Lemuel Green Brandebury[a] (January 1, 1810 – March 10, 1875) was an American judge who in 1851 served as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Utah Territory.[1][2] He later became a public critic of the Mormon Church and its then practice of polygamy.[3]
Brandebury was from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and had a brother, Rev. C. B. Brandebury. He was a member of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania Bar and worked with C. B. Penrose in Philadelphia.[4][5][2]
Brandebury was appointed to the territorial court by President Millard Fillmore on March 12, 1851, after Joseph Buffington declined the position due to insufficient compensation.[6] Brandebury was the first non-Mormon territorial official to arrive, and was honored by a banquet and several dances.[7]: 22 Brigham Young described Brandebury as "an inconspicuous lawyer", and despite the initial good relations, Brandebury quickly found himself feeling unwelcome in Utah, returning to Washington with the other non-Mormon members of the territorial government as one of the "Runaway Officials of 1851" to denounce the local government in the territory.[3]
Brandebury did not return to the territory thereafter. Five years later, Young asserted in a speech that Brandebury had been doing odd legal jobs in Washington, D.C., to make a living, and would have fared better had he stayed in the territory.[2]
During the Civil War, Brandebury served in the Engineer Regiment of the West in the Union Army.[8]
He later worked for many years in the Department of the Treasury. In 1875, he died suddenly in Washington, D.C. of apoplexy, aged 65.[4]
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