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Biographical Description

James Iredell (5 October 1751-20 October 1799) was a lawyer who resided in Edenton. A distant relation of Henry McCulloh and the brother-in-law of Samuel Johnston and John Johnston, he first served as a crown customs collector before becoming an outspoken advocate of independence. In 1777 he became the state's prosecuting attorney at the Edenton District Court of Oyer & Terminer, where he sought charges against John Lewellen and all the other members of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy on trial there. He later served as the state's attorney general and as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.