Buckner Thruston

Buckner Thruston (February 9, 1763 – August 30, 1845) was an American lawyer, slaveowner and politician who served as United States Senator from Kentucky as well as in the Virginia House of Delegates and became a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. Early life and education Born on February 9, 1764, in Petsoe Parish in Gloucester County, Colony of Virginia, British America, His grandfather had been colonel of the local militia, as well as farmed using enslaved labor. His father Charles Mynn Thurston also farmed, but was educated and ordained as a minister, then moved his family westward to Frederick County where he again farmed (using enslaved labor), as well as served as a minister until 1776. Rev. Thruston became known as a "fighting parson" for he recruited a military company, joined the Continental Army and rose to the rank of colonel, but also lost the use of an arm as a result of a combat wound. Meanwhile, back in Frederick County, Buckner Thruston received an education appropriate to his class. His mother had died when he was an infant, but his father remarried, so the family included several brothers and sisters. He traveled to Williamsburg for higher education and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1783 from the College of William & Mary. Legal and political careers Thruston was admitted to the Virginia bar and moved to what was then Kentucky County, then the District of Kentucky and the Commonwealth of Kentucky from June 1, 1792, where many revolutionary war veterans had received land. He established a private practice in Lexington.