Silas Bent (judge)

Silas Bent (1768–1827) was a judge on the bench of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1817 to 1821. His son Charles was a fur trader and appointed as the first territorial governor of New Mexico. His sons William, George and Robert had been in business with Charles and built Bent's Fort and other outposts of trade in the American Southwest.

Silas Bent was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, on April 4, 1768, one of twelve children, to Silas Bent (1744–1818) and Mary Carter (1747–1831). Bent was a descendant of John Bent (1596–1672) a founder of Sudbury, Massachusetts. His father, also called Silas, may have been involved in the Boston Tea Party (there are differing opinions) and became a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Militia.

Bent studied law in Wheeling, West Virginia, under Philip Dodridge from the late 1780s. Upon marrying Martha Kerr, some time prior to 1800, he and his wife relocated to Charleston, West Virginia, where three of their children were born: Charles, Juliannah (also known as Julie Ann) and John. Bent spent brief periods running a store, serving as postmaster of the courthouse in Brooke County, Virginia, and sitting as a judge in the court of common pleas. He moved his family to Washington County, Ohio where he was appointed deputy surveyor in 1803 to Rufus Putnam, surveyor-general, and where their daughter Lucy was born in 1805.

In 1806 Bent became principal deputy surveyor for the new territory of Louisiana, purchased by the US from Napoleon in 1803. He settled with his family in St. Louis on September 17 of that year. Bent became the first presiding judge of the St. Louis district court of common pleas on August 20, 1807; presiding judge on the St. Louis court of common pleas on November 9, 1809; and auditor of public accounts. President James Madison appointed him on February 21, 1813 as a member of the bench of the Missouri Supreme Court, where he served until 1821 when Missouri became a state. From 1821 until the year of his death, Bent was a clerk at the St. Louis County Court.

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