James French Patton

Patton was born in Richmond, Virginia, on September 19, 1843, to former Congressman John M. Patton and his wife, the former Peggy French Williams of Richmond, Virginia. His great-grandfather was Gen. Hugh Mercer who fought at the Battle of Princeton in 1776. At age 14, Patton was enrolled in Andover Academy, but after Virginia seceded from the Union, he returned to his home state and became a lieutenant in the Confederate Army.

In 1869, Patton married Malinda Caperton (1842-1922), the daughter of U.S. Senator Allen T. Caperton. They had two children, Harriet Echols Patton Edwards (1870-1929) and Allen Gilmer Patton (1871-1910). A. Gilmer Patton was also a lawyer and was elected to the West Virginia legislature shortly before his death.[2]

Admitted to the Virginia bar after the war, Patton after his marriage joined a law partnership with Caperton and relocated to Union in Monroe County, West Virginia. In 1872, Patton was elected as a Democrat as prosecuting attorney of Monroe County and served four years. On June 1, 1881, Governor Jacob B. Jackson appointed Patton to a vacated seat on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia caused by the retirement of Justice Charles P.T. Moore.

Patton died suddenly of a heart condition on March 30, 1882, in Wheeling, West Virginia, at the age of 38. His brother Isaac W. Patton was a soldier, plantation owner, and the mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana. World War II general George S. Patton Jr. was the grandchild of James French Patton's brother George S. Patton.

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia

• Atkinson, Wesley George; Gibbens, Alvaro Franklin (1890). Prominent Men of West Virginia. Wheeling: W.L. Callin. p. 288-291. OCLC 3886825.

• Men of West Virginia, Vol. 1, pg. 215