List of United States political families (C)


The following is an alphabetical list of political families in the United States whose last name begins with C.

The Cabaniss and McRaes

NOTE: Lambert Cadwalader was also brother-in-law of Continental Congressional Delegate Samuel Meredith.

The Cadys

NOTE: S. S. Calhon was also son of Kentucky State Representative George Calhoon.

The Calhouns and Pickens

NOTE: Matthew C. Butler was also son of U.S. Representative William Butler, grandson of U.S. Representative William Butler, nephew of U.S. Senator Andrew Pickens Butler and South Carolina Governor Pierce M. Butler, first cousin of Rhode Island legislator James DeWolf Perry, and first cousin by marriage of U.S. diplomat August Belmont.

The Calls and Collins

NOTE: Wilkinson Call was also cousin of U.S. Senator James D. Walker.

The Calverts

NOTE: Cecilius Calvert was also Governor of Newfoundland Colony. Benedict Calvert was also a member of the British Parliament for Harwich. Cecilius and Leonard Calvert's father, George, was Proprietor of the Province of Avalon. Benedict Calvert's great-great-great-granddaughter, Mary Anna Custis Lee, was also step-great-granddaughter of U.S. President George Washington and connected to the Lee family.

The Camachos

NOTE: J. Donald Cameron was also nephew-in-law of U.S. Secretary of State and of the Treasury John Sherman and U.S. Secretary of War William Tecumseh Sherman. J.G. Bradley was also grandson of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley and grandson-in-law of U.S. Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard, Sr..

The Camdens

NOTE: Allen D. Candler and Milton A. Candler were also second cousins once removed of U.S. Representative Mark Anthony Cooper and third cousins once removed of U.S. Senator Joseph Meriwether Terrell. Milton A. Candler was also son-in-law of U.S. Representative Charles Murphey.

The Candlers of Georgia

NOTE: Edward C. Carrington, Jr. was also grandson of U.S. Attorney Edward Carrington.

The Carrolls

The Carrolls of Maryland were a very active family during the early history of the United States
NOTE: James Monroe was also nephew of Continental Congressional Delegate Joseph Jones, distant cousin of Kentucky Secretary of State Thomas Monroe.

The Carterets

The Caseys are a family originally from New York City, but settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania after World War II.
See Celebrezze family

The Chafees

NOTE: See also The Lippitts.

The Chaffees and Grants

NOTE: Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. was also son of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and brother of U.S. Minister Frederick Dent Grant.

The Chalmers

NOTE: Fredrick Hale was also cousin of U.S. Representative Robert Hale, who was the son of District Court Judge Clarence Hale.

The Chandlers of Tennessee

NOTE: Dudley Chase was also uncle of U.S. Representative Dudley C. Denison. William Sprague was also the nephew of U.S. Senator William Sprague III. William Sprague was also a distant cousin to Oregon Governor Charles A. Sprague.

The Chavezes and Tristanis

NOTE: Edward S. Cheatham was also son-in-law of U.S. Senator Ephraim Hubbard Foster.

The Cheathams and Whites

Notes: Matthew Lyon's second wife was Beulah Chittenden, the daughter of Thomas Chittenden and sister of Martin Chittenden.
The first wife of Governor Jonas Galusha was Mary Chittenden, daughter of Thomas Chittenden and sister of Martin Chittenden.
United States Senator Willis Benson Machen was married to Margaret A. Lyon, the daughter of Chittenden Lyon. In addition to being the son-in-law of Chittenden Lyon, he was the grandfather of Zelda Fitzgerald.

The Choates

See Claiborne-Dallas-Pell family

The Clancys

NOTE: William F. Ramsey, Texas Supreme Court justice, was the father-in-law of Tom C. Clark and the grandfather of Ramsey Clark.

The Clarks of Georgia and Texas

NOTE: Joel B. Clark was also son-in-law of Democratic National Committeeman Wilbur W. Marsh.

The Clarks of Mississippi

NOTE: Matthew Clay was also second cousin by marriage of U.S. Representative Robert Williams, U.S. Representative Marmaduke Williams, U.S. Representative Archibald Henderson, and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Leonard Henderson. Clay was also cousin by marriage of U.S. Senator John Williams and U.S. Representative Lewis Williams and granduncle of U.S. Senator Thomas Clay McCreery. James B. Clay was also related by marriage to U.S. Senator John Breckinridge, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and U.S. Senator William Grayson.

The Clays of Missouri

NOTE: Alfred Cumming was also great-grandson-in-law of Continental Congressional Delegate Samuel Adams.

The Claypools and Petersons

DeWitt Clinton was also brother-in-law of U.S. Representative Ambrose Spencer.
Matthias B. Tallmadge was also brother of U.S. Representative and Lieutenant Governor James Tallmadge Jr.

The Clintons, Rodhams, Lockharts, Boxers and Mezvinskys

Note: Bill Clinton is not related to the Clinton family of New York. He is, however, third cousin twice removed of Congressman James A. Lockhart. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Hugh Rodham's brother, Anthony, is also former son-in-law of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. William and Hillary's daughter, Chelsea, is also daughter-in-law of U.S. Representatives Edward Mezvinsky and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky.

The Cliffords

NOTE: Thomas R.R. Cobb was also the son-in-law of Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin. Andrew C. Erwin was also brother-in-law of Athens, Georgia Mayor Robert L. McWhorter.

The Coburns

NOTE: Andrew Stevenson was also grandson-in-law of Continental Congressional Delegate Carter Braxton.

The Colemans of Minnesota

The Colliers are one of the founding families of Atlanta, Georgia and heavily influenced politics in that area in the 19th century. The family shares striking resemblances to the highly romanticized and fictional O'Hara family in "Gone With the Wind.". The Wilkes family, Scarlett's unattainable love interest, may be cousins to the Mitchells since her family line hails from Wilkes County, and they were an actual, prominent secessionist family. The author, Margaret Mitchell, is a relation to the Collier family and to the author of this article. I don't have a source, but I believe a Harris relative made a trip from Atlanta after it was burned in a wagon, as Scarlett does. The book is controversial in its treatment of race. Mitchell was herself a philanthropist in the African-American community and a member of a racially progressive family that would have personally faced significant ethnic discrimination and even violence from the second reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan based out of her hometown of Atlanta at the time of her book's publication, making most modern interpretations, at best, muddled.
The Colliers were a specific target of General Sherman in the politically decisive Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea since they owned much of downtown Atlanta, including the railroads and military industrial facilities supplying the Confederate Army. Sherman destroyed most of Atlanta after a nearly year-long campaign, securing Lincoln's re-election. The city was defended by cousin, General William J. Hardee, and a Collier fought in the famous Atlanta Sharp Shooters. Sherman spared some of Atlanta, especially those churches and properties belonging to Irish Catholics, since many of his own troops were Irish Catholic themselves. The Colliers heavily intermarried with prominent Irish Catholic families before and after the war, including the Carroll family of Maryland, mentioned in the film. Although this would become a political liability along with likely their ownership of railroads following the rise of several powerful Conservative, Protestant Scots-Irish and populist political movements in the Deep South, the family has remained economically and socially powerful. Scalawag politicians who used the political vacuum of Reconstruction for personal graft and political expediency were a true problem. The railroads of Atlanta were rebuilt before the Georgia Constitutional Convention and before the implementation of martial law under Radial Reconstruction in 1867 from the Colliers' extended family finances, although it did not prevent political attacks. Today the family runs Collier International, a successful real estate brokerage.
The Colliers are partly descended from the Pierce and Harrison families with whom the family has intermarried dozens of times, as well as other very important political families. See also, note to African-American ancestry researchers at the bottom.
Thomas Pierce Mass Bay Colony. Constable. Fence Viewer. Commissioner of the Court.
Thomas Pierce is the son of Sir Richard Carew
The Bushes are second cousins through former first lady Barbara Pierce Bush.
Lewis P. Peirce moved to Oglethorpe County, Georgia with his wife Ann Wooten in the 1790s. He served in the Revolutionary War under guerrilla fighter Francis Marion, "the swamp fox", and commander Nathaniel Greene to whom the family is related. The Pierces married into the "Cotton–Taylor–Perry" family in and around Bertie, County and Halifax, North Carolina. Grace5 Harrell died before 1805 and married John Pearce. They had one child, Simon Pearce. The Pierces, Colliers, and Harrisons intermarried with several local prominent families throughout NC, including the Boyds and Grays of Winston-Salem..
Following the Civil War, his direct descendants, Andrew Jackson Weeks, son of Gasanawy Fleming and Martha Harrison, married Nancy Pierce, daughter of Frank Pierce and Nancy Mims about 1870 in Lowery, AL, named for the Lowerys, although branches of the family are known to have already been living in Alabama and Mississippi and fought in the War of 1812, such as General Nathaniel Taylor. Andrew Jackson Weeks is the descendant of Mary Pope and Joseph Weeks of Pope Creek, near the childhood home of President George Washington. A relation to the famous Texas politician Andrew Jackson Weeks whose family also migrated from Georgia around the same time is likely, but they are not the same person.
William Collier of the Plymouth Colony. Assistant Governor 1634/5–1665. Council of War. Commissioner of the United Colonies, a New England colonies military alliance primarily for defense against Indian attack. Representative of the newly originated "Undertakers" to the colony debt 1626. The descendants of Margery Pierce, daughter of Thomas Pierce married with the original Colliers, Greens and Butlers.
Issac Collier moved from London to Brunswick County, Virginia around 1650 in the vicinity of Halifax County, North Carolina. Charles Collier married Judith, daughter of John Myhill.
Charles Colliers son, Isaac Collier, Jr. married Ann Vines and moved to Oglethorpe, Georgia near Atlanta from North Carolina.
Note: The Harrison Family of Virginia includes many notable political figures, including George Washington, Richard Bland, Peyton Randolph, David Meriwether and Thomas Jefferson, among others.
Note:
Vines Collier, Jr. named his 13th child Cuthbert S., suggesting the connection is by marriage via his wife Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Williamson and the unknown mother. A name change by Cuthbert Collier's descendants is a popular speculation, although it seems incorrect. Benjamin Williamson's brother is Cuthbert Williamson. The Harrison family is documented to frequently have used the name Cuthbert since the 17th century, as well, therefore Cuthbert in this case likely signifies a given name. The families are connected through the marriages of William Adams and Elizabeth Fendin, who later married Daniel John Greene and more closely, his son, Nathaniel Adams who married Margaret Ellis in 1744. The Adams originated in Massachusetts and are related to ***Presidents John Adams and ***John Quincy Adams. The Cuthberts were especially politically active around the time of the American Revolution.
Related Colliers:
The Colliers are an influential family in the current politics of Ohio and Michigan. The relationship exists, but some may be related to the family who also writes the political magazine Collier's.

The Collinses

NOTE: James H. Blount, Jr. was also son of U.S. Representative James H. Blount.

The Comptons and Keys

NOTE: George Hunt Pendleton was also son of U.S. Representative Nathanael Greene Pendleton.

The Comstocks and Russells

NOTE: Roscoe Conkling was also son-in-law of New York Assemblyman Henry Seymour and brother-in-law of New York Governor Horatio Seymour.

The Connallys of Texas

See Conway and Sevier family

The Conys

NOTE: Ninian W. Edwards was also brother-in-law of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and his daughter, Julia, was daughter-in-law of U.S. Representative David J. Baker. Daniel Pope Cook was nephew of U.S. Senator John Pope and U.S. Representative Nathaniel Pope.

The Cooks, and Thometzes

NOTE: David Thometz's aunt, Teresa Woodward, married Michael Brockbank Snow, the nephew of Utah State Senator Karl Snow.

The Cookerlys, Hughes, and McLeans

NOTE: Calvin Coolidge was also a distant relative of Vermont Governor Carlos Coolidge. Calvin Coolidge's son, John, was also son-in-law of Connecticut Governor John H. Trumbull.

The Coolidges of Massachusetts

Note: Alonzo B. Cornell's son, Charles Ezra, was also son-in-law of New York Assemblyman Charles C. Bouck.
Note: Other US political figures which descend from Thomas Cornell include Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, William Ellery, and Bob Graham, among others.

The Cornings

NOTE: Samuel Cranston was also nephew of Rhode Island Colony Governor Walter Clarke.

The Cranstons of Rhode Island

Note:John J. Crittenden's second wife was Maria Knox Todd, the daughter of District Judge Harry Innes.

The Crocherons

NOTE: David S. Crockett is also grandfather of Portia Rebecca Crockett, who is former sister-in-law of California State Senator Thomas Hayden.

The Crocketts of Michigan

NOTE: Andrew Cuomo is also former son-in-law of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Chris Cuomo is a reporter from CNN.

The Curleys

NOTE: Abraham Cuyler was also son-in-law Albany, New York Mayor Jan Jansen Bleecker and brother-in-law of Albany, New York Mayors John Bleecker and Rutger Bleecker. Isaac Low was also brother of New York Assemblyman Nicholas Low.