Photo from the Southern Historical Collection - University of North Carolina
Photo from the Southern Historical Collection - University
of North Carolina
Benjamin Cudworth Yancey
Jr.
(1817-1891)
History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography by Thomas Owens, 1921. Page 1819
YANCEY, BENJAMIN CUDWORTH, lawyer, U. S. minister to the Argentine republic, was
born April 27, 1817, at Charleston, S. C., and died October 24, 1891, at Rome,
Ga.; son of Benjamin Cudworth and Caroline (Bird) Yancey, of Charleston, S. C.,
the former who served as midshipman on board the Constellation, under Commodore
Truxton, and was present and bore a part in the engagement in 1789, between her
and the French frigates, L'Insurgente and La Vengeance, in which the former was
captured and the latter escaped in the night after having struck her colors, who
resigned after peace with France, studied law in Baltimore, Md., and in Laurens
District, S. C., practiced law in Abbeville, was a member of the South Carolina
legislature in 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and was aide to Gov. Alston with the
rank of colonel; grandson of James Yancey, who fought for independence with the
Virginia forces, going to South Carolina with Gen. Greene, and after the
Revolution married Miss Cudworth of Charleston, a descendant of the
Massachusetts family of Cudworths, and of William and Catherine (Dalton) Bird;
great-grandson of Lewis Davis Yancey, who settled a landed estate in Culpeper
County, Va., about the middle of the seventeenth century, and who was a son of
one of the pioneers, four brothers, Charles, William, Joel and Robert Yancey,
who came from Wales to Virginia in 1642. He was a relative of "Charles of
Buckingham;" one of the Virginia Yanceys, who owned a large landed estate and
was for thirty years in public life; of Maj.Gen. Robert Emmett Rhodes of the C.
S. Army; and of Bartlett Yancey, a North Carolina congressman and a man of
public affairs.
Mr. Yancey attended Mt. Zion Academy, Hancock County, Ga., and the Academy schools at Troy, N. Y. He was graduated with honor from the University of Georgia; A. B., 1836, and from the Yale law school, B. L., 1837. Moving to Alabama, he was appointed master in chancery, 1838, by Chancellor Crinshaw, for the counties of Dallas, Perry, Greene, Marengo, Sumter, Wilcox and Lowndes. In 1840, with his brother, William Lowndes Yancey (q. v.), he was co-editor of the Wetumpka "Gazette." Forced by illness to leave Alabama, he settled at Hamburg, S. C., ** practiced law from 1841 to 1861, and was for several terms a member of the legislature of that state. In 1861, declining the nomination. to congress, he moved to his plantation on the Coosa River, Cherokee County, and in 1866, was elected to the State senate, over which body he was shortly after-ward chosen to preside.
He became minister resident to the Argentine Confederation by appointment of President Buchanan, 1858, and because of a proclamation issued by the president of the Argentine Confederation for the decree of death against all captains of foreign vessels, who should take their ships into the port of Buenos Ayres, and then land at any part of the general government, Mr. Yancey, as U. S. minister, filed a vigorous protest and called upon the naval force of the United States to resist the decree. Other powers concurred in his protest, and the decree was not enforced. Subsequently, Mr. Yancey was selected by the contending states as arbiter of their differences, and shortly after he had left the country, President Urquiza's message to congress contained this compliment, "All Argentine owe the young American minister a debt of gratitude which they cannot repay."
Returning to the United States, December, 1859, Mr. Yancey declined a tender from the president, through Secretary Cass, of the appointment as minister resident to the court of St. James. . He entered the C. S. Army in 1861, as captain of the Fulton Dragoons, and was shortly afterward appointed major of Cobbs Legion. He participated in the Virginia campaign, but was subsequently transferred, as colonel, to Georgia in command of state troops. He served as trustee of the University of Georgia, 1860-1886; was president of the Georgia State Agricultural :Society, 1867-1871; represented Clark County in the Georgia legislature for one term and declined reelection; and moved to his country home in Floyd County, Ga., where he spent the last few years of his life in superintending his planting interests.
Married: (1) at Sparta, Ga., to Laura Hines, who died soon afterward; (2) in November, 1847, at Athens, Ga., to Sarah Paris Hamilton, daughter of Col.. Thomas Napier Hamilton, and granddaughter, of Capt. James Hamilton of the Virginia colonial army. Children, by first marriage: 1. Caro, m. Dr. Hugh H. Harris, son 'of Sampson W. Harris, congressman from Alabama, children, Sallie, Yancey, Hugh, Pauline, and Mary Belle; by second marriage: 2. Hamilton (q. v.); 3. Mary Lou, m. Mr. Phinizy, children, Bowdre, Hallie; and Mary Lou. Last residence: Floyd, County, Ga.
[**DJY: Benjamin Cudworth Yancey is to have moved to South Carolina about 1841 - and lived there until about 1849 at which point he moved to Cherokee Co., AL. In 1858 he traveled to Argentina where he served as minister. Soon after his return to the US in 1850 he settled in Georgia - and soon thereafter joined Confederate forces in 1861. He lived for a time in Clarke County, Georgia. In 1881 he moved to Floyd County, Georgia where he resided until his death. At the time of the Civil war - he had four separate plantations. 1) in Cherokee Co, AL 2) in Floyd Co., GA 3) and two separate plantations in Dougherty Co., GA. ]
Below - Charleston Mercury Story by David Cox - davedcox@yahoo.com
Letter written to William Lewis Yancey (left) of Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia by Benjamin C Yancey (right).
Notes: <not yet complete>
Paragraph 1: "My son Hamilton Yancey . . ."
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