William Drayton | |
|---|---|
 Portrait bySamuel Morse, 1818 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's1st district | |
| In office May 17, 1825 – March 3, 1833 | |
| Preceded by | Joel R. Poinsett |
| Succeeded by | Henry L. Pinckney |
| Member of theSouth Carolina House of Representatives fromSt. Philip's and St. Michael's Parish | |
| In office November 24, 1806 – June 29, 1808 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1776-12-30)December 30, 1776 |
| Died | May 24, 1846(1846-05-24) (aged 69) |
| Political party | Jacksonian |
| Profession | banker,planter,politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1812–1815 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars | War of 1812 |
William Drayton (December 30, 1776 – May 24, 1846) was an American politician, banker, and writer who grew up inCharleston, South Carolina. He was the son ofWilliam 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 theNullification Crisis, as a unionist Drayton decided to move his family toPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1833 and lived there the rest of his life.
The son ofWilliam Drayton Sr. and his wife, William was born inSt. Augustine inEast Florida (then a colony of theKingdom 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 theAmerican Revolutionary War; he returned with his family to Charleston.[1] He had bought property and plantations in Florida, including what became known asDrayton 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.
About 1804 William Drayton married Anna Gadsden (d. 1814), a cousin once removed. They had four children:[1]
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]
Thomas Drayton, aWest Point graduate, stayed in South Carolina when the family moved north and bought aplantation 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 ofPort Royal, South Carolina, when Union forces captured the forts.[1]
William Drayton served in theWar 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 representSouth Carolina's first district in theU.S. Congress, and served from 1825 to 1833 with repeated re-election.
A unionist during thenullification controversy, in 1833 he moved his family toPhiladelphia.[4] Two years later in 1835, he was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[5] While a unionist, Drayton continued to support slavery. In Philadelphia he wrote and publishedThe South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Abolitionists (1836), apro-slavery tract. He briefly became the president of the defunctSecond Bank of the United States in 1841.
Drayton died on May 24, 1846, in Philadelphia and was interred atLaurel Hill Cemetery.[6]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's 1st congressional district 1825–1833 | Succeeded by |
Chairs of theUnited States House Committee on Armed Services | ||
|---|---|---|
| Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947) |  | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee* (from 1947) | ||
*Alternately namedNational Security in 104th and 105th Congresses. | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
