Background
He was the eldest son of William Daniel, of Stapenhill, then part of Derbyshire. W T S Daniel was born on 17 March 1806. On 12 September 1830, he married Harriet, eldest daughter of John Mayon, Esq., of Coleshill.
He was the eldest son of William Daniel, of Stapenhill, then part of Derbyshire. W T S Daniel was born on 17 March 1806. On 12 September 1830, he married Harriet, eldest daughter of John Mayon, Esq., of Coleshill.
Daniel was educated at Hampden–Sydney College and the University of Virginia, studied law in 1827—28, and was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years old.
He served on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, that state's highest court, from 1846 to 1865. Daniel served three terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Campbell County in 1831, 1835 and 1837. He was elected twice as a Democrat.
On December 15, 1846, Daniel was elected to the Court of Appeals. After the adoption of the Commonwealth's new constitution in 1851, he was again selected by legislators to the reorganized court. Daniel was a fierce proponent of slavery, and authored the 1858 decision in Bailey v.
Poindexter's Estate, which voided a manumission provision in a will because it gave slaves a choice which he and three other justices found them incapable of making. He served in this position until 1865. Daniel died in Farmville, Virginia and is buried at the Old City cemetery in Lynchburg.
He was vice-chairman (and originator) of the system of the law reports of the Council of Law Reporting from 1865 to 1870, and a member of the Law Digest Commission in 1868.