William Barnett (Georgia politician)

William Barnett (March 4, 1761 – April 1832) was an American slave owner,[2] politician and soldier.

William Barnett
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's at large district
In office
October 5, 1812 – March 3, 1815
Preceded byHowell Cobb
Succeeded byRichard Henry Wilde
Personal details
Born(1761-03-04)March 4, 1761
Amherst County, Virginia Colony, British America
DiedApril 1832 (1832-05) (aged 71)
Montgomery County, Alabama, U.S.
Resting placeGilmer-Christian-Barnett Cemetery
Montgomery County, Alabama
Political partyDemocratic-Republican
Spouse(s)Mary Meriwether[1]
Children6
Parents
  • Susanna (nee Crawford) (father)
  • Nathaniel Barnett (mother)
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War
*Siege of Yorktown

Early life

William Barnett was born in Amherst County in the Virginia Colony on March 4, 1761, to Nathaniel and Susanna (née Crawford).[3] Early in his life, they moved to Columbia County, Georgia.[4] He had a brother Joel.[5]

American Revolutionary War

At the start of the American Revolution, Barnett and his brother returned to Virginia to fight under Marquis de Lafayette and were participants in the surrender of Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown.

Political career

Married 1785 to Mary Meriwether.[6]

Barnett returned to Elbert County, Georgia, after the war and settled on the Broad River. He was the county sheriff from some time and was elected to the Georgia Senate and presided as that body's president. Upon the resignation of Howell Cobb in 1812 to accept a captain's commission in the United States Army to fight in the War of 1812, Barnett was elected as Democratic-Republican to the 13th United States Congress and served from October 5, 1812, until March 3, 1815.

After his congressional service, Barnett was appointed in 1815 as a commissioner to establish the boundaries of the Creek Indian reservation.

Later life and death

He moved to Montgomery County, Alabama and died there in April 1832. He was buried in the Gilmer-Christian-Barnett Cemetery, near Mathews Station in that county.

References
  • Lampkin, Charles (1970). Descendants of John Crawford, 1643. Acme Press. OCLC 141934.

Notes
  1. Northen, William J.; Graves, John Temple (1910). Men of Mark in Georgia: A Complete and Elaborate History of the State from Its Settlement to the Present Time, Chiefly Told in Biographies and Autobiographies of the Most Eminent Men of Each Period of Georgia's Progress and Development. A. B. Caldwell. p. 83. william barnett georgia state senate.
  2. "Congress slaveowners", The Washington Post, January 19, 2022, retrieved January 24, 2022
  3. Lampkin, p. 70
  4. "Barnett, William, (1761–1832)". United States Congress. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  5. Knight, Lucian Lamar (1917). "A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians".
  6. "Ancestry". Ancestry.com.
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