Charles Cotesworth (1746-1825), Thomas (1750-1828), and Charles Pinckney (1757-1824), members of a notable South Carolina family, contributed significantly as able statesmen before, during, and after the American Revolution.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, born in Charleston, SC on February 25, 1746, was the brother of Thomas Pinckney. He was educated at Oxford and attended the Military Academy at Caen, France; he later practiced law in Charleston. During the American Revolution he joined the Continental Army and was captured by the British in 1780. In 1787 as a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention he helped secure South Carolina’s ratification of the Constitution. In 1797 he was a member, along with Elbridge Gerry and John Marshall in the diplomatic mission to France that would lead to the incident known as the “XYZ Affair”. He ran unsuccessfully as a Federalist candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 1800 and for the Presidency in 1804 and 1808, dying on August 16, 1825.

Thomas Pinckney, born in Charleston, SC on October 23, 1750 was the brother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. He was educated at Oxford and attended the French Military Academy at Caen, France. He studied law at the Inner Temple, London, and practiced law in Charleston, SC. He joined the First Regiment, Continental Army in 1775. He participated in the Florida Campaign in 1778. He served under Benjamin Lincoln from 1778-1779 and with Count d’Estaing in 1779. As Governor of South Carolina, 1787-1789, he presided over the South Carolina state ratification convention in 1788. He was a member of the South Carolina state House of Representatives in 1791, United States Minister to Great Britain from 1792-1796, elected as a Federalist to Congress, 1797-1801, and appointed major general in the War of 1812. He died on November 2, 1828.

Charles Pinckney, cousin of Charles Cotesworth and Thomas Pinckney, was born in Charleston, SC on October 26, 1757. He pursued law as an education and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1779. He was elected repeatedly to the State House of Representatives between 1779 and 1814; he also fought in the American Revolutionary War and became a prisoner of the British in 1780. He was a member of the Continental Congress 1785-1787, the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the South Carolina Constitutional Conventions in 1788 and 1790, Governor of South Carolina 1789-1792, 1796-1798 and 1806-1808, and elected as a Republican to the United States Senate 1798-1801. He died on October 29, 1824.