The Hon. Presley Carr Lane’s tombstone, near Finchville, Kentucky. There are no known extant images of the Senator, photographs submitted by Michael M. Black and Panos Stephens.
COUNTIES: Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene
Presley Carr Lane, Sr., (Democratic-Republican12) Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, 1795-1798, (Democratic-Republican14) Fayette and Greene Counties, 1802-1806, (Democratic-Republican15) Fayette and Greene Counties, 1806-1808, (Democratic-Republican15) Fayette Counties, 1808-1810, (Democratic-Republican17) Fayette Counties, 1810-1816
Early Life:
Presley Carr Lane, Sr., born 1764, Newgate, Loudoun County (now Centreville, Fairfax County), Virginia, British Colonial America; son of William Carr Lane and Ann Wilson Eskridge; Northumberland Academy; married, Sarah “Sallie” Stephenson Lane, 1785, children, Richard William Lane, William Carr Lane, George Washington Lane, Anna Maria Lane Adams, Presley Carr Lane, Jr., James Stephenson Lane, John Lane; Elizabeth Lane Winlock, Sarah Louisa Lane Powell; moved, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 1787; auditor of Fayette County, 1792; elected, Democratic-Republican, State Senate, February 1795-1798, unsuccessful reelection campaign, 1798; elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, 1799-1801, member of a commission to form an 1801 multistate agreement to construct the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 1801; elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1802-1818, elected, Senate Speaker, 1806-1814; trustee of Union Academy and Madison College, 1808; unsuccessful campaign, Congress, 1816; moved with his wife, daughter, and brother in law, Doctor John Knight, Shelby County, Kentucky, 1818; died, December 1819 (aged 54–55), Shelbyville, Shelby County, Kentucky; interment, Winlock Cemetery, Finchville, Shelby County, Kentucky.
Pennsylvania Politics:
Auditor of Fayette County, 1792.
Elected, Democratic-Republican, State Senate, February 1795-1798; On January 2, 1795, a Committee of Investigation reported to the Senate that, in their opinion, “the elections of Senators held in the counties of Washington, Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Fayette counties, during the late insurrection, [The so called “Whiskey Rebellion”] were not constitutional, and therefore not valid. The following day, the Senate voted on a strict party line vote to expel John Moore, William Todd, Thomas Stokely, and Absalom Baird from Senate and called for new elections to be held. The newly certified Senators took their seats in mid- February. Todd, Stokley, and Baird were returned to the seats previously vacated. Moore was replaced by Presly Carr Lane. Unsuccessful reelection campaign, 1798.
Elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, Fayette County, 1799-1801, member, commission to form, multistate agreement to construct the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 1801.
Elected, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 14th district, Fayette and Greene Counties, 1802-1806, Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 15th district, Fayette and Greene Counties, 1806-1808; Democratic-Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 15th district, Fayette Counties, 1808-1810, elected, Democratic-Republican, 17th district, Fayette Counties 1810-1816, elected, Senate Speaker, 1806-1814.
Unsuccessful campaign, United States House of Representatives, 1816.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Biography:
Not currently available.
Legacy:
Son, Doctor William Carr Lane, first mayor of Saint. Louis, Missouri, Governor of New Mexico.
Cited:
Cox, Harold. "Senate Members "L"". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.
A New Nation Votes (tufts.edu)
Presley Carr Lane (1764-1819) - Find a Grave Memorial