Wardlaw, Francis Hugh (16 DEC 1800 - 29 MAY 1861
Francis H. Wardlaw, son of James Wardlaw and Hannah
Clarke Wardlaw, was born at Abbeville Court House, S. C.,
December 16th, 1800; was baptized by Rev. Robert P. Wilson, of the
Presbyterian Church; went to the common English schools of
Abbeville, taught by Francis Walker, William Sadler, Flinn, Clary,
Hooper, James Curry, and Thomas Fulton. In 1812 he went to
Willington, in Abbeville District, and there attended for two years
Dr. Waddell's famous Classical Academy. He spent the year 1815 at
home at Abbeville Court House, in studying arithmetic, algebra,
trigonometry, and surveying, under Captain William Robertson, and
in writing in the Clerk's office under his father, then Clerk of the
Court for Abbeville District. He entered the South Carolina College
April 13th, 1816, and graduated with first honor of his class in
December, 1818. Read law in the office of A. Bowie, Esq., at
Abbeville Court House, and was admitted to practice law at
Charleston, January, 1822, and equity at Columbia, May, 1822. He
settled at Edgefield near the end of February, 1822, and practiced law
there in partnership with Whitfield Brooks until the fall of 1825; with
William Garrett from 1826 to 1828; with D. L. Wardlaw from 1831
to 1841, and with William C. Morange from 1841 to 1846; was
editor of a newspaper at Edgefield from March, 1829, to the spring of
1832; elected to the State Convention from Edgefield in 1832, and to
the House of representatives of South Carolina Legislature in 1834
and 1838; was partner of R. H. Spann's in 1850; was elected
Chancellor December 3rd, 1850, and Judge in the Court of Appeals
December 21st, 1859; delegate from Edgefield in the conventions of
1852 and 1860, being one of only four or five persons who were
members of all three conventions above mentioned; 1832, 1852, and
He was married at "Airville" near Hamburg, in Edgefield
District. Wednesday evening, April 22nd, 1835, to Ann Gresham
Lamar, daughter of Thomas Gresham Lamar and Martha Leland
Cary, by Rev. Henry Reid, Presbyterian minister from Augusta. By
this union he had seven children, three of whom died young. One
son, Lieutenant T. Lamar Wardlaw, was killed at Fort Moultrie, July
17th, 1862, another son, Francis H. Wardlaw, died December 5th,
1887, at Edgefield where he was practicing law. One son and one
daughter only are now living, Mrs. J. W. Hill, of Edgefield, and J.
Lewis Wardlaw, of Fairfield County. Chancellor Wardlaw died at
Columbia in the house of Major Theodore Stark, May 29th, 1861,
and was buried at Edgefield Court House, South Carolina.
As a lawyer and judge of law I have heard this related of
him: A decision of his was once quoted in a court at Westminister,
the opposing counsel ridiculed the idea of resorting to South Carolina
law as a precedent for England or English courts, whereupon the
presiding Judge remarked that the decision in question was worthy of
the highest respect and would do honor to the courts of any country.
Member of the Secession Convention and one of the signers
of the Ordinance of Secession.