John Palin born in Pasquotank Precinct, North Carolina in about 1685. Trained as an attorney, he served as the assistant to the chief justice of the North Carolina General Court in 1716 before becoming an associate justice of his own right in 1719. By 1724 he was serving as the colony's solicitor general and served on the North Carolina Council from 1725 to 1728 and again in 1730. He later served as the colony's chief justice from July 1731 to October 1732 before he died in Pasquotank in 1737.