BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
History & Genealogy of a Bluegrass Region
Judge Robert Trimble
Daniel Duncan, the father of the above-named Henry T. Duncan, and Justice Trimble married two Timberlake sisters, Mary and Nancy, daughters of Richard and Mary Timberlake of Hanover County, Virginia. Their brother, Henry, of Paris, 1777-1848, came to Kentucky in 1786, settling on Paddy's Run, then in Bourbon, now in Harrison County. From their marriage in 1804 at Paris, Robert and Nancy Timberlake Trimble, 1782-i86o, had five daughters, Caroline (Mrs. Jefferson Scott),: Nannie who married B. Shackelford, Dr. Flint, and J. G. Scott, of St. Louis; Eliza (Mrs. Thomas Arnold of Vicksburg); Mary Jane (Mrs. James C. Ford); and Rebecca, who married Senator Garrett Davis. After his death John Marshall wrote to Henry Clay, I need not say how deeply I regret the loss of judge Trimble. He was distinguished for sound sense, uprightness of intention, and legal knowledge. His superior can not be found. I wish that we may find his equal." In Hampton Lawrence Carson's The Supreme Court he says, "No justice, who occupied the position such a short time, showed the result of his labor in such conspicuous form." A handsome monument marks his resting place in the Paris Cemetery. At the date when Robert Trimble's parents, William and Mary McMillan Trimble, came to Kentucky in 1779, expectant mothers were not welcome in the parties of emigrants traveling together through the wilderness for safety. Probably fright from the attack by Indians who killed a slave bov precipitated Mrs. Trimble's confinement, for the party had to pause by the way long enough to usher a little daughter into the world. After the accouchement was accomplished on a bed of evergreen branches covered with doeskin, in a shelter made of tree branches hung with buffalo hides, Mrs. Trimble rose the next morning, thanked the gentlemen for their provision for her comfort and resumed the journey by horseback, so as not to endanger their lives by further delay. Joining her parents and brothers at Boonesboro, she and her family lived in the fort until it became safe to move to their land on Howard's Creek in Clark County. Fortunate in having his grandfather, James McMillan, an Edinburgh-trained Virginia schoolmaster, to tutor him until he was seventeen, Robert Trimble and his brothers were required, like their uncles, to read their Testaments daily in the original Greek. Surveying and law were part of their curriculum. He and two brothers later became able judges. After short sessions at Cane Ridge and Pisgah, Robert Trimble taught school before practicing law. In 1808 he was one of the founders of the first public library at Paris. That year be became a judge of the Court of Appeals, state district attorney in 1813, and was judge of the Kentucky District federal court from 1816 to 1826. Trimble County was named in his honor. Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago. Reprinted by Southern Historical Press. p. 149. Bourbon County. ROBERT TRIMBLE, judge of the court of appeals and of the United States district court of Kentucky and United States supreme court, was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, and when three years old was brought by his parents to Kentucky. He received but the imperfect rudiments of an education. He, however, improved himself by teaching for a few years and reading carefully the scanty libraries afforded by his neighborhood. He began the study of law under the direction of George Nicholas, later continued his reading under James Brown, and in 1803 was licensed by the court of appeals to practice his profession. He commenced his career in Paris, and the same year was elected a member of the legislature from Bourbon county; but, politics not being congenial to his disposition or taste, he ever afterward refused to be a candidate for office. He devoted himself exclusively to his profession, and rapidly rose to the first class of jurists. In 1808 he was commissioned second judge of the court of appeals. He retained that office only a short time, but long enough to greatly distinguish himself in it by his rectitude, learning and ability. He was appointed chief justice of Kentucky in 1810, but in consequence of his limited circumstances declined the first judicial station of the commonwealth. After retiring from the bench he resumed with great assiduity the practice of his profession, and in 1813 was appointed Unites States district attorney for the state, and in 1817 he was appointed by President Madison judge of the United States district court for Kentucky. He filled this office until 1826, when he was promoted by John Quincy Adams to the supreme court of the United States. He died August 25, 1828, in his fifty-second year and in the full vigor of his powers. He was not only one of the first lawyers of the state but also one of the most able men of the nation. The eminent jurist, Judge Story, said of him: "Men might differ with respect to the rank of other lawyers, but all admitted that none was superior to Robert Trimble in talent, in learning, in acuteness, in sagacity." His private life was marked by the same admirable traits that distinguished his public career, his simple habits and noble nature shedding a luster on his entire life. His brother, John Trimble, was a lawyer of ability and judge of the "new" court of appeals of Kentucky. Sources
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