Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist
Philip Pendleton Barbour

Philip Pendleton Barbour

Supreme Court of the United States

Born 1783 in Orange County, VA

Died 1841 in Washington, DC

FJC ID: 91

Career output and lasting influence

Opinions attributed per year · peak 3/year

Virginia Eastern District Court · 1830–1836Supreme Court of the United States · 1836–184118301850190019502000202530
opinions

Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 14/year

Virginia Eastern District Court · 1830–1836Supreme Court of the United States · 1836–1841183018501900195020002025140
citing decisions

Virginia Eastern District Court · 1830–1836Supreme Court of the United States · 1836–1841

Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.

What else would you like us to graph? Tell us →

Philip Pendleton Barbour (May 25, 1783 – February 25, 1841) was the tenth speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only individual to serve in both positions.

Born in Gordonsville, Virginia, Barbour established a legal career in Gordonsville after studying at the College of William & Mary. Several members of Barbour's family, including his brother, James Barbour, went on to hold prominent political office. Barbour won election to the House of Representatives in 1814 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He served a single term as Speaker from 1821 to 1823 and declined to seek re-election to Congress in 1824. Barbour returned to Congress in 1827 as an ally of Andrew Jackson.

Barbour served in Congress until 1830, when he accepted appointment as a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. President Jackson appointed Barbour to the Supreme Court in 1835 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation in 1835 of Gabriel Duvall. Barbour served on the Court until his death in 1841. On the Court, Barbour generally supported Jacksonian principles and states' rights.

Full biography on Wikipedia ↗
Gender
Male
Race
White

Prior employment

  1. U.S. representative from Virginia
    1815–1825, 1827–1830
    • ↳speaker · 1821–1823
  2. General Court of Virginia
    Judge · 1825–1827
  3. Virginia
    State delegate · 1812–1814
  4. Private practice, Orange County, Virginia
    1802–1812
  5. Private practice, Kentucky
    1800–1801

Appointments

  1. Supreme Court of the United States
    Supreme Court of the United States
    1836–1841 · Appointed by Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
    Term ended: Death
  2. Virginia Eastern District Court
    U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
    1830–1836 · Appointed by Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
    Term ended: Appointment to Another Judicial Position

Education

  1. Read law
    1800