Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born on October 26, 1746 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Representative in the South Carolina General Assembly in 1779 and was elected by his colleagues in the South Carolina General Assembly as one of five South Carolinians to attend the May 1787 Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. His major contribution was the “Pinckney Draft” to the Convention, in which the three-fifths law was introduced. Later, he was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1789, and presided over the South Carolina State Constitutional Convention of 1790. Pinckney was appointed to serve out U.S. Senator John Hunter’s term upon Hunter’s resignation in November 1798. He also served as Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain from 1801–1805. He was then elected Governor of South Carolina in December 1806 for a record fourth term.
Pinckney was accepted and enrolled in The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, which is one of the four English Inns of Court, in London, but the American Revolution prevented him from attending. He later studied in Charleston, under the tutelage of Dr. David Oliphant and later worked in the law office of his father.
On loan from the Maybank Family.
Located in the Legal History Room, 250.