William Brockenbrough (judge)
William Brockenbrough was a Virginia lawyer, planter, politician and judge, including on what became the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Early life and education
Brockenbrough was born in Tappahannock in Essex County, Virginia, United States, the son of Dr. John Brockenbaugh and his wife Sarah Roane, the daughter of Co. William Roane. He attended the College of William and Mary in 1798. He studied law.Career
Brockenbrough had a private legal practice in Essex and surrounding counties, and before the state's highest court in Richmond.During much of his adult life, Brockenbrough would be considered a key member of the "Richmond Junto", alongside his brother John, as well as Judge Spencer Roane and journalist Thomas Ritchie—all from Essex County, so the group was also sometimes known as the "Essex Junto". He became a noted advocate of state's rights, and also published articles under the pseudonym Aristogitan which were critical of fellow Richmonder John Marshall, particularly the 1819 decision in McCulloch v. Maryland.
Brockenbrough's political career began in 1802–03, when Essex County voters elected him as one of their representatives in the House of Delegates. He was re-elected once, and after a term on the Council of State described below, again won election and re-election. Brockenbrough did not run for re-election after his second term as a delegate because he became a member of the Council of State in May, 1803. As a member of the Commonwealth's executive body, he was not allowed to hold a legislative office. However, Virginia's state constitution at the time forbad that body remaining unchanged, requiring the legislature to remove two members from that body every third year, and Brockenbrough was one of those chosen for removal in December 1804. Thus, Brockenbrough's term on that body ended the following May.
Virginia legislators first elected Brockenbrough as a judge of the general court on February 7, 1809. Not long after the adoption of the Virginia Constitution of 1830, and following the death of Judge John W. Green, on February 20, 1834, Brockenbrough was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals but died just four years later.
In 1810, Brockenbrough may have owned about 30 slaves in Hanover County. In 1820 Brockenbrough owned 20 slaves in Henrico County, Virginia, which included Richmond. A decade later, the last census of his life reported him as owning 23 slaves in Richmond, as well as 46 slaves in Hanover County. His relationship to a family of six free black people in King and Queen County with the same surname is unclear.