John E. Colhoun
American politician (1749-1802)
John Ewing Colhoun (c. 1749 – October 26, 1802) was a United States senator and lawyer from South Carolina.
Colhoun, was born in Staunton, Virginia, where he attended common schools before graduating from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1774. He was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1778 to 1800. He studied to be a lawyer and was admitted to the bar in 1783, commencing practice in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a farmer and was elected a member of the privy council and was also a commissioner of confiscated estates in 1785.
Origin and family
Colhoun (and Calhoun) is a surname that originated in Ulster to where Colhoun's great-great-great-grandfather Robert Colquhoun migrated from Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, in Scotland. Colhoun was born to Ulster Scots immigrants to colonial America from County Donegal. Colhoun appears to have himself changed his surname from Calhoun to Colhoun.
Colhoun married Floride Bonneau a member of a prominent Charleston, South Carolina, Huguenot family. They had three children: John Ewing Jr.
The public source identifies “John E. Colhoun” as american politician (1749-1802). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Colhoun and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1699879. VIAF identifies the subject as 160222076. The Library of Congress control number is no2010186944. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1749, 1802, 1774 and 1778.
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This entry incorporates text from “John E. Colhoun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.