Occupation Lawyer, politician Resting place Greenwood Cemetery Political party Whig Party | Role American Politician Name William Sharkey | |
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Born July 12, 1798 Sumner County, Tennessee, USA Died March 30, 1873, Washington, D.C., United States | ||
William Lewis Sharkey (July 12, 1798 – March 30, 1873) was an American judge of Scotch Irish extraction and politician from Mississippi.
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Early life
William Lewis Sharkey was born on July 12, 1798 in Sumner County, Tennessee. He moved to Warren County, Mississippi in 1804 with his family, when he was six years of age. In 1822, he was accepted into the bar in Natchez, Mississippi.
Career
In 1825, he moved to Vicksburg and after a few years was elected for a single term to the state House of Representatives (1828–1829). He served briefly in 1832 as a circuit court judge before being elected a justice to the state supreme court later that year where he remained for 18 years until his resignation. Sharkey was appointed to the office of Secretary of War by U.S. President Millard Fillmore in 1851, but declined.
He was a member of the Whig Party and was strongly opposed to the secession of Mississippi in 1861. Throughout the American Civil War, he remained a staunch Unionist and, according to one source, was "tolerated by his Confederate neighbors only because of his towering reputation as a jurist."
Governor Charles Clark appointed him in 1865 as a commissioner (along with William Yeager) to confer on behalf of the state with President Andrew Johnson. On June 13, 1865, Johnson appointed Sharkey to be provisional governor, leaving office with the election of Benjamin G. Humphreys in October. He was elected Senator in 1865 but was denied his seat by the United States Congress.
Death
He died in Washington, D.C. in 1873. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.
Legacy
Sharkey County, Mississippi is named after him.