Christopher Harris "Kit" Williams (December 18, 1798 – November 27, 1857) was an American politician who represented

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together the ...

, thirteenth and

, eleventh districts in the

Biography

Williams was born near

Hillsborough, North Carolina The town of Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina, United States and is located along the Eno River. The population was 6,087 in 2010, but it grew rapidly to 9,660 by 2020. Its name was unofficially shortened to "Hillsb ...

, on December 18, 1798. He pursued an academic course and attended the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica *Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia * Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane * Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada *Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

. He studied law, was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

about 1820, and practiced law. He married Jane Allison on December 9, 1819.

Career

Williams was elected as a

Whig Whig or Whigs may refer to: Parties and factions In the British Isles * Whigs (British political party), one of two political parties in England, Great Britain, Ireland, and later the United Kingdom, from the 17th to 19th centuries ** Whiggism ...

to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses by Tennessee's thirteenth district. He served from March 4, 1837 to March 3, 1843. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1842 to the

Twenty-eighth Congress The 28th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1843 ...

. After the number of districts held by Tennessee had been reduced, Williams was elected by Tennessee's eleventh district to the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses. He served from March 4, 1849 to March 3, 1853. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1852. He resumed the practice of law in

Lexington, Tennessee Lexington is a city in Henderson County, Tennessee, United States. Lexington is midway between Memphis and Nashville, lying south of Interstate 40, which connects the two cities. The population was 7,956 at the 2020 census. It is the county sea ...

Death

Williams died in Lexington on November 27, 1857. He is interred at Lexington Cemetery. Williams' son and namesake (born 1830) was a Colonel in the Confederate army in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. His grandson was

John Sharp Williams John Sharp Williams (July 30, 1854September 27, 1932) was a prominent American politician in the Democratic Party from the 1890s through the 1920s, and served as the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1908. ...

, who also served in the American

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...

and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Christopher Harris 1798 births 1857 deaths Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee 19th-century American politicians People from Lexington, Tennessee