Green Berry Samuels
{{Short description|American judge}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Green B. Samuels
|honorific-suffix =
|image =Green B. Samuels.jpg
|imagesize =100px
|caption =
|office = Judge on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
|term = 1852 – January 5, 1859
|nominator =
|appointer =
|predecessor =
|successor =
|office2= Circuit Judge for Virginia's 14th Circuit Court
|term2=December 11, 1850-1852
|office3=Delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850-1851
|term3=October 14, 1850 – December 10, 1850
|state4 = Virginia
|district4 = 16th
|term_start4 =March 4, 1839
|term_end4 = March 3, 1841
|predecessor4 = Isaac S. Pennybacker
|successor4 =William A. Harris
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1806|2|1}}
|birth_place = Shenandoah County, Virginia, U.S.
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1859|1|5|1806|2|1}}
|death_place = Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
|restingplace = Woodstock, Virginia
|restingplacecoordinates =
|nationality = American
|party =
|spouse = Maria Gore Coffman
|children = 5
|alma_mater =
|profession = Law
|signature =
}}
Green Berry Samuels (February 1, 1806 – January 5, 1859) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and judge.
Early life
Born in Shenandoah County, Virginia on February 6, 1806, Green Berry Samuels was a son of Isaac Samuels (1762–1819) and Elizabeth Pennybacker (1766–1824). He received a private classical education, then he studied law at Winchester Law School under Judge Henry St. George Tucker Sr.Congressional Biographical Directory, "Green Samuels"
On April 12, 1831, Samuels married Maria Gore Coffman and they had 5 children who reached adulthood: Elizabeth Margaret Samuels, Isaac Pennybacker Samuels, Anna Maria Samuels, Green Berry Samuels, Jr., and Samuel Coffman Samuels.
Career
Samuels was admitted to the bar in 1827 and began his legal practice at Woodstock, Virginia, the Shenandoah county seat. Voters of Virginia's 16th congressional district elected him as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1839 – March 3, 1841), where he succeeded his cousin Isaac Samuels Pennybacker, a congressman and later senator from Virginia. However, Samuels chose not to see re-election, so William A. Harris succeeded him until population losses in the next census caused Virginia to lose that congressional seat.
Voters from Shenandoah, Hardy and Warren Counties elected Samuels as one of their four delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, alongside William Seymour, Giles Cook and Samuel C. Williams, but Samuels resigned on December 10, 1850, after legislators elected him a judge of the circuit court.Cynthia Miller Leonard, Virginia's General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond, Virginia State Library 1978) p. 441 and note Mark Bird then succeeded him at the convention. Two years later, in 1852, legislators elected Samuels to the Court of Appeals.
Death
Green Berry Samuels died suddenly in Richmond, Virginia on January 5, 1859, at the age of 52. His remains were returned to Woodstock for burial in the Old Lutheran Graveyard (Emanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery).
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite web
|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp
|title=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present
|website=bioguide.congress.gov
|publisher=United States Congress
|access-date=January 1, 2016
|ref=bioguide
|url-status=dead
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423082228/http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp
|archivedate=April 23, 2010
}}
- {{cite book |last=Pulliam |first=David Loyd |title=The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time |publisher= John T. West, Richmond |year=1901 |isbn= 978-1-2879-2059-5 |ref=pulliam}}
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{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
| state=Virginia
| district=16
| before=Isaac S. Pennybacker
| after=William A. Harris
| years=1839-1841}}
{{s-end}}
{{VirginiaRepresentatives16}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels, Green Berry}}
Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia
Category:People from Shenandoah County, Virginia
Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
Category:19th-century Virginia state court judges
Category:19th-century American lawyers
Category:Winchester Law School alumni
Category:Virginia circuit court judges
Category:19th-century Virginia politicians
Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives