Philip Clayton Pendleton (November 24, 1779 – April 3, 1863) was a Virginia attorney, planter, politician and jurist. He briefly served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. He previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates and as a Virginia state judge.
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Education and career
Born on November 24, 1779, in Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia), Pendleton attended Dickinson College and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), then read law c. 1800. Pendleton was admitted to the Virginia bar around 1800, and had a private practice in what became the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia at various times when he was not a judge. He also farmed using enslaved labor. In the 1820 United States census, he owned 3 slaves, which number grew to 23 slaves in the 1840 United States census. In the 1860 United States census, Pendleton owned 16 slaves in Berkeley County, Virginia. His firstborn son, also Philip C. Pendleton (1814–1899) farmed across the Potomac River in Oakland, Allegheny County, Maryland before the Civil War with the assistance of 13 enslaved people, then possibly served as a Union major and paymaster during the war.