Philip Pendleton Barbour (1783–1841), attorney and public official, briefly studied law under St. George Tucker at the College of William and Mary. He practiced law for a short time in Kentucky and from 1802 in his native Orange County. From 1812–14 he represented that county in the Virginia House of Delegates, beginning shortly after his brother James Barbour was elected governor of Virginia. Barbour was appointed a major of the 3d Virginia Regiment in 1813. He sat in the United States House of Representatives, 1814–25 and 1827–30, including service as Speaker, 1821–23. Unlike his brother, Barbour became a states’ rights Republican who opposed the Bank of the United States, federally funded internal improvements, and high tariffs. He received a state appointment as judge of the General Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, serving 1825–27. Barbour sat in and later became president of a state constitutional convention, 1829–30, where he opposed democratic reforms. He was a supporter of Andrew Jackson’s presidential election, and in 1830 the latter appointed Barbour justice of the United States District Court for Eastern Virginia. In 1836 Jackson made him a justice of the United States Supreme Court, a post he held until his death. Barbour was a founder of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle in 1817 and remained a member until 1825. In 1821 he engaged master brickmason and carpenter John M. Perry, who had worked at Monticello, to build Frescati, his Orange County home that incorporated bricklaying features also found at the University of Virginia. TJ relied on Barbour’s legal services on several occasions during his retirement (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; DVB description begins John T. Kneebone and others, eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 1998– , 3 vols. description ends ; ViHi: Barbour Family Papers [including 3 May 1813 military commission and Nov. 1821 agreement with Perry]; William and Mary Provisional List description begins A Provisional List of Alumni, Grammar School Students, Members of the Faculty, and Members of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. From 1693 to 1888 [1941] description ends , 6; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 271, 275, 353; True, “Agricultural Society,” description begins Rodney H. True, “Minute Book of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle,” Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1918 (1921), 1:261–349 description ends 263, 269, 298, 310; TJ to Barbour, 12 Oct. 1823; Orange Co. Will Book, 9:183–4; Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser, 2 Mar. 1841).

A missing letter from TJ to Barbour of 6 July 1812 is recorded in SJL.