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Thomas Settle (judge)
Thomas Settle (January 23, 1831 – December 1, 1888) was a United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Education and careerBorn on January 23, 1831, in Rockingham County, North Carolina,[1] Settle received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1850 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and read law[1] at Richmond Hill Law School[citation needed] in 1854.[1] He was private secretary to Governor of North Carolina David Settle Reid from 1850 to 1854.[1] He entered private practice in Rockingham County in 1854.[1] 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.[1] He resumed private practice in North Carolina from 1860 to 1861.[1] He was solicitor for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of North Carolina in 1861, and from 1862 to 1868.[1] He was a Captain in the Confederate States Army from 1861 to 1862.[1] After the war ended, he was elected as a member of the North Carolina Senate and was speaker of that body.[1] A supporter of Gov. William W. Holden, Settle helped Holden found the North Carolina Republican Party.[2] He was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 1868 to 1871, and from 1872 to 1876.[1] 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.[3] In between his stints on the court, he served as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru in 1871.[1] 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.[2] Federal judicial serviceSettle 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.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 30, 1877, and received his commission the same day.[1] His service terminated on December 1, 1888, due to his death in Raleigh, North Carolina.[1] FamilySettle's father was also named Thomas Settle, as was his son, Thomas Settle.[citation needed] Both his father and his son served in the United States Congress.[citation needed]. 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] 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.[4] References
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