Mathias McGirk (1790–1842) of Montgomery County, Missouri, was a justice of the

Missouri Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to giv ...

from 1821 to 1841. Born in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

, McGirk studied law there before moving to St. Louis around 1814. he served in the Territorial

Missouri General Assembly The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by ...

,L. C. Krauthoff, ''The Supreme Court of Missouri'', in Horace Williams Fuller, ed., '' The Green Bag'' (1891), Vol. 3, p. 165. where in 1816 he was the author of the bill to introduce the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

to Missouri. The bill "passed as he framed it, and many other important statutes were introduced and passed of which he was the author".William Van Ness Bay, ''Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri'' (1878), p. 536-37. He was thereafter appointed as one of the first three judges of the state supreme court in 1821. His colleagues were

John D. Cook John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

and John Rice Jones, and their commissions issued in 1820. McGirk relocated to

Montgomery County Montgomery County may refer to: Australia * The former name of Montgomery Land District, Tasmania United Kingdom * The historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, also called County of Montgomery United States * Montgomery County, Alabama * Mon ...

around 1827 or 1828. He "practiced in all the courts of that circuit, and his name appears among those who attended court in old Franklin". Shortly after moving to Montgomery County he married Elizabeth Talbott,Louis Houck, ''A History of Missouri: From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the State Into the Union'' (1908), p 265. from an old and influential family there. He authored ''Rachel v. Walker'', 4 Mo. 350 (1836), which freed an enslaved woman who had been taken to free territory by an Army officer. ''Walker'' was an important predecessor to the ''

Dred Scott Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popular ...

'' case. Mathias' brother, Isaac McGirk, represented Marguerite Scypion in her claim for freedom in the Missouri courts in 1805. An 1892 biography provided this sketch: McGirk was fond of agriculture, and built what was described as "a beautiful residence" on or near

Lautre Island Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfu ...

, one of the islands of the Missouri River, near the present town of

Hermann, Missouri Hermann is a city in and the county seat of Gasconade County, Missouri, United States. It has been the county seat since 1842. It is near the center of the Missouri Rhineland and south of the Missouri River. The population was 2,185 at the 2020 ...

. Another biography described McGirk as follows: McGirk never had any children. His widow survived him by many years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGirk, Mathias 1790 births 1842 deaths Judges of the Supreme Court of Missouri People from Montgomery County, Missouri People from Tennessee Members of the Missouri Territorial Legislature Missouri Whigs 19th-century American judges