Stephen Royce

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American lawyer, judge and politician (1787–1868)

title: "Stephen Royce" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1787-births", "1868-deaths", "governors-of-vermont", "vermont-republicans", "members-of-the-vermont-house-of-representatives", "people-from-franklin-county,-vermont", "people-from-tinmouth,-vermont", "vermont-lawyers", "state's-attorneys-in-vermont", "middlebury-college-alumni", "chief-justices-of-the-vermont-supreme-court", "vermont-whigs", "whig-party-state-governors-of-the-united-states", "republican-party-governors-of-vermont", "19th-century-vermont-state-court-judges", "19th-century-american-lawyers", "19th-century-members-of-the-vermont-general-assembly"] description: "American lawyer, judge and politician (1787–1868)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Royce" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American lawyer, judge and politician (1787–1868) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Stephen Royce
image	Stephen_Royce.jpg
caption	Portrait on display in Vermont State House
order1	23rd
office1	Governor of Vermont
term_start1	October 12, 1854
term_end1	October 10, 1856
lieutenant1	Ryland Fletcher
predecessor1	John S. Robinson
successor1	Ryland Fletcher
office2	Chief of Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
term_start2	1846
term_end2	1852
predecessor2	Charles K. Williams
successor2	Isaac F. Redfield
office3	Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
term_start3	1829
term_end3	1846
predecessor3	Bates Turner
successor3	Charles Davis
term_start4	1825
term_end4	1826
predecessor4	Asa Aikens
successor4	Bates Turner
office5	Member of the Vermont House of Representatives from St. Albans
term_start5	1822
term_end5	1825
predecessor5	James Mason
successor5	Benjamin Swift
office6	State's Attorney of Franklin County, Vermont
term_start6	1816
term_end6	1817
predecessor6	Ebenezer Marvin Jr.
successor6	Israel P. Richardson
office7	Member of the Vermont House of Representatives from Sheldon
term_start7	1815
term_end7	1817
predecessor7	Chauncey Fitch
successor7	Samuel Wead
birth_date
birth_place	Tinmouth, Republic of Vermont
death_date
death_place	Berkshire, Vermont, U.S.
resting_place	East Berkshire Episcopal Cemetery, Berkshire, Vermont, U.S.
alma_mater	Middlebury College
relations	Homer E. Royce (nephew)
profession	Attorney
party	Democratic-Republican (before 1833)
Whig (before 1854)
Republican (from 1854)
::

Born and raised in Tinmouth, Vermont, Royce attended the local schools and the Addison County Grammar School. He taught school while attending Middlebury College, from which he graduated in 1807. He then studied law, attained admission to the bar 1809, and practiced in East Berkshire, Sheldon, and St. Albans. He represented Sheldon in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1815 to 1817 and served as State's Attorney of Franklin County from 1816 to 1817. Royce represented St. Albans in the Vermont House from 1822 to 1825, when he was selected to serve as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. He served until 1826, and returned to the court as an associate justice in 1829. He served until 1846, when he became the court's chief justice.

In 1854, Royce was the successful Whig nominee for governor, elected with support from Whigs and members of the new Republican Party. In 1855, he was reelected as a Republican. Royce was Vermont's first Republican governor, and the party remained in control of Vermont's government for the next 100 years. His term included the Republican Party's creation of the Mountain Rule, under which governors alternated between the east and west sides of the Green Mountains and were limited to two years in office.

Royce died in Berkshire on November 11, 1868. He was buried at East Berkshire Episcopal Cemetery in Berkshire.

Early life

Royce was born in Tinmouth in the Republic of Vermont on August 12, 1787, the son of Stephen Royce (1764-1833), a veteran of the American Revolution and War of 1812, and Minerva (Marvin) Royce, a daughter of Ebenezer Marvin, who served as a judge and member of Vermont's Council of Censors. Royce grew up in Franklin and Berkshire and attended the local schools. He attended school in Tinmouth and graduated from the Addison County Grammar School. He began attendance at Middlebury College in 1804, where his classmates included Daniel Azro Ashley Buck and William Slade. He taught school in Sheldon to earn his tuition, and he graduated from Middlebury in 1807.

Start of career

After graduation, Royce began studying law in the office of his uncle, Ebenezer Marvin Jr. He attained admission to the bar in 1809, and practiced in East Berkshire and Sheldon before moving to St. Albans. Among the prospective attorneys who studied law under Royce was Charles Linsley.

Royce was Franklin County State's Attorney from 1816 to 1818, and served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1815 to 1816 and 1822 to 1824.

Career as judge

Royce was a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1825 to 1827, and again from 1829 to 1846. In 1837, he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont. In 1846 he became Vermont's Chief Justice and served until 1852.

Governor

He was elected Governor of Vermont in 1854, as a Whig, the last Whig to hold the office. He was re-elected to a second one-year term as a Republican, serving from 1854 to 1856. He was the first Republican to attain the office after the party was founded in the mid-1850s, ushering in more than a century of Republican domination in Vermont politics. Vermont elected only Republicans to the governorship until Democrat Philip Hoff won the office in 1962.

Death

Royce died in Berkshire on November 11, 1868. He was interred at East Berkshire Episcopal Cemetery in East Berkshire.

Family life

He never married, but resided with his mother, at her request, whenever he was in his hometown.

Royce was the uncle of Vermont Chief Justice and Congressman Homer E. Royce.

References

(1900). "Vermont: Stephen Royce, LL.D.". Century Memorial Publishing Co..
(1905). "A History of Norwich, Vermont". Dartmouth Press.
(1887). "Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer, 1824-1886". William H. Young.
Ellingson, Barbara. (1997). "Biographical Sketch, Charles Linsley". Vermont Historical Society.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=_e0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT195 The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans], edited by Rossiter Johnson and John Howard Brown, 1904, Rowland to Royce page
Ullery, Jacob G.. (1894). "Men of Vermont Illustrated". Transcript Publishing Company.
"Stephen Royce". National Governors Association.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=tt2_3hTQxFMC&pg=PA39 Encyclopedia of Vermont Biography], edited by Prentiss Cutler Dodge, 1912, page 39
(November 18, 1868). "Death of Judge Royce". Watchman & Journal.
(1994). "History of Berkshire". Berkshire Historical Society.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=TapBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA10 Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College], published by the college, 1917, page 10
[https://books.google.com/books?id=ATATAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA228 History of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties, Vermont], edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, 1891, page 228

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