{{Short description|American judge and politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert Stanard | image = Speaker Robert Stanard.png | office = Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court | term_start = January 19, 1839 | term_end = May 14, 1846 | predecessor = William Brockenbrough | successor = William Daniel | office2 = Member of the Virginia House of Delegates<br>from Richmond City | term_start2 = 1835 | term_end2 = 1837 | predecessor2 = Chapman Johnson | successor2 = ''unknown'' | office3 = 16th Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates | term_start3 = 1816 | term_end3 = 1817 | predecessor3 = Andrew Stevenson | successor3 = Linn Banks | office4 = Member of the Virginia House of Delegates<br>from Spotsylvania County | term_start4 = 1808 | term_end4 = 1817 | predecessor4 = Hugh T. Mercer | successor4 = Garrett Minor | alongside4 = Stapleton Crutchfield, John Quarles, Carter L. Stevenson, John Mercer | birth_date = {{birth date|1781|8|17|mf=y}} | birth_place = Spotsylvania County, Virginia, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1846|05|14|1781|8|17}} | death_place = Richmond, Virginia, U.S. | party = Whig (from 1835) | other_party = Independent (1813-1835)<br>Democratic-Republican (1808-1813) | spouse = {{marriage|Jane Stith Craig Stanard|1812|1824|end=d}} | children = 4 | alma_mater = College of William and Mary | occupation = Lawyer, judge, politician }}
'''Robert Stanard''' (August 17, 1781 – May 14, 1846) was a Virginia lawyer, judge and political figure. He was the 16th Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and later a judge on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
==Early and family life== The son of William Stanard and Elizabeth Carter, Robert Stanard was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, on August 17, 1781. In 1798, he attended the College of William and Mary,<ref>{{cite book | title = The History of the College of William and Mary | year = 1874 | publisher = J.W. Randolph & English | isbn = 978-1-02-235499-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=apcaAAAAYAAJ&q=robert%20stanard%20college&pg=PA78 | accessdate = Nov 21, 2009}}</ref> where he studied law.
==Career== Admitted to the Virginia bar, Stanard began the private practice of law in Spotsylvania County and nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia through the War of 1812. Eventually he became a notable figure in the Richmond legal community.<ref name = "Tyler">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography; Volume 2|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|isbn=1177835193|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediavir02unkngoog/page/n99 65]|edition=Lyon Gardiner Tyler|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediavir02unkngoog|quote=Robert Stanard.}}</ref>
He was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates as one of the representatives (part-time) from Spotsylvania County, and was repeatedly re-elected.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leopnard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Virginia State Library 1978) pp.</ref> From 1816 to 1817, fellow delegates elected him as the 16th Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
In 1817, he became the United States Attorney for the District of Virginia.
Stanard was later selected as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, which revised the Constitution of Virginia. His contribution to the convention were well received and increased his prominence. In 1839, he was elected to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, upon the death of Judge William Brockenbrough. He remained on that court until his death in 1846.<ref name = "Tyler"/>
==Personal life== Stanard married Jane Stith Craig on February 13, 1812, and fathered four children; Robert Craig (b. May 17, 1814), William Beverly (b. March 15, 1819), Mary Elizabeth (b. 1822) and Jane Stith (b. 1822). His son, Robert Craig Stanard, was a childhood friend of poet Edgar Allan Poe, and Jane Stith Craig was the subject of Poe's poem "To Helen". She died on April 28, 1824, at the age of 33 or 34, and Stanard never remarried. She is known posthumously as "Poe's Helen".
==Death and legacy==
The town of Stanardsville, Virginia, is named after him.
==References== * {{cite web |author1=Virginia House of Delegates Clerk's Office |title=Robert Stanard |url=https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/1064 |website=House History |publisher=Virginia House of Delegates Clerk's Office |access-date=4 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204092403/https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/1064 |archive-date=4 December 2020}} * [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/stafseth-standifer.html#457.28.34 The Political Graveyard] <references/>
==External links== * [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54278180/jane-stith-stanard Jane Stith Craig Stanard] at Find a Grave {{Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanard, Robert}} Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia Category:United States attorneys for the District of Virginia Category:Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates Category:1781 births Category:1846 deaths Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century Virginia state court judges Category:People from Spotsylvania County, Virginia Category:College of William & Mary alumni Category:19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly