Home County: St. Louis
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: September 1825 - May 1837
Judge Robert Wash was born November 29, 1790, in Louisa County, Virginia.[i] He received an excellent education from William and Mary College, graduating in 1808.[ii] He spent the following years studying law and was admitted to the bar.[iii]
At the end of the War of 1812, Wash settled in St. Louis. He was elected to the St. Louis city council.[iv] During his time with the St. Louis city council, Wash worked to promote road structure and improvement for the city, through sidewalks, proper road surfacing and grading.[v] After service on the St. Louis city council, during President Monroe’s administration, Wash was selected to serve as the United States district attorney for the district of St. Louis.[vi]
After the death of Judge Rufus Pettibone, Wash was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri.[vii] Taking his appointment in September 1825, Judge Wash performed his duties to the Court until his resignation in May 1837.[viii] He lived among family and friends at his home in St. Louis, for the rest of his life.
Walsh died in November 1856.[ix]
[i] William Van Ness Bay, “Robert Wash,” Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri (St. Louis, MO: F.N. Thomas and Co., 1878), 244.
[ii] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[iii] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[iv] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[v] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[vi] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[vii] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 244.
[viii] Louis Houck, ed. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, from 1821 to 1827 Vol I (Belleville, IL: Kimball & Taylor, Printers, 1870), 295.See also Jackson Independent, Jackson, Missouri, Saturday, September 10, 1825, page 3, column 1. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database, accessed June 2017. See also Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 246.
[ix] Bay, Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 246.
Biographical information by Matt Orf, 2017, University of Missouri-Columbia.