[3][4] He practiced law in Natchez, Mississippi, quickly gaining an excellent reputation, until his appointment to the state supreme court in 1825.
[3][5] His opinions from the bench "were delivered in a lucid, terse, and forcible manner, free from all prolixity or effort at display, and resting upon the authority of the court rather than upon an array of reported decisions".
[3] As a justice, however, "he began to yield to a propensity to drink, which his sociability and natural ardor of temperament greatly aggravated".
On one occasion it was said that "while under the influence of drink he became angry with some of the members of the bar, and to vent his rage, at the close of the term he ordered an adjournment, mounted his horse, and rode away without signing the minutes of the court".
[2] In 1844, the Mississippi Legislature enacted a personal bill to permit a "free man of color" named Berry, identified as "formerly the confidential body servant of the late Judge Joshua Child", to remain in that status in Hinds County, Mississippi.