Bartholomew Dandridge

Bartholomew Dandridge studied law and quickly made an outstanding reputation, as well as operated his mother-in-law's and wife's estate using enslaved labor. New Kent County voters elected him as one of their representatives to the House of Burgesses in 1772 and re-elected him two years later. However, dissatisfaction with British policy was growing, and when Virginia's royal governor, Lord Dunmore, suppressed the legislature in 1775, Dandridge and fellow planter Burwell Bassett (with whom he had served in the House of Burgesses) were elected as the county's representatives to the first four Virginia Revolutionary Conventions; Dandridge served on the fifth Revolutionary Convention alongside Col. William Clayton, whom he had succeeded in 1772.^[8] His political influence was such that on August 17, 1775 Dandridge came within one vote of being elected to the statewide Committee of Safety that governed the Commonwealth for the next ten months, and the next session elected him to the Committee of Privileges and Elections. Dandridge helped to draft both the resolution dissolving the relationship with Great Britain and the Virginia Declaration of Rights. On June 29, 1776 he was elected to the Council of State, which held administrative powers as well as advised Governor Patrick Henry, but Dandridge resigned that position to attend family business on January 8, 1778.^[1][9] Although Dandridge did not serve in the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates, he won election as one of New Kent County's delegates in 1778.^[10] Meanwhile, a planter cousin, William Dandridge, son of his late uncle Capt. William Dandridge, represented Hanover County for several terms.

On May 29, 1778, fellow legislators elected Bartholomew Dandridge to the General Court, and the following year created a new Court of Appeals, which consisted of the judges of the General Court, Court of Admiralty and the High Court of Chancery.^[1] Thus, Dandridge became a judge on what in modern times is the Supreme Court of Virginia. The Court of Appeals first met in the spring of 1779, although Dandridge first took his seat on March 29, 1780. He participated in Commonwealth v. Caton wherein some judges enunciated the principle of judicial review, but Judge Dandridge declined to express an opinion on that issue.^[1] Judge Dandridge remained on the Court until his death in 1785.^[1]

Dandridge and his mother died within several days of one another in April 1785. His sister, Martha Washington received notice of both deaths in the same dispatch. Dandridge's will left his Rockhock plantation to his wife Mary, and his eldest son John received land in Doctor's Swamp as well as a Mill and Grist Mill on Diascund Creek. His sons Julius, Bartholomew and William received lands in North Carolina purchased from Patrick Henry. Judge Dandridge also provided for his mother and mother-in-law in his will.^[5] Judge Dandridge also manumitted two slaves, gave his daughter Anna Claiborne one negro and another to his granddaughter Elizabeth Dandride Claiborne, and divided the rest of his slaves among his children by his wife Mary, who had a life estate in them.^[11] The problem was that the judge's slaves were mortgaged because Dandridge was financially embarrassed following the American Revolutionary War. Therefore, his brother-in-law, General (later President) George Washington took 33 slaves as payment for a loan he had made from Martha Dandridge Washington's property in 1765, and lent them back (without charge) to Dandridge's widow Mary so she could support their children on what had been a family plantation.^[12] The late President specifically mentioned freeing the Dandridge slaves in his will, but delayed such until the widow's death.^[13]

John Dandridge would follow in his father's career path, including representing New Kent County in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1788. His brother Julius Burbridge Dandridge (1770-1828) became a banker in Richmond, which had become the state capital, first clerking at the Bank of Virginia, then became the cashier at the Richmond Branch of the Second Bank of the United States, but was accused of misfeasance, and a lawsuit against his sureties reached the Supreme Court of the United States before being settled after his accidental death.^[14]