Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/97

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

JJland, and widow of John Randolph, of "Matoax," in Chesterfield county, was born at that place, December 29, 1780. In 1791 he entered the grammar school of William and Mary College, conducted by Rev. John Itracken, and completed the college course of Bachelor of Arts, July 4, 1799. He took a law course under his father, the professor of law in the college, and began to practice at Winchester in 1802. He speedily at- tracted notice and was elected to the house of delegates in 1807, served afterwards in the war of 1812, and in 1815 was elected to Congfress. where he served two terms. He served in the state senate, 1819-1823 ; presi- dent of the Virginia Supreme Court of Ap- peals, 1831-41, and law professor at Univer- sity of Virginia, 1841-45. He conducted a celebrated law school for some years at Winchester, and declined the post of United Slates attorney-general, offered by Presi- dent Jackson. He wrote '^Commentaries on the Law of V^irginia" (2 vols., 1836) ; *'Lec- tures on Constitutional Law" (1843), ^^^ ment" (1844). He was president of the Virginia Historical and Philosophical soci- eties, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws from William and Mary in 1837. He married Ann Evelina, daughter of Moses Hunter, and died at Winchester, Virginia, August 28, 1848. He is to be distinguished from an Anglo-Indian relative and name- sake (1771-1851), who was chairman of the East India Company, and whose life was written by J. W. Kaye, 1854.
 * Lectures on Natural Law and Govern-

Cabell, William H. (q. v.).

Allen, John J., was born at Woodstock, Shenandoah county, Virginia, September 25. 1797. son of James Allen, a distinguished

lawyer and judge of the circuit court. He v.as educated at Washington College, Vir- ginia, and Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. He read law with his father, and removed to Clarksburg in 1819. In 1827 he was elected to the state senate and introduced an important bill, which afterwards became a law, for the settlement of land titles in Trans-Alleghany Virginia. In 1834 he was commonwealth attorney for the counties of Harrison, Lewis and Preston. At the same time he was a member of the Twenty-third Congress from December 2, 1833, to March 3 1835, and served on the committee of the District of Columbia. In 1836 he was ap- pointed judge of the seventeenth circuit, re- moved to Botetourt county, and held his first court there September i, 1836. In De- cember, 1840, he was elected a judge of the state court of appeals, and in 185 1 was made the president thereof. He was an ardent upholder of the doctrine of secession, his masterly defence of which may be found in "The Southern Historical Papers" for Janu- ary, 1876. In 1865 he resigned and retired to private life. Judge Allen was married in 1824. He died in 1871.

Brockenbrough, William» son of Dr. John Brockenbrough, of Tappahannock, Essex county, Virginia, and of Sarah, his wife, daughter of Colonel William Roane, was born July 10, 1778; was educated at Wil- liam and Mary College in 1798; studied law and afterwards practiced it with much suc- cess. He represented Essex in the house of delegates in 1802-03 ; member of the council, May, 1803; appointed a judge of the gen- eral court. February 7, 1809, and a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, February 20, 1834. to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge John W. Green. He was an

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