John Boyle (congressman)


John Boyle was a United States Representative from Kentucky and later a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and finally a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky.

Education and family life

Born on October 28, 1774, at "Castle Woods" in Botetourt County in the Virginia Colony, to the former Jane Black and her husband the patriot Major John Boyle. Boyle had an elder brother Alexander, and four sisters who also survived to adulthood. Their father moved his family to Whitleys Station, Kentucky in 1779, upon receiving land for his patriotic service, where his sons were educated by private tutors and in private schools. Although his elder brother continued as a farmer in Garrard County, John Boyle then read law with Congressman Thomas Terry Davis and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1797.
John Boyle married Elizabeth Tilford, and they had ten children, the first four of whom failed to survive their parents. Their eldest daughter Arethusa Jewell died in 1818 while visiting her parents' home after giving birth to their first and second grandchildren. Their eldest surviving son, James Madison Boyle, moved to Illinois, as did his youngest brother Henry Boyle and longest surviving sister, Ellen B. Lagow McAllister. Son Marmontel Boyle died in California. Only sons John Weir Boyle and Jeremiah Tilford Boyle remained in Kentucky, the last following his father's example and becoming a lawyer and politician before his Civil War service.

Early career

Boyle began his private legal practice in Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky in 1797 and continued until 1802. His political connections also secured for him a post as deputy counselor at law for the Kentucky Court of Quarter Sessions in 1797. Boyle won his first elective office in 1800, representing Garrard County in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
He also farmed a plantation using enslaved labor.

Congressman

In 1802, voters elected Boyle as a Democratic-Republican from Kentucky's 2nd congressional district to the United States House of Representatives, and later re-elected him, so he served in the 8th, 9th and 10th United States Congresses. Fellow Congressmen twice selected Boyle as one of the managers to conduct impeachment proceedings, first in January 1804 against Judge John Pickering, and, in December of the same year, against Associate Justice Samuel Chase. He was Chairman of the Committee on Public Land Claims for the 9th and 10th United States Congresses.

Kentucky justice and dean

Appointed Governor of the Illinois Territory in 1809, Boyle declined the position. Instead, Ninian Edwards, a seasoned politician and since 1806 Judge of Kentucky's highest court, the Court of Appeals was appointed the territory's governor. Boyle succeeded Edwards as a Kentucky appellate judge, and soon his fellow judges elected Boyle as their chief. Thus, he served from 1809 to 1826, including as Chief Judge from 1810 to 1826.
However, the last three years of his term were marked by the Old Court - New Court controversy, prompted by his 1823 decision invalidating debt relief laws enacted by the 1820 legislature. At midnight on December 23, 1824, the new legislature, appointed a new Court of Appeals with former Senator William T. Barry as Chief Justice and John Trimble, James Haggin, Benjamin W. Patton and Rezin Davidge as associate judges. Desha had campaigned for debt relief, since Kentucky was still suffering the effects of the Panic of 1819, and his party won majorities in both houses of the legislature, but could not find grounds to impeach Boyle and his two fellow judges. Instead, they purported to reorganize the judiciary. The legislature also refused to appropriate salaries for Boyle and his purportedly dismissed colleagues, although on December 24, 1826 the newly-elected legislature repealed the two-year old judicial reorganization act, restored the old judges and awarded them backpay. Boyle would be succeeded briefly as Chief Judge by Bibb, then by former Congressman George Robertson.
On May 29, 1829, Boyle accepted the position of Dean of the Transylvania University law school, notwithstanding his federal service, although he only continued in that position for a year.

Federal district judge

Boyle received a recess appointment from President John Quincy Adams on October 20, 1826, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky vacated by Judge Robert Trimble. He was nominated to the same position by President Adams on December 13, 1826. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 12, 1827, received his commission the same day, and continued as district judge until his death.

Death and legacy

Boyle died on January 28, 1834, near Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky, depressed following his wife's death in a cholera epidemic the preceding June, notwithstanding the presence of many of his children and grandchildren. He was interred beside her in Danville's Bellevue Cemetery.
The double log cabin which he built in Lancaster, Kentucky remains today and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, not only because of its age, but also because of its distinguished residents. Boyle sold the house to Samuel McKee, who had read law with him and who also succeeded Boyle in Congress. McKee in turn sold the house to George Robertson, whom he had guided in reading law and who succeeded McKee in Congress and later succeeded Boyle as Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. Robertson in turn sold the house to Robert P. Letcher, who became a Congressman and Kentucky governor
Boyle's legacy also included his lawyer son Jeremiah Boyle, who unsuccessfully argued for emancipation of slaves at Kentucky's Constitutional Convention of 1849, and later recruited troops and became a Brigadier General during the American Civil War, and thereafter became active in the booming railroad industry although some of Boyle's descendants would fight for the Confederacy. Furthermore, Judge Boyle taught law to his nephew John Boyle Gordon, who moved to Missouri, where he served in the legislature for several terms, as well as taught law to relatives Oden Guitar and Stanley Matthews, who both became Union Army officers during the American Civil War, then became judges, Guitar in Missouri and Matthews on the United States Supreme Court.