Robert Anderson (officer, 1741)

Robert Anderson (born November 5, 1741 in Augusta County , Colony of Virginia , †  January 9, 1813 in Oconee County , South Carolina ) was an American officer and politician . Between 1796 and 1798 he was lieutenant governor of the state of South Carolina.

Career

Robert Anderson was born on his parents' farm in Virginia. As the fifth child of the family, he took up the profession of land surveyor. He practiced this profession in South Carolina, where he was involved in the surveying of an area recently taken over by the Indians. In 1765 he married Anne Thompson, with whom he had five children. After her death in 1787 he married Lydia Maverick; after her death, the widow Jane Harris Reece became his third wife. In the early 1770s he joined the revolutionary movement. He took part in the war of independence as a soldier in the state militia . He rose to the rank of colonel. Later he was a brigadier general of the militia. He had a lifelong friendship with the general and later Congressman Andrew Pickens . For his services in the war, Anderson was given land as a farmer in the area of Anderson County , which was later named after him .

Anderson later embarked on a political career. Between 1791 and 1794 and again in 1801 and 1802 he sat as a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina . In the presidential elections of 1800 he was one of the electors of Thomas Jefferson . He was also a member of the Democratic Republican Party founded by him . In 1796 he was elected lieutenant governor of South Carolina at the side of Charles Pinckney . He held this office between December 8, 1796 and December 18, 1798. He was Deputy Governor . After his time as lieutenant governor, he worked again as a farmer on his now further enlarged lands in South Carolina. He died on January 9, 1813.

Web links

• Robert Anderson in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• biography