Bartlett Yancey (February 19, 1785 - August 30, 1828) was 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 ...

U.S. congressman from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, United States, between 1813 and 1817. Born near

Yanceyville, North Carolina Yanceyville is a town in and the county seat of Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state, the town had a population of 1,937 at the 2020 census. The settlement was founded in 1792 and was ...

, Yancey attended Hyco Academy in Caswell County before enrolling at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

from 1804 to 1806. After studying in Hillsborough, North Carolina under Archibald Debow Murphey, Yancey was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1807 and practiced law. Yancey was elected to the

13th United States Congress The 13th 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 Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1813 ...

in 1812 and re-elected in 1814 to the 14th Congress, serving from March 4, 1813 to March 3, 1817. During both terms, he chaired the Committee on Claims. Refusing to run for Congress again in 1816, Yancey instead ran for the

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The term of office for e ...

and served there for ten years, from 1817 to 1827; he served as Speaker of the North Carolina Senate for his entire tenure in the legislature. In 1825, Bartlett Yancey was offered the position of "Minister" to Peru. Today this position is called ambassador. While the offer formally was made by President John Quincy Adams, it was upon the recommendation of US Secretary of State Henry Clay, who served in that post 1825 to 1829. Yancey declined the offer. In 1808, Bartlett Yancey married his first cousin Ann Graves (1786-1855), and the couple had ten children. No son of Bartlett Yancey had a son. Thus, this branch of the Yancey surname died out. He died at his home ("Oakland") near Milton, North Carolina, in 1828, and is buried in th
Yancey Family Cemetery
i

Named in his honor are: (1) the Town of Yanceyville (Caswell County, North Carolina); (2) Bartlett Yancey High School (in Yanceyville); and (3) Yancey County in Western North Carolina. "Yancy. -- At a meeting of the citizens of Caswell county, held at the Court House, on the 7th inst. it was resolved that the village in which the Court House is situated, should hereafter be called Yancy, after their late highly esteemed and lamented fellow citizen, Bartlett Yancy, Esq. -- ib" ''North-Carolina Free Press'' (Halifax, NC), 5 June 1832. The Bartlett Yancey House in Yanceyville was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1973.

References

External links

Biography

Caswell County Family Tree

Caswell County Web Log

Caswell County North Carolina GenWeb

Caswell County Photograph Collection

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yancey, Bartlett 1785 births 1828 deaths North Carolina state senators People from Yanceyville, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina 19th-century American politicians