William Elliott, the son of William and Phoebe (Waight) Elliott, was born in Beaufort and died in Charleston, South Carolina. He grew up in surroundings of social and intellectual distinction, mostly in Beaufort, around which lay the vast plantations of his family.
Career
From 1806 to 1809 he was at Harvard, in bad health for the most part, but well enough to be considerably above the average in scholarship, and to graduate in the normal time.
As was common for men of his class, Elliott was also a political leader. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1814 to 1815 and again from 1826 to 1829. He served in the South Carolina Senate from 1818 to 1821 and again in 1831. He was also intendant (mayor) of Beaufort from 1819 to 1824. Elliott's political career was cut short when he resigned from the Senate and chastised his constituents for their support of nullification. Though always a defender of slavery, Elliott was nevertheless a staunch Unionist, a conviction not shared by the majority of the voters in Beaufort District.
Elliott died at his home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, on February 3, 1863.
Achievements
Membership
a member successively of both branches of the state legislature
He was the perennial president of the Beaufort Agricultural Society, and in 1839 he was vice president of the South Carolina Agricultural Society. In 1855 Elliott represented South Carolina at the Paris Exposition, where he delivered a speech, in French, on Sea Island cotton to the Imperial and Central Agricultural Society.
Connections
Returning home, he occupied himself with all that went to make up the life of a gentleman farmer, and in 1817 he was married to Anne Hutchinson Smith.