Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 89.  Franklin County.

JOHN M. ELLIOTT, judge of the court of appeals, was born May 16, 1820,
in Scott county, Virginia, and died at Frankfort, Kentucky, March 26,
1879.  His ancestry were Scotch, of whom the first immigrants to this
country settled in Virginia early in the seventeenth century.  The father
of John M. Elliott, John Lloyd Elliott, was a farmer in Lawrence county,
and represented the same in the house of the Kentucky legislature in 1836
and 1837, and also served in the senate from 1851 to 1853.  He was a man
of high standing and influence in his district.  The mother of John M.
Elliott was Jane (Ritchie) Elliott, of Virginia.
     John M. Elliott was admitted to the bar in 1843, and entered on the
practice in Prestonsburg, Floyd county.  He represented Floyd county in the
lower house in Frankfort in 1847, was a representative in congress from
1853 to 1859, and in 1861 was again sent as representative from Floyd
county to the Kentucky legislature.  An indictment for treason having been
returned against him in the United States district court for Kentucky, he
was expelled from the house December 21, 1861.  Judge Elliott had joined
the southern cause and was returned by the Kentucky electors to the
congress of the Confederate states, continuing in that body, by
subsequent elections, throughout the war, on the close of which he
returned to Kentucky and resumed the practice of his profession at
Owingsville, Bath county.  In 1868 he was elected judge of the circuit
court and held that office until September, 1874.  In August, 1876, he was
elected judge of the court of appeals and was filling that office at the
time of his tragic death.
     On his way from the court-house to his hotel immediately after the
court had adjourned, at about one o'clock p. m., March 26, 1879, Judge
Elliott was intercepted on the steps of the Capital hotel, and, without
any warning whatever, was shot and instantly killed by Thomas Buford, a
disappointed litigant, who, as administrator for his sister, was
appellant in the cases of Buford et al. versus Guthrie, and Buford et al.
versus Guthrie et al., reported in 14 Bush, 677-690.
     The news of the death of Judge Elliott created a profound sensation
in the state and throughout the civilized world.  It is believed that
history records but one similar occurrence, which was the killing of
Sir George Lockhart, president of the court of sessions, in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1689.  The following resolution, adopted at a meeting of
the bar by representative members, was spread upon the order book of the
court of appeals:
     "Resolved, That the members of the bar and officers of this court,
profoundly impressed by the death of John Milton Elliott, late an
associate justice of the court of appeals, who was killed while in the
discharge of his official duty, and on account thereof, by a disappointed
litigant, express the high consideration they entertain of the integrity,
dignity, impartiality, love of justice and strong common sense which
marked his character as a judge and as a man."*
     Judge Elliott was a man of excellent traits of character, brave and
manly, sincere and outspoken, gentle in manner, yet firm in the discharge
of his duty.  He gained a high place in his profession by hard work and by
evidencing his ability to fill the positions with which the people
entrusted him.  In 1848 he was married to Miss Susan J. Smith, the daughter
of William M. Smith, of Prestonsburg.

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*NOTE:  Thomas Buford was indicted for the murder of Judge John M. Elliott
in the Franklin criminal court, April 28, 1879, and on the application of
the defendant the venue was changed to the Owen circuit court.  After a
protracted trial in the Owen criminal court, on the defendant's plea that
he was not of sound mind at the time he killed Judge Elliott, the jury
returned the following verdict July 23, 1879 to-wit: "We, the jury, find
the prisoner, Thomas Buford, guilty, as charged in the indictment, and
affix his punishment at imprisonment for and during his natural life in
the Kentucky state penitentiary."

                            ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Elliott Ritchie Buford Guthrie Lockhart Smith
=
Lawrence-KY Floyd-KY Bath-KY Scott-VA Scotland

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/elliott.jm.txt