John Strother Pendleton was born on March 1, 1802 in Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia, United States, long the home of his branch of the Pendleton family. He was of the sixth generation in America, a descendant of Philip, who settled in Virginia in 1682, and the eldest son of William and Nancy (Strother) Pendleton.
John Strother Pendleton pursued preparatory studies and then studied law.
John Strother Pendleton was admitted to the bar in 1824, and achieved prominence in his practice in Culpeper County. Several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates (1831 - 1833 and 1836 - 1839) were followed by his appointment in the summer of 1841 to be charge d'affaires in Chile. There he accomplished the principal object of his mission by inducing the Chilean government to make payments upon the American claims which it had already recognized. He returned to Virginia in time to secure election as Whig representative of his district in the Twenty-ninth Congress and was reelected to the Thirtieth, serving from 1845 to 1849.
In 1848 John Strother Pendleton was one of those Virginia Whigs who believed it not expedient to present Clay again as the candidate of the Whig party for the presidency. He and three other Whigs signed a pamphlet entitled To the Whig Party of Virginia (Washington, 1848) urging the nomination of Zachary Taylor. The last phase of his diplomatic career began with his appointment February 27, 1851, to be charge d'affaires to the Argentine Confederation. He was instructed to secure recognition by that somewhat unstable government of the claims of American citizens and to negotiate with it a commercial treaty. Robert C. Schenck, United States minister to Brazil, was to act with Pendleton in the negotiation of the Argentine treaty, and the two were also to conclude treaties with Paraguay and Uruguay.
Late in 1852 Secretary Everett was able to congratulate Pendleton and Schenck upon their "successful and satisfactory" treaty (of August 28, 1852) with "the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay. " The treaty with Paraguay was concluded March 4, 1853, but neither of these treaties was ever proclaimed. The "Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation" with the Argentine Confederation was signed July 27, 1853, and a treaty for the free navigation of the Paran and Uruguay rivers, with the same power, was concluded July 10, 1853. The negotiation of the latter treaty, for which Pendleton received the commendation of Marcy, was in keeping with the contemporary American policy of establishing the principle of the free use of international waterways. Both the treaties with the Argentine Confederation were proclaimed in 1855.
After his retirement from diplomacy in 1854 Pendleton apparently resumed his law practice (see John S. Pendleton, attorney, Notes in Relation to the Supply of Water Proposed to be Drawn from the Great Falls of Potomac River for the Use of the National Aqueduct, 1858). He died in Culpeper County on November 19, 1868, without issue.
John Strother Pendleton was a brillant orator and very handsome with blue eyes and light hair.
In 1824 John Strother Pendlenton married Lucy Ann Williams. There were no children born to this marriage. John Pendleton and Lucy Ann Williams adopted her nephew, George Morton Williams when he was three years old and raised him.
