{{short description|American politician}} {{about|the Virginia politician and lawyer|his namesake grandson|James F. Strother (West Virginia politician)}}
{{Infobox officeholder |birth_name=James French Strother |image = James F. Strother.jpg |caption = Strother ({{circa|1853}}) |state = [[Virginia]] |district = [[Virginia's 9th congressional district|9th]] |predecessor = [[Jeremiah Morton]] |successor = [[John Letcher]] | term_start =March 4, 1851 | term_end = March 3, 1853 |office1 = 23rd [[List of Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates|Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates]] |term_start1 = 1847 |term_end1 = 1848 |predecessor1 = [[John Winston Jones|John W. Jones]] |successor1 =[[Harry L. Hopkins]] | state_delegate2 = Virginia | district2 = [[Rappahannock County, Virginia|Rappahannock County]] | term_start2 =December 1, 1840 | term_end2 = January 11, 1852 | preceded2 = [[William Walden (Virginia politician)|William Walden]] | succeeded2 = [[John H. Morrison]] |birth_date = {{birth date|1811|09|04|mf=y}} |birth_place = [[Culpeper County, Virginia]], US |death_date = {{death date and age|1860|09|20|1811|09|04|mf=y}} |death_place = [[Culpeper, Virginia]], US |resting_place = Masonic Cemetery, [[Culpeper, Virginia|Culpeper]], [[Culpeper County, Virginia]] |party = [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] |spouse =Elizabeth Richardson |children= 10, including [[John R. Strother|John]] and [[Philip W. Strother|Philip]] |father=[[George Strother]] |occupation={{hlist|Lawyer|farmer|politician}} |alma_mater= [[Saint Louis University (United States)|St. Louis University]] }} '''James French Strother''' (September 4, 1811 – September 20, 1860) was a nineteenth-century [[American politician]] and lawyer from a [[Virginia]] political family of lawyers, military officers and judges. He was the grandson of [[French Strother]] who served in the [[Continental Congress]] and both houses of the [[Virginia General Assembly]], son of Congressman [[George Strother]] and grandfather of Congressman [[James F. Strother (West Virginia politician)]].
==Early and family life== Born in [[Culpeper County, Virginia]] to lawyer [[George F. Strother]] and his wife, the former Sarah Green Williams, Strother's ancestors were of the [[First Families of Virginia]]. His grandfather [[French Strother]] had served in the [[Continental Congress]] then represented Culpeper County for decades in both houses of the [[Virginia General Assembly]]. His father had served in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] and the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] before moving to Missouri with his family and slaves after voting for the [[Missouri Compromise of 1820]]. Thus, James F. Strother received a private education in Virginia and Missouri, and attended [[Saint Louis University (United States)|St. Louis University]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] before reading law.<ref>{{CongBio|S001025}}</ref>
He married Elizabeth Richardson, who would bear seven sons and a daughter who survived to adulthood: George French Strother (1834-1877), John R. Strother (1837-after 1850), Lt. and Judge Philip Williams Strother (1839-1922), Judge James French Strother (1841-1927),<ref>Elisabeth B. and C.E. Johnson Jr., Rappahannock County, Virginia: a History (Walsworth Publishing Co. WV, 1981, p. 53</ref> Sgt. William Henry Strother (1843-1862), John Hunt Strother (1845-1862), Dr. William Johnson Strother (1849-1942), Maj. Lewis Harvie Strother (1855-1908), and Sarah Williams Strother (1854-1932).<ref>1850 U.S. Federal Census for Rappahannock County, Virginia</ref>
==Career==
Strother returned to Virginia and was admitted to the bar, as had generations of family members before him. Strother began his legal practice in [[Washington, Virginia]] in [[Rappahannock County, Virginia|Rappahannock County]] on the eastern slopes of the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]]. As Strother's wealth grew, directly and by inheritance, he may have invested in land and enslaved labor. In 1840, he owned 4 slaves, in addition to his household of 7 white people (5 of them children),<ref>U.S. Federal Census for Rappahannock County, Virginia p. 14 of 81</ref> However, he does not show in slave schedules for Rappahannock County in 1850 nor 1860, and Virginia state slave censuses are not available online.<ref>Someone of that name (but possibly 3 years older) owned 11 slaves in neighboring Fauquier County, Virginia, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules for Ashby's, Fauquier County, Virginia p. 2 of 62 and five slaves in the Southern Division of Culpeper County in 1860 according to the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, slave schedule for Southern Division, Culpeper County, Virginia p. 21 of 34</ref>
In 1840, Strother won election to the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] where he represented [[Rappahannock County, Virginia]] and won reelection many times, serving until 1851.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, Virginia's General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 398, 402, 406, 414, 418, 423, 425, 427, 432, 437, 445</ref> When the Whig party gained control of the House of Delegates in 1847, he became Speaker of the House, but his party lost its majority in 1848 and remained the minority party the remainder of his life.<ref>{{cite book | last = Jamerson | first = Bruce F., Clerk of the House of Delegates, supervising | title = Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-2007 | publisher = Virginia House of Delegates | year = 2007 | location = [[Richmond, Virginia]]}}</ref> Strother was also a delegate to the [[Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850]] (representing Fauquier and Rappahannock counties alongside fellow lawyer [[Robert Eden Scott|Robert E. Scott]] and [[Samuel Chilton]]).<ref>Leonard p. 441</ref>
Voters of [[Virginia's 9th congressional district]] nonetheless elected Strother as a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] to the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1850. He defeated fellow Whig [[Jeremiah Morton]] and served from 1851 to 1853. However, Democrat (and future Virginia governor) [[John Letcher]] foiled his re-election bid.
==Death and legacy==
Afterward, Strother resumed his legal practice in [[Culpeper, Virginia]] until his death near there on September 20, 1860. He was interred in Masonic Cemetery. Within a year, the [[American Civil War]] had begun destroying the area. His cousin [[James E. Slaughter]] would become a Confederate Brigadier General, and some of his sons also volunteered to fight for the [[Confederate States of America]]. Philip Williams Strother served as a lieutenant, William Henry Strother a sergeant and George F. Strother an assistant commissary officer—all survived the conflict. William Henry Strother died of disease in 1862. Union forces began controlling the Rappahannock/Rapidan area after the [[Battle of Culpeper Court House]] in September 1863, and what had been Strother's district would become devastated before Major General Robert E. Lee took his last survey from atop Clark Mountain on May 4, 1864.<ref>Eugene M. Scheel, Culpeper: a Virginia County's History through 1920 (Culpeper Historical Society1982) pp.70, 75</ref>
Nonetheless, the family (and its political tradition survived). His son Philip Williams Strother became a Virginia judge in [[Pearisburg, Virginia|Pearisburg]], and his son (named [[James F. Strother (West Virginia politician)|James F. Strother]] after his grandfather) would become a lawyer and congressman from West Virginia. This James French Strother's son of the same name would become a Virginia Circuit judge in his native Rappahannock County.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = [[John Winston Jones|John W. Jones]] | title = [[Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates]] | years = 1847–1848 | after = [[Henry L. Hopkins]] }} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Virginia | district=9 | before=[[Jeremiah Morton]] | after= [[John Letcher]] | years=March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1853 }} {{s-end}} {{bioguide}}
{{Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates}} {{VirginiaRepresentatives09}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strother, James F.}} [[Category:1811 births]] [[Category:1860 deaths]] [[Category:Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates]] [[Category:Virginia lawyers]] [[Category:Saint Louis University alumni]] [[Category:Politicians from Culpeper County, Virginia]] [[Category:People from Washington, Virginia]] [[Category:Strother family|James F.]] [[Category:Whig Party United States representatives from Virginia]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly]]