John Gayle (11 September 1792-21 July 1859) was the Whig Governor of Alabama from 26 November 1831 to 21 November 1835 (succeeding Samuel B. Moore and preceding Clement Comer Clay) and a member of the US House of Representatives (W-AL 1) from 4 March 1847 to 3 March 1849 (succeeding Edmund Strother Dargan and preceding William J. Alston).
Biography[]
John Gayle was born in Sumter, South Carolina in 1792, and he became a lawyer in St. Stephens, Alabama in 1818. He served as a solicitor and judge in St. Stephens and Mobile, and he enslaved several African-Americans and disregarded their marriages. Gayle served as Governor from 1831 to 1835, in the US House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849, and as a federal judge from 1849 until his death in 1859.