James Dellet
Birth dateFebruary 18, 1788
Birth placeCamden, New Jersey
Death dateDecember 21, 1848 (aged 60)
Death placeClaiborne, Alabama
PartyWhig
State 1Alabama
District 11st
Predecessor 1Reuben Chapman
Successor 1Edmund S. Dargan
Term start 1March 4, 1843
Term end 1March 3, 1845
State 2Alabama
District 25th
Predecessor 2Francis Strother Lyon
Successor 2District inactive
Term start 2March 4, 1839
Term end 2March 3, 1841
Office 3Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives
Term start 31819
Term end 31819
Predecessor 3Office established
Successor 3George W. Owen
Office 4Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives
Term start 41821
Term end 41821
Predecessor 4George W. Owen
Successor 4Arthur P. Bagby
Office 5Member of the Alabama House of Representatives
Term start 51819
Term end 51832

James Dellet (February 18, 1788 – December 21, 1848), was an American lawyer, planter, and politician who served as Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives during the state's inaugural legislative session in 1819 and again in 1821. He later represented Alabama in the United States House of Representatives as a Whig, serving in the Twenty-sixth (1839–1841) and Twenty-eighth (1843–1845) Congresses.[note 1][1][2][3][4]

Biography

Early life

Dellet was born in Camden, New Jersey, and moved with his family to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1800. He graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in 1810, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1813, and practiced. He moved to the Alabama Territory in 1818, settling at Claiborne, where he continued to practice law and briefly served as a circuit judge.[1][2]

State politics

Dellet represented Monroe County in the first state legislature following Alabama statehood and was elected the first Speaker of the House in 1819.[3][2] He returned to the House in later terms and was again chosen Speaker at the November 1821 session in Cahawba.[4][2] He also served additional legislative terms in the mid-1820s and early 1830s.[2]

During his legal career at Claiborne, Dellet mentored apprentices, including William B. Travis, who studied in his office in 1828 before leaving for Texas, and Benjamin F. Porter, who later became a judge and reform advocate.[2] In the 1830s, Dellet partnered in practice with future Alabama Supreme Court justice Lyman Gibbons, who married Dellet’s daughter Emma.[5][6]

Congress

Dellet was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress in 1833. He was later elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress from Alabama’s 5th district (1839–1841) and to the Twenty-eighth Congress from the 1st district (1843–1845). He resumed the practice of law and engaged in agricultural pursuits between and after his terms.[1]

Death

Dellet died on December 21, 1848, at Claiborne and was interred in a private cemetery at his Dellet Park plantation.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ The 1819 House Journal spells his surname Dellett.

References

  1. ^ U.S. House of Representatives Archives.
  2. ^ Encyclopedia of Alabama.
  3. ^ Alabama House Journal 1819.
  4. ^ Alabama House Journal 1821.
  5. ^ Guide to the Dellet–Torrey Collection.
  6. ^ Amherst College Obituary Record 1880.

Bibliography