Frances Breckinridge

Notes:

3rd cousin to my ancestor Cornelius Breckenridge. ss


Spelled his name "Breckinridge".
Vice President of US under President James Buchanan, 1857-1861, presiding over the Senate with impartiality despite his strong Southern sympathies. In 1860, he was the Southern Democrats' presidential nominee, running against Abraham Lincoln, and carried 11 states in the campaign. He was a lawyer, and fought in the Mexican War and served in the Kentucky legislature (1849-1850) and US House of Representatives (1851-1855) as a Democrat.

Breckinridge worked to prevent secession and civil war, but late in 1861 he fled to join the Confederacy. Made a general, he participated in several major battles, motsly in the West. He also administered a territorial command in western Virginia and on February 6, 1965, was named Confederate secretary of war. After the war he went abroad. Returning to Kentucky in 1868, he practiced law and was vice-president of a railroad company.

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Wikipedia:
John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 - May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States, to date the youngest vice president in U.S. history, inaugurated at age 36.

In the 1860 presidential election, he ran as one of two candidates of the fractured Democratic Party, representing Southern Democrats. Breckinridge came in third place in the popular vote, behind winner Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, and Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, but finished second in the Electoral College vote.

Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army as a general and commander of Confederate forces prior to the 1863 Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, and of the young Virginia Military Institute cadets, at the 1864 Battle of New Market in Lexington, Virginia. He also served as the fifth and final Confederate Secretary of War.

A member of the prominent Breckinridge family of Kentucky, Breckinridge was the grandson of John Breckinridge (1760?1806), who served as a Senator and Attorney General; the father of congressman and diplomat Clifton Rodes Breckinridge; and the great-grandfather of actor John Cabell "Bunny" Breckinridge

John married Mary Cyrene Burch about 1842. Mary was born about 1821; died after 1854. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

JOSEPH CABELL BRECKINRIDGE [b. 1788, son of John] was a distinguished lawyer and politician, but died when only thirty-four years of age. He married Mary Clay Smith, and they had one son, John Cabell Breckinridge, (15 Jan 1821-17 May 1875), who became vice-president of the United States under Buchanan. John C. Breckinridge, was elected to the Kentucky state legislature in 1849, and he was opposed to the emancipationists, which put him in conflict with his three uncles.

Joseph Cabell Breckinridge was a roommate of James G. Birney at Princeton. Birney was the first Presidential candidate in 1844 of the forerunner of the Republican Anti-slavery Party, the origin of our present Republican Party.

Joseph married Mary Clay Smith on 11 May 1811. Mary (daughter of Rev./Pres of Princeton U Samuel Stanhope Smith and Ann Lacey Witherspoon, (immigrant)) was born on 31 Aug 1787 in Princeton, Mercer Co, New Jersey; died on 9 Oct 1864 in Baltimore Co, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Other-Begin: 18 Feb 1784, Mercer Co, Kentucky; McAfee namesake
• Residence: 1792, Cabell Dale, Iron Works Pike, Lexington, Kentucky

Notes:

Spelled his name "Breckinridge"

US public official, born near Staunton, Virginia. Entered William and Mary College in 1778; elected Member of the House of Delegates, 1780 at age 19, until 1785; admitted to the Bar, 1785; elected to the Third Congress 1793; moved to Kentucky, 1793; appointed Attorney General of the new State, 1795, holding that office until 1798; Member of the Legislature, 1798-1801; United States Senator, 1801-1805; United States Attorney General, 1805-1806, Jefferson's administration. He died while in office. Breckenridge County, Kentucky was named after him. His grandson John Cabell Breckinridge became Vice-President under President Buchanan.

Other-Begin:
General Robert Breckinridge McAfee
Birth: Feb. 18, 1784
Mercer County
Kentucky, USA
Death: Mar. 12, 1849
Mercer County
Kentucky, USA

Son of Robert and Anne (McCoun) McAfee, married Mary "Polly" Cardwell, October 14, 1807, Mercer County, Kentucky.
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"I was the eighth child of my mother and a second son by the name of Robert, a brother of the same name having died only twelve days previous, viz., on the 6th day of February 1784, and my father despaired of having any more sons was anxious for a man, it was immediately bestowed on me with the addition of the letter 'B' for his friend, John Breckinridge, afterward a celebrated lawyer in Kentucky and at his death in 1806 attorney General of the United States under President Jefferson."

The Life and Times of Robert B. McAfee and His Family and Connections.
Written by Himself.

John married Mary "Polly" Hopkins Cabell on 28 Jun 1785. Mary (daughter of Joseph Cabell and Mary Hopkins) was born on 22 Feb 1769 in Virginia; died on 26 Mar 1858 in Fayette Co, Kentucky. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Samuel Stanhope Smith (March 15, 1751 - August 21, 1819) was a Presbyterian minister, founding president of Hampden-Sydney College and the seventh president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from 1795 to 1812. His stormy career ended in his enforced resignation. His words - "If reason and charity cannot promote the cause of truth and piety, I cannot see how it should ever flourish under the withering fires of wrath and strife" - ironically epitomize his career.
Wikipedia

Samuel married Ann Lacey Witherspoon, (immigrant) on 28 Jun 1775. Ann (daughter of Signer of Dec of Independence John Witherspoon and Elizabeth Montgomery) was born on 23 Jul 1749 in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland; died on 1 Apr 1817 in Princeton, Mercer Co, New Jersey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]