Royal Sprague

Royal Tyler Sprague (January 23, 1814 – February 24, 1872) was an American judge who served as the 11th Chief Justice of California.

Biography Sprague taught elementary school in Potsdam, New York and later opened a school in Zanesville, Ohio. In 1838 he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in Ohio. The finding of gold in the Sierra Nevada prompted Sprague to become a "Forty-Niner". After arriving in California in September 1849, Sprague worked a claim on Clear Creek on the Sacramento River. He settled in Reading's Springs, now Shasta, California, and once again became an attorney.

In 1852, he was elected to the California State Senate representing the 18th District and was later reelected from the 13th District. In 1855 served as its President pro tempore.

In 1867, Sprague was elected to the Supreme Court of California as a Democrat; he was chosen to be Chief Justice in January 1872 and died the next month. He is interred in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery.

A collection of his journals is in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

Personal life On, May 30, 1844, he married Francis Blocksom at Muskingum, Ohio. In 1852, Sprague returned to Ohio briefly to retrieve his wife and their family; they returned to California with him. The couple had four children: Anna Maria Sprague (1845–1879); Arthur Hale Sprague (1848–1922); Ella Sprague (1853-1855); and Frances Royal Sprague (1864–1957).