Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/322

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more opinions than any contemporary judge. President Jackson appointed him charge d'affaires in Mexico, January 5. 1836. and on December 28, he closed the American legation. President Van Buren appointed him minister to Mexico, Fcbru- j'.ry 15, 1839, m which office he was super- seded by Waddy Thompson, April 21, 1842. L'pon his return he took up his residence in \'irginia, where he died at Richmond, March 18, 1863.

Christian, John B., son of Robert Chris- tian and ^lary Browne, his wife, born in Xew Kent county, Virginia, about 1794, studied at William and Mary College in 1816. Was a member of the legislature and in 1832 was judge of the general court of \'ir- ginia. He married Martha Semple, daugh- ter of Judge James Semple by his first wife, Anne Contesse Tyler, sister of President Tyler. He was a brother of Letitia Chris- tian, first wife of President John Tyler. He was buried at **Oak Grove," Xew Kent county, February 23, 1856.

Semple» James, descended from Rev. James Semple, minister of Long Dreghorn, Ayrshire, Scotland, and son of Rev. James Semple, minister of St. Peter's Church, Xew Kent county, Virginia, was born in Xew Kent county, September 7, 1768; stud- ird law, was a member of the legislature and a judge of the general court. In 1819 he became professor of law in William and Mary College, and held the office till his death in 1831. He married (first) Anne Contesse Tyler, sister of President Tyler; (second) Joanna McKenzie, daughter of Dr. William McKenzie and Joanna, his wife, aunt of President Tyler. By his second marriage Judge Semple was father

oi Dr. George William Semple, of Hampton, Virginia, and Maj. Henry Churchill Semple, of .Alabama.

Brown, Aaron Venable, born in Bruns- wick county, Virginia, August 15, 1795. He graduated at Chapel Hill University, North Carolina, in 1814; removed with his parents to Tennessee in 1815 ; studied law, and when admitted to practice became the partner of James K. Polk. From 1821 till 1832 he was almost continuously a member of the state legislature. He was elected to congress in 1839, and re-elected in 1841 and 1843. ^^ retiring from congress, in 1845, he was elected governor of Tennessee, serving until 1847. He was a delegate to the southern convention at Xashville in 1850, and was the author of "the Tennessee platform," brought forward at that time, a document that aioused much comment. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Democratic national conven- tion in Baltimore, and reported the platform that was adopted. The last office he held v.^as that of postmaster-general in President Buchanan's cabinet. Among the measures adopted during his administration of this office was the establishment of a new and shorter oceanic and mail-route to California, by way of Tehauntepec, and of the trans- continental mail-routes from St. Louis west- ward, prior to the construction of the rail- roads. He was for twenty years one of the most trusted leaders of the Democratic party. A volume of his speeches was pub- lished in Xashville in 1854. He died in Washington, D. C, March 8, 1859.

Weaver, William Augiistus, born in Dum- fries. Virginia, in 1797. He entered the navy as a midshipman, February 4, 181 1, and made his first cruise in the Chesapeake,

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