George Adams (judge)

George Adams (August 1, 1784 – August 14, 1844) was an American lawyer and political figure who served in Kentucky and, later, Mississippi state offices and, was later a United States attorney and federal judge.

George Adams was born in the Virginia settlement of Lynchburg, two years before its establishment as a chartered community in 1786. He moved to Frankfort, the capital of the neighboring Commonwealth of Kentucky, where he read law and maintained a private practice from 1810 to 1825, while serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1810–11 and, again, in 1814. In 1825, he moved south, crossing Virginia and Tennessee, to settle in Mississippi's oldest city, Natchez, which is connected to Tennessee's capital, Nashville, via the region's best-known land transportation route, the Natchez Trace. Following private law practice in Natchez from 1825 to 1827, he served as the state's attorney general in 1828–29, returning to his Natchez practice in 1829–30. In 1830 he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Mississippi, serving until January 12, 1836, when he received a nomination from President Andrew Jackson to a seat vacated by Powhatan Ellis on the United States District Court for the District of Mississippi. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 20 and received his commission that day. When the District of Mississippi was divided into a Northern District and Southern District on June 18, 1838, Adams was reassigned by operation of law to both districts. Shortly thereafter, on September 30, after having served as judge for two years and eight-and-a-half months, Adams resigned his office and returned to private practice.

George Adams practiced law for the last six years (1838–44) in Mississippi's capital, Jackson, where he died two weeks after his 60th birthday.

References

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