Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in., by Anne Fletcher, 1932, circa
Location: Hearing Room B
Born April 18, 1870 in Warwick County, Virginia.
Died February 3, 1930 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Appointed by Governor E. Lee Trinkle on April 16, 1925 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Joseph Luther Kelly and began his service on June 1, 1925. Elected by the General Assembly on January 21, 1926 to complete Kelly’s unexpired term. Elected in 1928 to a 12-year term beginning February 1, 1929. Service terminated by death.
Education:
Attended University of Virginia, 1889-1892; studied law, 1891-1892
Other judicial service:
Judge, King George and Stafford County Courts, 1899-1904
Judge, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, 1910-1925
Judge, Special Court of Appeals, 1924-1925
Professional career:
Private practice of law in Stafford County, Virginia, 1892-1895; 1904-1910
Commonwealth’s attorney, Stafford County, Virginia, 1895-1897
Sources:
Elizabeth Terry Long, “Richard Henry Lee Chichester (1870-1930),” Dictionary of Virginia Biography (1998), 205; first elected, Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1926 Regular Session, 71; elected in 1928, “Virginia Supreme Court Judge Dies: R.H.L. Chichester, 59, Succumbs in Fredericksburg Home After Illness,” The Washington Post (1923-1954) [Washington, D.C], February 4, 1930: 20; death, 153 Va., iv; portrait, Library of Virginia catalog.
In 1929, the Virginia State Bar Association formed a committee to acquire portraits of former justices who were not already represented in the court’s collection and approved a measure to reduce the cost of the project by asking family members of the justice to donate a portrait. Chichester’s portrait was donated by family members in 1932 in response to this request; see Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association, August 1929, 206-210; and Proceedings…August 1932, 108.