PEARSON, John James, jurist, born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, 25 October, 1800. He was educated at a grammar-school and by a private tutor in Latin and Greek, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1822, and practised successfully in western Pennsylvania. He was elected to congress in 1834, serving one term, and in 1837 to the state senate for a term of four years. On 7 April, 1849, he was commissioned president judge of the 12th judicial district, in 1851, when the change in the state constitution made the judges elective, he was unanimously chosen president judge for ten years, and he was re-elected in 1861 and again in 1871, at the end of which term he declined a further nomination. During his judicial term he received from three different colleges in Pennsylvania the honorary degree of LB. D. In 1879 appeared two volumes of his "Decisions," which are considered equal to the reports of the supreme court as authority.