Joseph B. Lancaster

:"This is about the Florida Supreme Court Justice. For the English Quaker educator, see Joseph Lancaster."Joseph Bradford Lancaster was a Florida lawyer and a Whig politician who served on the Florida Supreme Court from 1848 to 1850. He was the last justice under the system in which the circuit court judges served also on the supreme court. He was Tampa, Florida's first mayor. He was born in 1790. He died on November 25, 1856 in Tampa.

Lancaster was born in Kentucky 1790, the son of John and Catherine Miles Lancaster. He married Annie Blair, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, in 1815. He read law, was admitted to the Kentucky bar, and opened a practice in Bardstown and Lebanon. He moved to Florida at the behest of former Bardstown resident Florida Governor William Pope DuVal. DuVal appointed him assistant secretary to the East Florida land commission. Lancaster opened a legal practice in St. Augustine.

He gained admission to the bar of the territorial court of appeals and appointment to the territorial legislative council in 1825. He entered the lists politically when he defended Judge Joseph L. Smith against charges of abuse of power. The following year he was appointed justice of the peace of St. Johns County, Florida. He became judge of the Alachua County court in 1827 and conducted county's 1830 federal census. In 1831 the the president appointed him the Port of St. Johns at Jacksonville's first collector. He was elected chief clerk of the territorial council in 1833 and for six successive years.

Governor Duval appointed him Duval County lumbar inspector in 1834. He served with distinction as a militia officer in the Second Seminole War and was badly wounded near Micanopy. Duval County voters elected him to the territorial house in 1839 and 1840 and yearly from 1842 to 1844. He presided over the house in 1843 and 1844. In 1845, he was nominated to run for Congress, but had to withdraw. The following year, the legislature appointed Benjamin D. Wright and George W. MacRae to the circuit court instead of Lancaster. Lancaster became mayor of Jacksonville.

He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, in an election tainted by accusations of election fraud. He was elected Speaker of the House, and the membership humorously revolved to rename the chamber the "House of Lancaster" and to wear red roses. The following year, he was appointed to the Southern Court Court. His impartiality and sound judgement refuted his critics fears. In 1850, the supreme court and the circuit court were separated, and he served on the circuit court until 1853, when he lost a three-way popular election. In 1852, the collapse of the Whig party prompted him to move to the American party. Financial troubles led him to move to Tampa. He was elected Tampa's first mayor on February 16, 1856.

References

* Brown, Canter, Jr. Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
* [http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:ChRii6cHv40J:www.lib.usf.edu/ldsu/digitalcollections/S57/journal/v23n1_97/v23n1_97_063.pdf+%22Joseph+B.+Lancaster.%22 Brown, Canter Jr. "Very Much Attached to Tampa” The Civil War-era Letters of Catharine Campbell Hart 1860 and 1865 Introduction, Notes, and Afterword."]
*Manley, Walter W., Brown, E. Canter. and Rise, Eric W. "Joseph Bradford Lancaster, Supreme Court Justice, 1848–1851." "The Supreme Court of Florida and Its Predecessor Courts, 1821-1917." pp. 128 - 131. University Press of Florida. Gainesville, Florida. 1997. eBook ISBN: 9780813022987. ISBN: 9780813015408. at [http://www.netlibrary.com/Reader/ Netlbrary] . Online. April 23, 2008.
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/lancaster.html The Political Graveyard] .
* [http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:hyHIOOVpAawJ:www.lib.usf.edu/ldsu/digitalcollections/S57/journal/v19n1_93/v19n1_93_003.pdf+%22Joseph+B.Lancaster%22 Stone, Spessard. "The Know-Nothings of Hillsborough County". Online. April 22, 2008.]
* http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6hPqWO250hQJ:etd.lib.fsu.edu/