Thomas Todd

Thomas Todd was born on January 23, 1765, in King and Queen County, Virginia. He was the youngest of five children born to Elizabeth Richards and Richard Todd. Orphaned during his childhood, Todd was raised Presbyterian in Virginia, where the absence of public schooling posed challenges to his education. At the age of 16, he joined the Continental Army as a private with a cavalry unit from Manchester, Virginia, during the final months of the American Revolutionary War. After six months of military service, he returned home and enrolled at Liberty Hall Academy in Lexington, Virginia, graduating in 1783.

Following his graduation, Todd became a tutor at Liberty Hall Academy in exchange for room and board. He graduated from the academy in 1783 at the age of 18. During this period, he lived with the family of his cousin, Judge Harry Innes, in Bedford County, Virginia. Todd also studied surveying before relocating to Kentucky County, then part of Virginia, with the Innes family, where Innes was appointed to the Kentucky district of the Virginia Supreme Court. Todd tutored Innes's children in Danville, Kentucky, to assist in reading law, which helped prepare him for a legal career.

Todd was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1786, and he practiced privately in Danville from 1788 until 1801. He served as a court reporter and as secretary to the Kentucky State Legislature after Kentucky statehood. Between 1784 and 1792, Todd served as secretary to ten conventions advocating for Kentucky’s formation as a state and contributed to drafting its constitution. He was a delegate for Lincoln County to the Virginia House of Delegates during the period leading to Kentucky's statehood and was a candidate for governor of Kentucky in 1795 and 1800. Todd was appointed as the first clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, where he later served as a judge beginning in 1801 and as chief judge from 1806.

Todd married twice. His first marriage was in 1788 to Elizabeth Harris, with whom he had three sons and two daughters. Their children included Charles Stewart Todd (1791–1871), a lawyer and military officer, and John Harris Todd (1795–1824), also a lawyer. The daughters, Ann Maria and Elizabeth Frances, married prominent lawyers. After Elizabeth Harris's death, Todd married Lucy Payne Washington on March 29, 1812, who was the youngest sister of Dolley Madison and the widow of Major George Steptoe Washington, a nephew of George Washington. Their children included James Madison Todd (1817–1897), who survived and married, and a daughter named Madisonia. Genealogical sources differ regarding the names of other children.

Todd was nominated as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Thomas Jefferson on February 28, 1807, following the expansion of the Court from six to seven seats. The Senate confirmed his appointment on March 2, 1807, and he was sworn in on May 4, 1807. He served under Chief Justice John Marshall until his death. Todd's jurisdiction on the Court included Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, and he held sessions in Nashville, Frankfort, and Chillicothe. He was one of 19 Presbyterian justices on the Supreme Court.

During his tenure, Todd authored fourteen opinions, predominantly related to land claims and survey disputes. His first opinion was a dissent in Finley v. Lynn. Notable cases include Preston v. Browder, which addressed land claim restrictions based on treaties made in 1777, and Watts v. Lindsey’s Heirs, which dealt with complex land titles in Kentucky. His last opinion, in Riggs v. Taylor, established procedural principles regarding the use of original documents as evidence in court.

Thomas Todd died on February 7, 1826, in Frankfort, Kentucky, at the age of 61. He was initially buried in the Innes family cemetery, but his remains were later relocated to Frankfort Cemetery. At the time of his death, Todd owned extensive land holdings, including over 7,200 acres throughout Kentucky, and was involved in several early Kentucky infrastructural enterprises, such as the Kentucky River Company, the Kentucky Turnpike, and the Frankfort toll bridge. His estate was valued at more than $70,000.

Todd’s papers are preserved at the Cincinnati Historical Society, The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, and the University of Kentucky's Margaret I. King Library. In his honor, during World War II, a Liberty ship was named SS Thomas Todd. He was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and was affiliated with Freemasonry.