{{Short description|American politician (1790–1855)}} {{for|other people called John Strode Barbour|John Strode Barbour (disambiguation)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = John Strode Barbour | image = | state1 = [[Virginia]] | state_delegate1 = Virginia | district1 = Culpeper | term_start1 = May 17, 1813 | term_end1 = December 1, 1833 | predecessor1 = [[William Champe Carter]] | alongside1 = [[Zephaniah Turner (politician)|Zephaniah Turner]], [[John Turner]] | successor1 = [[John A. Thornton]] | state_delegate2 = Virginia | district2 = Culpeper | term_start2 = December 4, 1820 | term_end2 = November 20, 1823 | predecessor2 = [[Ambrose P. Hill]] | alongside2 = [[George Ficklin]], [[Daniel Ward (politician)|Daniel Ward]] | successor2 = [[Ambrose P. Hill]] | state_delegate3 = Virginia | district3 = Culpeper | term_start3 = December 3, 1833 | term_end3 = November 30, 1834 | predecessor3 = [[John S. Pendleton]] | successor3 = [[Edmund Broadus]] | state4 = [[Virginia]] | district4 = [[Virginia's 15th congressional district|15th]] | predecessor4 = [[George Tucker (American politician)|George Tucker]] | successor4 = [[Edward Lucas (congressman)|Edward Lucas]] | term4 = March 4, 1823{{spaced ndash}} March 3, 1833 | birth_date = {{birth date|1790|8|8|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Brandy Station, Virginia]], US | death_date = {{death date and age|1855|01|12|1790|8|8|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Culpeper, Virginia]], US | resting_place = | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Jacksonian Democrat]] | spouse = Elizabeth Byrne | profession = politician, lawyer, farmer }}
'''John Strode Barbour Sr.''' (August 8, 1790 – January 12, 1855) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from [[Virginia]]. He was the father of [[John S. Barbour Jr.|John Strode Barbour Jr.]] and the first cousin of [[James Barbour]] and [[Philip P. Barbour]].
==Early and family life== Born at "Fleetwood" near [[Brandy Station, Virginia]], Barbour attended private schools as a child, then the [[College of William and Mary]], from which he graduated in 1808.<ref>Eugene M. Scheel, Culpeper: A Virginia County's History through 1920 (Culpeper, The Culpeper Historical Society 1982), p. 75</ref>
He married Elizabeth Byrne and had two sons (J.S. Barbour Jr. and Edwin Barbour) and two daughters (Sallie and Elizabeth Bryne Barbour Thompson).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I104436&tree=Herring&PHPSESSID=430676eab203645b11a99e0180abc15d|title=Loading...|website=arlisherring.com|access-date=June 29, 2020|archive-date=May 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510154809/http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I104436&tree=Herring&PHPSESSID=430676eab203645b11a99e0180abc15d|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was a slave owner.<ref>{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=January 19, 2022|url=https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-congress-slaveowners|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=January 24, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=A Guide to the Papers of the Barbour Family 1793-1941 Barbour Family, Papers of 1486|url=https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu02700.xml|access-date=January 24, 2022|website=ead.lib.virginia.edu}}</ref>
==Career==
After reading law and being admitted to the bar in 1811, Barbour commenced practice in [[Culpeper, Virginia]]. He served in the [[War of 1812]] as an [[aide-de-camp]].
==Political career== Barbour was elected and re-elected to the [[Virginia House of Delegates]], serving from 1813 to 1816 and again from 1820 to 1823.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, Virginia's General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond, Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 273, 277, 281, 303, 308, 313</ref> Barbour was elected a [[Democratic-Republican Party (United States)|Crawford Republican]] and [[Jacksonian democracy|Jacksonian]] to the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1822, serving from 1823 to 1833, when he was succeeded by fellow Whig [[John M. Patton]] of [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]]. The elder Barbour was a member of the [[Constitutional convention (political meeting)|Virginia Constitutional Convention]] in 1829 and 1830, and returned to the House of Delegates for the final time in 1833 and 1834.<ref>Leonard pp. 354, 367</ref>
He helped found Fairfax Academy in Culpeper in 1844.<ref>Scheel, p. 71</ref> Three years later his son John S. Barbour Jr. was elected to represent Culpeper County in the Virginia House of Delegates, continuing his father's tradition.<ref>Scheel p. 154</ref>
Barbour Sr. was chairman of the [[1852 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]] in 1852 and afterward resumed practicing law
==Death and legacy== Barbour died at his estate called "Fleetwood" near Culpeper, Virginia, on January 12, 1855. He was interred on the estate in the family cemetery. In 2000, Virginia erected a historical marker noting the former family mansion, Catalpa, the birthplace of his son discussed below.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=8416|title=John S. Barbour's Birthplace Historical Marker|website=www.hmdb.org|access-date=June 29, 2020}}</ref>
Barbour's family supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War. In 1863 Fleetwood Hill was part of the [[Battle of Brandy Station]] (land acquired by the Civil War Trust in 2013, and expected to be restored and interpreted). The [[Barbour family]] lost their slaves in the aftermath, but regained political prominence after Reconstruction ended. His son [[John S. Barbour Jr.]] (who had served in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1847 and had become President of the [[Orange and Alexandria Railroad]] in 1852), helped organize the demise of the [[Readjuster Party]] and establish a [[Democratic Party (USA)|Democratic]] political organization which retained power in Virginia for decades (J.S. Barbour Jr. serving in the U.S. House of Representatives 1881–1886, and in the U.S. Senate from 1889 to 1892). His namesake [[John Strode Barbour Thompson|J. S. B. Thompson]] married his daughter Eliza Byrne Barbour in 1850, worked for various railroads (including the [[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern Railway]]),<ref> {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_iRPAAAAYAAJ&dq=john+strode+barbour+thompson&pg=PA578 |title=Eminent and Representative Men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the Nineteenth Century: With a Concise Historical Sketch of Virginia |date=1893 |publisher=Brant & Fuller |language=en}}</ref> and continued to exercise political influence (helping [[Thomas S. Martin]] win election as U.S. Senator in 1893 and accused of corruption in 1911). His grandson [[John Strode Barbour (1866–1952)|John Strode Barbour]] became a prominent lawyer, newspaper editor and Culpeper's mayor (although he later moved to [[Fairfax County, Virginia]]).
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{CongBio|B000128}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Virginia | district=15 | before=[[George Tucker (American politician)|George Tucker]] | after= [[Edward Lucas (congressman)|Edward Lucas]] | years=March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1833 (obsolete district) }} {{s-end}} {{bioguide}} {{VirginiaRepresentatives15}} {{Barbour family}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbour, John S.}} [[Category:1790 births]] [[Category:1855 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Culpeper County, Virginia]] [[Category:Barbour family|John S.]] [[Category:American Presbyterians]] [[Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States representatives from Virginia]] [[Category:Jacksonian United States representatives from Virginia]] [[Category:Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates]] [[Category:Virginia lawyers]] [[Category:19th-century owners of plantations in the United States]] [[Category:College of William & Mary alumni]] [[Category:American military personnel of the War of 1812]] [[Category:United States representatives who owned slaves]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:Owners of plantations in Virginia]]