Joshua Child

Joshua Child ( – March 1, 1834) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1825 to 1831.

Child was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Child was "well educated in the various schools of science before entering upon the study of law". He moved to Mississippi around the time of the organization of the state in 1817. He practiced law in Natchez, Mississippi, quickly gaining an excellent reputation, until his appointment to the state supreme court in 1825.

His opinions from the bench "were delivered in a lucid, terse, and forcible manner, free from all prolixity or effort at display, and resting upon the authority of the court rather than upon an array of reported decisions". he engaged in a duel with General John B. Joor, "in which both parties were severely wounded". Ultimately, he "fell into habits of dissipation and resigned".

Child never married, and "strongly manifested the peculiarities usually belonging to those who grow old in celibacy".