Biography
Representative from Virginia; born at "Bellefield," near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Va., April 13, 1787; completed preparatory studies and was graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced in Richmond, Va.; attorney general of Virginia; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Andrew Stevenson; reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-fourth Congress and elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth Congresses and served from December 1, 1834, to March 3, 1839; judge of the circuit court of chancery for Henrico County, Va., for several years; delegate to the peace convention held at Washington, D.C., in 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; member of the state senate, 1861-1863; died at "Mount Athos," near Lynchburg, Va., July 5, 1873; interment in a private cemetery at "Mount Athos."Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
