George Claiborne Watkins, son of Maj. Isaac and Marie (Toncre) Watkins, was born at Shelbyville, Ky. He was descended from Thomas Watkins who came from England and settled on Swift Creek in Cumberland (later Powhatan) County, Va. , about the middle of the eighteenth century. Following financial reverses, Isaac Watkins moved to Arkansas in 1821, and is said to have built the first tavern and grist mill in Little Rock.
After receiving the best educational advantages available in a pioneer settlement, George attended the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut Returning to Little Rock in 1837.
He formed a law partnership with Chester Ashley, who was the leading lawyer in the state and later United States senator. On October 16, 1843, Watkins succeeded Robert W. Johnson as attorney general. Becoming chief justice of the state supreme court on November 15, 1852, he soon cleared a crowded docket and won a reputation for the disposal of business in an orderly way. The most important decision rendered while he was on the bench was that in the case of Merrick vs. Avery, 1854, in which, basing his decision on the reasoning in The Genesee Chief vs. Fitzhugh, he held that the United States had exclusive admiralty jurisdiction over navigable streams. This decision was made some twelve years before a similar ruling by the Supreme Court. Shortly before his elevation to the bench he had formed a law partnership with James M. Curran. Upon the death of his partner he resigned, December 31, 1854, in order to meet the obligations of the firm. By close attention to his practice and by judicious investments he accumulated a competence. On December 20, 1862, he was appointed a member of the military court attending the army of Gen. T. H. Holmes. He died in St. Louis, on his way back from Colorado, where he had gone for the benefit of his health.
He was a zealous supporter of the Confederacy and gave three sons to the army, one of whom rose from a private to the rank of colonel and was killed at Atlanta at the age of twenty-two.
He was a man of slender build, being only five feet, five inches in height, and weighing less than one hundred pounds.
Quotes from others about the person
His last law partner, U. M. Rose, said of him: "With an extremely delicate and fragile constitution he possessed strong feelings and a nerve of iron. His reverence for the courts and administration of justice amounted to religion".
He was married twice: first, in 1841, to Mary Crease, who bore him three sons and two daughters; second, to Sophia, widow of his late partner and daughter of Senator W. S. Fulton, who bore him three daughters.
