Governor Thomas Pinckney

THOMAS PINCKNEY was born in Charleston, South Carolina and educated at Westminster in Great Britain as well as in France. He rose to the rank of Captain of Engineers fighting in the Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1781 and was a Major General during the War of 1812. He was governor of South Carolina for two years just prior to adoption of the U.S. Constitution, which bears the signatures of both his brother and a cousin. While serving as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, he arranged the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo, also known as Pinckney’s Treaty, under which Spain (1) recognized American borders at the Mississippi, north of Florida, which was a Spanish possession, and (2) granted Americans the right to deposit goods for trans-shipment at New Orleans, which was also held by Spain. Pinckney went on to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1797 to 1801.