Benjamin Whitaker was surveyor general for the Province of South Carolina.[1] He was initially deputy surveyor (under James St. John),[2] but rose to attorney general (1721–1731),[3] judge of the court of vice-admiralty (1727–1732 and 1732–1736),[4] speaker of the assembly (1742–1744)[5] and chief justice (1739–1749).[6][7] He was removed from the role of chief justice for "being paralytic".[8]
He was regarded as one of the best lawyers of his time.[9][10]
Whitaker Street in Savannah, Georgia, is now named for him.[11]
Personal life
editOn May 20, 1719, Whitaker married Sarah Godfrey, daughter of Captain John Godfrey.[12] She died on December 29, 1747, and was interred in St. Philip's Church Episcopal Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.[13]
References
edit- ^ "South Carolina: Early Surveying History". www.surveyhistory.org. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
- ^ Migliazzo, Arlin C. (2007). To Make this Land Our Own: Community, Identity, and Cultural Adaptation in Purrysburg Township, South Carolina, 1732-1865. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-57003-682-8.
- ^ Smith, William Roy (1903). South Carolina as a Royal Province, 1710-1776. Macmillan. p. 412.
- ^ Smith, William Roy (1903). South Carolina as a Royal Province, 1719-1776. Macmillan. p. 414.
- ^ Smith, William Roy (1903). South Carolina as a Royal Province, 1719-1776. Macmillan. p. 415.
- ^ HAMBURGER, Philip (June 30, 2009). Law and Judicial Duty. Harvard University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-674-03819-6.
- ^ Smith, William Roy (1903). South Carolina as a Royal Province, 1719-1776. Macmillan. p. 413.
- ^ The Statutes at Large of South Carolina. A.S. Johnston. 1836. p. 439.
- ^ Osgood, Herbert Levi (1925). The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century. Columbia University Press. p. 119.
- ^ Witzig, Fred E. (April 30, 2018). Sanctifying Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: The Life of the Reverend Alexander Garden, 1685-1756. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-61117-846-3.
- ^ Cope, Tony (2016). It's Not That Lincoln. The Abercorn Press.
- ^ South Carolina Historical and Geneaological Magazine. South Carolina Historical Society. 1914. p. 57.
- ^ DALCHO, Frederick (1820). An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in South Carolina, from the first settlement of the province, to the war of the Revolution. E. Thayer. p. 125.