Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/333

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\IRGIXIA r.IOGRAPHY

and lived in the family of his cousin, Judge Harry Innes, and in the following spring went to Kentucky and engaged in law prac- tice at Danville. He was secretary of the ten conventions, from 1784 to 1792. looking tc the formation of the state of Kentucky; was clerk of the Federal court for the dis- trict of Kentucky ; was the first clerk of its court of appeals; judge of the court of appeals in 1801 ; and chief justice in 1806. In 1807 he was appointed a judge of the United States supreme court, holding court twice a year each in Nashville. Frankfort and Chillicothe. and six winter months in Washington City, occupying that position until his death, at his home in Frankfort, Kentucky. February 9, 1826. His chief judicial labors were in adjudications under the land laws, involving many disputes as to title. He was father of Charles S. Todd, appointed minister to Russia in 1841. (For Todd family see "\'irginia Magazine of His- tory and Biography," vol. lii. p. 80, and
 * \Villiam and Mar>' Quarterly," xxi, 203).

Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, born in Red- ford county, Virginia, March 4, 1774, son- of Joseph and Jean Daviess; his parents re- moved to Lincoln county, Kentucky, when he was five years of age, subsequently re- moved to the vicinity of Danville, and Jo- seph H. received his education in an acad- emy at Harrodsburg, this knowledge being supplemented by a wide course of reading. For six months during the year 1793 he served as a volunteer in the Indian cam- paign, after which he studied at law, and two years later was admitted to the bar. He began the active practice of his profes- sion in Danville, and gained a high position at the bar. usually appearing in court in a

hunting costume. In 1799 he acted as sec- ond to John Rowan in a duel in which Rowan's antagonist was killed, when both principals and seconds fled to avoid prose- cution ; after being a fugitive for some time, hearing that Rowan had been arrested, Mr. Daviess returned and appeared in court as liis counsel, secured his acquittal. Later he became United States attorney for Ken- tucky, in which capacity, on November 3, 1806. he moved for an order requiring Aaron Durr to appear and answer to a charge of levying war against a nation with which the United States was at peace. Burr boldly courted investigation, but the witnesses upon whom the prosecution relied could not l.c brought into court, and it was impossible to sustain the charges. This event almost entirely destroyed the popularity of Mr. Daviess, which even the subsequent revela- tion of Aaron Burr's plot could not fully re- store. He* joined the army of Gen. William H. Harrison as major of Kentucky volun- teer dragoons, in 181 1, served in the cam- paign against the Northwestern Indians, and led a cavalry charge against the sav- ages at the battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 181 1, which was successful, but he fell, shot through the breast. Counties in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri have been named in his honor. He published "A View of the President's Con- duct Concerning the Conspiracy of 1806" (1807). Mr. Daviess married a sister of Chief Justice Marshall.

Clayton, Augustine Smith, born in Fred- ericksburg, November 27, 1783, son of Philip Clayton, of Culpeper county. Virginia. Soon after his birth his parents removed to Georgia, and he graduated at the University

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