John White Brockenbrough

Background

John White was born on December 23, 1806, in Hanover County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of William and Judith Robinson Brokenborough.

Education

After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1825, John attended the University of Virginia in 1826. He also read law in Winchester, Virginia, under the distinguished lawyer Henry St. George Tucker.

Career

John Brockenbrough was admitted to the bar in 1827. He also served as commonwealth attorney for Hanover County in the late 1820s. In 1834, he moved to Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, where he practiced law and founded a law school in 1849.

He also wrote "Reports of the Decisions of Justice Marshall." From 1845 to 1861, he held the appointed post of judge of the United States Court for the Western District of Virginia.

He was a delegate to the peace convention in Washington in February 1861. Brockenbrough was also elected a member of the provisional Confederate Congress at Richmond, where he served on the Judiciary Committee. His most distinguished service to the Confederacy was as a judge for Virginia's Western District from 1861 to 1865.

John consistently upheld the claims of the administration. After the war, he became a professor of law at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, a post he held for the rest of his life. He also practiced law until his death there on February 20, 1877.

Achievements

• John White Brockenbrough was the founder of Washington and Lee Law School and established the Lexington Law School in 1849. He was also known as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, and during the Civil War as a member of the Confederate Congress.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Reports of Cases Decided 1836

Politics

A Democrat, Brockenbrough supported the secession movement in Virginia.

Membership

Brockenbrough was a member of a five-man committee in Lexington which called for "a White Man's party, based on the single principle that the white man alone has the right to vote."

Connections

In 1834, John married Mary Calwell Bowyer. The couple had six children.

Father:

William Brokenborough

Mother:

Judith Robinson Brokenborough

Wife:

Mary Calwell Bowyer Brockenbrough

1807-1893

Son:

John Bowyer Brockenbrough

1836-1901

Son:

William S. Brockenbrough

1838-1903

Son:

William N. Brockenbrough

1843-1919

Daughter:

Louisa Gardner Brockenbrough Semmes

1844-1913

Son:

Robert Lewis Brockenbrough

1846-1886

Son:

Francis Henry Brockenborough

1849-1914

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977