Philip P. Barbour, 1836-1841

PHILIP P. BARBOUR was born in Orange County, Virginia on May 25, 1783. He attended local public schools and, at the age of seventeen, began reading law. He moved to Kentucky to practice but soon returned to Virginia where he attended one session of the College of William and Mary in 1801. He was admitted to the Virginia bar and established a law practice the following year. Barbour was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1812. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1814 and was re-elected to four additional terms. He served as Speaker of the House from 1821 to 1823. Barbour did not seek re-election to the House in 1824 but accepted an appointment as a Judge on the General Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was chosen President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829. Barbour was elected for the sixth time to Congress in 1827. At the end of the term in 1830, he accepted an appointment from President Andrew Jackson to the United States District Court in Virginia. Six years later, on December 28, 1835, President Jackson nominated Barbour to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Senate confirmed the appointment on March 15, 1836. He served on the Supreme Court for four years and died on February 25, 1841, at the age of fifty-seven.