George Moffett Harrison

Oil on canvas portrait of George Moffett Harrison by Harry M. Wegner

George Moffett Harrison (February 14, 1847 – November 22, 1923) was a Virginia lawyer and judge who served for 22 years as a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals (later named the Supreme Court of Virginia). He served briefly as the President of the Court from November 16, 1916 to March 6, 1917, before his resignation from the judiciary.^[1]

Biography

He was born at Staunton, Virginia. He received his early education from his father.^[2] When he was sixteen, the war began and he enlisted in the Confederate Army. He served in the army during the entire war and returned home in 1865. For several years, he studied at home and, in 1869, entered the University of Virginia Law School. Finishing there in the summer of 1870, he was admitted to the bar and started practicing in Staunton. In 1890, he was a charter member of The Virginia Bar Association.

In 1894, the Virginia General Assembly elected judges to the Supreme Court of Appeals to succeed the Readjuster Party court, and Judge Harrison was one of the five chosen at that time. On November 16, 1916, he was elected president of the court but resigned March 6, 1917, after having served on the court for slightly over twenty-two years. He returned to private practice in Staunton.

He was the great-great-grandfather of Edward Norton.

References

1. "Judges of the Supreme Court of Virginia". Encyclopedia of Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
2. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1907). Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life; a Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State, Volume 2. Men of Mark Publishing Company. pp. 172–173. Retrieved 6 March 2016.