John Coburn (1762-1823), Kentucky judge
John Coburn (August 28, 1762 - February 10, 1823) was a Kentucky Pioneer, Circuit Court Judge, and Territory Judge. Early life John Coburn was born August 28, 1762, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a young man, he received a collegiate education, read law under Luther Martin, Attorney General of Maryland, and was admitted to the bar. Martin took special interest in young Coburn, and under Martin's advice, Coburn moved from Philadelphia to Lexington, Kentucky in 1784. Career Upon his arrival in Lexington, Kentucky, he found success in mercantile trading, and as his local influence grew, he was elected town trustee. At this time, Kentucky was a Virginia county, and in August 1785, Coburn was appointed to the Danville committee to begin the process of admitting Kentucky as a state to the union. Statehood was granted on June 1, 1792. In 1786 he married Mary Moss, daughter of a prosperous Virginia planter, who migrated with her family over the Appalachians to Kentucky after the Revolutionary War. Her mother, twice widowed, had married Joseph Royall Farrar of Bryan Station several years after the infamous siege on the fort by the Wyandot, Shawnee, and Lenape warriors led by the British Captain William Caldwell and