Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas, 1841-1846
Judge R.E.B. Baylor, for whom Baylor University is named, was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky on May 10, 1793. He received his early education there and studied law under his uncle, Jesse Bledsoe, a Kentucky congressman. Baylor fought in the War of 1812. He was elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1810 and again in 1819. Around 1820, Baylor relocated to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1824 and to the United States Congress in 1828. After losing reelection, he resumed private law practice.
In 1839, Baylor experienced a religious conversion and became an ordained Baptist minister. That year he also relocated to Texas, settling in Gay Hill in Washington County. In Texas he played an influential role in shaping the state's religious, educational, and judicial future. He helped organize numerous Baptist organizations and was instrumental in founding Baylor University in Independence, served on its board of regents, and taught a course in constitutional law there for many years.
In 1841, Baylor was elected by the Congress of the Republic of Texas as judge of the Third Judicial District, which automatically made him an associate justice of the supreme court. Baylor served as a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention in 1845, and participated in drafting the state's constitution. Among his contributions were the establishment of a public school system, homestead exemptions, and annual public elections. He also supported barring members of the clergy from election to the legislature and opposed gubernatorial veto power. When Texas became a state, Gov. Henderson appointed Baylor judge of the Third Judicial District, and he ultimately served some twenty-three years on the bench before his death.
As earnest in his desire to save souls as he was in judicial concerns, Baylor frequently preached at night throughout his years as a judge. Never married, he died at his home in Gay Hill, Washington County, on December 30, 1873.
The first opinion Baylor wrote and delivered was in the case of John Morton v. Gordon and Alley, Administrators.
Morton v. Gordon, Dallam 396 (Tex. Jan. 1841) (invalidating statute restricting, based on amount in controversy, the right of the parties to appeal. The court reversed the district court's judgment denying defendant set-off amount in intestate claim for debt recovery).
Burkhalter, Frank E. Judge R. E. B. Baylor: Founder of Baylor University Laid Many Foundations in Texas,
8 Texas Bar Journal 122, 153. Ericson, Joe E.
Judges of the Republic of Texas 36 .Lynch.
The Bench and Bar of Texas 76. Summerlin, Travis L., Baylor, Robert Emmett Bledsoe,
Handbook of Texas Online (last modified June 6, 2001).
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbaav.html