Bushrod Washington

US Supreme Court justice from 1798 to 1829

Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an American attorney and politician from the Washington family who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall .

Washington was a co-founder and president of the American Colonization Society , which promoted the emigration of formerly enslaved people to Africa . The nephew of American Founding Father and President George Washington , he inherited his uncle's papers and Mount Vernon , taking possession in 1802 after the death of Martha Washington , his uncle's widow, and with Marshall's help, published a biography of the first president.

Early life

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Bushrod Washington was born on June 5, 1762, at Bushfield Manor , a plantation located at Mount Holly in Westmoreland County, Virginia .

He was a son of John Augustine Washington , the brother of George Washington, and John's heiress wife, Hannah Bushrod.

He had a younger brother and two older sisters, all married into the First Families of Virginia .[_citation needed
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Education

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Bushrod Washington received his initial classical schooling from a private tutor who also taught the children of Richard Henry Lee , who lived nearby in Westmoreland County. He then traveled to Williamsburg for further studies and despite some school closures related to the American Revolutionary War and British raids nearby, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1778, although only 16 years old. He returned in the summer of 1780 to study law under George Wythe and during that time as an alumnus became the 41st member of Phi Beta Kappa .

In Williamsburg he became acquainted with young veteran John Marshall , who was taking a six-week course from Wythe. As discussed below, Washington soon would enlist in the war's final campaign. Although his friend Marshall was already practicing law in Virginia, after that military service, Bushrod traveled to Philadelphia for further legal studies (financed by his uncle, the President) under James Wilson, then a prominent lawyer and soon-to-be Supreme Court justice as well as law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Military service

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The College of William and Mary had been occupied by soldiers several times during the American Revolutionary War. Washington joined the Continental Army in 1781, serving as a private of dragoons in Colonel John Francis Mercer ’s cavalry, the 3rd Virginia Regiment . Although he remained a private until the war ended and the troop disbanded in 1782, he and his cousin Ludwell Lee fought in the Battle of Green Spring , and he witnessed General Cornwallis ’s surrender to George Washington at Yorktown .

Marriage

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Bushrod Washington married Julia Anne (Anna) Blackburn, the daughter of Col. Thomas Blackburn of Prince William County, Virginia, a former aide de camp to General Washington and planter who also served in the Virginia General Assembly. The marriage took place in a panelled ballroom known as “the Best Room” in Blackburn’s house, Rippon Lodge . They had no children, and she died days after her husband while accompanying their niece and nephew to Virginia and her husband's funeral.[_citation needed
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Legal and political careers

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After concluding his studies with Wilson in April 1784, Washington returned to Westmoreland County and opened a law office. He continued his private legal practice from 1784 to 1798. In 1789, he and his new bride moved into a newly constructed house at 521 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, which may have been built as a wedding present, which he kept as one of his residences for decades.

Westmoreland County voters elected Washington as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1787, where he served along with veteran Richard Henry Lee .

The following year, he won another election and attended the Virginia Ratifying Convention (this time alongside Henry Lee), where he voted for ratification of the U.S. Constitution . In 1789 he published a two-volume Reports of the Virginia Court of Appeals, 1790-96, and, three decades later, with R. Peters, published decisions of the United States Court for the Third Circuit, 1803-27 in four volumes.

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[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bushrod_Washington&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Education")
]

Bushrod Washington received his initial classical schooling from a private tutor who also taught the children of Richard Henry Lee , who lived nearby in Westmoreland County. He then traveled to Williamsburg for further studies and despite some school closures related to the American Revolutionary War and British raids nearby, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1778, although only 16 years old. He returned in the summer of 1780 to study law under George Wythe and during that time as an alumnus became the 41st member of Phi Beta Kappa .

In Williamsburg he became acquainted with young veteran John Marshall , who was taking a six-week course from Wythe. As discussed below, Washington soon would enlist in the war's final campaign. Although his friend Marshall was already practicing law in Virginia, after that military service, Bushrod traveled to Philadelphia for further legal studies (financed by his uncle, the President) under James Wilson, then a prominent lawyer and soon-to-be Supreme Court justice as well as law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.