HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James, published 
1847.  Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, pp. 214-216 
[Fayette county].

The Honorable JOHN BRECKINRIDGE, [for whom this county was named], was 
the second son of Colonel Robert Breckinridge, of Augusta county, 
Virginia, and was born on a farm, upon a part of which the town of 
Staunton now stands, on the 2d day of December, 1760.  His paternal 
ancestors were what were then called "Scotch Irish," that is, they were 
Presbyterians - from the north of Ireland, immediately - but originally 
from Scotland.  After the restoration of Charles II., they were hotly 
persecuted in Ayreshire, the original seat, and being driven out from 
thence, spent half a century in the highlands of Breadalbane, and 
removed thence to Ireland, and early in the last century to Virginia; a 
portion of the persecuted remnant of the Scotch Covanters, who suffered 
so long and so heriocally for liberty and the reformed religion.  His 
paternal and maternal grand fathers both lie buried in the grave yard of 
the Tinkling Springs congregation, in the county of Augusta, of which 
both of them were ruling elders.  His mother, Lettice Preston, was the 
oldest child of John Preston and Elizabeth Patton, and was the second 
wife of his father.  General James Breckinridge, of Virginia, was his 
younger, and a full brother; General Robert Breckinridge, of Kentucky, 
was his elder, and a half brother.
	At a very early age, he was carried by his father to the 
neighborhood of Fincastle, in Bottetourt county, Virginia, whither he 
removed, and where he died, when his son was about eleven years of age; 
leaving a widow, and seven children, in circumstances which we should 
now consider narrow; and exposed, upon what was then almost the extreme 
limit of the white settlements, to all the dangers of an Indian 
frontier; and this only a few years before the commencement of our long 
and bloody struggle for National Independence, which was ended about the 
time the subject of this notice arrived at man's estate.
	Raised in the midst of dangers, hardships, and privations; the 
tradition of his family replete only with tales of suffering and exile, 
for conscience sake; and a widowed mother and orphan family - of which 
he became the head at the age of early boyhood - the objects of his 
constant care; it is by no means strange that his powerful character and 
uncommon talents, should have been early and remarkably developed.  A 
calm, simple, correct man - gentle to those he loved - stern and open to 
those he could not trust - always true, always brave, always self 
dependent, it is just in such a way, that such circumstances would mould 
[sic] and develop such a nature as his.  But it not so easy to ascertain 
how it was, that in his circumstances, there should have been implanted 
in him, from earliest childhood, a thirst for knowledge that seemed to 
the end of his life, insatiable; nor could anything less than the 
highest mental endowments, directed with energy that never flagged, 
explain the extent, the variety, and the richness of the acquisitions 
which he was enabled to make.  His education, both preparatory and 
professional, was privately conducted, and so far as is now known, 
chiefly without other aid than books, except about two years, which he 
spent at the college of William and Mary, in Virginia.  During the 
latter part of his attendance at this ancient seat of learning, and when 
he was about nineteen years of age, he was elected to the Virginia house 
of burgesses, from the county of Bottetourt, without his having even 
suspected that such a matter was in agitation.  On account of his youth, 
the election was twice set aside, and it was only on the third return, 
and against his own wishes and remonstrances, that he took his seat.  
From this time to the period of his death, he lived constantly, as a 
lawyer and a statesman, in the public eye.
	In the year 1785 he married Mary Hopkins Cabell, a daughter of 
Colonel Joseph Cabell, of Buckingham county, Virginia; and settled in 
the county of Albemarle, and practised law in that region of Virginia, 
until the year 1793, in the spring of which he removed to Kentucky, and 
settled in Lexington; near to which place, at "Cabell's Dale," in the 
county of Fayette, he resided till the period of his death, which 
occurred on the 14th of December, 1806, when he had just completed his 
46th year.
	As a lawyer, no man of his day excelled him, and very few could be 
compared with him.  Profoundly acquainted with his profession, highly 
gifted as a public speaker, laborious and exact in the performance of 
all his professional duties and engagements - these great qualities, 
united to his exalted private character, gave him a position at the bar, 
which few men ever attained, or ever deserved; and, enabled him, besides 
the great distinction he acquired, to accumulate a large fortune.  An 
event extremely characteristic attended the disposition of his estate:  
for on his death bed, he absolutely refused to make a will, saying that 
he had done his best to have such provisions made by law for the 
distribution of estates, as seemed to him wise and just, and he would 
adhere to it for his own family.  At the end of forty years, it is not 
unworthy to be recorded, that his wisdom and foresight, in this 
remarkable transaction, did not lose their reward.
	As a statesman, very few men of his generation occupied a more 
commanding position, or mingled more controllingly with all the great 
questions of the day; and not one enjoyed a more absolute popularity, or 
maintained a more spotless reputation.  He took a leading, perhaps a 
decisive part in all the great questions of a local character that 
agitated Kentucky, from 1793 to 1806, and whose settlement still exerts 
a controlling influence upon the character of her people and 
institutions.  The constitution of 1798-99, which is still preserved 
unaltered, was more the work of his hands than of any one single man.  
The question of negro slavery, as settled in that constitution, upon a 
middle and moderate ground, - the ground which Kentucky still occupies - 
the systematizing, to some extent, the civil and criminal codes - the 
simplification of the land law - the law of descents - the penitentiary 
system - the abolition of the punishment of death, except for willful 
murder and treason - all these, and many other important subjects, of a 
kindred nature, fell under his moulding [sic] labors at the forming 
period of the commonwealth, and remain still nearly as they were 
adjusted half a century ago. In those vital questions that involved the 
destiny of the whole west, and threatened the plan if not the 
continuance of the Union itself, no man took an earlier or more decided 
stand.  It is capable of proof, that the free navigation of the 
Mississippi river, and subsequently the purchase of Louisiana (which 
latter act, though it covered Mr. Jefferson with glory, he hesitated to 
perform, upon doubts both as to its policy and constitutionality), were 
literally forced upon the general government by demonstrations from the 
west, in which the mind and the hand of this great patriot and far-
sighted statesman were conspicuous above all.
	As a statesman, however, he is best known as one of the leading 
men - perhaps in the west, the undoubted leader of the old democratic 
party; which came into power with Mr. Jefferson, as president, under 
whose administration he was made attorney-general of the United States.  
He was an ardent friend, personal and political, of Mr. Jefferson; he 
coincided with him upon the great principles of the old democracy; he 
concerted with him and Mr. Madison, and others of kindred views, the 
movements which brought the democratic party into power; he supported 
the interests of that party with pre-eminent ability, in the legislature 
of Kentucky, and in the senate of the United States; and died as much 
beloved, honored and trusted by it, as any man he left behind.  Some 
twenty years after his death, it began to be whispered, and then to be 
intimated in a few newspapers, that the Kentucky resolutions of 1798-9, 
which he offered, and which was the first great movement against the 
alien and sedition laws - and the general principles of the party that 
passed them, were in fact the production of Mr. Jefferson himself, and 
not of John Breckinridge; and it is painful to reflect that Mr. 
Jefferson did certainly connive at this mean calumny upon the memory of 
his friend.  The family of Mr. Breckinridge have constantly asserted 
that their father was the sole and true author of these resolutions, and 
constantly defied the production of proof to the contrary; and there 
seems to be no question that they were right.
	In stature, John Breckinridge was above the middle size of men; 
tall, slender and muscular; a man of great power and noble appearance.  
He had very clear gray eyes, and brown hair, inclining to a slight shade 
of red.  He was extremely grave and silent in his ordinary intercourse; 
a man singularly courteous and gentle, and very tenderly loved by those 
who knew him.  HIs family consisted of nine children; two of them only, 
with their venerable widow, still live; but his descendants are 
numerous, both of his own and other names.

Breckinridge Preston Patton Cabell Jefferson Madison
=
Staunton-Augusta-VA Ireland Scotland Fincastle-Bottetourt-VA Buckingham-
VA Albemarle-VA LA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/breckinridge.j.txt