Charles T. Botts

Candidate Biography:

Charles Tyler Botts
Born: 1809 in Spottsylvania County, Virginia
Married: Margaret Frances Marshall (in 1830)
Children: Horace Marshall, Charles Tyler Jr., Elizabeth, Benjamin Gaines, and John Minor
Family: Son of Benjamin Botts, Brother of John Minor Botts (Virginia Congressman)
Died: October 4, 1884 in San Francisco, CA

1849: Delegate, First California Constitutional Convention (representing Monterey District)
1857-1860: Justice, Sixth Judicial District

• Botts was the son of Benjamin Botts, defense attorney for Aaron Burr during his treason and conspiracy trial. Benjamin is the namesake of the Weems-Botts Museum (in Dumfries, Virginia). His brother, Jonathan Minor Botts, was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1833-1839), a Member of Congress from Virginia (1839-1843, 1847-1849) and, similarly to his brother, a member of the 1850 Virginia Constitutional Convention.
• During the 1849 Constitutional Convention, Botts argued against allowing women to own property independent from her husband; "The only despotism on earth that I would advocate, is the despotism of the husband. There must be a head and there must be a master in every household; and I believe this plan by which you propose to make the wife independent of the huband, is contrary to the laws and provisions of nature - contrary to all the wisdom which we have derived from experience. This doctrine of woman's rights, is the doctrine of those mental hermaphrodites, Abby Folsom, Fanny Wright, and the rest of that tribe."

Source: History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 by Winfield J. Davis
Source: Governmental Roster, 1889. State and County Governments of California by W. C. Hendricks
Source: California Blue Book (1924)