Elias Perkins

Elias Perkins (April 5, 1767 – September 27, 1845) was a United States Representative from Connecticut, a long-serving state legislator, and a prominent jurist and municipal leader in New London. He was born in Lisbon, Connecticut, on April 5, 1767, into a New England community that was then part of the British colonies but soon to become the State of Connecticut in the new American republic. Little is recorded about his parents or early upbringing, but his later career in law and public service reflects the classical education and civic-minded training characteristic of leading Connecticut families of the late eighteenth century.

Perkins pursued higher education at Yale College, one of the principal training grounds for the region’s professional and political elite. He graduated from Yale in 1786, at the age of nineteen, during the formative years of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. Following his graduation, he read law in the traditional manner of the period, studying under established practitioners rather than attending a formal law school. After completing his legal studies, he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in New London, Connecticut, a growing seaport and commercial center where he would reside and work for the rest of his life.

Perkins’s public career began in the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he served multiple, nonconsecutive terms. He was first elected to the House in 1795 and served continuously through 1800, participating in state governance during the early Federalist era. He returned to the House in 1814 and 1815. During his legislative service he rose quickly to positions of leadership, serving as speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1798 and again in 1815. His repeated selection as speaker signaled the confidence his colleagues placed in his judgment, parliamentary skill, and command of legislative procedure.

Alongside his legislative work, Perkins developed a substantial judicial career at the county level. In 1799 he was appointed an assistant judge of the New London County Court, reflecting both his professional standing at the bar and his growing influence in local affairs. He later advanced to become chief justice of the New London County Court, a position he held from 1807 to 1825. In that capacity he presided over a broad range of civil and criminal matters in a period when county courts were central to the administration of justice in Connecticut, overseeing legal disputes in a region shaped by maritime commerce, land transactions, and the evolving legal framework of the early republic.

Perkins entered national politics as a member of the Federalist Party, which at the time was the dominant political force in Connecticut. He was elected as a Federalist to the Seventh Congress and served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1803. His tenure in Congress coincided with the presidency of Thomas Jefferson and the transition of national power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans. Representing Connecticut at a time of intense partisan realignment, he participated in the legislative debates of the early Jeffersonian era, though he did not seek or hold additional federal office after the expiration of his term.

After leaving Congress, Perkins resumed the active practice of law in New London while continuing to serve in state government. He was elected to the Connecticut Senate and served there from 1817 to 1822, extending his influence from the lower to the upper chamber of the state legislature. His senatorial service overlapped with his long tenure as chief justice of the New London County Court, underscoring his dual role as both lawmaker and jurist in Connecticut’s political and legal life.

In addition to his legislative and judicial responsibilities, Perkins played a leading role in the civic administration of New London. He was elected mayor of New London and served from 1829 to 1832, a period in which the city continued to develop as a maritime and commercial hub. As mayor, he oversaw local governance, public order, and municipal improvements, bringing to the office decades of experience in law and public service. His career thus spanned virtually every major level of government available to a Connecticut lawyer of his generation—municipal, county, state, and federal.

Elias Perkins remained in New London for the remainder of his life. He died there on September 27, 1845, at the age of seventy-eight. He was interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, a burial ground that became the resting place for many of the city’s leading citizens. Through his work as legislator, judge, congressman, and mayor, Perkins left a durable imprint on the legal and political institutions of both New London and the State of Connecticut in the first half of the nineteenth century.