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Robert Desha
Robert Desha
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Tennessee's 5th district
	In office; March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1831
Preceded by	Robert Allen
Succeeded by	William Hall
Personal details
Born	January 14, 1791; Gallatin, Southwest Territory
Died	February 6, 1849 (aged 58); Mobile, Alabama
Political party	Jacksonian
Spouse	Eleanor Shelby; (m. 1820; died 1833)
Relations	Joseph Desha (brother); Alva Belmont (granddaughter)
Children	Caroline Desha, Phoebe Ann Desha
Profession	Merchant, politician

Robert Desha (January 14, 1791 – February 6, 1849) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 5th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Early life

Desha was born near Gallatin in the Southwest Territory on January 14, 1791, to Robert Desha and Elinor Wheeler. He was the brother of U.S. Representative and Kentucky governor Joseph Desha.^[1]

He attended the public schools and engaged in mercantile business at Gallatin.^[1] He owned slaves.^[2]

Career

On March 12, 1812, Desha was appointed as a captain in the Twenty-fourth Regiment of the United States Infantry in the War of 1812. He also served as a brevet major before being honorably discharged on June 15, 1815.^[3]

Elected as a Jacksonian to the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses, Desha served from March 4, 1827, to March 3, 1831.^[4] He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1830 for the Twenty-second Congress, moved to Mobile, Alabama and continued to engage in mercantile pursuits there.^[1]

Personal life

In 1820, Desha was married to Eleanor "Nellie" Shelby (1799–1833), a daughter of David Shelby and Sally (née Bledsoe) Shelby. Together, they were the parents of:^[5]

Phoebe Ann Desha (1821–1871), who married Murray Forbes Smith (1814–1875).^[6]^[7]
Caroline Lula Desha (1828–1876), who married John Hindman Barney (1811–1853). After his death, she married James Lloyd Abbot (1827–1883) in 1857.^[8]

After her death in 1833, Ellen Porter (1815–1889), a daughter of James Porter and Eliza Porter (née French) Farquharson.^[9]

Desha died in Mobile on February 6, 1849, aged 58 years old. He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery.^[10]

Descendants

Through his daughter Phoebe, he was a grandfather of Mary Virginia "Jennie" Smith (who married the Cuban American banker Fernando Yznaga)^[11] and Alva Erskine Smith, who married William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1875. They divorced in 1895 and she remarried to Oliver Belmont in 1896 and remained married until his death in 1908. She was the mother of three children; Consuelo Vanderbilt (later the Duchess of Marlborough following her marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough), William Kissam Vanderbilt II, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt.^[12]^[13] Through his granddaughter Alva, he is an ancestor of the 10th, 11th and 12th Dukes of Marlborough.^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "DESHA, Robert (1791-1849)". bioguideretro.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
^ "Congress slaveowners", The Washington Post, January 13, 2022, retrieved July 7, 2022
^ "Robert Desha". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ "Robert Desha". Govtrack US Congress. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ Pilgrims, National Society Sons and Daughters of the (1988). Lineages of Members of the National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims: To January 1, 1929. Genealogical Pub. Co. p. 560. ISBN 9780806312088. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
^ Patterson, Jerry E. The Vanderbilts., pages 120–121. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. ISBN 0-8109-1748-3
^ Iversen, Kristen (1999). Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth. Big Earth Publishing. p. 1888. ISBN 978-1-55566-237-0. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
^ Supreme Court, Appellate Division- First Department. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
^ Brown, William and Margaret (Peggy Flemming), Descendants of: (Especially No. 50, Col. Joseph Brown, 1772-1868, the Principal Source of Our Early Genealogy). H.H. Rugeley. 1983. p. 397. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
^ "Robert Desha". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ "Well-Known People Married.; Miss Mary V. Smith Wedded to Fernando Yznaga at W.k. Vanderbilt's". The New York Times. September 23, 1880. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont Dies at Paris Home". The New York Times. January 26, 1933. Retrieved December 9, 2010. Shock Suffered Last Spring. Complicated by Bronchial and Heart Ailments. Society Leader was 80. Former Wife of W. K. Vanderbilt. Long Held Sway in New York and in Newport Colony
^ "Mrs. Belmont Dies at 80 in Paris Home". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 26, 1933. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, leader of New York's '400' for a period of many years before and after the turn of the century, died today at her residence here. She was 80 years old. ...