Aylette Buckner (July 21, 1806 – July 3, 1869) was Kentucky planter, lawyer and politician who served as

United States representative 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

and the son of who was also a Representative from Kentucky. He may today be best known as the father of

Simon Bolivar Buckner Simon Bolivar Buckner ( ; April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914) was an American soldier, Confederate combatant, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army ...

, a career military officer who served with the U.S. Army before becoming a Confederate general, and who after being pardoned for his role in the Civil War, was elected Kentucky's governor.

Early and family life

He was born in Greensburg, the county seat of then-vast

Green County, Kentucky Green County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Greensburg. Green was a prohibition or dry county until 2015. History Green County was formed in 1792 from portions of Lincoln and Nelson Counties. Green was ...

to the former Elizabeth Lewis Buckner and his cousin (and husband) Richard Aylett Buckner, who also was a planter, lawyer and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives before his son. The Buckners were an old Virginia family, and several ancestors had held legislative or other offices within the Commonwealth, including as clerks of the House of Burgesses and burgesses representing

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

and other Tidewater Virginia and

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counties before the American Revolutionary War. His grandfather whom he knew as a boy, also Aylett Buckner (spelling varied in that era), had served as major in the Fauquier County militia, then in the Virginia Line and received land grants in Kentucky in partial compensation that military service. Shortly after Kentucky was admitted as a state, the senior Aylett Buckner moved most of his family (including this man's father Richard Aylett Buckner Sr.) across the

Cumberland Gap The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It is famous in American colonial history for its r ...

along what was then sometimes known as the Cumberland Trace into south central Kentucky. They settled in Green County, named for a Revolutionary War general and the sixteenth county created in what had become the new state, and which would in turn be subdivided and parts incorporated into other Kentucky counties, including Hart County, Kentucky, where this man would live, practice law and represent politically. Although not as prominent (nor prolific) as the Cabell family of Virginia or the Lee family of Virginia or the

Burwell family of Virginia The Burwells (known as the Burls among Virginians) were among the First Families of Virginia in the Colony of Virginia. John Quincy Adams once described the Burwells as typical Virginia aristocrats of their period: forthright, bland, somewhat imperi ...

, many consider the Buckners to have been among the

First Families of Virginia First Families of Virginia (FFV) were those families in Colonial Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descended from English colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsbur ...

. Both branches of the Buckner family would intermarry with leading Kentucky families. His brothers included Richard Aylett Buckner Jr. (1813-1900) and Luther A. Buckner. His sister Elizabeth Robards Buckner married John Rowan Allen (1815-1877). Meanwhile, Aylette Buckner received a private education appropriate to his class. He attended the New Athens Seminary and later studied law. Complicating matters, he had a cousin Aylette Hawes Buckner (1809-1867), who was also a lawyer and slaveowner in Green County, Kentucky. Aylette Buckner married the former Emily Morehead. One of their sons,

(1823-1914) pursued a military career, first with the U.S. Army, then as a Confederate general, before becoming Kentucky's governor.

Career

Aylette Buckner or his cousin of the same name became a slave owner before either reached legal age. The 1820 federal census (which did not distinguish names within families, nor use lined paper) seems to show his household as including three white and fourteen enslaved people. A decade later the number of white people in his household had grown to seven, and he owned eight slaves, five of them boys under 5 years of age. 1830 U.S. Federal Census for Munfordville, Hart County, Kentucky, p. 5 of 52 on ancestry.com Admitted to the bar, Buckner commenced practice in Greensburg, the Green County seat. Buckner was a member of the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

in 1842 and 1843. He was elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849) but was an unsuccessful candidate in 1848 for reelection to the Thirty-first Congress. After Congress, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri and continued the practice of his profession. Later, he returned to Lexington, Kentucky in 1864, where he died in 1869. He was buried at Lexington Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckner, Aylette 1806 births 1869 deaths People from Greensburg, Kentucky American people of English descent Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky Members of the Kentucky House of Representatives American slave owners