Jesse Bledsoe

"Senator Bledsoe" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Bledsoe (disambiguation).

Jesse Bledsoe
United States Senator from Kentucky
In office March 4, 1813 – December 24, 1814
Preceded by	John Pope
Succeeded by	Isham Talbot
6th Secretary of State of Kentucky
In office September 1, 1808 – July 26, 1812
Governor	Charles Scott
Preceded by	William C. Greenup
Succeeded by	Fielding Winlock
Member of the Kentucky Senate
In office 1817–1820
Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
In office 1817
Personal details
Born	(1776-04-06)April 6, 1776 Culpeper County, Virginia
Died	June 25, 1836(1836-06-25) (aged 60) Nacogdoches, Texas
Political party	Democratic-Republican

Jesse Bledsoe (April 6, 1776 – June 25, 1836) was a slave owner and Senator from Kentucky.

Life and career

Bledsoe was born in Culpeper County, Virginia in 1776. When he was very young, his family migrated with a Baptist congregation through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Many of the adults in this traveling congregation were property: Negro slaves. Jesse attended Transylvania Seminary and Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar about 1800 and commenced practice.

In 1808, Bledsoe was appointed Secretary of State. He was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812. Afterwards he was elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1813, until his resignation on December 24, 1814. He then became a member of the Kentucky State Senate in 1817, serving until 1820. That year, he served as a member of the Electoral College, voting for James Monroe.

Bledsoe was judge of the Lexington circuit in 1822. He settled in Lexington and was professor of law in Transylvania University. He then became minister in the Disciples Church. He moved to Mississippi in 1833 and to Texas in 1835. He died near Nacogdoches, Texas under circumstances his contemporaries and kinfolk could only describe as a significant fall from grace.

Sometimes a volatile being, he earned the sobriquet "Hot headed" Jesse Bledsoe. Besides being a prominent jurist, he was a maternal uncle to many notable individuals including, but not limited to, Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor, who studied law under him, Walker Keith Baylor, who served in both chambers of the Alabama Legislature and as a judge, Thomas Chilton, who likewise represented Kentucky in Congress, and William Parish Chilton, a provisional congressman of the Confederacy from Alabama.

Sources

• United States Congress. "Jesse Bledsoe (id: B000554)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Allen, William B. (1872). A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits. Bradley & Gilbert. p. 260. Retrieved 2008-11-10.