Burwell Bassett

Burwell Bassett (born March 18, 1764 in New Kent County , Colony of Virginia , †  February 26, 1841 ibid) was an American politician . Between 1805 and 1829 he represented the state of Virginia in the US House of Representatives several times .

Career

Burwell Bassett was a maternal nephew of Martha Washington , wife of US President George Washington . He was also a cousin of future President William Henry Harrison . He studied at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg . He then embarked on a political career. Between 1787 and 1789 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives ; from 1794 to 1805 he was a member of the State Senate . In 1794 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress . He became a member of the Democratic Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in the late 1790s .

In the 1804 congressional election , Bassett was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the twelfth constituency of Virginia , where he succeeded Thomas Griffin on March 4, 1805 . After three re-elections, he was able to complete four legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1813 . During this time the British-American War began . Between 1811 and 1813, Bassett chaired the Committee on Claims and the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business . In 1812 he was not re-elected.

In the elections of 1814 Bassett was re-elected to Congress in the 13th district of his state, where he replaced Thomas M. Bayly on March 4, 1815 . By March 3, 1819, he was able to complete two more legislative periods there. Bassett sat again in the Virginia House of Representatives between 1819 and 1821 before being re-elected to the House of Representatives in the 13th constituency of his state in 1822, where he succeeded Severn E. Parker on March 4, 1823 , who had replaced him there two years earlier. After three re-elections, he could remain in Congress until March 3, 1829. From 1823 he represented the eighth district of Virginia as the successor to Charles F. Mercer . In the 1820s, Bassett joined the movement around the future President Andrew Jackson . In 1828 he was not re-elected.

After the final end of his time in the US House of Representatives, Burwell Bassett no longer appeared politically. He died on February 26, 1841 after a riding accident.

Web links

• Burwell Bassett in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Burwell Bassett in the database of Find a Grave (English)