Harry Innes

Who was Harry Innes?

Harry Innes was the first United States federal judge in Kentucky.

Innes was born in Caroline County, Virginia, the son of the Reverend Robert Innes and Catharine Innes. Innes attended Donald Robertson's school and William and Mary College. Innes was married twice, first to Elizabeth Calloway, with whom he had four daughters: Sarah, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Ann. After his first wife's death he married Ann Shield, with whom he had a daughter named Maria, who eventually married John J. Crittenden. The two also raised a daughter from her first marriage.

Innes was admitted to the bar in 1773, and worked briefly as a lawyer in Bedford County, Virginia. He worked in a variety of government jobs from 1776 until 1782, as an administrator for the Lead and Powder Mines, Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia from 1776 to 1777, a land claims adjuster for Western Virginia from 1777 to 1780, and an escheator for Bedford County, Virginia from 1780 to 1782. In 1782, he was made an assistant judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature for the Kentucky District of Virginia. Innes' work as a judge still allowed him time to practice law, farm, and invest in real estate. He was also a trustee of Transylvania University. Innes resigned as presiding judge in 1784 after he was appointed Attorney General for the western district of Virginia, an office that he held from 1784 to 1789.