Thomas Settle (judge)

Born on January 23, 1831, in Rockingham County, North Carolina,{{FJC Bio|2148|nid=1387616|name=Thomas Settle}} Settle received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1850 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and read law at Richmond Hill Law School{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} in 1854. He was private secretary to Governor of North Carolina David Settle Reid from 1850 to 1854. He entered private practice in Rockingham County in 1854.

As a member of the Democratic Party, Settle was elected as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons (now the North Carolina House of Representatives) from 1854 to 1859, serving as Speaker from 1858 to 1859. He resumed private practice in North Carolina from 1860 to 1861. He was solicitor for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of North Carolina in 1861, and from 1862 to 1868. He was a Captain in the Confederate States Army from 1861 to 1862.

After the war ended, he was elected as a member of the North Carolina Senate and was speaker of that body. A supporter of Gov. William W. Holden, Settle helped Holden found the North Carolina Republican Party.[https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/settle-thomas-jr NCpedia biography of Thomas Settle, Jr.] He was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 1868 to 1871, and from 1872 to 1876. He wrote the opinion for a unanimous court in State v. Linkhaw, reversing the criminal conviction of a man who sang so badly in church that he was found guilty of disturbing a religious congregation.State v. Linkhaw, 69 N.C. [https://casetext.com/case/state-v-linkhaw 214], 215 (N.C. 1873) In between his stints on the court, he served as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru in 1871.

Settle resigned from the Supreme Court in 1876 to accept the Republican nomination for governor. He lost the election to former Gov. Zebulon B. Vance.

Settle was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant on January 26, 1877, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida vacated by Judge Philip Fraser. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 30, 1877, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on December 1, 1888, due to his death in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Settle's father was also named Thomas Settle, as was his son, Thomas Settle.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} Both his father and his son served in the United States Congress.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}. He was the cousin and brother-in-law of North Carolina Governor David Settle Reid, under whom he had served as private secretary.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} David was married to his sister, Henrietta Williams Settle Reid. He was married to Mary Glen of Yadkin County and lived at Mulberry Island Plantation.{{Cite web| title=Rockingham County, N.C. - MISC - Old Homes Along the Dan River | url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/rockingham/history/other/dan1.txt | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404213944/http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/rockingham/history/other/dan1.txt | archive-date=2022-04-04}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web | url = http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/serr-sevigny.html | title = Index to Politicians: Serr to Sewak | publisher = The Political Graveyard | date = 2005-03-10 | accessdate = 2007-08-23 }}
• {{cite web | url = http://docsouth.unc.edu/getBio.phtml?type=bio&id=pn0001516&name=Settle,%20Thomas | title = Documenting the American South: Settle, Thomas | format = bio | publisher = University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | year = 2005 | accessdate = 2007-08-23 }} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}
• {{FJC Bio|2148|nid=1387616|name=Thomas Settle}}

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Category:1831 births

Category:1888 deaths

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Peru

Category:Justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court

Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida

Category:19th-century American diplomats

Category:United States federal judges appointed by Ulysses S. Grant

Category:People from Rockingham County, North Carolina

Category:Settle family

Category:United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law