ENTRY

John Coalter (1769–1838)

SUMMARY

John Coalter was a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals (1811–1831) and a member of the Convention of 1829–1830. Born in Augusta County and educated at Liberty Hall in Lexington, he studied law under George Wythe at the College of William and Mary. He tutored the children of Wythe’s protégé, St. George Tucker, and later married Tucker’s daughter. Coalter served on the General Court from 1809 until 1811, hearing civil cases in the western part of the state. In 1811, he was appointed to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, filling a vacancy made by the resignation of Tucker. He compiled a solid but unspectacular record over twenty years, a time when Spencer Roane, with whom Tucker had clashed, led the court and other judges followed. In 1817, Coalter served on a committee that revised the state’s laws. In 1829, he was elected to fill a vacancy among delegates at the Convention of 1829–1830, which revised the Virginia constitution. He opposed many of the proposed reforms, including reducing property requirements for suffrage, but he voted with the majority for the constitution. Coalter retired from the court in 1831, living his remaining years at Chatham Manor, overlooking Fredericksburg. He died in 1838.

Early Years

Coalter was born on August 20, 1769, in the portion of Augusta County that in 1778 became Rockbridge County. When he was about nine years old, his parents, Michael Coalter and Elizabeth Moore Coalter, moved the family to a plantation near Staunton. Coalter intermittently attended common schools before entering Liberty Hall Academy (later Washington College and still later Washington and Lee University), where he received a rudimentary classical education. At age eighteen he left home to seek employment, and after making the acquaintance of St. George Tucker, a well-known legal scholar and later a judge of the Court of Appeals, he decided to study law. Coalter spent about three hours a day teaching Tucker’s children in exchange for board and the use of Tucker’s library, first in Chesterfield County and then in Williamsburg. Tucker arranged for him to attend the College of William and Mary to study law under George Wythe.

After completing his legal education in 1790, Coalter began his practice in Augusta County, where he was admitted to the bar on March 15, 1791, and by September 1793 had become clerk of the court for the district that included Augusta, Bath, Pendleton, Rockbridge, and Rockingham counties. He returned to Williamsburg in the autumn of 1791 and married Maria Rind, who had worked in the Tucker household. Personal tragedy and professional advancement marked the next several years of Coalter’s life. His wife died in the autumn of 1792 after giving birth to a child who also died. On February 15, 1795, he married Margaret Davenport, of Williamsburg, but she died within a year or two as well. They had no surviving children, but her mother lived with Coalter until her death early in 1816, throughout the years of his third marriage. On June 5, 1802, Coalter married one of St. George Tucker’s daughters, Ann Frances Bland Tucker. They had two daughters, one of whom died young, and one son.

Judge

Washington and Lee University

Coalter’s education and connections eventually paid handsome professional dividends. By the time of his third marriage he had prospered and made a name for himself. He was a member of the board of Washington College from 1798 until 1830. Coalter became commonwealth’s attorney for Augusta County in 1803 and rented Elm Grove, a 900-acre plantation near Staunton. The General Assembly elected him to the General Court on February 7, 1809. Coalter presided over courts in a circuit consisting of the counties of Botetourt, Cabell, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mason, and Monroe and from time to time met with other General Court judges in Richmond to hear appeals in civil cases and to act as the court of last resort in criminal cases. During his many absences on legal business, which strained relations between him and his wife, Frances Tucker Coalter managed the plantation and its enslaved laborers. She died of consumption (probably tuberculosis) on September 12, 1813.

Spencer Roane

On May 11, 1811, the governor named Coalter to the seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals left vacant by the resignation of his father-in-law, St. George Tucker. A bitter dispute with Spencer Roane had led Tucker to resign, and he attempted to dissuade Coalter from taking the position and even chastised his son-in-law for disobedience. Coalter nevertheless accepted the appointment, and the General Assembly elected him on December 6, 1811. Coalter took his seat on the state’s highest court on June 1, 1811, and three or four years later moved to a Henrico County farm on the outskirts of Richmond. He served on the court for two decades, during which he compiled a solid but unspectacular record. Coalter arrived during a period of transition on the court, as the judges increasingly acceded to the leadership of Roane and began to issue a larger proportion of rulings in short, unanimous opinions. Coalter delivered one of his most notable opinions in Asbury Crenshaw and Thomas B. Crenshaw v. The Slate River Company (1828), in which he joined the other judges in declaring unconstitutional a state law that authorized a company formed to improve the navigation of a watercourse to require such expensive modifications to mill owners’ property as to threaten economic ruin to the mill owners. Coalter confirmed the traditional common-law understanding of eminent domain, which required just compensation for property taken for a public purpose.

While he was a member of the Court of Appeals, Coalter also served on a five-member commission that the General Assembly created early in 1817 to prepare a comprehensive report on which laws should be revised or repealed. Before the end of the year the members compiled and published a report of nearly 450 pages.

Chatham

On February 14, 1822, Coalter married Hannah Harrison Jones Williamson, a Stafford County widow who had one daughter. They had no children. In 1825 her father transferred to him the deed to Chatham, a large, venerable brick house on the north bank of the Rappahannock River overlooking Fredericksburg, and the next year Coalter sold his Henrico County residence and moved to Chatham. Always known for his gentility and conviviality, Coalter, along with his fourth wife, took an active role in the social life of the community. Among the valuable properties he acquired by virtue of his fourth marriage was land in Orange County near where deposits of gold had been found, and for a time he anticipated profiting from mining gold on his own land.

Later Years

Affidavit Concerning a Sale of Enslaved People

On November 23, 1829, three delegates representing King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Prince William, Richmond, Stafford, and Westmoreland counties in the constitutional convention then meeting in Richmond selected Coalter to fill a vacancy in their ranks following the resignation of John Taliaferro, the fourth delegate from the district. Coalter entered immediately into the work of the convention and participated in the debates beginning on the day that he was selected and took his seat. He spoke several times against proposals to allow the state to increase its indebtedness and against eliminating or reducing property ownership as a qualification for the franchise. Coalter also opposed allowing voters, rather than the General Assembly, to elect the governor. He summed up his objections to most suggested innovations in a formal prepared speech to the convention on December 1. In spite of his many reservations, Coalter voted in favor of the new constitution that the convention approved on January 14, 1830, and submitted to the voters, who later in the year ratified it.

Coalter resigned from the Court of Appeals on March 23, 1831, and lived in retirement at Chatham, where five or six years later he suffered a stroke. Following a partial recovery from his paralysis, Coalter died at Chatham on February 2, 1838, and was buried in Saint George’s Episcopal Church Cemetery, in Fredericksburg. His estate, valued at more than $100,000, included 133 slaves, most originally the property of his fourth wife.

MAP
TIMELINE
August 20, 1769
John Coalter is born.
ca. 1778
Michael and Elizabeth Coalter move their family to a plantation near Staunton.
1788
John Coalter leaves home to seek employment and begins to study the law under George Wythe.
March 15, 1791
John Coalter is admitted to the bar in Augusta County.
Autumn 1791
John Coalter and Maria Rind marry in Williamsburg.
Autumn 1792
Maria Rind Colter, the wife of John Coalter, dies after giving birth to a child who also dies.
September 1793
By this year John Coalter has become clerk of the court for the district that includes Augusta, Bath, Pendleton, Rockbridge, and Rockingham counties.
February 15, 1795
John Coalter and Margaret Davenport, of Williamsburg, marry. She dies a year or two later.
1798—1830
John Coalter is a member of the board of Washington College.
June 5, 1802
John Coalter and Ann Frances Bland Tucker marry.
1803
John Coalter becomes commonwealth's attorney for Augusta County.
February 7, 1809
The General Assembly elects John Coalter to the General Court.
May 11, 1811
The governor appoints John Coalter to a seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
June 1, 1811
John Coalter begins his term on the Virginia Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
December 6, 1811
The General Assembly elects John Coalter to a seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
September 12, 1813
Frances Tucker Coalter, the wife of John Coalter, dies of consumption.
1817
John Coalter serves on a five-member commission to revise the state's laws.
February 14, 1822
John Coalter and Hannah Harrison Jones Williamson marry.
1823
John Coalter and his new wife move to Chatham, her family's residence near Fredericksburg.
November 23, 1829
John Coalter is elected to fill a vacancy at the Virginia constitutional convention.
December 1, 1829
John Coalter addresses the Virginia constitutional convention, objecting to most proposed reforms.
January 14, 1830
Despite his reservations, John Coalter votes with the majority to approve the new state constitution.
May 23, 1831
John Coalter resigns from the Virginia Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
February 2, 1838
John Coalter dies at Chatham, his home near Fredericksburg. He is buried at Saint George's Episcopal Church Cemetery, in Fredericksburg.
FURTHER READING
  • Huebner, Timothy S. “Coalter, John.” In the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 3, edited by Sara B. Bearss et al., 316–318. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Huebner, Timothy & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. John Coalter (1769–1838). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/coalter-john-1769-1838.
MLA Citation:
Huebner, Timothy, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "John Coalter (1769–1838)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 28 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
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