James Phelps (congressman)

James Phelps ( born January 12, 1822 in Colebrook, Litchfield County, Connecticut; † 15 January, 1900 in Essex, Connecticut ) was an American politician. Between 1875 and 1883 he represented the second electoral district of the state of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

James Phelps was the son of Lancelot Phelps (1784-1866), who had been sitting 1835-1839 for the fifth district of Connecticut in Congress. The younger Phelps attended the common schools and the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, and Trinity College in Hartford. After studying law at Yale College and its made ​​in 1845 admitted to the bar he began in Essex to work in his new profession.

Phelps was a member of the Democratic Party. In the years 1853, 1854 and 1856, he was elected to the House of Representatives from Connecticut; 1858 and 1859, he was each member of the State Senate. Between 1863 and 1873 was Phelps judge at the Superior Court of Connecticut, 1873-1875, he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal ( Supreme Court of Errors ) of his state.

In 1874 he was in the second district of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC selected. There he entered on March 4, 1875 on the succession of Republican Stephen Wright Kellogg, whom he had defeated in the election. After three elections Phelps was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1883 a total of four legislative sessions. In 1882 he declined a further nomination. After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, he again worked as a lawyer. Between 1885 and 1892 he was again judge of the Superior Court He was also a delegate to some regional party conferences of the Democrats in Connecticut. He also went into the banking industry. James Phelps died on 15 January 1900 in Essex.