Thomas Todd

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The official portrait of Thomas Toddal's Supreme Court Justice

Thomas Todd (born January 23, 1765 in King and Queen County , † February 7, 1826 in Frankfort , Kentucky ) was an American lawyer and from 1807 to 1826 judge at the Supreme Court of the United States .

Life and family

Todd was born in King and Queen Counties, the youngest of five children. His parents died early. At sixteen he served in the American Revolutionary War for six months . Upon his return he attended Liberty Hall Academy , a precursor to Washington and Lee University in Lexington . Because of his work as a tutor , he got free board and lodging and was taught law . He also studied surveying technology . When his cousin Harry Innes was appointed Justice to the Virginia Supreme Court in 1783 , Todd moved to Kentucky County , which was then part of the state of Virginia. Although he was admitted to the bar in 1783, he initially worked as a court stenographer. Todd was married to Elizabeth Harris' first marriage with whom he had five children. In 1812 he married Lucy Payne Washington, the younger sister of Dolley Madison and widow of George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of President George Washington . According to the White House , this wedding was the first to take place there. The second marriage had three children.

Career

Todd served as a clerk in five constituent assemblies from 1784 to 1792 . When Kentucky was admitted to the Union of Northern States in 1792 , he first worked at the newly formed state parliament and was appointed head of the firm in 1789 after the Kentucky Court of Appeals was established as the highest court in the state at the time . In 1801 Todd became a judge at this court and was its chairman from 1806.

Appointment as federal judge

Thomas Todd House in Frankfort.

After Congress increased the number of Supreme Court justices to seven, Thomas Jefferson named Todd a federal judge in 1807. Todd held this position until his death in 1826. He was buried in the Innes family cemetery, but later reburied in the Frankfort cemetery.

Work as a federal judge

During Todd's tenure at the United States Supreme Court, John Marshall was its president. Todd was a member of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Republican Party . Although he and Marshall had different political views, Todd mostly followed the court president's legal argument. Todd wrote only 14 judgments during his entire tenure, ten of which dealt with real estate law cases.

Legacies

At the time of his death, Todd owned many properties in Frankfort. In addition to his home, he owned over 29,000 square meters of land. He was also a co-owner of the Kentucky Turnpike , the first toll road west of the Alleghenies . After each of his children received a portion of the property, there was still $ 70,000 worth of land left.

Todd's records are kept in several locations:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kleber, John E. (ed.) (1992). The Kentucky Encyclopedia , p. 888. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0 .
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.whitehousehistory.org
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Fred L. Israel: Thomas Todd . In: Leon Friedman, Fred L. Israel (ed.): The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions, rep. ed. volume 1 . Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1997, ISBN 0-87754-130-2 , pp. 239 .
  5. ^ Location of Thomas Todd Papers ( Memento March 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals .

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further reading

  • Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court.3d. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3 .
  • Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 1-56802-126-7 ; ISBN 978-1-56802-126-3 .
  • Frank, John P., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers, 1995) ISBN 0-7910-1377-4 , ISBN 978- 0-7910-1377-9 .
  • Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-505835-6 ; ISBN 978-0-19-505835-2 .
  • Martin, Fenton S. and Goehlert, Robert U., The US Supreme Court: A Bibliography , (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990). ISBN 0-87187-554-3 .
  • Urofsky, Melvin I., The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1 ; ISBN 978-0-8153-1176-8 .

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Todd, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1765
PLACE OF BIRTH King and Queen County
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1826
Place of death Frankfort , Kentucky