Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bledsoe, Jesse

BLEDSOE, Jesse, senator, b. in Culpepper co., Va., 6 April, 1776; d. near Nacogdoches, Texas, 30 June, 1837. When a boy he emigrated to Kentucky and then studied at the Transylvania seminary, where he became a fine scholar. He afterward studied law and practised with great success. In 1808 he became secretary of state under Gov. Chas. Scott, and in 1813 was a member of the legislature. He was elected U. S. senator from Kentucky, and served from May, 1813, till 1815. From 1817 till 1820 he was state senator. In 1820 he was a presidential elector, and in 1822 was appointed circuit judge in the Lexington district. Accordingly he settled in Lexington, where he also became professor of law in Transylvania University. Later he returned to the practice of his profession, in 1833 removed to Mississippi, and in 1835 to Texas, where he was engaged collecting historical material at the time of his death.