Bouvier, John, 1787-1851

John Bouvier (1787 – November 18, 1851) was a French-American jurist and legal lexicographer known for his legal writings, particularly his Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union (1839). It is believed to be the first legal dictionary to be based on American law, and is still in publication. It has been frequently revised and republished, and was retitled Bouvier's Law Dictionary in 1897. Bouvier also published The Institutes of American Law (1851) and an edition of Matthew Bacon's Abridgment of the Law. Women's rights and suffrage advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton cited Bouvier for contributing to passage in Pennsylvania of the Married Woman's Property Act of 1848; suffragist Alice Paul cited him also for his commitment to expanding women's property rights.