Lucas P. Thompson

Lucas Powell Thompson (1797-April 21, 1866) was a Virginia lawyer, politician, educator and judge for more than 35 years, who died before he could assume a seat on the Court of Appeals.[1][2][3]

Lucas P. Thompson
Judge of Circuit Court for Augusta County
In office 1831-1866
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Amherst district
In office December 7, 1829 – December 5, 1830 Serving with Samuel M. Garland
Preceded by	Josiah Ellis
Succeeded by	Samuel M. Garland
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Amherst district
In office December 4, 1826 – November 30, 1829 Serving with William M. Waller
Preceded by	David S. Garland
Succeeded by	Josiah Ellis
Personal details
Born	1797 Nelson County, Virginia
Died	April 21, 1866 Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia
Political party	Whig
Alma mater	Hampden-Sydney College
Profession	lawyer, educator, politician, judge

Early and family life

Born at "Farmer's Joy" in Nelson County, Virginia, to Irish immigrant and Revolutionary War veteran John Thompson (1755-1828) and his wife Rebecca Edwards Powell (1769-), Lucas Thompson was one of nine children. He attended Hampden-Sydney College, and took a walking tour of Spain when he was 18.[4]

Thompson married three times. He married his first wife, Susanna Caroline Tapscott (1802-1853), in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia on January 15, 1828. They had eight children, including six daughters who survived both their parents. One son Lucas Powell Thompson (1830-1854) barely survived his mother, and their only other son, John Baker Thompson (1834-1862), died at the Battle of Shiloh. After his first wife's death, Thompson married Arabella Stuart White (1820-1858, the daughter of the court clerk in Romney, Hampshire County (then in Virginia and on his judicial circuit, after the Civil War in West Virginia) in 1855. After her death, he married Catharine S. Carrington (1825-1893) in Halifax, Virginia on August 5, 1860, and she survived him. Although one modern blogger claims Judge Thompson had no slaves until this third marriage with one of the First Families of Virginia, U.S. census records show he owned 18 slaves in the 1850 census,[5] and a decade earlier had owned 13 slaves.[6]

Career

After finishing his education, and perhaps reading law with his elder brother James Powell Thompson (1792-1882, who moved to Tennessee), Thompson moved to Amherst County, Virginia and practiced law, as well as served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, two alongside William M. Waller and later with Samuel M. Garland. Voters of Albemarle, Amherst, Nelson, Fluvanna and Goochland counties elected Thompson as one of their four delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, alongside James Pleasants, William F. Gordon and Thomas Massie Jr.[7] Following that Constitution's ratification, the Virginia General Assembly elected Thompson as a county judge in Staunton, Virginia and he succeeded Archibald Stuart in 1831. He served on that court for many years, and was re-elected to that post by the legislature. After the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, the county court was reconstituted as the 11th circuit court, and Thompson also elected to that position (and re-elected many times). Before the conflict, Judge Thompson operated a private law school (1839-1849), mostly at the mansion, "Hilltop", he built in Staunton in 1842. He remained in office during the American Civil War, although he despised Abraham Lincoln. His son John Baker Thompson (1834-1862) died at the Battle of Shiloh. His nephew John Lucas Thompson (1833-1866) captained Company C of the 16th Tennessee Infantry and barely survived the war.

During the war's final days, Judge Thompson recommended a Peace Commission, and signed the oath of allegiance afterward, reputedly on the recommendation of Gen. Robert E. Lee. After the war, Governor Francis Pierpont nominated Judge Thompson, who had opposed succession, to the Court of Appeals, but Judge Thompson was already ill when the General Assembly elected him to that position on February 22, 1866.

Death and legacy

Judge Thompson died at his Staunton home on April 21, 1866 before assuming that office.[8] He was buried at Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton with his first two wives, and an epitaph, "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace".[9] His widow remarried, to her widower cousin, Dr. Paul Jones Carrington, and was ultimately buried near Mt.Laurel,Virginia. She sold his home to Mary Baldwin College in 1872, and it was restored in 1991. The Library of Virginia has some of his papers.

Notes

1. Waddell, Joseph A. (1902). Annals of Augusta County, Virginia: 1726–1871. Bridgewater, Virginia: C. J. Carrier Co. pp. 444, 514, 515.
2. Lyon G. Tyler, "Lucas Powell Thompson" in Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography(1915); 17
3. https://scvahistory.org/about/t/lucas-p.thompson-1866
4. http://doughoregan.blogspot.com/2006/10/historical-and-geneological.html
5. 1850 U.S. Federal Cernsus, Slave Schedule for District 2, Augusta County, Virginia
6. 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia
7. Leonard, Cynthia Miller (1978). The General Assembly of Virginia: 1619–1978. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library. pp. 333, 338, 348, 354.
8. "Death of Judge Lucas P. Thompson", Staunton Spectator (April 24, 1866)
9. Judge Lucas Powell Thompson at Find a Grave

See also

W. Hamilton Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia 1779-1979: A Biographical Approach (University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville 1982) pp. 596–599