[John Chandler Bancroft]. American jurist and diplomat, born at Worcester, MA, on the 29th of December 1822; graduated at Harvard College in 1840, and, after three years of legal study, began the practice of law. In 1849 he entered the diplomatic service as secretary of legation at London, where he remained until 1852. On his return he resumed the practice of law in New York, and in 1869 was elected to the state legislature. Appointed assistant secretary of state at the commencement of President Grant’s administration, he became American secretary in the joint commission which concluded the Treaty of Washington in the spring of 1871; prepared the American case for submission to the tribunal of arbitration for the settlement of the Alabama claims; went to Geneva as the agent of the United States at the meeting of the tribunal, and on his return in 1873 resumed the position of assistant secretary of state. He served as United States minister to Germany from 1874 to 1877, and on his return was appointed a judge of the court of claims. He became assistant secretary of state in 1881, and reporter of the United States supreme court in 1883. He published several law books, which include The Massachusetts Justice and The Case of the United States Laid Before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva. From 1854 to 1861 Mr. Davis was American correspondent of the London Times.
