Born 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] After the war ended, he was elected as a member of the North Carolina Senate and was speaker of that body.

[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.

He was the cousin and brother-in-law of North Carolina Governor David Settle Reid, under whom he had served as private secretary.