US Congressman. He was a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1849 to 1851. The son of Senator John Leeds Kerr, he attended local schools before he was an 1830 graduate of Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and began the practice of law in Easton, Maryland. After serving in the Maryland house of delegates from 1836 to 1838, he served a single term as a Whig Congressman from Maryland from 1849 to 1851. He did not run for reelection, but was appointed Chargé d'Affaires to Nicaragua by President Fillmore, from March 12, 1851 to June 1, 1853. He was nominated to the same post to Columbia but redrew from this nomination before Congress acted as the Columbian government had serious internal conflicts facing a Civil War. He resumed the practice of law in Baltimore until he was appointed one of the solicitors in the Court of Claims in Washington, DC, serving from February 8, 1864, to June 25, 1868, when the position was abolished. His last government position was as solicitor in the office of the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department, which he occupied at his death in 1878. Kerr was married Lucy Hamilton Stevens and had five sons and four daughters.
US Congressman. He was a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1849 to 1851. The son of Senator John Leeds Kerr, he attended local schools before he was an 1830 graduate of Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and began the practice of law in Easton, Maryland. After serving in the Maryland house of delegates from 1836 to 1838, he served a single term as a Whig Congressman from Maryland from 1849 to 1851. He did not run for reelection, but was appointed Chargé d'Affaires to Nicaragua by President Fillmore, from March 12, 1851 to June 1, 1853. He was nominated to the same post to Columbia but redrew from this nomination before Congress acted as the Columbian government had serious internal conflicts facing a Civil War. He resumed the practice of law in Baltimore until he was appointed one of the solicitors in the Court of Claims in Washington, DC, serving from February 8, 1864, to June 25, 1868, when the position was abolished. His last government position was as solicitor in the office of the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department, which he occupied at his death in 1878. Kerr was married Lucy Hamilton Stevens and had five sons and four daughters.
Bio by: Garver Graver
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