Abraham Rencher

Who was Abraham Rencher?

Abraham Rencher was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina; born near Raleigh, North Carolina, August 12, 1798; tutored at home and attended the common schools and Pittsboro Academy; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1822; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1825 and commenced practice in Pittsboro, Chatham County, N.C.; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses, as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses, and as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth Congress; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1838; elected to the Twenty-seventh Congress; declined to be candidate for renomination in 1842 on account of ill health; Minister to Portugal 1843–1847; appointed Governor of New Mexico Territory by President Buchanan and served from 1857 to 1861; retired to his home in Pittsboro, N.C.; died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on July 6, 1883; interment in St. Bartholomew’s Protestant Episcopal Churchyard, Pittsboro, North Carolina.