page_title: Samuel Chilton
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Chilton / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Warrenton Cemetery, Warrenton, Virginia
context_page_description: Samuel Chilton was a 19th-century politician and lawyer from Virginia.
context_section_description: Born in Warrenton, Virginia, Chilton moved to Missouri with his family as a child and attended private school there. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1826, commencing practice back in Warrenton. He got involved in politics and was elected a Whig to the United States House of Representatives in 1842 when he narrowly defeated William "Extra Billy" Smith following a redistricting. Chilton served one term from 1843 to 1845, during which he advocated abolishing imprisonment for debt. Afterward, he returned to practicing law and was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention from 1850 to 1851. At the convention he proposed a key compromise on legislative apportionment.
  Chilton moved to Washington, D.C., by 1853 and became a member of American Party, or Know-Nothings. In 1859 he was appointed as a defense attorney for abolitionist John Brown after his previous defense attorneys advocated that the defendant advance a plea of insanity as his defense.
  Chilton died in Warrenton on January 7, 1867 and was interred there at Warrenton Cemetery.
caption: Chilton's grave in the family plot at Warrenton Cemetery.
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