1. Thomas Todd was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1807 to 1826.
28 Facts About Thomas Todd
1. 2.
Thomas Todd was married twice and had a total of eight children.
3.
Thomas Todd was labeled the most insignificant US Supreme Court justice by Frank H Easterbrook in The Most Insignificant Justice: Further Evidence, 50 U Chi.
4.
Thomas Todd was the youngest of five children, all orphaned when Thomas was a boy.
5.
Thomas Todd was raised Presbyterian, but because Virginia lacked public schools at the time, had difficulty obtaining an education.
6.
At the age of 16, Thomas Todd joined the Continental Army as a private with a cavalry company from Manchester, Virginia in the final months of the American Revolutionary War.
7.
Thomas Todd then became a tutor at Liberty Hall Academy in exchange for room and board, and graduated at age 18, in 1783.
8.
Thomas Todd lived with the family of his cousin, Judge Harry Innes in Bedford County, Virginia and studied surveying before moving to Kentucky County with the Innes family when Harry Innes was appointed to the Kentucky district of the Virginia Supreme Court.
9.
Thomas Todd tutored his cousin's children in Danville, Kentucky in exchange for help in reading law.
10.
Thomas Todd was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1786, and maintained a private practice in Danville, Kentucky from 1788 until 1801.
11.
Thomas Todd gained influence by becoming its court reporter and served as secretary to the Kentucky State Legislature after statehood.
12.
Thomas Todd served as one of Lincoln County's two delegates to the Virginia House of Delegates in the term which ended in Kentucky's statehood.
13.
Thomas Todd was a candidate for governor of Kentucky in 1795 and 1800.
14.
Thomas Todd was the first clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
15.
Thomas Todd owned slaves, twenty-six slaves at the time of the 1820 census.
16.
Thomas Todd married twice, although genealogists disagree as to some of his offspring.
17.
Thomas Todd bore had three sons of whom the first, Harry Innes Todd died as an infant, but Charles Stewart Todd continued the family's legal, military and public service traditions and John Harris Todd became a lawyer.
18.
On March 29,1812, after more than a year of mourning his first wife, Thomas Todd married Lucy Payne Washington, the youngest sister of Dolley Madison and the widow of Major George Steptoe Washington, who was a nephew of President George Washington.
19.
On February 28,1807, President Thomas Jefferson nominated Todd as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, after the number of seats on the Court was expanded from six to seven by Congress.
20.
The United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 2,1807, and Thomas Todd was sworn into office on May 4,1807.
21.
Thomas Todd is one of 19 Presbyterians to have served on the Court.
22.
Thomas Todd served on the Court until his death on February 7,1826.
23.
Thomas Todd concurred in all other opinions written by the chief justice.
24.
Thomas Todd died in Frankfort, Kentucky on February 7,1826, at the age of 61.
25.
Thomas Todd was initially buried in the Innes family cemetery.
26.
At the time of his death, Thomas Todd owned substantial real property, particularly in Frankfort.
27.
Thomas Todd was a charter member of the Kentucky River Company, the first business formed to promote Kentucky waterway navigation.
28.
Thomas Todd became a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1820.