He was the oldest of nine children born to a farmer[1] Rensselaer and Priscilla (Corbin) Child, of (North) Woodstock, Connecticut.
[3] He began studying law, with Judge Calvin Goddard a graduate of Dartmouth, a former senator and at that point in time, the mayor of Norwich, Connecticut,[4] which was followed by his Yale enrollment.
[3] He then began practicing law in Norwich, where he married Alice Hart daughter of Alice Cogswell (Hart) Goddard and his former teacher Calvin Godard and sister of George C. Goddard a fellow Yale graduate on February 13, 1826.
[3] His life in Norwich was interrupted by his appointment as United States District Attorney for Connecticut under President Jackson, which involved his residence in Hartford from 1829 to 1831.
She married Levi W. Allen of South Hadley, Massachusetts, a great-grandson of Oliver Wolcott in 1852 and together they had two children.