Samuel Chilton (September 7, 1804January 14, 1867) was a 19th-century politician and lawyer 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 ...

Biography

Born in

Warrenton, Virginia Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, of which it is the seat of government. The population was 9,611 at the 2010 census, up from 6,670 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in 2019 was 10,027. It is at the junction of U.S. R ...

, Chilton moved to

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

with his family as a child and attended private school there. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1826, commencing practice back in Warrenton. He got involved in politics and was elected a Whig 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in 1842 when he narrowly defeated

William "Extra Billy" Smith William "Extra Billy" Smith (September 6, 1797May 18, 1887) was a lawyer, congressman, the 30th and 35th Governor of Virginia, and a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. On his appointment in January 1863, ...

following a redistricting. Chilton served one term from 1843 to 1845, during which he advocated abolishing imprisonment for debt. Afterward, he returned to practicing law and was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention from 1850 to 1851. At the convention he proposed a key compromise on legislative apportionment. Chilton moved to Washington, D.C., by 1853 and became a member of American Party, or Know-Nothings. Despite having owned slaves, in 1859 he was appointed as a defense attorney for

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

John Brown after his previous defense attorneys advocated that the defendant advance a plea of insanity as his defense. Chilton died in Warrenton on January 14, 1867, and was interred there at Warrenton Cemetery.

Sources

* John T. Kneebone et al., eds., ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'' (Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 3:217-218. . * Death date in obituary, Warrenton ''True Index'', 12, January 19, 1867.

External links

Samuel Chilton
at ''

Encyclopedia Virginia Virginia Humanities (VH), formerly the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is a humanities council whose stated mission is to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth of Virginia by creating learning opportunities f ...

'' 1804 births 1867 deaths Virginia lawyers Lawyers from Washington, D.C. People from Warrenton, Virginia Washington, D.C., Know Nothings Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers {{Virginia-Representative-stub