Justice Joseph Bradford Lancaster

Justice Joseph Lancaster

Former Justice Joseph Lancaster was the fifth Justice on the Supreme Court and served from 1848-1853. He was persuaded by friend and fellow attorney, Kentuckian William Pope DuVal, to come with him to Florida in 1822.  U.S. President James Monroe had appointed DuVal governor of the newly formed Territory of Florida. 

Lancaster received a series of advantageous appointments that brought him to the forefront of Florida politics. 

In 1839, he was elected to the Territorial Council and was reelected until Florida became a state in 1845. 

In 1846, voters in Jacksonville elected him their mayor, and in 1847 sent him to the state legislature as a member of the Whig party.

Lancaster served as Speaker of the House, and later was appointed Circuit Judge for Florida’s Southern District. At that time the circuit judges met twice each year to sit as the Justices of the Supreme Court. He continued in office until unseated in a judicial election in 1853.  He served as Justice from 1847 to 1953.

Lancaster moved to Tampa, where he was elected mayor in 1856, but died before he could take office.