Patrick Watson Tompkins (1804May 8, 1853) was an American lawyer and politician who served one term as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

from 1847 to 1849.

Biography

Born in Kentucky in 1804, Tompkins received a limited education. He studied law, and was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

and commenced practice in

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 21,573 at the 2020 census. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vicksburg ...

. He served as judge of the

circuit court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

Congress

Tompkins was elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Thirtieth Congress).

Later career and death

He moved to California during the gold rush of 1849, and died in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, May 8, 1853. He was interred in Yerba Buena Cemetery, and later moved around 1870 to Golden Gate Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tompkins, Patrick Watson 1853 deaths Members of the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi 1804 births Mississippi Whigs Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives Mississippi state court judges 19th-century American judges 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives