Richard H. Cardwell

Richard Henry Cardwell (August 1, 1845 – March 19, 1931) was an American politician and jurist. He was Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates 18871895, and a justice of the state Supreme Court of Appeals 18951916.

Richard H. Cardwell
Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia
In office
January 1, 1895  November 16, 1916
Preceded byDrury A. Hinton
Succeeded byRobert R. Prentis
36th Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates
In office
December 8, 1887  March 3, 1894
Preceded byCharles E. Stuart
Succeeded byJohn F. Ryan
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Hanover County
In office
December 7, 1881  January 1, 1895
Preceded byHenry T. Wickham
Succeeded byBickerton L. Winston
Personal details
Born
Richard Henry Cardwell

(1845-08-01)August 1, 1845
Madison, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedMarch 19, 1931(1931-03-19) (aged 85)
Ashland, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Kate Howard
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States
Branch/serviceConfederate States Army
Years of service1863–1865
Unit45th North Carolina Infantry
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Cardwell was born in Madison, North Carolina. His father, Richard Perrin Caldwell, died when he was an infant, and he had great difficulty in obtaining an education. As a youth, he attended public school and worked on the family farm in the summer and fall. He attended, for brief sessions, the Beulah Male Institute and the Madison Male Academy.[1]

In 1863, he became a private soldier in a North Carolina company of the Confederate Army and served until the end of the war. He then returned to his home but, in 1869, moved to Hanover County, Virginia,[1] and, four years later, to Doswell, Virginia, where he lived for two years. Because he was devoted to the study of law, he carried on his education by studying at night and, for a while, in the office of Samuel C. Redd. He was admitted to the bar in 1874 and began practice in Richmond.[1][2]

From 1881 to 1895, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Hanover County, serving as Speaker from 1887 onward. In 1894 he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals.[1] He was made president of the court on June 12, 1916, but resigned on November 6, 1916.

Cardwell died at his home, Prospect Hill, on March 19, 1931, and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Ashland, Virginia. His son, William D. Cardwell, was Speaker of the House of Delegates from 1906 to 1908.

Notes and references

  1. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1907). Men of Mark in Virginia, Vol. 2, pp. 59-61. Men of Mark Publishing Company.
  2. Lewis, Virgil A. & Brock, R. A. (1884). History of Virginia from Settlement of Jamestown to Close of the Civil War, Vol. II, p. 773. H. H. Hardesty.

Jamerson, Bruce F., Clerk of the House of Delegates, supervising (2007). Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-2007. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia House of Delegates.

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