DRAYTON. \Vit.I.i.km HENRY ( 1742-791. An .\inerican 1:evolutionary patriot. Ile was, born the family estates in South Carolina: went to in 1753. With CO( h Pin, kney and Thomas Pinekney: was educated at school and at Balliol College, (mxforil; returned to South Carolina in 1764: and soon afterwards was admitted to the bar. In 1769 lie vvrote, under the signature 'Free man.' a --cries of letters against the 'patriotic of Ufe time, which lie charged with encroaching oil private rights; and largely on this account lie was appointed privy councilor tor South Carolina in 1771. and assistant in 1771. III the latter year, howe‘cr, he pub lished a vigorous anti-ministerial pamphlet. en titled of a ir,, man of ,south Carolina to the m puri, of A or t .1 merle'', .1ss,otl,Hd in the /lig!! of SS in and for this he was promptly rellimed front hi. positions as councilor and judge. He was pre-i dent 1)1 time Council of Safety and of the Pl'o N inpin I Congress of South Carolina in 1775: a made Lille( Justice of the State in 7tsiulu, 1776; and, while acting in this latter capaeity. in
April, 17711, virtually proclaimed the indepen dence of South I arolina on the ground t tat king (3eorge III., having ‘iolatcd „Uteri/ an rights. had by the law 14 the land . . . abdicated time government,' and henceforth hail *no author ity' in the former (.olony. Ile art,' as president of the State for a short time in 1777. (luring the absence I If a nil from 177s until his death was a prominent in.miber of the Continental Congress. writing a number of powerful pamphlets. lie planned a history of the Revolution, Int lie had made considerable progress at the time of his death. A large part of his manuseript was destroyed, however, on the ground that it contained im State hut t WO voillIlles I'ViVed. covering the history of the Southern Colonic. between 1773 and 177(3, and these subsequently served as the basis for a work by his -min. ,John Drayton, entitled Memoirs of t he .1 merican ro ln Don (Charleston, 1S:21).