Judge William S. Bishop ("Judge Priest")
Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Old Judge Priest. Here for six years presided William Sutton Bishop, the famed Judge Priest of Irvin S. Cobb's stories. Judge Bishop, 1839-1902, was First District Circuit Court Judge from 1891 to 1897. Served in 7th Ky. Conf. Inf. "This was a man," Paducah Bar Assn. Presented by Southern Bell Telephone Company.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
For six years in the 1890s, Judge William Sutton Bishop presided over this district's circuit court—and unknowingly earned a kind of literary immortality. His friend, the writer Irvin S. Cobb, transformed him into the beloved fictional "Judge Priest," hero of a popular series of stories and films. A Confederate veteran of the 7th Kentucky Infantry, Bishop was remembered by the local bar with the epitaph "This was a man."
Why it matters
The blurring of a real Kentucky judge into a national fictional character shows how regional life fed the storytelling that shaped America's image of itself.
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Related people
- · William Sutton Bishop
- · Irvin S. Cobb
Themes & tags
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