American politician (1776?1846)
William Drayton
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In office
May 17, 1825 ? March 3, 1833
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Preceded by
| Joel R. Poinsett
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Succeeded by
| Henry L. Pinckney
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In office
November 24, 1806 ? June 29, 1808
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Born
| (
1776-12-30
)
December 30, 1776
St. Augustine
,
East Florida
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Died
| May 24, 1846
(1846-05-24)
(aged 69)
Philadelphia
,
Pennsylvania
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Political party
| Jacksonian
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Profession
| banker,
planter
,
politician
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Allegiance
| United States
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Branch/service
| United States Army
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Years of service
| 1812?1815
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Rank
| Colonel
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Battles/wars
| War of 1812
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William Drayton
(December 30, 1776 – May 24, 1846) was an American politician, banker, and writer who grew up in
Charleston, South Carolina
. He was the son of
William Drayton Sr.
, who served as justice of the Province of East Florida (1765?1780).
Drayton served as a United States Representative to Congress (1825?1833). Following the
Nullification Crisis
, as a unionist Drayton decided to move his family to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, in 1833 and lived there the rest of his life.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
The son of
William Drayton Sr.
and his wife, William was born in
St. Augustine
in
East Florida
(then a colony of the
Kingdom of Great Britain
), where his father served from 1765 to 1780 as the chief justice for the Province of East Florida.
[1]
[2]
In 1780 the judge lost his position due to accusations of sympathy with rebels in the
American Revolutionary War
; he returned with his family to Charleston.
[1]
He had bought property and plantations in Florida, including what became known as
Drayton Island
.
[2]
The Drayton sons were sent to England to complete their educations. Afterward, with his older brother Jacob, William studied law in Charleston.
[1]
Both became lawyers.
Marriage and family
[
edit
]
About 1804 William Drayton married Anna Gadsden (d. 1814), a cousin once removed. They had four children:
[1]
- Emma Gadsden (
c.
1804
? 1840)
- Thomas Fenwick
(1809?1891), became a Confederate Army general
- Percival
(1812?1865), became a career US Naval officer
- William Sidney (b.
c.
1814
? 1860), became a US Naval officer and shipping businessman
After Anna's death, in 1817 Drayton married Maria Heyward.
[1]
Two of their five children survived to adulthood. Maria Heyward Drayton was also close to her young stepchildren.:
[1]
- William Heyward, became a lawyer in Philadelphia.
- Henry Edward, became a doctor in Philadelphia. The two younger Drayton brothers married the sisters Harriet and Sarah Coleman, respectively.
[1]
Thomas Drayton, a
West Point
graduate, stayed in South Carolina when the family moved north and bought a
plantation
at Hilton Head. He resigned from the US Army to join Confederate forces after secession. He and his brother Percival "commanded opposing forces" in the battle of
Port Royal, South Carolina
, when Union forces captured the forts.
[1]
-
Thomas Fenwick Drayton, General CSA
-
Percival Drayton,Captain USN
-
Battle of Port Royal November 7, 1861
Career
[
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]
William Drayton served in the
War of 1812
, where he was commissioned as a colonel (a rank he used all his life). In a November 12, 1816, letter to president-elect James Monroe,
Andrew Jackson
recommended, unsuccessfully, that Drayton, a Federalist who had shown loyalty to the Madison administration and the union through his military service, be appointed Secretary of War to heal the breach between the Federalist Party, now largely moribund on the national level, and the Republicans.
[3]
Colonel Drayton was elected in 1824 to represent
South Carolina
's first district in the
U.S. Congress
, and served from 1825 to 1833 with repeated re-election.
A unionist during the
nullification
controversy, in 1833 he moved his family to
Philadelphia
.
[4]
Two years later in 1835, he was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society
.
[5]
While a unionist, Drayton continued to support slavery. In Philadelphia he wrote and published
The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Abolitionists
(1836), a
pro-slavery
tract. He briefly became the president of the defunct
Second Bank of the United States
in 1841.
Drayton died on May 24, 1846, in Philadelphia and was interred at
Laurel Hill Cemetery
.
Legacy and honors
[
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]
Bibliography
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"Drayton Family Papers"
, including correspondence from 1783?1896,
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
, accessed May 1, 2012
- ^
a
b
"Drayton Island"
. University of Florida
. Retrieved
February 13,
2007
.
- ^
Harry Ammon, "James Monroe and the Era of Good Feelings,"
The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
66, no. 4 (Oct. 1958): 387-398; p. 389.
- ^
biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website
- ^
"APS Member History"
.
search.amphilsoc.org
. Retrieved
April 8,
2021
.
- ^
Quinn, Arthur Hobson.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography
. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 129.
ISBN
0-8018-5730-9
External links
[
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]
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Military Affairs Committee
(1822?1947)
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Naval Affairs Committee
(1822?1947)
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Armed Services Committee*
(from 1947)
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*
Alternately named
National Security
in 104th and 105th Congresses.
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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