Henry Crabb (judge)

Born in Botetourt County, Virginia,{{cite web|url=https://www.tschsociety.org/justices.html|author=Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society|title=Justices}} Crabb was the son of Colonel Ralph Crabb, and the brother of George Whitfield Crabb.{{cite web |url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MeKaknVERE8J:https://www.alabamapioneers.com/biography-general-george-whitfield-crabb-born-1804/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us |title=Biography: General George Whitfield Crabb born February 22, 1804 |first1=Donna R. |last1=Causey |publisher=Alabama Pioneers |access-date=May 24, 2021}} The family seems to have migrated to middle Tennessee together, and in 1813 Crabb was admitted to the bar of Davidson County in company with Ephraim H. Foster and James Trimble.{{Sfnp|Williams|1942|p=303}} In 1816 he announced that his new Nashville office was in "small new building on Cedar street, a short distance below the Messrs. Sitter's copper-smith shop, and not far from the public square," and that he also practiced in Bedford, Rutherford, and Lincoln counties.{{Cite news |date=1816-06-18 |title=Henry Crabb, Attorney-at-Law |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-nashville-whig-henry-crabb-attorney/170038534/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=The Nashville Whig |pages=1}}

In 1816 he served as secretary to a political convention creating a statement of grievance regarding the terms of a recent treaty with the Cherokee.{{Cite news |date=1816-07-30 |title=Grievances - Nashville |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-franklin-repository-weekly-grievan/168866362/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=The Franklin Repository (Weekly) |pages=2}} Crabb was listed as one of the directors of the Nashville Library in 1818, along with Robert Searcy, Wilkins Tannehill, Duncan Robertson, Elihu S. Hall, James Roane, and James Trimble.{{Cite news |date=1818-02-24 |title=Nashville Library |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-clarion-and-tennessee-state-gazette/170038875/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=The Clarion and Tennessee State Gazette |pages=1}} In 1819 he was part of a welcoming committee for James Monroe's visit to Nashville, along with city mayor Foster, John McNairy, John H. Eaton, J. C. Bronaugh, John Somerville, W. B. Lewis, Samuel Hogg, Felix Grundy, O. B. Hayes, and Alfred Balch.{{Cite news |date=1819-06-29 |title=Reception and Ball for James Monroe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-national-intelligencer-and-washing/168865958/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express |pages=3}} The same year there was a financial panic, as the Farmers and Mechanics Bank suspended specie payments, but Crabb, Thomas Ramsey, and John P. Erwin "investigated the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, and assured the people if they would give their confidence it could and would resume payment."{{Cite news |date=1884-12-16 |title=Nashville Memories: The Dinner Given to the Volunteers at Bell's Tavern—The Old City—Jackson |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/603644301/?fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjYwMzY0NDMwMSwiaWF0IjoxNzQ0MzE0Nzk2LCJleHAiOjE3NDQ0MDExOTZ9.UtUDb8abPGjM8dK3yFDE9X1-jPTc3aaBD7x_Hv19g4k&terms=Crabb&match=1&clipping_id=154685082 |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=2}}

Crabb was appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee in 1818, serving until 1827.{{Cite report |url=https://www.justice.gov/d9/pages/attachments/2018/02/23/bicentennial_celebration.pdf |title=Bicentennial Celebration of United States Attorneys, 1789–1989 |last=Executive Office for United States Attorneys |date=1989 |publisher=United States Department of Justice |location=Washington, D.C. |page=212 }} The appointee to the corresponding U.S. Marshal position was John Childress.{{Cite news |date=1819-03-27 |title=Appointments by the President of the U.S. with the Advice of the Senate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-appointments-by-the-pr/170039216/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=3}} Little has been written about his law career except by Henry S. Foote of Mississippi who characterized Crabb as cool and reserved to the point of appearing grave, quietly sarcastic, and devoted to reason. His Nashville bar association obituary gave him many laurels, describing him as having "talents of the highest order...a clear, discriminating mind, sound judgment, strong memory, and uncommonly correct views and opinions...[a] profound, learned and able lawyer...The utmost confidence was reposed in his talents, learning and inflexible integrity." In 1820 he was appointed along with Foster to be an aide-de-camp to general William Carroll of the Tennessee state militia.{{Cite news |date=1820-08-01 |title=Division Orders |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-clarion-and-tennessee-state-gazette/170039512/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=The Clarion and Tennessee State Gazette |pages=3}} In 1822 the same two were promoted to colonelcy under the same general officer.{{Cite news |date=1822-01-15 |title=Appointments by the government |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/knoxville-register-appointments-by-the-g/170040195/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Knoxville Register |pages=3}} In 1823 Crabb resigned his militia office and was replaced by James K. Polk of Columbia, Tennessee.{{Cite news |date=1823-11-21 |title=James K. Polk |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tennessee-watchman-james-k-polk/170040746/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Tennessee Watchman |pages=3}} In January 1824 he was one of several candidates being considered for the appointment of U.S. minister to Mexico.{{Cite news |date=1824-01-12 |title=Governor Harrison of Ohio... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-governor-harrison-of-o/170040969/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=3}}

Crabb became law partners with John Bell in 1822.{{Cite news |date=1822-07-03 |title=LAW |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-law/170040337/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=1}} Crabb announced in 1823 that he had "removed from the south-field into town" and had moved into the "small white office" at Cedar and Cherry streets.{{Cite news |date=1823-01-08 |title=Removal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-removal/170040449/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=3}} Crabb was listed as one of the trustees of Cumberland College in 1823.{{Cite news |date=1823-01-15 |title=Cumberland College - Trustees |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-cumberland-college-t/168864183/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Republican Banner |pages=4}} He apparently served on the board of Cumberland College and University of Nashville (predecessor of George Peabody College) from 1816 until death. He was also a long-serving trustee of the Nashville Female Academy.{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Douglas |date=1921-09-18 |title=Henry Crabb—Father and Son |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-henry-crabbfather-and/170018211/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=36}} As of 1821 he served on the board of a Nashville bank with Thomas Crutcher, John Overton, Robert Farquharson, John P. Erwin, Jacob McGavock, John C. McLemore, and Robert Woods.{{Cite news |date=1821-02-10 |title=Directors and Officers of the Branch Bank of Tennessee |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-republican-directors-and-offic/170039783/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Nashville Republican |pages=3}}

In 1823 he also traveled by ship either from Virginia to Havana to New Orleans, or directly from Havana to New Orleans, onboard the schooner Princess along with a cargo of tropical groceries including sugar, plantains, coffee, "binnanoes," and 10,000 oranges.{{cite web |work=Louisiana, New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1820–1945 |publisher=FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKNG-RCT4 |title=Entry for H Crab, 1825}} He was listed on the passenger manifest as a 29-year-old attorney-at-law, native to the United States and {{Height|ft=6|in=2}} in height. He may have had business dealings in Natchez, Mississippi as there was mail waiting for him there in July 1823.{{Cite news |date=1823-07-09 |title=List of Letters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/natchez-gazette-list-of-letters/170037823/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Natchez Gazette |pages=4}} In April 1825 his father-in-law listed for sale Crabb's plantation of 90 acres, located on the Cumberland River about 10 miles above Nashville.{{Cite news |date=1825-04-30 |title=For Sale |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-for-sale/170041220/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=1}} Payment would be accepted in either "cash or negroes." In October 1825 he placed a runway slave ad in the Nashville Whig seeking the return of an enslaved man named Elijah, age 35, who had a scar on his head.{{Sfnp|Carey|2018|p=251}}

As of January 1826, the federal judiciary officers of West Tennessee (now Middle Tennessee) were judge McNairy, attorney Crabb, marshal Robert Purdy, and clerk Nathaniel A. McNairy (brother of judge John).{{Cite news |date=1826-01-07 |title=Federal Judiciary of West Tennessee |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-federal-judiciary-of-w/170047664/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |work=Republican Banner |pages=3}} Crabb was elected in December 1826 to fill a vacancy on the Tennessee Supreme Court caused by the death of John Haywood."Supreme Court", National Banner and Nashville Whig (January 6, 1827), p. 4. At the time of his appointment, the National Banner and Nashville Whig wrote that "No appointment, we venture to say, could have given more universal satisfaction." At the time of his appointment his law partner was David Barrow, his brother-in-law. He served until his death the following year. In 1942 the Tennessee Law Review stated, "The opinions of Judge Crabb during his short tenure are reported in Martin and Yerger's Reports, the most noted, perhaps, being upon the question, how far an attorney in Tennessee was entitled to claim pecuniary remuneration for professional services rendered, on the basis of quantum meruit. His opinions were too few to afford a basis for a just or adequate appraisal."{{Sfnp|Williams|1942|p=303}}

File:George W. Crabb, Henry Crabb, David Barrow - Republican Banner, July 26, 1826.jpg, Henry Crabb, and David Barrow advertisements, Nashville Republican Banner, July 26, 1826]]

His obituary described his death as a "severe and unexpected loss," but a later account suggests that he was already in "a state of rapid physical decline" at the time of his appointment. His will was written in March 1826, at which time he owned a plantation in Louisiana and a house in "Southfield." He wrote that, "I owe more debts than I ever intended to owe," and named John Bell (his old law partner), Francis B. Fogg, David Barrow (his law partner), and his wife Jane Crabb to be the executors of his estate. Crabb's Louisiana property may have been in Iberville Parish.{{Cite news |date=1828-03-15 |title=Executors Notice |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/baton-rouge-gazette-executors-notice/170038073/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Baton-Rouge Gazette |pages=2}} Barrow listed for sale Crabb's collection of law books in January 1828.{{Cite news |date=1828-01-19 |title=Library |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-library/171016632/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Republican Banner |pages=4}} Following Crabb's death, his seat remained vacant until the court was reconfigured in 1831. The year following his death, Crabb's memory was toasted by one S. Owens at a Nashville dinner honoring Thomas Hinds.{{Cite news |date=1828-07-10 |title=Dinner in Honor of General Thomas Hinds |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/mississippi-gazette-dinner-in-honor-of-g/168864636/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Mississippi Gazette |pages=2}}

Crabb was married to Jane Barrow, who was the daughter of Willie Barrow of North Carolina and Jane Green of Kentucky, and a sister of U.S. Senator from Louisiana Alexander Barrow.{{Sfnp|Williams|1942|p=303}}{{Cite news |last=Robinson |first=Elite |date=1936-08-01 |title=Pictures of the Past - Early Feliciana Politics - Genealogy of the Hon. Alexander Barrow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-francisville-democrat-pictures-of-th/170036625/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=St. Francisville Democrat |pages=1}} Congressman Washington Barrow and Republic of Texas Navy midshipman and U.S. Indian agent John E. Barrow were her half-brothers.{{Cite news |date=1893-03-05 |title=The Texas Navy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-the-texas-navy/170037224/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=The Tennessean |pages=24}} They had three children together: Henry A. Crabb, Jane Ann Crabb, and Mary Eleanor Crabb. Mary Eleanor Crabb married Robert J. Barrow, a son of Bennett Barrow, and they lived together at Rosebank Plantation in West Feliciana Parish.{{Cite web |title=NRHP app |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/4bb21728-cd51-45b5-80a7-2d38109ba2f4}} Henry A. Crabb, sometimes called Col. Crabb, was an early settler of California and was executed by a Mexican–O'odham firing squad following a failed filibuster expedition to Sonora in 1857.{{Cite news |date=1857-06-19 |title=The Sonora Filibusters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-nashville-patriot-the-sonora-filib/169965376/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |work=Daily Nashville Patriot |pages=2}}

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• {{Cite book |last=Carey |first=Bill |title=Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee |publisher=Clearbrook Press |year=2018 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |isbn=978-0-9725680-4-3 |language=en-us |lccn=2018903570 |oclc=1045068878}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Samuel |date=April 1942 |title=Dim Figures in Our Appellate Judiciary |url=https://ir.law.utk.edu/tennesseelawreview/vol17/iss3/2/ |journal=Tennessee Law Review |volume=17 |issue=3 |issn=0040-3288}}

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{{succession box

|title=Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court

|before=John Haywood

|after=Court reconfigured

|years=1826–1827}}

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Category:1793 births

Category:1827 deaths

Category:People from Botetourt County, Virginia

Category:Justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court

Category:United States attorneys for the Western District of Tennessee

Category:American slave owners

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:Lawyers from Nashville, Tennessee

Category:19th-century Tennessee state court judges