Representative Francis Preston

Francis Preston (August 2, 1765 – May 26, 1835) was an American lawyer, legislator, and congressman from Abingdon, Virginia, who emerged from one of the most prominent frontier families of the early American South. He was born in Botetourt County, in the portion that later became Montgomery County, Virginia, the son of Colonel William Preston, a distinguished surveyor, landholder, and militia officer on the Virginia frontier, and his wife Susanna Smith Preston. Through his father, he was connected to an influential network of Preston and Campbell relatives who played leading roles in the political and military life of Virginia and the expanding Southwest during and after the American Revolution.

Preston received a classical education typical of the Virginia gentry of his era and pursued legal studies before being admitted to the bar. Trained as a lawyer, he established his practice in the southwestern part of the state, where the Preston family’s landholdings and influence were substantial. His legal career developed in tandem with his growing involvement in public affairs, and his standing as the son of Colonel William Preston helped position him as a natural leader in the emerging communities west of the Blue Ridge.

Preston entered public life as a member of the Virginia General Assembly, serving in both houses of the state legislature. He represented southwestern Virginia in the Virginia House of Delegates and later in the Virginia Senate, participating in the political debates of the early national period as Virginia adjusted to the new federal Constitution and the evolving party system. Identified with the Jeffersonian Republican tradition, he was part of the generation of Virginia politicians who helped shape state and regional policy in the years immediately following independence.

In 1793, Preston was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a representative from Virginia, serving in the Third and Fourth Congresses from March 4, 1793, to March 3, 1797. During his tenure in Congress, he represented a large and largely rural constituency in southwestern Virginia at a time when issues of frontier defense, land policy, and the balance of power between the federal government and the states were central concerns. His service in the national legislature coincided with the administrations of George Washington and John Adams and the crystallization of Federalist and Democratic-Republican party alignments, within which he aligned with the emerging Republican opposition.

While building his political career, Preston also established himself as a substantial landowner and community figure. He resided for a time at Saltville, Virginia, an important salt-producing center in the region, and in 1795, while living there, he constructed the Preston House, a substantial dwelling that reflected his status and the growing prosperity of the area. He later made his principal home in Abingdon, Virginia, where he had a large residence built that would, in later years, become known as the Martha Washington Inn. These properties underscored both his personal success and the broader development of southwestern Virginia in the early republic.

Preston’s family connections extended his influence well beyond his own lifetime. He was the father of several notable figures, including Isaac Trimble Preston, who became attorney general of Louisiana; William Campbell Preston, who served as a United States senator from South Carolina; and John S. Preston, who became a prominent South Carolina legislator and later a Confederate general. He was also the uncle of William Ballard Preston, who served as a United States representative, Secretary of the Navy, and later a Confederate official, and of William Preston, who became a diplomat, congressman, and Confederate general. His daughter Sarah (Sally) Buchanan Preston (1802–1879) married her cousin John B. Floyd, who served as governor of Virginia and later as U.S. Secretary of War, further intertwining the Preston family with the political leadership of the South.

In his later years, Preston continued to reside in southwestern Virginia, maintaining his legal and landed interests and remaining a respected elder statesman within the region. He died on May 26, 1835, leaving behind a legacy as a key figure in the early political development of Virginia’s trans-Allegheny counties and as the patriarch of a family whose members would play prominent roles in state and national affairs throughout the nineteenth century.