Samuel M. Bay

Samuel M. Bay (June 1, 1810 – May 29, 1849) was an American lawyer who represented Dred Scott in the 1847 Scott v. Emerson case. He was known for his prosecution of Dedimus Buell Burr, who had put ground glass in his ill wife's food over time. He practiced law in Jefferson and St. Louis, Missouri. Bay served in the Missouri Legislature beginning in 1836 and was appointed as Missouri Attorney General from 1839 to 1845.

His father and grandfather were attorneys and his uncle Dr. Joseph Lovell, was surgeon-general of the United States Army. He studied under Salmon P. Chase, who was later secretary of the treasury under President Abraham Lincoln, and chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Early life Samuel Mansfield Bay was born in Hudson, New York in 1810. He attended Hudson Academy, where he studied Latin, Greek, and math. Bay's father and grandfather were both lawyers. His father was a contemporary of Martin Van Buren and his grandfather worked at the firm of Ambrose Spencer, who was a judge on the Supreme Court of New York for many years.

After finishing school, Bay returned to New York and became a clerk in a large French importing house. The firm sent him to Europe on business for five or six months. While away, Bay decided to study law. Francis B. Murdoch was the Scotts' original attorney and filed three suits against Irene Emerson, Dred and Harriet's former owner for trespass and false imprisonment. Murdoch was replaced by Charles D. Drake. More than a year passed from the time of Scott's first petition filed with the court and by the time the case was ready for trial, Drake had left St. Louis, in May or June 1847. Drake prepared the case, but Bay handled the proceedings in court.

To argue his case, Bay needed to prove that Scott had been taken into a free state and that he was presently a slave owned by Irene Emerson. On July 24, 1847, Bay filed a deposition detailing the differences between Russell's deposition and his testimony under cross-examination, and a new trial was eventually awarded. But due to an appeal by Emerson, the St. Louis Fire of 1849, a cholera epidemic, and two continuances, the retrial in the St. Louis Circuit Court did not commence until January 12, 1850,