Archibald Austin (August 11, 1772 – October 16, 1837) was a 19th-century slave owner, politician and lawyer from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

who served as a member of the

15th United States Congress The 15th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in the Old Brick Capitol in Washington, ...

Biography

Born near Buckingham Courthouse, Austin studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in

Buckingham County, Virginia Buckingham County is a rural United States county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and containing the geographic center of the state. Buckingham County is part of the Piedmont region of Virginia, and the county seat is Buckingham. B ...

. His law office was built on the family slave plantation. He was married to Grace R. Booker and they had three children together. He was a member of the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

from 1815 to 1817 and was elected a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in 1816, serving from 1817 to 1819 and voting on 88 total bills and resolutions during his time in Congress. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1818. After serving in Congress, he resumed his law practice and was a

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

on the Democratic ticket in

1832 Events January–March * January 6 – Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison founds the New-England Anti-Slavery Society. * January 13 – The Christmas Rebellion of slaves is brought to an end in Jamaica, after the island's white plan ...

and

1836 Events January–March * January 1 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. * January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas. * January 12 ** , with Charles Darwin on board, r ...

. Austin returned to the House of Delegates in 1835, serving until his death in 1837.

Death and legacy

Austin died near

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

on October 16, 1837 and was interred in the family cemetery with his wife Grace. His legal papers were sold in the early part of 20th century to the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

, and the collection is housed in the

Swem Library The Earl Gregg Swem Library (colloquially Swem Library) is located on Landrum Drive at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The library is named for Earl Gregg Swem, College Librarian from 1920-1944. In 2008, the Princeton ...

. Many court records were burned in 1869 during the courthouse fire, and Austin's files proved invaluable for research in court records of the period.College of William and Mary. Swem Library. ''Austin-Twyman Collection. Early Buckingham County, Virginia Legal Papers''. Compiled and transcribed by Jeanne Stinson. Athens, Ga.: Iberian Pub. Co., 1993.

References

External links

1772 births 1837 deaths People from Buckingham County, Virginia Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 1832 United States presidential electors 1836 United States presidential electors Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia lawyers 19th-century American lawyers {{Virginia-Representative-stub