Thomas Irwin

Who was Thomas Irwin?

Thomas Irwin was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, and later a United States federal judge.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Irwin attended the common schools and Franklin College, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He became editor of the Philadelphia Repository in 1804. He read law to be admitted to the bar in 1808 and commenced practice in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He was appointed Indian agent at Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he also engaged in the practice of law for two years. He returned to Uniontown in 1811 and resumed the practice of law, also serving as a deputy state attorney general of Fayette County, Pennsylvania from 1812 to 1819. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1824 to 1828.

Irwin was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1830. On April 14, 1831, Irwin received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania vacated by William Wilkins.