William Pinkney was born in Annapolis in the Province of Maryland. His home was on the banks of the Severn River, in view of the Chesapeake Bay. Pinkney attended King William school. His teacher was a Mr. Brefhard. At age thirteen he left school but his teacher, aware of the young Pinkney's intelligence, gave him private lessonsat home. He studied medicine and law, becoming a lawyer upon admission to the bar in 1786. After practicing law in Harford County, Maryland, he participated in Maryland's state constitutional convention. Pinkney was an excellent orator who possessing a command of language, and was said to possess a pleasing and articulate manner in his speaking.
Political career
In April 1788, Pinkney was elected a delegate to the convention of the State of Maryland, which ratified the United States Constitution, marking the beginning of his political career. Pinkney served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1788 to 1792 and then again in 1795, and served as a U.S. Congressman from the third district of Maryland in 1791 and from the fifth district from 1815 until 1816. He was mayor of Annapolis from 1795 to 1800. In 1801 he was appointed Attorney general for the District of Pennsylvania, by President Thomas Jefferson and Attorney General of Maryland from 1805 to 1806. Pinkney was co-US Minister to the Court of St. James from 1806 to 1807; They were asked by President Jefferson to negotiate with Great Britain to end the harassment of American shipping, though Britain showed no signs of improving relations. They negotiated the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty, but it lacked provisions to end impressment and was subsequently rejected by President Jefferson and never went into effect. Pinkney was Minister Plenipotentiary from 1808 until 1811. He then returned to Maryland, serving in the Maryland State Senate in 1811. In 1811 he joined President James Madison's cabinet as Attorney General. He was a major in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and was wounded at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland in August 1814. After the War, he served as congressman from the fifth district of Maryland from 1815 to 1816. After serving in Congress he became the U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia from 1816 until 1818, along with a special mission to the Kingdom of Naples. Pinkney successfully argued many important cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark case of McCulloch v. Maryland, where the right of the US Congress to charter the Bank of the United States was upheld. Pinkney served as a US senator from Maryland from 1819 until his death in 1822. He is buried at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.. His son, Edward Coote Pinkney, became an accomplished poet.
