In, 1793 William Cabell of Cumberland County, Virginia, received a Bachelor of Law degree from the College of William and Mary—the first ever awarded by the college and the first in America. Cabell had been trained by legal scholar George Wythe, who was the first professor of law in the United States.
Cabell's degree was a milestone in the developing study of law in America. Young men had previously been trained for a career in the law through the apprenticeship program, where they would serve as clerks to established lawyers. Some men of financial means traveled to London to study at the Inns of Court. In the generation prior to 1783, some 115 Americans had done so. The development of a course of instruction at the College of William and Mary by Wythe and his successor; St. George Tucker, marked the beginning of the...