William Hindman was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, member of the U. S. House of Representatives, and United States Senator from Maryland.
Background
William Hindman was born on April 1, 1743 in Dorchester County, Maryland, United States. He was the grandson of Reverend James Hindman who upon his arrival from England about 1710 became the rector of Saint Paul's Parish in Talbot County, Maryland. His father, Jacob Hindman, a prosperous planter of Talbot and Dorchester counties, married Mary, daughter of Henry Trippe, and to them William was born on April 1, 1743 in Dorchester County.
Education
Hindman attended the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) in the class of 1761, and in 1765 he returned from London where he had gone to complete his preparation for the practice of law. He was admitted that year to the bar of Talbot County, but, having inherited large estates, he was compelled to divide his time between law and agriculture until his entry into public life on the eve of the Revolution.
Career
Hindman commenced his public career in 1775 as a member of the Talbot County Committee of Observation, the duties of which were to execute, within the county, the resolves of the Continental Congress and the Maryland Revolutionary conventions. He was a member of the convention which met at Annapolis, July 26, 1775, was chosen by that body treasurer of the Eastern Shore, and signed the Association of the Freemen of Maryland for the maintenance of order and for the support of armed opposition to the mother country.
The first state constitution of Maryland went into operation in 1776 and in April of the following year Hindman was chosen a member of the Maryland Senate. He retained his seat in that body until December 1784. He vacated his seat in the state Senate to serve as a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation until 1788.
He was a member of the executive council of the governor of Maryland from 1789 to 1792 and was again serving in the Maryland Senate in 1792 when he was elected to fill out the unexpired term, Second Congress, of Joshua Seney in the United States House of Representatives. He was reelected to the Third, Fourth, and Fifth congresses and served continuously from January 30, 1793, to March 4, 1799. With other Federalists, however, he suffered political unpopularity following the passage of the Alien and Sedition Laws and, after a vigorous contest, was defeated in the congressional election of 1798 by Joshua Seney who had resigned his seat as a Maryland judge to reenter the political arena.
Following his defeat Hindman was elected a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and served in that body in 1799 and until December 12, 1800, when he was chosen to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate created by the resignation of James Lloyd. He was continued in the Senate, by appointment of the governor, until November 19, 1801, when he retired from public life.
His remaining years were devoted to agricultural pursuits on his estate near Wye Landing. He died at the home of his brother, James Hindman, in Baltimore.
Personality
Hindman was not an effective public speaker and he participated but little in the debates on the floor of the House, but he was consulted on questions of major importance and exerted a strong influence in support of authority, promotion of harmony, and dissolution of discontent.