# Thomas Todd *Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1807–1826)* Thomas Todd (January 23, 1765 – February 7, 1826) sat as an Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1807 until his death in 1826. He grew up in the Colony of Virginia and served for a short time in the American Revolutionary War. After finishing his education he moved west, took part in the founding of Kentucky, and worked there as a lawyer, clerk and judge before his appointment to the Court.[^1] Most of the handful of opinions Todd wrote as a justice dealt with land claims. In *The Most Insignificant Justice: Further Evidence*, 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 481 (1983), Frank H. Easterbrook labeled him the most insignificant justice to have sat on the Court. Todd married twice and had eight children in all.[^1] ## Early and family life Todd was born on January 23, 1765, in King and Queen County, Virginia, to Richard Todd and the former Elizabeth Richards. He was the last of their five children, all of whom were left orphans while he was still a boy.[^2] His forebears had settled in the Virginia and Maryland colonies about a hundred years before his birth, and many worked as sea captains, merchants and planters. One of them, Captain Thomas Todd of County Durham, England, made his main home at "Toddsbury" in Gloucester County, Virginia, and in 1657 also claimed land in Baltimore County, Maryland. That captain's son, also named Thomas Todd, inherited land in both counties and, like his father, held local offices that included justice of the peace. The first men of the family to reach the rank of burgess were Capt. John Baylor, whose father had married Lucy Todd, and Robert Todd of Norfolk. Both served in the mid-1750s.[^2] ## Kentucky lawyer, clerk and judge Todd joined the Kentucky bar in 1786 and kept a private law practice in Danville from 1788 to 1801. Danville was then the seat of Lincoln County and the first capital of Kentucky. It is now the seat of Boyle County, which was formed in 1842. Todd also served as the court reporter there and, after statehood, as secretary to the Kentucky State [[Legislature]]. From 1784 to 1792 he was secretary to ten conventions that pressed for Kentucky statehood and later drafted the state constitution. He was also one of the two delegates Lincoln County sent to the Virginia House of Delegates for the term that closed with Kentucky's admission as a state.[^3] In politics Todd was a Jeffersonian. He twice ran for [[governor]] of Kentucky without success, in 1795 and again in 1800. He was the first person to hold the post of clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Legislators chose him as a judge of that court in 1801, and in 1806 the other judges made him chief judge. The 1820 census records Todd as the owner of twenty-six slaves.[^4] ## Supreme Court justice Congress enlarged the Supreme Court from six seats to seven. On February 28, 1807, President Thomas Jefferson nominated Todd to the new associate justice seat. The [[United States Senate]] gave its confirmation on March 2, 1807, and Todd took the oath of office on May 4, 1807.[^5] Todd's years on the Court fell under Chief Justice [[John Marshall]]. His circuit covered Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. He held court twice yearly in each of Nashville, Frankfort and Chillicothe, and he passed the six winter months in Washington, D.C. He is counted among the 19 Presbyterians who have served on the Court. His service ended with his death on February 7, 1826.[^6] ### Court opinions Todd and Marshall held different political beliefs, but Todd followed Marshall's approach to judicial interpretation. Todd wrote no constitutional opinion. His fourteen opinions comprise eleven for the majority, two concurrences and one dissent. All but one of the majority opinions concerned disputed land and survey claims.[^7] His first reported opinion was a dissent from Chief Justice Marshall's opinion in *Finley v. Lynn*. Todd joined every other opinion Marshall wrote. In *Preston v. Browder* the Court upheld North Carolina's right to restrict land-claim filings that had been made in Indian Territory. Those filings violated the Treaty of the Long Island of Holston, which the state had made on July 20, 1777. Todd's opinion in *Watts v. Lindsey's Heirs et al.* set out the land-title problems that troubled Kentucky's early settlers. His last opinion, in *Riggs v. Taylor*, was his only one that did not involve land law. In that case the Court issued a procedural ruling.[^8] ## Personal life Genealogists do not agree on some of Todd's children. His first marriage, to Elizabeth Harris, took place in 1788. The couple had five children before her death in 1811, and the eldest, Harry Innes Todd, died in infancy. Their son Charles Stewart Todd (1791–1871) carried on the family's legal, military and public service traditions. Another son, John Harris Todd (1795–1824), also practiced law. His widow later married John J. Crittenden, who served as Kentucky's U.S. Senator, Kentucky Governor, a U.S. congressman and attorney general. The daughters, Ann Maria (1801–1862) and Elizabeth Frances (1808–1892), both married prominent lawyers.[^9] On March 29, 1812, more than a year after his first wife's death, Todd married Lucy Payne Washington (1776–1846). She was a younger sister of Dolley Madison and the widow of Major George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of President George Washington. Their ceremony appears to be the earliest wedding to have taken place in the White House. Genealogists agree that the couple's son James Madison Todd (1817–1897) survived and married, and that they had a daughter named Madisonia. They disagree on whether the other son was named William J. or Thomas Johnston Todd.[^10] ## Death, estate and legacy Todd died at Frankfort, Kentucky, on February 7, 1826, aged 61. He was first interred in the Innes family cemetery. His remains were later moved to Frankfort Cemetery, on ground above the Kentucky River and the Kentucky State Capitol.[^11] Todd held substantial real property at his death, much of it in Frankfort. He was a charter member of the Kentucky River Company, the first business organized to promote navigation on Kentucky's waterways. His estate inventory lists him as a shareholder in the Kentucky Turnpike, the first publicly improved highway west of the Alleghenies. It also lists shares in the Frankfort toll bridge over the Kentucky River. Besides his home, he owned more than 7,200 acres of land around the state and about twenty other pieces of property in Frankfort. After his children received what he called "their full proportion", the rest of his estate was valued at more than $70,000.[^12] Todd's papers are held in three places: the Cincinnati Historical Society in Cincinnati, Ohio; The Filson Historical Society in [[Louisville]], Kentucky; and the University of Kentucky's Margaret I. King Library in Lexington, Kentucky. A World War II Liberty ship built at Brunswick, Georgia, was named SS *Thomas Todd* for him.[^13] ## Memberships and other honors In 1820 Todd was admitted to the American Antiquarian Society. He was a Freemason.[^14] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead section — dates of life and Court service, Virginia and Kentucky background, land-claim opinions, Easterbrook article citation, two marriages and eight children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Early and family life" — birth, parents, siblings, orphaning, colonial ancestry and burgess relatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Kentucky lawyer, clerk and judge" — bar admission, Danville practice, court reporter and legislative secretary posts, statehood conventions, Virginia House of Delegates term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Kentucky lawyer, clerk and judge" — Jeffersonian affiliation, 1795 and 1800 gubernatorial candidacies, Court of Appeals clerkship and judgeships, 1820 census slaveholding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Supreme Court justice" — Court expansion, nomination of February 28, 1807, Senate confirmation of March 2, 1807, oath of May 4, 1807. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Supreme Court justice" — service under Marshall, circuit duties, Presbyterian count, end of service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Court opinions" — interpretive approach and opinion counts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Court opinions" — *Finley v. Lynn*, *Preston v. Browder*, *Watts v. Lindsey's Heirs et al.*, *Riggs v. Taylor*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Personal life" — first marriage and children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Personal life" — second marriage of March 29, 1812, White House wedding, children of the second marriage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^11]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Death, estate and legacy" — death, age, burial and reinterment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^12]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Death, estate and legacy" — real property, Kentucky River Company, estate inventory, acreage, estate value. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^13]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Death, estate and legacy" — locations of papers, Liberty ship SS *Thomas Todd*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd [^14]: Wikipedia contributors, *Thomas Todd* (revision 1380708368, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Memberships and other honors" — American Antiquarian Society membership (1820), Freemasonry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Todd