Lyman Gibbons

Lyman Gibbons (June 3, 1808 – June 27, 1879) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 1852 to 1854.

Early life, education, and career[]

Born in Dormansville^[1] or Westerlo,^[2] New York to John and Elizabeth (Hall) Gibbons, Lyman Gibbons graduated from Amherst College in 1830, and spent six months working at Vermont's before reading law with Jacob Collamer, then a Vermont state court judge, in Royalton, Vermont.^[2][1]

Gibbons moved to Mobile, Alabama in 1833,^[2] where he taught at Spring Hill College while continuing to study law.^[1] He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and entered the practice of law the following spring, in Claiborne, Alabama, in partnership with James Dellet.^[1][2] Gibbons traveled to Europe around 1845, remaining there for two years and studying civil law in France.^[2] He then returned to the United States and practiced law in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1847 until 1849, when he resumed his practice in Mobile.

Judicial service and later life[]

In 1851, Gibbons was appointed to a vacant seat on the Alabama Sixth Judicial Circuit. He was elected to a second term in 1852, but in December of that year was appointed by Governor Henry W. Collier to a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of Edmund S. Dargan.^[1][2] Gibbons served in that capacity for just over one year, resigning in January 1854; he was not replaced on the court, as the legislature had reduced the number of seats from five to three during the previous year.^[3] Gibbons returned to Monroe County to work as a planter. In 1861, he represented Monroe County as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1861, which passed the ordinances of secession.^[1] After the end of the American Civil War, he resumed his legal practice.

Personal life[]

Gibbons married the daughter of James Dellet, Emma Eugenia Dellet, in 1853. They had one child, a daughter.^[1] Gibbons died of heart disease at his summer home in Claiborne, Alabama.^[2]

References[]