Drury Andrew Hinton (May 4, 1839 -- October 10, 1909) was a Virginia lawyer, Confederate soldier,

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, and judge who most notably served on

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Supreme Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

from January 1, 1883 until December 31, 1894.

Early and family life

His father, Erasmus Gill Hinton, was a banker. Drury Hinton had a brother, William E. Hinton, who likewise became a Confederate officer, then private banker, stockbroker and important financier in postwar Petersburg. Another brother was Dr. Samuel Hinton of Petersburg. After a private education appropriate to his class, Hinton studied law at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

until interrupted by the War Between the States.

American Civil War

The

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

interrupted his studies. In March 1861, Hinton joined the 41st Virginia Infantry of the Confederate Army, and fought throughout the war, surrendering at Appomattox courthouse. At the Battle of the Crater he was in the first Confederate assault to retake the crater.

Career

Admitted to the bar in August 1866, Hinton began a private legal practice. In 1870 he and four other former C.S.A. captains organized the Petersburg Rifleman's Association as a hunting club and society to preserve the Army of Northern Virginia's military tradition. Elected as the Commonwealth's Attorney and Corporation Counsel for the City of Petersburg in 1872, Hinton win re-election until his election to the Supreme Court of Appeals in 1883. Many of his controversies in office involved the

Petersburg Railroad The Petersburg Railroad ran from Petersburg, Virginia, south to Garysburg, North Carolina, from which it ran to Weldon via trackage rights over the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad (later eliminated with a new alignment). History Founding In 183 ...

, which the city acquired. His brother, Captain William E. Hinton, Jr., had helped lead the Conservative party to victory in the Petersburg municipal election of 1874. William Hinton then become aligned with the

Readjuster Party The Readjuster Party was a bi-racial state-level political party formed in Virginia across party lines in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era that sought to reduce outstanding debt owed by the state. Readj ...

, won election to the Virginia Senate and represented Petersburg and nearby Prince George and Surry Counties from 1875 until 1879. When the Readjuster-dominated legislature refused to re-elect the Conservative judges in 1882, one judge Edward C. Burks, because he had succeeded a judge who died in office and thus had only served six years on the high court rather than the normal twelve-year term, contested his removal. With Judge Hinton absent (as a party to the controversy), the newly reconstituted court ruled against Burks as its first act of business on January 1, 1883.Burks v. Hinton, 77 Va. 1 (1883) J.S. Budd, George S. Bernard and Virginia Attorney General (and Readjuster) Francis Simpson Blair represented Judge Hinton; W.W. Henry, John H. Guy and James Alfred Jones (the deceased Judge Wood Bouldin's former law partner) represented Judge Burks in the legal case. However, the Readjuster Party lost power, and in 1894, the Democratic Party dominated the Virginia General Assembly and refused to re-elect any of the judges (including Judge Hinton) whose 12 year terms were expiring. His judicial appointment having finished, in 1894, Drury Hinton returned to private practice in Petersburg.

References

1839 births 1909 deaths Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia Virginia lawyers Confederate States Army soldiers People of Virginia in the American Civil War People from Petersburg, Virginia University of Virginia alumni 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers {{Virginia-politician-stub