{{Short description|American politician (1830–1898)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Barnes Compton | image = Barnes Compton.jpg | image_size = | district1 = 5th | state1 = Maryland | term_start1 = 1891 | term_end1 = 1894 | predecessor1 = Sydney Emanuel Mudd I | successor1 = Charles E. Coffin | district2 = 5th | state2 = Maryland | term_start2 = 1885 | term_end2 = 1890 | predecessor2 = Hart B. Holton | successor2 = Sydney Emanuel Mudd I | office3 = Treasurer of Maryland | term3 = 1874–1885 | governor3 = William Pinkney Whyte<br>James Black Groome<br>John Lee Carroll<br>William T. Hamilton<br>Robert Milligan McLane | predecessor3 = John W. Davis | successor3 = John Sterett Gittings | office4 = President of the Maryland State Senate | term4 = 1868–1870 | predecessor4 = Christopher C. Cox | successor4 = Henry Snyder | office5 = Member of the Maryland Senate | term5 = 1867–1872 | office6 = Member of the Maryland House of Delegates | term6 = 1860–1861 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1830|11|16}} | birth_place = Port Tobacco, Maryland | death_date = {{death date and age|1898|12|2|1830|11|16}} | death_place = Laurel, Maryland | resting_place = Loudon Park Cemetery | party = {{flatlist| * Whig * Democrat }} | alma_mater = Princeton College (A.B.) | spouse = {{marriage|Margaret Holiday Sothoron|1858}} | children = 6 }}
'''Barnes Compton''' (November 16, 1830 – December 2, 1898) was a Representative of the fifth congressional district of Maryland and a Treasurer of Maryland.<ref name="MSA">{{cite web|url= http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/001500/001545/html/1545extendedbio.html |title=Barnes Compton (1830–1898) Extended Biography |year=2008|publisher=Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series) |location=Annapolis, Maryland|id=MSA SC 3520-1545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27hWTmSDNQkC&dq=barnes+compton+december+2,+1898&pg=PA51|title=Maryland Mortalities, 1876–1915, from the (Baltimore) Sun Almanac|first=Walter E.|last=Arps|date=May 9, 2009|publisher=Heritage Books|isbn=9781585492541 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Early life== Barnes Compton was born on November 16, 1830, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland to Mary Clarissa (née Barnes) and William Penn Compton.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun">{{Cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75264946/mr-compton-is-dead-3-dec-1898-the-bal/ |title=Mr. Compton is Dead |date=1898-12-03 |page=6 |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2021-04-07}}</ref> His parents both died when he was young, and he was raised until 1843 by his grandfather, John Barnes.<ref name="MSA"/> He attended the Charlotte Hall Military Academy in St. Mary's County, Maryland for his formal education, and graduated from Princeton College with a bachelor's degree in June 1851.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun"/> At a young age, he became the second largest slaveholder in Charles County.<ref name="MSA"/>
==Career== After college, Compton returned home and engaged in agricultural pursuits and as a planter. He first ran for the State House of Delegates under the Whig ticket in 1855, but lost.<ref name="MSA"/> He re-ran in 1859 as a Democrat and served as a member of the State House of Delegates in 1860 and 1861.<ref name="MSA"/>
In the 1861 session, held in Frederick, a number of legislative members were suspected of Confederate sympathies and were arrested upon arrival in Frederick. Compton evaded arrest by fleeing across the Potomac. In 1865, Compton was arrested and imprisoned at the Old Capitol under suspicion of aiding and abetting John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln Assassination, but the information was proven false and he was released after four days.<ref name="MSA"/>
He was also a member of the State Senate in 1867, 1868, 1870, and 1872, during the 1868 and 1870 sessions he served as the Senate president in 1868. Compton also served as State Tobacco Inspector in 1873 and 1874 and as Treasurer of Maryland from 1874 to 1885.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun"/>
Compton then moved to Laurel in Prince George's County, Maryland in 1880 and was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth United States Congress (March 4, 1885 – March 3, 1889). He presented credentials as Member-elect to the Fifty-first United States Congress and served from March 4, 1889, to March 20, 1890, when he was succeeded by Sydney E. Mudd, Sr., who contested the election. A committee was appointed to investigate voter fraud and ruled in favor of Mudd.<ref name="MSA"/> Compton was later elected to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third United States Congress and served from March 4, 1891, until his resignation, effective May 15, 1894 when he was then appointed by President Grover Cleveland as Naval Officer of the Port of Baltimore, a post in which he served from 1894 to 1898.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun"/>
Compton taught agriculture at the Maryland Agricultural College. He also sat on the board of trustees for the Charlotte Hall Military Academy, the School Commission of Charles County, and the Maryland Hospital for the Insane. In 1890, he was a cofounder and appointed director of the Citizens National Bank of Laurel.<ref name="baltsun"/> In 1898, he was made president of the Guarantee Building and Loan Association of Baltimore.<ref name="MSA"/>
==Personal life== He married Margaret Holiday Sothoron of St. Mary's County on October 27, 1858.<ref name="baltsun"/> Together, they had four sons and two daughters:<ref name="MSA"/> * John Henry Sothoron Compton * Key Compton * William Penn Compton * Barnes Compton * Mary Barnes Compton * Elizabeth Somerville
He was the great-grandson of Philip Key.<ref name="MSA"/> He was a friend of Arthur Pue Gorman.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun"/>
==Death== Compton died on December 2, 1898, of paralysis in Laurel, Maryland.<ref name="MSA"/> He was interred in Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore.<ref name="MSA"/><ref name="baltsun"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Barnes Compton |sopt=t}} * {{Find a Grave|7529792}}
{{CongBio|C000660}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = Christopher C. Cox | title = President of the Maryland State Senate | years = 1868–1870 | after = Henry Snyder}} {{succession box | before = John W. Davis | title = Treasurer of Maryland | years = 1874—1885 | after = John Sterett Gittings}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{succession box | before=Hart B. Holton | title=Representative of the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland | years=1885—1890 | after=Sydney Emanuel Mudd I}} {{succession box | before=Sydney Emanuel Mudd I | title=Representative of the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland | years=1891—1894 | after=Charles E. Coffin}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Barnes}} Category:1830 births Category:1898 deaths Category:Democratic Party Maryland state senators Category:Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates Category:United States representatives from Maryland Category:State treasurers of Maryland Category:Presidents of the Maryland Senate Category:University of Maryland, College Park faculty Category:People from Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Category:People from Laurel, Maryland Category:United States representatives who owned slaves Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Maryland Whigs Category:Maryland Democrats Category:Electoral fraud in the United States Category:19th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly Category:19th-century United States representatives