Biography

10/22/1800 - 06/06/1861

Judge Thomas Sloan Bell, Sr. (D3) Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties 1838-1839 (D2) Chester and Delaware Counties 1858-1860

Early Life:

Judge Thomas Sloan Bell, Sr., born October 22, 1800, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; son of William and Jane Sloan Bell; moved, West Chester, 1821; admitted, Philadelphia bar, 1821; attorney, West Chester, Chester County, 1821; deputy Attorney General, Chester County, 1823-1828; visitor, West Point Military Academy, 1829; delegate, Pennsylvania State Constitution Convention, 1837-1838; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1838-1839; appointed, President Judge, Fifteenth Judicial District, 1839-1846; appointed, Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1846-1851; appointed, President Judge, Twenty-Second Judicial District, 1855; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate 1858-1860; married, Caroline Darlington (d.1829) married, Keziah Ann Hemphill, 1830, children, Ann Rosalie Bell, Carolyn Bell, William Hemphill Bell, Joseph McClellan Bell, Colonel Thomas S. Bell, Jr.; died June 6, 1861, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; interment, Oaklands Cemetery, West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. 

Early Career:

Studied law under James Madison Porter; appointed one of the visitors, Military Academy, West Point, chairman, committee, report on the state of that institution.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Delegate, Pennsylvania State Constitution Convention, Chester and Montgomery Counties, 1837-1838.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 3rd district, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties, 1838-1839.

Appointed, Governor David Porter, President Judge, Fifteenth Judicial District, Chester and Delaware Counties, 1839-1846; succeed Judge Isaac Darlington.

Appointed, Governor Francis Shunk, Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1846-1851; lost his seat, first judicial election. 

Appointed, Governor James Pollock, President Judge, Twenty-Second Judicial District, Wayne, Pike, Carbon, and Monroe Counties, March-December 1855.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 2nd district, Chester and Delaware Counties, 1858-1860. 

Legacy:

Married, Caroline Darlington, daughter, Judge Isaac Darlington, born 1805 and died May 12, 1829, giving birth to Isaac D. Bell, who also died, 1829. Remarried, Keziah Ann Hemphill, granddaughter, Colonel Joseph McClellan, a veteran soldier of the Revolutionary war.

Son, Thomas S. Jr., Union officer, killed, Battle of Antietam, September 1862.

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members B". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical; John Smith Futhey, Gilbert Cope, 1881

Judge Thomas Sloan Bell, Sr. (1800 - 1861) - Genealogy (geni.com)

Judge Thomas Sloan Bell (1800-1861) - Find a Grave Memorial