Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/363

 Judye Will- -kenbrouf/h. 355

<-r.ii>l Mr.uk', for eleven years beloved rector of St. John's church, Richmond.

It may be gratifying to the people of Essex to know that their section of the State was further ably represented in that memorable conclave at Rocktish Gap by Judge Spencer Roane, and that Judge Hugh Holmes, who assisted Judge William Brockenbrough in the preparation of the first volume of the Virginia Cases, was also a member of it. The Commissioners who signed the report to the legislature were: Th: Jefferson, Creed Taylor, Peter Randolph, Wm. Brockenbrough, Arch'd Rutherford, Arch'd Stuart, James Brecken- ridge, Henry E. Watkins, James Madison, Armistead T. Mason, Hugh Holmes, Phil. C. Pendleton, Spencer Roane, John M. C. Taylor, J. G. Jackson, Thos. Wilson, Phil. Slaughter, Wm. H. Cabell, Nathl. H. Claiborne, Wm. A. G. Dade, Wm. Jones.

From 1826 to 1834, Judge Brockenbrough kept on in the discharge of his arduous duties as circuit judge. When he was transferred to the Supreme Court of Appeals, in 1834, he was president of the gen- eral court and presiding over the Fourth district and the Seventh circuit, composed of Chesterfield, Powhatan, Goochland, Hanover and Henrico counties. There were then in the State ten districts and twenty circuits. He had for some years presided, when the ar- rangement was different, over the Fourth circuit, composed of Goochland, Henrico, Hanover, King and Queen, Essex, Caroline and Spotsylvania. When he had to give up Essex, it came under the jurisdiction, for one year, of Judge Brown, and then of Judge Semple. It had been in Judge Brown's district when he held his courts in Fredericksburg and Williamsburg. In 1832, the circuit courts were increased to twenty, and Judge Brown was placed over the Fourth circuit, embracing Essex.

When Judge John Williams Green, of the Court of Appeals, died. his place had to be filled. The election for his successor took place February 20, 1834. Mr. Booker, of Amelia, nominated Judge Brockenbrough; Mr. Botts, Robert Stanard, Esq.; and Mr. Watts, Judge Ro. B. Taylor. On the second ballot, Taylor was dropped. Then Judge Brockenbrough got seventy-two votes, and from both houses ninety-three to Stanard's sixty-four, and was promoted to the Supreme Court of Appeals. The cases in which he sat are reported in I,ejgh's Reports, Vols. V to IX, inclusive, and they contain a good many of his opinions. The Court of Appeals at that time consisted of President Henry St. George Tucker, and Judges Fran- cis T. Brooke, Wm. H. Cabell, Dabney Carr, and Brockenbrough.