Drayton, William Henry, 1742-1779

William Henry Drayton (September 1742 – September 3, 1779) was an American Founding Father, planter, and lawyer from Charleston, South Carolina. He served as a delegate for South Carolina to the Continental Congress in 1778 and 1779 and signed the Articles of Confederation.

Born at his father's plantation, Drayton Hall, on the bank of the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina (now within the expanded city of Charleston), Drayton pursued classical studies in England, attending Westminster School and Balliol College at Oxford University before returning home in 1764. He read law and was admitted to the bar in South Carolina. Initially opposed to the growing sense of colonial unity and resistance after the Stamp Act Congress, Drayton reversed his position as the Revolution grew nearer. He first wrote a series of published letters opposing the American actions. When they were published in England, he was made a member of the Colonial Council in 1772. Governor William Bull II appointed him to the Colony's Court in 1774. However, later that year he wrote a pamphlet, the American Claim of Rights, which supported the call for a Continental Congress. Subsequently he was removed from all government positions, which completed his conversion to the Patriot cause.

Drayton became a member of South Carolina's Committee of safety in 1775 as well as the provisional Congress that functioned as the colony's rebel government. When they began operating under an interim constitution in 1776, he returned to his seat on the council, serving as chief justice of state's Supreme Court. When the South Carolina General Assembly unanimously voted for union with Georgia in 1776, Drayton became the chief champion of the proposal. The union was rejected by a Georgia convention on January 23, 1777, but Drayton continued to campaign in Georgia for union until Governor John A. Treutlen issued a reward for his arrest. In 1778, South Carolina sent Drayton as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he gave strong support to the military, but was no friend to the Native Americans.

Drayton died in office in Philadelphia. Originally buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia, his remains were reinterred at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston South Carolina on the 200th anniversary of his death in 1979.