Lebbeus Wilfley

Lebbeus R. Wilfley
Lebbeus Wilfley, Judge of the United States Court for China
Attorney General of the Philippines
In office 1901–1906
Judge of the United States Court for China
In office 1906–1908
Preceded by	New position
Succeeded by	Rufus Thayer
Personal details
Born	(1866-03-30)March 30, 1866 Mexico, Missouri, U.S.
Died	May 26, 1926(1926-05-26) (aged 60) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma mater	Central Methodist University and Yale Law School

Lebbeus Redman Wilfley (March 30, 1866 – May 26, 1926) was an American attorney who served as Attorney General of the Philippines and as a judge of the United States Court for China.

Wilfley was born in Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, the son of James Franklin Wilfley.. He received an A.M. from Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri in 1889 and a LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1892. He entered private practice in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was joined in 1899 by his brother, Xenophon P. Wilfley. In 1901, William Howard Taft, then Governor-General of the Philippines, appointed Wilfley Attorney General of the Philippines. Wilfley served in that position from 1901 to 1906.

In 1906, the U.S. congress established a special court for the "District of China" the United States Court for China, based in the Shanghai International Settlement which had extraterritorial power to try United States Citizens in China. Wilfley was appointed the first judge of this court by President Theodore Roosevelt in July 1906. With no obligation to follow the strictures of the constitution or local law, there were many complaints by American expatriates, especially one by Lorrin Andrews, former Attorney General of the Territory of Hawaii, who charged that Wilfley had voided a will by a person leaving some of his money to the Catholic Church because of his prejudice against it.