1. Linn Banks was an American slave owner, politician and lawyer, who served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates but resigned in order to run for the US Congress.
14 Facts About Linn Banks
1. 2.
Linn Banks served one term and appeared re-elected, although that election was successfully contested by future Virginia governor and Confederate General Extra Billy Smith.
3.
Linn Banks was born in what was then Culpeper County, Virginia to parents Adam Banks and Gracey James.
4.
Linn Banks married on April 2,1811, in Wake, North Carolina, to Eliza Jane Hunter Sanders.
5.
Linn Banks was the great, great grandson of Adam Bankes, emigrant to Stafford County, Virginia, from the Wigan, Lancashire area of England in the mid-17th century.
6.
In 1824, Linn Banks hosted the Marquis de Lafayette on his return visit to Virginia, when he visited President Madison and local militia units in Culpeper and Orange Counties.
7.
Linn Banks served from 1812 to 1838, alongside veteran William Morgan until 1814, then Daniel Field, George H Allen, Robert Hill, Robert L Madison, Robert Briggs and William Finks.
8.
Linn Banks served as Speaker of the House for two decades, from 1817 to 1838.
9.
Linn Banks only served until 1841, despite presenting credentials to the following Congress.
10.
Linn Banks ran in the special election but lost to Smith.
11.
Linn Banks owned 45 slaves in Madison County in 1820, and more than 40 slaves in 1840.
12.
Linn Banks drowned on January 13,1842, while attempting to ford the Conway River near Wolftown, Virginia.
13.
Linn Banks was interred in the family cemetery on his estate called "Vale Evergreen" near Graves Mill, Virginia.
14.
Robert A Banks owned about 70 slaves in Madison County in 1850, and 82 in Madison County in 1860.