John Ferguson Ryland, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohn Ferguson Ryland
Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri
Date of Birth: 
About John Ferguson Ryland
- John Ferguson Ryland (November 2, 1797-September 10, 1873) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.Born in King and Queen County, Virginia, in 1811 his father moved to Jessamine County, Kentucky, where he died in the following year, leaving a widow and eight children.
- Ryland, the oldest of these children, spent much of childhood on Kentucky, where he "received a classical education at the Forest Hill Academy".
- He taught school for a number of years, and read law in his leisure hours.
- In 1820, he relocated to Missouri, where he entered the practice of law. In 1830 the Missouri Legislature created a new judicial circuit, the Sixth Circuit, composed of the entire western portion of the State and extending from Iowa to Arkansas.
- Ryland was appointed as its judge on January 18, 1831.
- In that capacity, Ryland presided over the criminal prosecutions arising from the events known as the Mormon War.
- Ryland held that office until 1849, when he was appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court.
- He was reelected to the supreme court in 1851, serving to the completion of his term in 1857.
- While on the Supreme Court bench he wrote a number of important opinions, particularly in criminal cases.
- He was on the court that heard the 1852 case of Emerson v.
- Scott, a predecessor to the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Ryland joined the majority opinion, which held that Dred Scott was legally an enslaved man. Following his judicial service, Ryland resumed the practice of his profession.
- During the American Civil War, Ryland "remained a steadfast Union man".
- Though a slaveholder, he believed the institution to be a detriment to the South.
- With the close of the war, he was an earnest advocate of restoring peace.
- In 1866, Ryland was elected to the Missouri State Legislature, where he served for one session, thereafter returning to the private practice of law.He had two spouses.
- The first was Martha Barrett (1797-1833) and the second was Elizabeth Garbrille Buford (1815-1878).
- Ryland died in Lafayette County, Missouri.
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