William H. Wharton

William Harris Wharton (April 27, 1802 – March 14, 1839) was an early colonist, political leader, diplomat, senator and orator in Texas.

Wharton was born in Virginia and was raised by an uncle following the deaths of his parents. He graduated from the University of Nashville and was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1826. Wharton moved to Texas, and on December 5, 1827, married Sarah Ann Groce, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. Their only child was a son, John A. Wharton (1828–1865), who served in the American Civil War as a Confederate major general. They established a farm known as "Eagle Island Plantation."

Wharton served as a delegate to the Convention of 1832 from the District of Victoria. The convention had unanimously elected William Wharton to deliver the resolutions to the Coahuila y Tejas legislature in Saltillo and to the Mexican Congress in Mexico City. Following that convention's unsuccessful attempts to form a new state separate from Coahuila y Tejas (then a part of Mexico), he served as president of the follow-up Convention of 1833 and openly advocated complete independence from Mexico, in contrast to the moderate view held by native Texans and Stephen F. Austin. He later served as a delegate from the Columbia district to the Texas Consultation of 1835.

Wharton entered military service during the Texas Revolution, serving as a colonel and judge advocate general. He participated in the siege of San Antonio de Bexar. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed as one of three commissioners to the United States to secure aid for the Texians.

After the revolution resulted in the formation of the Republic of Texas in 1836, Wharton supported Austin's unsuccessful candidacy for president, losing to Sam Houston. Wharton served as a member of the new republic's Senate from the District of Brazoria in 1836.

In November, President Houston appointed Wharton as minister to the United States, hoping to secure political recognition and possible annexation. Returning to Texas in 1837 by sea, Wharton was captured by a Mexican ship and carried to Matamoros, where he was imprisoned. He escaped (allegedly by wearing a nun's habit) and returned to Texas to be re-elected to the Texas Senate in 1838.

He introduced the Texas "Lone Star" flag to Congress on December 28, and may have designed it.

Wharton accidentally shot and killed himself while dismounting from his horse near Hempstead in Waller County, Texas, on March 14, 1839. He was buried at Restwood Memorial Park in Clute, Texas.

Both Wharton County, Texas, and its county seat, Wharton, were named for him and his brother John Austin Wharton (1806-1838), a fellow statesman of the Republic of Texas.