George Mortimer Bibb (October 30, 1776 – April 14, 1859) was an American lawyer and politician and the seventeenth United States Secretary of the Treasury. He was chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and twice represented Kentucky as a senator in Congress, serving from 1811 to 1814 and from 1829 to 1835.
Early life and education
Bibb was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, on October 30, 1776. He graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in 1791, and later graduated from the College of William & Mary, then studied law.
Career
Bibb was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Virginia and Lexington, Kentucky. After making a permanent move to Kentucky, Bibb was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1806, 1810, and again in 1817. He was appointed a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1808 and then chief justice through 1810.
While a wealthy man, he claimed to have faced significant financial difficulties from losses in the Panic of 1837.
Following the death of his father, the Reverend Richard Bibb Sr., George Bibb advised his brother on how to carry out his father's instructions in his will to emancipate his slaves. George Bibb did so despite his personal pro-slavery views.
In 1811, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky and served until 1814 when he again returned to Lexington to work as a lawyer. He moved to Frankfort, Kentucky in 1816 and sided with the New Court faction in the Old Court-New Court controversy in the 1820s. He was again named Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1827, serving for a year.
He was chancellor of the Louisville Chancery Court from 1835 through 1844 and in 1844 became President John Tyler's fourth U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, serving through 1845.
Death
He died in Georgetown, in 1859, and is buried in Frankfort Cemetery with a cenotaph at Congressional Cemetery.