Quick Facts
Biography
- For other men with the same name, see: William Drayton (disambiguation).
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. He lived there the rest of his life. He was appointed as president of the Second Bank of the United States.
Early life and education
The son of William Drayton, Sr. and his wife, William was born in St. Augustine, Florida, where his father served from 1765 to 1780 as the chief justice for the Province of East Florida. 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. He had bought property and plantations in Florida, including what became called Drayton Island.
The Drayton sons were sent to England to complete their educations. Afterward, with his older brother Jacob, William studied law in Charleston. Both became lawyers.
Marriage and family
About 1804 William Drayton married Anna Gadsden (d. 1814), a cousin once removed. They had four children:
- 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. Two of their five children survived to adulthood. Maria Heyward Drayton was also close to her young stepchildren.:
- 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.
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.
Career
William Drayton served in the War of 1812, where he was commissioned as a colonel (a rank he used all his life). 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.
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. Drayton was appointed as president of the Second Bank of the United States.
Legacy and honors
- His papers are held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
- The author Edgar Allan Poe dedicated his collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) to him.