{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Use American English|date=October 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder | name = James Dellet | image = James Dellet.jpg | alt = Black and white daguerreotype of James Dellet | caption = 1840s daguerreotype of James Dellet | birth_date = {{Birth date|1788|02|18}} | birth_place = Camden, New Jersey | death_date = {{Death date and age|1848|12|21|1788|02|18}} | death_place = Claiborne, Alabama | party = Whig | state1 = Alabama | district1 = 1st | predecessor1 = Reuben Chapman | successor1 = Edmund S. Dargan | term_start1 = March 4, 1843 | term_end1 = March 3, 1845 | state2 = Alabama | district2 = 5th | predecessor2 = Francis Strother Lyon | successor2 = ''District inactive'' | term_start2 = March 4, 1839 | term_end2 = March 3, 1841 | office3 = Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives | term_start3 = 1819 | term_end3 = 1819 | predecessor3 = Office established | successor3 = George W. Owen | office4 = Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives | term_start4 = 1821 | term_end4 = 1821 | predecessor4 = George W. Owen | successor4 = Arthur P. Bagby | office5 = Member of the Alabama House of Representatives | term_start5 = 1819 | term_end5 = 1832 }}
'''James Dellet''' (February 18, 1788{{spaced ndash}}December 21, 1848), was an American lawyer, planter, and politician who served as Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives during the state's inaugural legislative session in 1819 and again in 1821. He later represented Alabama in the United States House of Representatives as a Whig, serving in the Twenty-sixth (1839–1841) and Twenty-eighth (1843–1845) Congresses.{{refn|group=note|name=spelling|The 1819 House Journal spells his surname ''Dellett''.}}{{sfn|U.S. House of Representatives Archives}}{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}}{{sfn|Alabama House Journal|1819}}{{sfn|Alabama House Journal|1821}}
==Biography==
===Early life=== Dellet was born in Camden, New Jersey, and moved with his family to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1800. He graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in 1810, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1813, and practiced. He moved to the Alabama Territory in 1818, settling at Claiborne, where he continued to practice law and briefly served as a circuit judge.{{sfn|U.S. House of Representatives Archives}}{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}}
===State politics=== Dellet represented Monroe County in the first state legislature following Alabama statehood and was elected the first Speaker of the House in 1819.{{sfn|Alabama House Journal|1819}}{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}} He returned to the House in later terms and was again chosen Speaker at the November 1821 session in Cahawba.{{sfn|Alabama House Journal|1821}}{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}} He also served additional legislative terms in the mid-1820s and early 1830s.{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}}
During his legal career at Claiborne, Dellet mentored apprentices, including William B. Travis, who studied in his office in 1828 before leaving for Texas, and Benjamin F. Porter, who later became a judge and reform advocate.{{sfn|Encyclopedia of Alabama}} In the 1830s, Dellet partnered in practice with future Alabama Supreme Court justice Lyman Gibbons, who married Dellet’s daughter Emma.{{sfn|Guide to the Dellet–Torrey Collection}}{{sfn|Amherst College Obituary Record|1880}}
===Congress=== Dellet was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress in 1833. He was later elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress from Alabama’s 5th district (1839–1841) and to the Twenty-eighth Congress from the 1st district (1843–1845). He resumed the practice of law and engaged in agricultural pursuits between and after his terms.{{sfn|U.S. House of Representatives Archives}}
===Death=== Dellet died on December 21, 1848, at Claiborne and was interred in a private cemetery at his Dellet Park plantation.{{sfn|U.S. House of Representatives Archives}}
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} * {{cite web |title=DELLET, James |url=https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/12107/ |website=History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives |access-date=2025-10-30 |ref={{sfnref|U.S. House of Representatives Archives}}}} * {{cite web |title=James Dellet |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/james-dellet/ |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Alliance |date=January 31, 2012 |access-date=2025-10-30 |ref={{sfnref|Encyclopedia of Alabama}}|quote=...first Speaker of the House of Representatives... In 1821, Dellet was reelected and again chosen as Speaker of the House.}} * {{cite web |title=Journal of the Alabama House of Representatives, October–December 1819 |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Journal_of_the_Alabama_House_of_Representatives%2C_October_through_December_1819_%28IA_alabama-house-journal-1819%29.pdf |website=Wikimedia Commons (from Internet Archive) |access-date=2025-10-30 |ref={{sfnref|Alabama House Journal|1819}}|quote=...James Dellett... was duly elected [Speaker] and conducted to the chair.}} * {{cite web |title=Journal of the Alabama House of Representatives, November–December 1821 |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Journal_of_the_Alabama_House_of_Representatives%2C_November_through_December_1821_%28IA_alabama-house-journal-1821%29.pdf |website=Wikimedia Commons (from Internet Archive) |access-date=2025-10-30 |ref={{sfnref|Alabama House Journal|1821}}|quote=...the House proceeded to the election of a Speaker; ... Mr. James Dellet was elected Speaker...}} * {{cite web |title=Guide to the Dellet–Torrey Collection |url=https://www.southalabama.edu/libraries/mccallarchives/dellet_torrey_findingaid.pdf |website=The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama |ref={{sfnref|Guide to the Dellet–Torrey Collection}}|date=June 15, 2017 |access-date=2025-10-30}} * {{cite web |title=Obituary Record: Roll of Graduates deceased during the Year 1879–1880; Deaths Not Previously Reported |url=https://archive.org/stream/obituaryrecord00collgoog/obituaryrecord00collgoog_djvu.txt |website=Amherst College |date=1880 |ref={{sfnref|Amherst College Obituary Record|1880}}|access-date=2025-10-30}} {{refend}}
==External links== {{CongBio|D000221}} * {{Find a Grave|35360403}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state = Alabama | district = 5 | before = Francis Strother Lyon | after = ''District inactive'' | years = 1839–1841 }} {{US House succession box | state = Alabama | district = 1 | before = Reuben Chapman | after = Edmund S. Dargan | years = 1843–1845 }} {{s-end}}
{{Speakers of the Alabama House of Representatives}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dellet, James}} Category:Speakers of the Alabama House of Representatives Category:Members of the Alabama House of Representatives Category:Whig Party United States representatives from Alabama
Category:Owners of plantations in Alabama Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law Category:Politicians from Camden, New Jersey Category:Politicians from Columbia, South Carolina Category:People from Monroe County, Alabama Category:Alabama lawyers Category:University of South Carolina alumni Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:19th-century members of the Alabama Legislature Category:1788 births Category:1848 deaths