​BLATCHFORD, SAMUEL, an American jurist, born in New York City, March 9, 1820; was graduated from Columbia College in 1837; became private secretary to William H. Seward, when the latter was elected Governor of New York; practiced law in New York City; became Judge of the District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1867; Circuit Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit in 1878; and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1882. He died in Newport, R. I., July 7, 1893.