William Henry Drayton | Founding Father

William Henry Drayton helped organize resistance to British policies in South Carolina, negotiated with Loyalist leaders, and served as the President of South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. Drayton signed the Articles of Confederation and is a Founding Father.

Overview

William Henry Drayton was a South Carolina lawyer, planter, and politician who first supported Parliament’s authority before becoming a leader of the Patriot Cause. He condemned the Intolerable Acts, served in the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, and helped organize South Carolina’s resistance to Britain. Drayton later served as Chief Justice, President of South Carolina, and a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he opposed reconciliation with Britain and defended Southern interests, including slavery. As a Signer of the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first constitution, Drayton is a Founding Father.

Personal Facts

Born: September 1742.
Parents: John Drayton (father), Charlotta Bull (mother).
Spouse: Dorothy Golightly (1764).
Died: September 3, 1779, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was 36 or 37.
Buried: Magnolia Plantation, Saint Andrews Parish, Charleston County, South Carolina.
Significance: William Henry Drayton is important to American History for his role in South Carolina, where he supported the Patriot Cause during the American Revolution. Drayton also signed the Articles of Confederation, making him a Founding Father.

Biographical Notes

1742–1762

William Henry Drayton was born in St. Andrew Parish, South Carolina, in September 1742.
Drayton came from a wealthy family and married into great wealth.
He studied in England from 1753 to 1763 but returned home before completing his degree at Oxford.

1763–1771

Voters elected Drayton to the South Carolina Assembly in 1765.
Drayton supported Parliament’s authority to pass the Stamp Act, and voters defeated him when he sought reelection.
In 1769, Drayton wrote an article in the South Carolina Gazette against the nonimportation agreement. This led many South Carolinians to reject him, and he could not sell his crops.
Drayton traveled to England and presented himself as a loyal supporter of the Crown.
Drayton published The Letters of Freeman in 1771, which was a compilation of his writings on the nonimportation agreement. This helped him gain an appointment to the South Carolina Council alongside his father.

1772–1774

The Crown repeatedly denied Drayton the positions he wanted and instead appointed Englishmen.
Drayton attempted to take 144,000 acres of Catawba land, but John Stuart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, stopped him.
In 1772 and 1773, Drayton was involved in the Thomas Powell Case, which established that the South Carolina Council could not have someone imprisoned without proper authority (see Appendix).
In August 1774, Drayton published A Letter from Freeman, which defended American rights and condemned the Intolerable Acts as tyrannical.
Drayton urged the First Continental Congress to create an independent American legislature that answered only to the King.

1775

In March 1775, Governor William Bull reacted to Drayton’s support for the Patriot Cause by suspending him from the South Carolina Council. Afterward, Drayton became a leading Patriot in Charleston, won election to the Provincial Congress in 1775, and served on important committees and on the Council of Safety.

Charleston Arms and Powder Raid

In April 1775, Drayton was appointed to the “Secret Committee of Five” that was tasked with removing weapons and gunpowder from three locations in Charleston to prevent them from falling into British hands. He personally participated in the group that successfully removed military stores from the armory at the South Carolina State House (see Charleston Arms and Powder Raid (April 21–22, 1775).

Ninety-Six (Siege of Savage’s Old Fields)

During the buildup to the Battle of Ninety-Six, Drayton served as a representative for the Patriots and negotiated with Loyalist leaders.

In July 1775, he traveled to Ninety-Six with Reverend William Tenant and Reverend Oliver Hart to host meetings to settle political disputes and gather support for the Patriot Cause, though these efforts were largely unsuccessful.
Drayton had the authority to raise a militia and arrest Loyalist leaders.
He drafted and sent a plan to Charleston to march on Thomas Fletchall and his Loyalist forces.
Upon learning of Drayton’s plan, Fletchall and the Loyalists marched toward Ninety-Six, prompting a conference where Drayton and Fletchall agreed to a truce on September 16, effectively preventing an immediate civil war in the South Carolina Backcountry.
Despite the truce, hostilities resumed, leading to the Battle of Ninety-Six (November 19–21, 1775), the first battle of the war in South Carolina.

President of the South Carolina Provincial Congress

The South Carolina Provincial Congress elected Drayton as its President.
As President, Drayton worked to build a South Carolina Navy and directed attacks on British ships in Charleston Harbor.
On November 9, 1775, Rivington’s Gazette, a Loyalist newspaper in New York City, reported that Drayton had negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee.

1776

On February 6, 1776, Drayton called on the Provincial Congress to declare independence from Britain.
South Carolina adopted a constitution the following month and named Drayton to the State Council and Assembly.
Drayton also became Chief Justice, giving him leadership roles in all three branches of government.

1778–1779

In 1778, Drayton became President of South Carolina, helped write a new state constitution, and won election to the Second Continental Congress.
In Congress, he served on more than 80 committees during the next 17 months.
He also signed the Articles of Confederation, making him one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.
Drayton worked to protect Southern interests, including slavery, and opposed reconciliation with Britain.
He started writing a history of the American Revolution but died of typhus in Philadelphia on September 3, 1779.

Perspectives

Summary of William Henry Drayton’s Life

William Henry Drayton was born in September 1742 at Drayton Hall in St. Andrew’s Parish, near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of John Drayton, a wealthy planter and member of the Provincial Council, and Charlotta Bull, daughter of Lieutenant Governor William Bull. At the age of ten, he went to England to complete his education, returning home in 1763 at the urging of his father before he finished his degree at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1764, he married Dorothy Golightly, one of the wealthiest heiresses in the colony. Their union produced four children, of whom only Mary and John, a future governor of South Carolina, survived childhood.

— William Henry Drayton, National Park Service.

Amendments to the Articles of Confederation

In January of that year [1778] Drayton also proposed numerous amendments to the recently published Articles of Confederation. Attached to his proposal was an alternative plan of confederation augmenting the power of the individual states and protecting southern interests.

Drayton’s essay on America’s first federal charter perhaps explains his election to the Continental Congress in 1778. A tireless worker, Drayton served on nearly ninety ad hoc and five standing committees during his seventeen months in Congress. As one of America’s most effective polemicists, Drayton focused on opposing British attempts at reconciliation. His last months in Congress, however, were spent in various bitter quarrels in that politically charged body. In his spare time Drayton compiled documents for a history of the Revolution, an undertaking left unfinished when he died of typhus in Philadelphia on September 3, 1779.

— from William Henry Drayton, South Carolina Encyclopedia.

Fourth of July Fireworks

Thanks in large part to the efforts of William Henry Drayton…the United States celebrates its independence from Britain with the use of fireworks. After spending much of his youth studying in England, William Henry returned to South Carolina in 1763.

A fierce supporter of America’s independence, William Henry served as a delegate and later president of the provincial South Carolina Congress. His speeches in favor of breaking from Great Britain inspired a movement and are considered to be among the best in American history. Once America declared independence, he was appointed a member of the Continental Congress.

The delegates in Philadelphia debated how Americans should observe their newly found independence. Two ideas characterized a discussion which arose in 1778.

William Henry argued persuasively for the day to be one of celebration with “certain grand fireworks,” rather than one of “fasting and mourning” as another South Carolinian, Henry Laurens, proposed. In the end, William Henry’s more popular idea won.

So, on Independence Day, 1778, Congress joined with other Philadelphians at the City Tavern for a “very elegant dinner” followed by a “brilliant exhibition of fireworks.”

— from Fireworks? Love them or hate them? Thank or blame William Henry Drayton, Drayton Hall.

AP US History

Definition

William Henry Drayton (1742–1779) — Drayton was a South Carolina lawyer and political leader who first supported Parliament’s authority before becoming a leading Patriot. He condemned the Intolerable Acts, served in the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, and helped organize South Carolina’s resistance to Britain. Drayton later served as Chief Justice, President of South Carolina, and a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he opposed reconciliation with Britain and defended Southern interests, including slavery. He signed the Articles of Confederation, securing his legacy as a Founding Father.

Alignment

William Henry Drayton is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:

Appendix

The Thomas Powell Case

AHC Note — The following is adapted from “Thomas Knox Gordon (1728–1796) Last Royal Chief Justice of South Carolina by Thomas M. Stubbs. It was originally published in the South Carolina Law Review: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 4.

As early as April 1772, William Henry Drayton had been appointed a member of the Governor’s Council, the majority of whom were the King’s placemen from Britain. A minority of the Council, or upper chamber, consisted of Provincials. Among this minority were not only Drayton but his father, John Drayton.

In August 1773, the Council refused to take action on a bill against counterfeiting paper money. This bill had previously passed the Lower House. The Draytons entered a protest in the Council Journal. On August 30, at the instance of the Draytons, a copy of this protest was printed in The South Carolina Gazette by Thomas Powell.

The majority of the Council, including Chief Justice Gordon, took exception to this publication. Thereupon, Sir Edgerton Leigh, then President of the Council, issued a warrant for the arrest of Powell, charging him with contempt of the Council. Powell was arrested and jailed in Charles Town.

A habeas corpus for his release was presented to Rawlins Lowndes and George Gabriel Powell, two of the King’s Magistrates. They ordered Powell’s release from jail on the theory that the Council, or Upper House, was merely a Privy Council, or advisory body to the Governor, and had no such authority and immunity from criticism as the House of Lords did in England.

In September, the Council denounced the decision, while the Lower House unanimously approved it and requested that the Lieutenant Governor suspend from the Council those members who had ordered that Powell be jailed. By then, the whole matter was so involved that the Lieutenant Governor washed his hands of it by referring it for action to the King and his ministers in England.

Thomas Powell then brought a damage suit against Sir Edgerton Leigh for false imprisonment. This matter came before the Chief Justice and his associates in the Common Pleas. The Court dismissed Powell’s complaint, “Declaring in express terms that the Council was an Upper House of Assembly and hence had no right to commit for contempt.” Thus, the issue was clearly drawn: Royal Placemen from Britain against Provincials.

In August 1774, William Henry Drayton, by then both a member of the Council and of the Court of Common Pleas, sent a letter to Philadelphia “To the Deputies of North America, assembled in the High Court of Congress.” This letter was merely signed, Freeman, but in it was set forth at considerable length “The American Claim of Rights.”

Among the colonists’ grievances was the arbitrary and unjudicial conduct of certain of the King’s appointees to the Bench. The following month, the Chief Justice, joined by Mr. Justice Coslett, filed a complaint with the Lieutenant Governor and Council to the effect that Mr. Drayton had “Impugned their honor and questioned their fitness as judges.” They questioned further whether Mr. Drayton himself should no longer serve as a member of the Council.

In October, Mr. Drayton replied at great length, and circuitously, as was his custom. He justified the views of the Freeman letter, but failed to admit he had written it. Indeed, throughout the controversy, which culminated in March 1775 with Drayton’s removal from the Council, he refused to admit that he had written the Freeman Letter. Still, his authorship seems to have been an “open secret,” because Henry Laurens, writing from London in October 1774, attributes the letter to Mr. Drayton. On March 1, 1775, even before his removal from Council, the Lieutenant Governor had removed Drayton from the Bench.

Drayton’s attack on the Chief Justice had pointed out what was perhaps the latter’s most questionable conduct as an official — his role in the case of Thomas Powell, the printer. Drayton accused Gordon of acting with Sir Edgerton Leigh, as a member of the Council, in forcing the arrest of Powell, and later, as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, of sitting in judgment on Powell’s action for damages against Leigh for false arrest. Indeed, the Chief Justice should have disqualified himself in this case, and, even if it were not his own cause, because of his prejudice in the matter.

By this time, however, the questions involved had degenerated from strictly legal issues to purely partisan politics. It cannot be denied that the Chief Justice could have picked no two more ardent Patriots in the American Cause than Rawlins Lowndes and William Henry Drayton. It is never safe to wound a “King,” it is said, but Justice Gordon wounded two directly, and indirectly a number of their associates, who were soon to become leaders in freeing the Colony from Great Britain.

By this time, it had become clearly foreseeable that the days of usefulness of the Chief Justice would soon terminate. He remained in the Province until sometime in 1775. In August 1775, the names of Chief Justice Gordon and his associates of the bench were ordered published by the General Committee as enemies. Events were moving rapidly by now. Sir Edgerton Leigh, with his family, left for England as early as June 1774.

Written by Randal Rust