James Herbert Gholson (1798July 2, 1848) was a nineteenth-century congressman, planter, lawyer and judge from

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 ...

Early and family life

Born in Gholsonville,

Brunswick County, Virginia Brunswick County is a United States county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This rural county is known as one of the claimants to be the namesake of Brunswick stew. Brunswick County was created in 1720 from parts ...

to William Gholson and his wife Mary Saunders. He had a brother Thomas Saunders Gholson. Gholson was educated by tutors, then attended

Princeton College Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

and graduated in 1820. He married Charlotte L. Carey in Southampton, Virginia on November 22, 1827.

Career

He studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in Percivals, Virginia. By 1830, his household included five white persons and 25 enslaved persons. His uncle Thomas Gholson Jr. who died in 1816 had represented Brunswick County in the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

and later the U.S. House of Representatives, and James Herbert Gholson soon carried on the family tradition. Voters elected him as one of their part-time representatives in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, where he served from 1824 to 1828 and again from 1830 until 1833, when he was elected to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Congressman

John Claiborne John Claiborne (January 26, 1778October 9, 1808) was a son of Thomas Claiborne (1749–1812) and brother of Thomas Claiborne (1780–1856). He was a Representative from Virginia; born in Brunswick County, Virginia in 1778; pursued academic stu ...

. Sixty percent were the enslaved Brunswick County. He spoke about Nat Turner in Virginia General Assembly. Elected as an

Anti-Jacksonian The National Republican Party, also known as the Anti-Jacksonian Party or simply Republicans, was a political party in the United States that evolved from a conservative-leaning faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that supported John Qu ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in 1832, Gholson failed to win re-election, and his 1834 defeat by his sometimes co-delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates and unsuccessful opponent two years earlier,

George Dromgoole George Coke Dromgoole (May 15, 1797 – April 27, 1847) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Virginia. He was the uncle of Alexander Dromgoole Sims and the son of Irish-born pioneer Methodist circuit rider Edward Dromgoole. ...

, marked the demise of the Whig party in Brunswick County. Afterwards, the Virginia General Assembly elected Gholson as a judge of the circuit court for the Brunswick circuit, and he served for many years despite a controversy the year before his death alleging partiality toward his brother, who would later serve in the

Second Confederate Congress The 2nd Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from May 2, 1864, to March 18, 1865, during the last year of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia S ...

Death and legacy

Gholson died in Brunswick County on July 2, 1848, and was buried at

Blandford Cemetery Blandford Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Petersburg, Virginia. The oldest stone, marking the grave of Richard Yarbrough, reads 1702. It is located adjacent to the People's Memorial Cemetery, a historic African-American cemetery. Alt ...

in Petersburg, Virginia.

Electoral history

*1833; Gholson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 37.62% of the vote, defeating Democrat George Coke Dromgoole and Independents William Osborne Goode and Alexander G. Knox. *1835; Gholson lost his re-election bid to Dromgoole.

References

External links

1798 births 1848 deaths Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia lawyers Princeton University alumni 19th-century American politicians National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American judges People from Brunswick County, Virginia Burials at Blandford Cemetery Virginia circuit court judges {{Virginia-Representative-stub