===Members
ex officio (1778–88)=== The
Constitution of 1776 provided for a Supreme Court of Appeals but did not specify its structure, leaving the General Assembly to organize the court by statute. The first such statute was enacted at the October 1778 legislative session. From that time until 1788, no one was appointed or elected specifically to serve on the Supreme Court of Appeals. Rather, the court was made up of the three judges of the High Court of Chancery, the five judges of the General Court, and the three judges of the Court of Admiralty, each of whom was elected by the General Assembly to life terms on those courts and served on the Supreme Court of Appeals
ex officio. The following judges were members of the court by virtue of having been elected judges of the High Court of Chancery, the General Court, and the Court of Admiralty, in the courts' order of precedence under the statute. The High Court of Chancery: •
Edmund Pendleton, January 14, 1778 – December 24, 1788 •
George Wythe, January 14, 1778 – December 24, 1788 •
Paul Carrington, January 23, 1778 – December 24, 1788 •
Richard Cary, December 17, 1776 – December 24, 1788 The number was restored to five in January 1811. The next significant alteration to the court came with the
Constitution of 1851. It provided for the popular election of judges to the court, one from each of five districts, and imposed a twelve-year term. As the
Emancipation Proclamation became effective in Virginia during the
American Civil War (particularly after the Commonwealth surrendered in April 1865 and
13th Amendment became effective in December 1865), the 1851 Constitution's authorization of slavery became illegal under federal law. Thus, Virginia needed a new Constitution. Federal authorities in occupied areas called a convention with delegates from occupied areas only, which proclaimed the
Constitution of 1864. Although voters statewide never were asked to authorize it in a referendum, it came into (disputed) effect, until a new state Constitution was adopted by popular referendum, then undisputedly came into effect in 1870. Federal military authorities allowed voters statewide to elect delegates to the
Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868. Virginia voters overwhelmingly ratified that document the following year, except for certain provisions penalizing former Confederates, which failed. The
Constitution of 1864 had ended popular election of judges, instead providing (for the first time) that the General Assembly would elect the judges from candidates nominated by the Governor. It also reduced the court to three judges. On June 3, 1869, during
Congressional Reconstruction, Major General
John Schofield (who governed Virginia as Military District No. 1 and also led efforts to allow separate votes on the proposed Constitution and anti-Confederate provisions), dismissed all three elected judges because a new federal law required removal of officials in Texas and Virginia with any record of service to the Confederacy. On June 9, Schofield appointed three Union sympathizers (whom he had previously appointed judges of lower courts, where they had performed satisfactorily) as their replacements. Those three judges served (and issued binding rulings) until the new state Constitution came into effect and legislators elected replacements. The post-Reconstruction
Constitution of 1870 eliminated the short-lived provision for gubernatorial nominations, as well as restored the court to five judges. None of the three Union men was elected to the Court by the General Assembly. Legislators did elect two of the three judges elected by voters, and three additional judges. Legislation also allowed the court's members to elect their President, and in March 1870, the new Court elected R.C.L. Moncure (who had the most seniority) their President (the third man to hold that title). It perpetuated this staggering by providing that any new judge elected to fill a vacancy would serve only the unexpired portion of his predecessor's term. In 1906, the General Assembly re-elected each of the five incumbent judges, whose terms were all due to expire the following January 1, to fill the newly staggered seats. An amendment ratified in 1928 increased the number of seats to seven but it did not stagger the two new seats. The
Constitution of 1971 eliminated the staggering of seats by providing that any new judge elected to fill a vacancy serve a full twelve-year term. •
John Blair Jr., December 24, 1788 •
James Mercer, November 14, 1789 – September 4, 1822 •
St. George Tucker, April 11, 1804 •
William H. Cabell, April 3, 1811 •
John Coalter, June 1, 1811 •
John W. Green, October 11, 1822 •
Dabney Carr, February 24, 1824 •
Henry St. George Tucker Sr., March 1831 – 1841 •
William Brockenbrough, February 20, 1834 •
Richard E. Parker, February 9, 1837 •
Robert Stanard, January 19, 1839 – May 14, 1846 •
John J. Allen, December 14, 1840 •
Briscoe Baldwin, January 29, 1842 1870 – August 24, 1882 •
Green Berry Samuels, 1852 •
George Hay Lee, 1852 – 1866 •
Alexander Rives, 1866 •
Horace Blois Burnham (June 9, 1869 – February 22, 1870) •
Waller Redd Staples, January 1, 1871 – October 10, 1876 •
Edward C. Burks, November 1876 – January 1, 1883 •
Robert A. Richardson, January 1, 1883 – August 20, 1900 •
John Alexander Buchanan, January 1, 1895 •
James Keith, January 1, 1895 •
Richard H. Cardwell, January 1, 1895 •
George Moffett Harrison, January 1, 1895 •
Stafford G. Whittle, March 1901 •
Joseph L. Kelly, January 12, 1916 March 10, 1925 – April 14, 1925 •
Frederick W. Sims, February 8, 1917 •
Edward W. Saunders, March 9, 1920 •
Jesse F. West, February 1, 1922 •
Preston W. Campbell, January 31, 1924 •
Richard Henry Lee Chichester, June 1, 1925 – February 3, 1930 •
Louis S. Epes, November 20, 1929 •
Herbert B. Gregory, February 1, 1930 – March 9, 1951 •
Edward W. Hudgins, February 1, 1930 •
George L. Browning, February 19, 1930 •
John W. Eggleston, February 26, 1935 •
Claude V. Spratley, August 27, 1936 •
Archibald C. Buchanan, October 1, 1946 •
Lemuel F. Smith, February 15, 1951 •
Kennon C. Whittle, March 14, 1951 •
Harold Fleming Snead, January 14, 1957 • ''
Lawrence W. I'Anson'', September 3, 1958 •
Harry L. Carrico, January 30, 1961 •
Thomas C. Gordon, February 17, 1965 •
Albertis Harrison, October 23, 1967 •
Alexander Harman, October 1, 1969 •
George M. Cochran, October 1, 1969 •
Richard Harding Poff, August 31, 1972 •
Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr., March 2, 1981 •
John Charles Thomas, April 25, 1983 •
Elizabeth B. Lacy, January 4, 1989 – August 16, 2007 •
Leroy R. Hassell Sr., December 28, 1989 – February 9, 2011 •
Barbara Milano Keenan, July 2, 1991 – March 12, 2010 •
Donald W. Lemons, March 16, 2000 – February 1, 2022 •
G. Steven Agee, March 1, 2003 – March 31, 2022 •
Elizabeth A. McClanahan, August 1, 2011 •
Jane Marum Roush, August 1, 2015 – February 12, 2016
Succession of seats between 1895 and 2022 In 1895, for the first time, the General Assembly elected a full bench of five new judges. Consequently, any line of succession between a specific justice of the current court and a judge elected before 1895 necessarily would be arbitrary. However, when the General Assembly re-elected the incumbent judges in 1906 to fill the staggered seats created by the
Constitution of 1902, it elected a specific judge to each seat: it re-elected Judge Cardwell for 4 years, Judge Whittle for 6, Judge Buchanan for 8, Judge Keith for 10, and Judge Harrison for 12. It therefore was possible to trace the line of succession of each of these seats, and the two new seats created in 1928, to its successive occupants. ==Notes==