Thomas Bell Monroe

Who was Thomas Bell Monroe?

Thomas Bell Monroe was a United States federal judge.

Born in Albemarle County, Virginia, Monroe attended Transylvania University and was a Kentucky state representative in 1816 before reading law to enter the bar in 1821. He entered private practice in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1821. He was Secretary of state for the State of Kentucky from 1823 to 1824, and became a reporter of decisions for the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1825. He was the United States Attorney for the District of Kentucky from 1830 to 1834

On February 20, 1834, Monroe was nominated by President Andrew Jackson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky vacated by the death of John Boyle. Monroe was confirmed by the United States Senate On March 6, 1834, and received his commission on March 8, 1834. While serving on the bench, he taught law in Montrose, Kentucky from 1843 to 1848. He was then chairman of the law department at Transylvania University beginning in 1848, and a professor of law at Tulane University from 1848 until about 1851. Monroe resigned from the bench on September 18, 1861, choosing to sied with the Confederacy in the American Civil War.