James B. Whitfield

Whitfield was born on November 8, 1860 on his father's plantation in Wayne County, North Carolina. He was a member of the Whitfield family, a prominent planter family in the American South. In 1863, Whitfield and his father moved to their plantation in Leon County, Florida.[2]

Whitfield later moved to the nearby city of Tallahassee, Florida, where he studied law at the West Florida Seminary, later attending the University of Virginia receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1886. He was admitted into the Florida Bar later that year.[1]

In 1888, Whitfield, a bank teller at the time, became the personal secretary of Florida Governor Edward A. Perry. The following year, he was appointed Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court.[3] Whitfield, a Democrat, served in this position until June 19, 1897, when he was appointed Florida State Treasurer, succeeding Clarence B. Collins, who had resigned following his impeachment in the Florida House of Representatives for mismanaging state funds.[4][5]

Whitfield served as State Treasurer until March 1903, when he was appointed Florida Attorney General following the election of the incumbent, William Bailey Lamar, to the U.S. House of Representatives.[6][7]

Whitfield married Leila Nash on November 25, 1886. Nash died from complications following the birth of their first child, John Nash, in 1897.[11] Whitfield later married Margaret Howard Rudolph on June 12, 1901. They had five children together, Mary Croom, James Bryan Jr., Julia, Margaret, and Randolph.[12]

Whitfield died on August 20, 1948 at his home in Tallahassee, Florida. He is buried in Tallahassee's Saint Johns Episcopal Church Cemetery.[12]

In 1945, Whitfield received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Florida. The University of Florida also has a scholarship in his memory, the Judge James Bryan Whitfield Constitutional Law Scholarship.[13]

• Works by or about James B. Whitfield at Internet Archive