1857; that was under the system when there were but three members of the Court. There was no change from 1860 until the summer of 1865, nearly five years; there was no change from 181 7 to 1821, from 1838 to 1842, and none from 1870 to 1874. The court remained the same for three years, from 1835 to 1838, and from 1842 to 1845. The above are the only instances when the judges have remained the same for three years and longer save the present court, which has remained unchanged since Dec. 1, 1890. Thirty-eight of the judges, one-half the
number, have been educated at colleges; some, however, did not graduate. Owing to the early great emigration from Connecticut, Yale leads the list with ten; Dartmouth educated eight; the University of Vermont and Middlebury College, five each; Prince ton and Williams, three each; Harvard two; Amherst and Brown one each. Judge Niles was the first college-bred man upon the Bench. For the first two years of his course, he was at Harvard, but graduated at Princeton. Judge Aikens was at Middlebury three years, but at the United States Military Academy at West Point the last year of his course. Judge Bennett, who graduated at Yale, spent the first two years of his college life at Williams. There is but one college-bred man upon the present Bench, the Chief Judge. The judges have been selected from both political parties, and there is more than one instance when the minority party furnished the majority of the court. In 1801, the Republicans elected one of its own party and two Federalists; in 1850, the Whigs elected Judge Royce of its own party and Judges Redfield and Kellogg, Democrats. Timothy P. Redfield, a Democrat of the most pronounced type, was unanimously elected when the Legislature stood 237 Re publicans to 28 Democrats and Conserva tives. He was unanimously re-elected until his voluntary retirement in 1884. At first the judges were all laymen; in 1786 Nathaniel Chipman was elected and served one year; in 1788, Stephen R. Brad ley was elected and served one year. Until 1 789, they were the only lawyers elected. The laymen were Moses Robinson, Spooner, Fasset, Jonas Fay, Olcott, Porter, Niles and Knowlton. Theophilus Harrington, in 1803, was not at the time of his election a mem ber of the Bar, but was admitted the follow ing month. Jonas Galusha, the last layman elected, was chosen in 1807-8. In these early days, it was the practice of each judge to express his views of the law to the
