William L. Sharkey (
July 12,
1798 -
April 29,
1873) was a
Mississippi judge and politican. He was born in
Sumner County, Tennessee where he and his family lived until they moved to
Warren County, Mississippi when he was six years of age. In
1822, he was accepted into the bar at
Natchez. Three years later he moved to
Vicksburg and after a few years was elected for a single term to the
state house of representatives[?] (
1828-
1829). He served briefly in
1832 as a circuit court judge before being elected a justice to the state supreme court later that year where he remained for 18 years until his resignation. Sharkey declined an appointment to be
Secretary of War by President
Millard Fillmore in
1851. He was a member of the
Whig Party and was strongly opposed to the secession of Mississippi in
1861. Throughout the
War Between the States he remained a staunch
Unionist[?] and, according to one source, was "tolerated by his Confederate neighbors only because of his towering reputation as a jurist." Governor
Charles Clark[?] appointed him in
1865 as a commissioner (along with William Yeager) to confer on behalf of the state with U.S. President
Andrew Johnson. In that year, Johnson appointed Sharkey to be provisional governor, leaving office with the election of
Benjamin G. Humphreys in October. He was elected
Senator in 1865 but was denied to be seated by
Congress. Sharkey died in Washington, D.C. in
1873.
Sharkey County, Mississippi is named after him.
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