John Edwards (Kentucky politician) explained

John Edwards
Jr/Sr1:United States Senator
State1:Kentucky
Term1:June 18, 1792 – March 4, 1795
Predecessor1:Position established
Successor1:Humphrey Marshall
Office2:Member of the Kentucky Senate
Term2:1796–1800
Office3:Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
Term3:1795
Office4:Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
Term4:1781–1783, 1785, 1786
Birth Date:1748
Birth Place:Stafford County, Virginia
Death Place:Paris, Kentucky
Party:Anti-Administration

John Edwards (1748–1837) was an American planter and statesman who played a key role in securing Kentucky statehood, and represented the new state in the United States Senate.

Edwards was born in Stafford County, Virginia, and moved to Fayette County to start a plantation in what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky, around 1780. He represented his county in the Virginia House of Delegates in several years and was part of the commission that determined the borders for Kentucky in 1788. In 1792 he was a delegate to the convention that drafted the first constitution for the new state, and when statehood was accomplished he and John Brown were the first U.S. senators for Kentucky.

After his term as a senator he served in both houses of the state legislature. He died on his plantation and was buried in the family graveyard near Paris, Kentucky.

His sons, Haden Edwards and Benjamin W. Edwards, were land speculators in Texas who led the failed Fredonian Rebellion against Mexican control.