[1] He also served in the Mississippi Senate in the 1840s and was a candidate for governor after the Civil War.
[2] He moved to Mississippi in 1833 and, a brief sojourn at Vicksburg, he obtained a license to practice law and located at Coffeeville.
He married, acquired a plantation and slaves in Yalobusha County.
A Whig, he opposed succession, but rallied to the Confederate cause during the Civil War.
He attained high rank at the bar, and was in 1851 promoted to the supreme bench, where he served with "industry and ability" until the onset of the Civil War, when he resigned his position to resume the practice of law.