1822: The death of Mayor Pinkney
William Pinkney, the mayor of Annapolis in 1794 and 1795, died Feb. 25, 1822. Two centuries later, residents and visitors can stroll along Pinkney Street in Annapolis in the historic district. One of the elegant late 18th century residences intact in the city, the William Paca House, is at 18 Pinkney St. and is open to the public as a museum and garden.
Pinkney, a lawyer and diplomat, saw the last years of the Colonial era as a youth and helped provide some of the intellectual candlepower of the young republic. His birthplace of Annapolis was just the first stop for Pinkney, who also served in Congress in the House and the Senate, as minister to Russia and as attorney general in the Cabinet of President James Madison during the War of 1812. He was wounded in that war during the Battle of Bladensburg in the summer of 1814. He spent the last three years of his life in the U.S. Senate. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington.
[Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Sun library researcher Paul McCardell]
