Robert Andrews Hill

Robert Andrews Hill (March 25, 1811 – July 2, 1900) was a United States federal judge.

Life and career

Born in Iredell County, North Carolina, Robert Andrews Hill was the son of David Hill and Rhoda Andrews, and the grandson of Scottish-Irish forebears who had emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th century and later settled in North Carolina.^[1] Hill read law to enter the bar in 1844. He was a constable in Williamson County, Tennessee, from 1834 to 1836, and was then a Justice of Peace for the county until 1844. He was in private practice in Waynesboro, Tennessee, from 1844 to 1847. He was a state district attorney general of Waynesboro from 1847 to 1855, thereafter resuming private practice in Jacinto, Mississippi, until 1858. He was a judge on the Probate Court of Tishomingo County, Mississippi, from 1858 to 1865, and was a district chancellor for the state of Mississippi from 1865 to 1866.

On March 27, 1866, Hill was nominated by President Andrew Johnson to a jointly appointed seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, both vacated by Samuel J. Gholson. Hill was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 1, 1866, one of only a handful of Johnson nominees to pass a Senate hostile to the President. Hill received his commission the same day, serving in that capacity until his retirement on August 1, 1891.

He died in Oxford, Mississippi.

Sources

• Robert Andrews Hill at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

References

1. "Hill, Robert Andrews, (1811-1900)", North Carolina Biographical Dictionary, Somerset Publishers, 1999, 2nd edition, pp. 281-84.