John Birdsall (politician, born 1802)
John Birdsall(1802 – July 22, 1839) was an American lawyer and politician from New York and Texas.
Born in the town ofGreenein New York'sChenango County,he was the son of Maurice Birdsall (1774–1852) and Ann (Pixley) Birdsall (1778–1829). He married Ann Whiteside (1805–1833), and then Sarah Peacock (1816–1895).
He was admitted to the bar, and practiced inMayville, New York.
He wasJudge of the Eighth Circuit Courtfrom 1826 to 1829.
He was a member of theNew York State Assembly(Chautauqua Co.) in1831.
He was a member of theNew York State Senate(6th D.) from 1832 to 1834, sitting in the55th,56thand57th New York State Legislatures.He resigned his seat on June 5, 1834.
In 1837, he removed to Houston, then the capital of the independent Republic of Texas, and resumed the practice of law there. The same year, he was appointed Attorney General of the Republic of Texas. In November 1838, he was appointed by PresidentSam Houstonas Chief Justice of theSupreme Court of the Republic of Texas,to fill the vacancy caused by the death ofJames Collinsworth,but the Texas Congress did not confirm the appointment, and instead electedThomas Jefferson Ruska few days after Houston left the presidency.
Afterwards he resumed the practice of law in partnership with Houston, but died a few months later inHoustonat the age of 37 and was buried at the city's Glendale Cemetery.
Neither Collinsworth nor Birdsall ever convened the Supreme Court, the first session was held in January 1840, six months after Birdsall's death, with Rusk as chief justice.
New York State TreasurerAlvah Huntwas Birdsall's brother-in-law.
References
[edit]- The New York Civil Listcompiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 129f, 138, 210, 259 and 356; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
- Texas in 1837ed. by Andrew Forest Muir (1958; pg. 216)
- Handbook of Texas Online - John Birdsall
- 1802 births
- 1839 deaths
- People from Greene, New York
- People from Mayville, New York
- Politicians from Houston
- New York (state) state senators
- Members of the New York State Assembly
- Anti-Masonic Party politicians from New York (state)
- 19th-century American legislators
- New York (state) state court judges
- Texas Attorneys General
- Chief Justices of the Republic of Texas Supreme Court
- 19th-century American judges