Joseph B. Lancaster

Joseph B. Lancaster
1st Mayor of Tampa
In office 1856 – 1856 (Died in office)
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Darwin Austen Branch
Florida Supreme Court
In office 1848–1850
4th Mayor of Jacksonville
In office 1846–1847
Preceded by	Unknown
Succeeded by	Oliver Wood
Personal details
Born	1790 Kentucky
Died	November 25, 1856 Tampa, Florida
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	Annie Blair
Profession	Politician
Religion	Presbyterian

Joseph Bradford Lancaster (1790 – November 25, 1856) was an American lawyer and a Whig politician who served on the Florida Supreme Court from 1848 to 1850. An important figure in Florida law and politics, he was the last justice under the system in which the circuit court judges served also on the supreme court. Lancaster served as Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida from 1846–1847, and later served as the first Mayor of Tampa, Florida in 1856.

Lancaster was born in Kentucky in 1790, the son of John and Catherine Miles Lancaster. He married Annie Blair, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, in 1815. He read law, was admitted to the Kentucky bar, and opened a practice in Bardstown and Lebanon. He moved to Florida at the behest of former Bardstown resident Florida Governor William Pope DuVal. DuVal appointed him assistant secretary to the East Florida land commission. Lancaster opened a legal practice in St. Augustine.

He gained admission to the bar of the Florida Territorial Court of appeals and appointment to the Florida Territorial Legislative Council in 1825. He entered the lists politically when he defended Judge Joseph L. Smith against charges of abuse of power. The following year he was appointed justice of the peace of St. Johns County, Florida. He became judge of the Alachua County court in 1827 and conducted county's 1830 federal census. In 1831 the president appointed him the Port of St. Johns at Jacksonville's first collector. He was elected chief clerk of the territorial council in 1833 and for six successive years.

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