10 Facts About James Witherell

James Witherell served as a United States representative from Vermont and as a Judge of the Supreme Court for the Territory of Michigan.

James Witherell entered service as a private and rose to the rank of Adjutant in the Eleventh Massachusetts Regiment.

James Witherell was severely wounded in the Battle of White Plains in 1776.

James Witherell moved to Hampton in the Vermont Republic in 1788 and to Fair Haven in 1789 and continued the practice of his profession.

James Witherell was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1798 to 1802.

James Witherell was associate county judge from 1801 to 1803, judge of Rutland County from 1803 to 1806, and an executive councilor from 1802 to 1806.

James Witherell was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Tenth Congress, serving from March 4,1807, until May 1,1808, when he resigned to accept an appointment by President Thomas Jefferson as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court for the Territory of Michigan.

James Witherell lived in Fair Haven, Vermont while on parole from the British and later was exchanged and returned to his duties in Detroit in the Michigan Territory.

James Witherell was Acting Governor of the Territory of Michigan for the first three months of 1830.

James Witherell died at his home in Detroit on January 9,1838, less than a year after the Michigan Territory's admission to the Union as a state.