John Bartow Prevost

John Bartow Prevost (March 6, 1766 – March 5, 1825) was an American attorney, judge, politician, businessman and diplomat. He became the first judge of the Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans from 1804 to 1808, and was U.S. political agent for Peru from 1818 until his death. Early life and family Prevost was born on March 6, 1766, in Paramus, New Jersey. His father Col. Jacques Marcus Prevost had emigrated from Geneva, Switzerland to Britain with his brother General Augustine Prevost, and rose in the British Army to command British forces in New Jersey and was briefly governor of Georgia during the American Revolutionary War before moving to the British West Indies to recover from his wounds and dying in Jamaica in 1779. His widow (and J.B. Prevost's mother), Theodosia Bartow, was a New Jersey native (only daughter of Theodore Bartow of Shrewsbury) and patriot during that war. In 1782, the widow married Aaron Burr. Burr (who would become Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson) raised Theodosia's sons John and Frederick as his own. John B. Prevost married Frances Anna Smith, daughter of Rev. Samuel Smith, of Princeton College on February 5, 1799. They had four children: Theodosia Ann Prevost (1801–1864), James Marcus Prevost (1803–1829), Stanhope Prevost (1804–1868) and Frances Prevost Breckinridge (1806–1870). Public service Prevost was Recorder of New York City from 1801 to 1804, when President Thomas Jefferson appointed him as one of the first three judges of the Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans. Arriving in New Orleans on October 29, 1804, Prevost opened the Superior Court with a charge to the grand jury on Monday, November 5, 1804. Prevost served alone on that bench from November 5, 1804, for about two years, due to the death and refusal to take office of his fellow judges. In 1808, Prevost resigned from the bench and was replaced by Joshua Lewis of Kentucky. Prevost remained in New Orleans and practiced law for several years.