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Robert Breckinridge McAfee was born on February 18, 1784 in the Salt River settlement in what is now Mercer County, Ky. He was of Scotch-Irish stock, a grandson of James McAfee who came to Pennsylvania in 1739 and later moved to western Virginia; his parents, Robert and Anne (McCoun) McAfee, were among the earliest settlers in Kentucky. His father had explored that region in 1773 and 1774, and had been sergeant-at-arms of the Transylvania Convention in 1775.
Beginning at the age of five, young Robert attended various local schools and was evidently a proficient pupil. During 1795-97 he was a student in Transylvania Seminary.
In 1798 McAfee became aroused over the Alien and Sedition Acts and determined to become a politician. For a year he was an usher at Mahan's School, Danville, but in 1800 he began the study of law under John Breckinridge, 1760-1806, one of his guardians and the Jeffersonian leader in Kentucky. After being admitted to the bar in 1801 (too young, he decided), he had to borrow money to buy law books, and his practice (in Franklin County) was so small that he paid his debts by surveying land. He took part in local politics, becoming a leading member of the "Republican Society" and a captain of militia. During the War of 1812, he volunteered as a private, was later second lieutenant, and in 1813 organized a mounted company in R. M. Johnson's regiment, which reinforced Harrison at Fort Meigs and took an important part in the battle of the Thames. There McAfee was wounded. In 1816 he published a History of the Late War in the Western Country (reprinted 1919), based on his own journal and on the correspondence of Harrison, Shelby, and other participants. The larger and more valuable part of the book is devoted to the operations in Indiana and on the Lakes.
Resuming legal practice, he rose in politics to be a member of the state House of Representatives (1819) and state senator (1821). Supporting the relief of debtors and the new and more popular court of appeals, he was in 1824 elected lieutenant-governor by the Relief, or New Court, party. In 1825, the lower house passed a bill to abolish the new court, but the measure was defeated for the time by McAfee's deciding vote in the Senate. Later, as a member of the lower house (1830 - 33), he opposed reckless expenditures for internal improvements. He was a member of the first National Democratic Convention (1832), and the following year President Jackson appointed him chargé at Bogot, New Granada (1833 - 37). He was later state senator (1841) and president of the board of visitors of the United States Military Academy (1842). After living in retirement for some years, he died on his farm in Mercer County.
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McAfee read much, in philosophy, theology, and rhetoric. He wrote both poetry and prose, and some of his historical articles and other pieces were published in newspapers.
He endeavored to be fair, he said, but in his Preface confessed to "a natural attachment to his country and hostility to her enemies according to their deserts. "
In 1807 McAfee's growing practice enabled him to marry Mary Cardwell.
10 July 1745 - 10 May 1795
1 Aug 1746 - 1794
19 September 1767 - 15 October 1825
1780 - 1810
15 September 1775 - 19 December 1860
7 July 1793 - 1 October 1850
27 November 1832 - 26 October 1914
23 January 1809 - 16 November 1853
______ - 5 February 1857
August 1817 - May 1877
