Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/100

 JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT

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crat to the Twenty-sixth Congress, March 4. 1839-March 4, 1843. In 1852 he was elect- ed a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals by popular vote, in pursuance of the consti- tution adopted' by the convention of 1850- 51. He died January 5, 1859, in Richmond, Virginia.

Robertson, William J., was born in the county of Culpeper, in the year 1817. He received a classical and legal education at the University of Virginia (1834-36, 1841), from which institution he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He settled in the town of Charlottesville and practiced law with great success. He was common- wealth's attorney for Albemarle county, and won great reputation as a lawytr and advocate. In 1859 Judge Robertson was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals by popular election over John B. Baldwin. He served till April, 1865, when Virginia sub- mitted to the Federal army. He then re- tired to private life and resumed the prac- tice of the law, which he prosecuted with-

great success. He was attorney in many of the most important law cases involving the interests of Virginia and her citizens, including the famous suit affecting the Ar- lington property, belonging to the Lee fam- ily and confiscated by the United States. He was first president of the Virginia Bar Association. Judge Robertson married twice, (first) Hannah C, daughter of Gen- eral William F. Gordon, of Albemarle, and (second) Mrs. Alice Watts Moore, a cele- brated Virginia belle. He died May 27, 1898.

Lcc, George Hay, was born in Winches- ter in 1808, studied at the University of Vir- ginia, 1827-28, and was a student of law under Judge Henry St. George Tucker, at Winchester, Virginia. In 1854 he was elected by the people, pursuant to the con- vention of 1850-51, a member of the Su- preme Court of Virginia. At this time he was living in what is now West Virginia, He never sat after 1861, because West Vir- ginia was recognized by Lincoln and his cabinet as an independent state.

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