Buckner Thruston

Buckner Thruston
Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
In office December 14, 1809 – August 30, 1845
Appointed by	James Madison
Preceded by	Allen Duckett
Succeeded by	James Dunlop
United States Senator from Kentucky
In office March 4, 1805 – December 18, 1809
Preceded by	John Brown
Succeeded by	Henry Clay
Personal details
Born	February 9, 1763 Gloucester County, Virginia, British America
Died	August 30, 1845 (aged 82) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Alma mater	College of William and Mary

Buckner Thruston (February 9, 1763 – August 30, 1845) was a Democratic-Republican U.S. Senator from Kentucky, and later a long-serving United States federal judge.

Early life, education, and career

Born in Gloucester County, Virginia, Thruston received an A.B. from William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Virginia. He read law and moved to Lexington, Kentucky (then a part of Virginia) in 1788. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law. He was a member of the Virginia assembly in 1789, resuming his private practice from 1791 to 1792.

After Kentucky was organized as a state, Thruston was elected clerk of the first Kentucky Senate in 1792. He was appointed one of Kentucky's three commissioners to settle the boundary dispute between the states of Kentucky and Virginia. He also served as a judge of the Kentucky State District Court in 1791, and as a judge of the Kentucky State Circuit Court from 1802 to 1803. He was also appointed the United States judge of the court of the Territory of Orleans in 1804, but declined the appointment. Instead, he maintained his private practice from 1803 to 1805.

Federal legislative and judicial service

Thruston was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1805, to December 18, 1809, when he resigned, having been appointed to a judicial position. He was nominated by President James Madison on December 12, 1809, to a seat on the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia vacated by Allen Bowie Duckett, and was confirmed by his colleagues in the Senate the following day. He received his commission on December 14, 1809 and served on the bench for over thirty-five years, from January 1810 until his death, in Washington, D.C., in 1845. He was interred in the Congressional Cemetery.

His son, Charles Mynn Thruston, was a politician and Union Army general.

Sources

• Buckner Thruston at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• Buckner Thruston at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Further reading

• Buckner Thruston, O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family (accessed Nov. 4, 2015) This person page networks the involvement of William Cranch in the legal records and proceedings of the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia between 1800 and 1845.