William McKinlay
William McKinlay was a prosperous tailor and state legislator in Charleston, South Carolina.[1] He was elected to serve in the state legislature during the 1868 term.
He had Scottish ancestry.[2]
He was elected a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention in Charleston.[3] He was appointed to the Charleston City Council in 1868 then elected to the council in November of the same year. He was also elected to the council in 1873.[4]
He and his brothers Archibald and George owned a tailoring business.[2] He and Archibald owned the McKinlay Building on Market Street and other properties.[5] He was married to Sarah Jane McKinlay.[6]
He was a member of the Brown Fellowship Society.[1] McKinlay purchased slaves to allow them to live freely even as the law recognized them as his property. At one point the city posted the sale a girl that was his property to satisfy taxes owed. A response was soon after posted that she was free and would not be sold.[7]
He was a director of Enterprise Railroad.[8]
References
- Johnson, Michael; Roark, James L. (February 1, 2001). "No Chariot Let Down: Charleston's Free People on the Eve of the Civil War". UNC Press Books – via Google Books.
- Bellows, Barbara L. "Two Charlestonians at War: The Civil War Odysseys of a Lowcountry Aristocrat and a Black Abolitionist". Retrieved July 18, 2020.
- Representatives, USA House of (June 9, 1868). "House Documents". U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
- https://www.charleston-sc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18338
- "139 South Market Street (McKinlay Building) - Property File".
- Simons, Siegling & Cappelmann (June 9, 1885). "McKinlay family legal papers," – via Open WorldCat.
- Koger, Larry (November 18, 2011). "Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860". McFarland – via Google Books.
- http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/enterprise-railroad/