James Iredell (judge)

James Iredell

James Iredell (born October 5, 1750 in Lewes , East Sussex , England , † October 20, 1799 in Edenton , North Carolina ) was an American lawyer and judge at the Supreme Court of the United States .

Life

The son of a businessman from Bristol emigrated in 1767 to North Carolina and was shortly after his arrival as Deputy Treasurer of the port appointed by Edenton. In 1773 he married a sister of Samuel Johnston , the future governor of North Carolina . He was then from February 17, 1774 until the beginning of the War of Independence in the spring of 1775 head of the customs office of Edenton. At the same time he studied at the law firm of his brother- law and received 1775 admission as a lawyer . As such, he quickly gained a high reputation. At the beginning of the War of Independence, he resigned from his position as Head of Customs and also knocked out a great inheritance from an uncle in the West Indies to join the ideas of the revolution .

In December 1777 he was elected Justice of the Supreme Court ( Superior Court ) of North Carolina and held that office until his resignation in August 1778. 1779 Governor appointed him Richard Caswell Attorney General ( Attorney General ) of North Carolina, but also from that office he stepped back soon. During the Revolution, he was a distinguished advisor to William Hooper , Samuel Johnston, and other influential politicians. In 1787 the North Carolina Parliament ( General Assembly ) appointed him commissioner for the compilation and revision of the laws of the state. Part of this set of laws was reprinted in 1789 and the entire work known as "Iredell's Revisal" appeared in Edenton in 1791. During this time he was also the leader of the Federalists in North Carolina; on the 1788 Hillsborough held meeting he sat unsuccessfully for the adoption of the US Constitution a.

On February 10, 1790, US President George Washington nominated him to the Supreme Court Justice of the United States . In the first significant decision of the Supreme Court , in the Chisholm v. Georgia of 1793, which ruled that litigation between a state in the United States and a citizen of another state was subject to federal jurisdiction, he held a minor opinion. His constitution clarification talks have been cited many times by juries in Boston, New York City , Philadelphia, and Richmond .

Iredell County was named in his honor in 1788 . His son of the same name, James Iredell , who was raised by his brother-in-law Samuel Johnston after his death in 1799, later became Governor of North Carolina and a US Senator.

literature

• Griffith J. McRee: James Iredell. Life and Correspondence . New York 1857.
• Iredell, James . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 3 : Grinnell - Lockwood . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 354 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

• James Iredell in the database of Find a Grave (English)