Supreme Court / Appointed 1796 / Served to 1800
Portrait of Oliver Ellsworth

Oliver Ellsworth

Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the United States

Appointed by President George Washington in 1796 and confirmed by the Senate 211, Oliver Ellsworth was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Sources ↓

Lived
1745–1807
Appointed by
George Washington, 1796
Confirmed
21–1
Education
College of New Jersey (now Princeton) 1766
Succeeded
John Rutledge
Succeeded by
John Marshall

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1796Supreme Court
succeeded John Rutledge
Washington ()21–1

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own.

Confirmation vote

The Senate’s published per-senator roll-call records begin in 1989, so no senator-by-senator breakdown is available for this vote.

Education

Questions & answers

Who appointed Oliver Ellsworth?
President George Washington appointed Oliver Ellsworth to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1796.
What was Oliver Ellsworth's confirmation vote?
The Senate confirmed Oliver Ellsworth 21–1 on March 4, 1796.
Which court was Oliver Ellsworth on?
Oliver Ellsworth was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

4 years on the Supreme Court of the United States. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).