US Senator, CSA Congressman. Born in Blackstock, Chester District, South Carolina, his father was a Presbyterian minister. He attended Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson) in Pennsylvania from 1823 to 1825 and graduated second in his class. He taught school in South Carolina and in 1829 began to study law in Columbia. After admission to practice in the court of Common Pleas in November 1829 he established a practice in Sumter District, South Carolina. In 1831 he was admitted to practice in the Court of Chancery. As a staunch advocate of states' rights, John Hemphill edited a nullification newspaper in Sumter in 1832 until 1833. In 1836 he volunteered for service in the Seminole War, earning the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He immigrated to Texas and established a legal practice at Washington-on-the-Brazos. In early 1840 the Congress of the Republic of Texas elected him judge of the Fourth Judicial District, an election that automatically made him an associate justice of the republic Supreme Court. He was confirmed in the office in January, 1840. In March, 1840, he participated in the Council House Fight in San Antonio. In 1840 and 1841 John joined several campaigns against the Comanches, and in 1842 and 1843, during a period when the Supreme Court did not meet, he served as adjutant general of the Somervell expedition. In December, 1840, the Congress elected him chief justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held until 1858. He was elected a delegate from Washington County to the Convention of 1845, where he cast his vote in favor of statehood. Governor James Pinckney Henderson appointed him to a six-year term as chief justice, and he was confirmed in March, 1846. After the selection of Supreme Court justices was transferred to the voters, he was elected chief justice in August, 1851, and again in 1856. As Texas was one of the first seven states to secede, John Hemphill was among the fourteen United States Senators expelled by congressional resolution in 1861. He was subsequently chosen as a Texas delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress, a position he held until his death in Richmond, Virginia. He never married, he was characterized as a private and reserved yet generous individual. Hemphill County, established on August 21, 1876, was named in his honor. He was 58 years old at the time of his death.