Henry Collins Flagg

Henry Collins Flagg (January 5, 1792 - March 8, 1863) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, and politician. Flagg was born in the parish of St. Thomas, near Charleston, South Carolina, January 5, 1792. His father, whose exact name he bore, was a native of Rhode Island, who served through the American Revolutionary War. Some of his early studies were pursued in Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated from Yale College in 1811. After leaving college he returned to South Carolina, and remained there for some years. He returned to New Haven, Connecticut and studied law with S.P. Staples, Esq., and began to engage in the practice of law. He took an active part in the political movements opposed to the Federalist Party in Connecticut, both as a public speaker and as an editor of the Connecticut Herald, which he had purchased. He was Clerk of the New Haven County Court. About 1824, he returned to South Carolina, where he practiced law till 1833. Flagg's attachment to his native State was strong, but his devotion to the Union was stronger, and like his friend, James L. Petigru, with whom, side by side, he withstood the nullifiers in 1832, he was true to the last. Designing to educate his children at the North, he then again took up his residence in New Haven, where his home continued till his death. He practiced law until 1842 when he retired. From 1834-39 he was Mayor of New Haven. He married Martha Whiting on March 20, 1811. She and six of the couple's seven children survived him upon his death at age 71, March 8, 1863.This article incorporates public domain material from the Yale Obituary Record.