William Bayard Shields (1780 – April 18, 1823) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Mississippi The following are former United States district courts, which ceased to exist because they were subdivided into smaller units. With the exception of California, each of these courts initially covered an entire U.S. state, and was subdivided as the ...

Education and career

Born in 1780,William David McCain, ''The Journal of Mississippi History'' (1979). in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, Shields

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

with

Caesar Augustus Rodney Caesar Augustus Rodney (January 4, 1772 – June 10, 1824) was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly, ...

. He entered private practice in Wilmington,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

until 1802. He was

Secretary of State of Delaware The Secretary of State of Delaware is the head of the Department of State of the U.S. state of Delaware. The Department is in charge of a wide variety of public and governmental services, and is divided into the following divisions: *Delaware Di ...

in 1802. He resumed private practice in

Natchez Natchez may refer to: Places * Natchez, Alabama, United States * Natchez, Indiana, United States * Natchez, Louisiana, United States * Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States * Grand Village of the Natchez, a site o ...

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...

(State of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

from December 10, 1817) from 1803 to 1809, until 1812, and from 1814 to 1817. He was a United States agent to adjust land claims west of the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

in 1804. He was a member of the Territorial Legislature of the Mississippi Territory from 1808 to 1809, and from 1813 to 1814. He was Attorney General of the Mississippi Territory starting in 1809. He was a Judge of the Superior Court of Mississippi and a Justice of the

Supreme Court of Mississippi The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...

from 1817 to 1818.Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in Horace W. Fuller, ed., '' The Green Bag'', Vol. XI (1899), p. 504.

Federal judicial service

Shields was nominated by President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

on April 20, 1818, to the

, to a new seat authorized by 3 Stat. 413. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on April 20, 1818, and received commission the same day. His service terminated on April 18, 1823,There is some ambiguity in sources regarding his date of death. His Federal Judicial Center biography gives his death date as April 19 at one point in the article, but later gives it as April 18. Other sources are ambiguous and conflicting as to whether the date is April 18 or April 19, but April 18 is slightly more prevalent. due to his death in Natchez.

Circumstances of his death

Shields obituary in the ''Natchez Gazette'' of April 23, 1823, describes his last days and death thus; "On the morning of the 16th inst. he had a severe attack of

Apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

, which was followed by a severe derangement of his mind which continued in violent paroxyms, with intervals of apparent rationality, until the evening of the 18th when in a most agonizing exacerbation he relieved himself of sufferance by suddenly terminating his existence."Spelling and capitalization errors present in the original quote.

Note

References

Sources