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Oct 12, 2008
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History and GovernmentCongressional BiographiesVirginia

BARBOUR, Philip Pendleton

(1783—1841)


BARBOUR, Philip Pendleton, (brother of James Barbour and cousin of John Strode Barbour) , a Representative from Virginia; born at “Frascati,” near Gordonsville, Orange County, Va., May 25, 1783; attended common and private schools; was graduated from the college of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., in 1799; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1800 and commenced practice in Bardstown, Ky.; returned to Virginia in 1801 and practiced law in Gordonsville, Orange County; member of the State house of delegates 1812-1814; elected as a Republican to the Thirteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Dawson; reelected as a Republican to the Fourteenth through the Seventeenth Congresses, reelected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and served from September 19, 1814, to March 3, 1825; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Seventeenth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1824; offered the professorship of law in the University of Virginia in 1825, but declined; appointed a judge of the general court of Virginia and served for two years, resigning in 1827; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses and served from March 4, 1827, until his resignation on October 15, 1830; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Twentieth Congress); president of the Virginia constitutional convention in 1829; appointed by President Jackson, June 1, 1830, judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, declining the chancellorship and the post of attorney general; refused nominations for judge of the court of appeals, for Governor, and for United States Senator; appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and served from March 15, 1836, until his death in Washington, D.C., February 25, 1841; interment in Congressional Cemetery.


Barbour, Philip Pendleton. “Letter from Philip P. Barbour to Andrew Glassell.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 34 (July 1926): 277-78.

———. Mr. P.P. Barbour’s speech on the bill to construct a national road from Buffalo, passing by the seat of the general government, to New Orleans: delivered in the House of Representatives, U.S. 24th March, 1830 . N.p., [1830].

———. Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, February 10, 1820 . Washington, D.C.: N.p., 1820.

———. Speech of Mr. P.P. Barbour, of Vir., on the Tariff Bill: Delivered in the House of Representatives U.S., March 26, 1824 . Washington: Printed by Gales & Seaton, 1824.

———. Speech of Mr. P.P. Barbour, of Virginia, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, February 10, 1820 . [Washington: N.p., 1820].

———. Speech of Mr. Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, on Internal Improvements, delivered in the House of Representatives, January 15, 1824 . Washington, D.C.: N.p., 1846.

———. Speech of Mr. Philip P. Barbour of Virginia on the National Road Bill: delivered in the House of Representatives, March 1830 . Washington: Duff Green, 1830.

Gatell, Frank Otto. “Philip Pendleton Barbour.” In The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1969 , compiled by Leon Friedman, 5: 717-27. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1969.

Long, W. S. “James Barbour.” John P. Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College 4, no. 2 (June 1914): 34-64.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present

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