Henry Bedinger III (February 3, 1812 – November 26, 1858) was an American planter, politician, lawyer and diplomat. Born in the part of Virginia that became West Virginia not long after his death, he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Virginia's 10th congressional district, then became the first United States minister to Denmark. His uncle was fellow planter, soldier and Kentucky congressman George Michael Bedinger.
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Early and family life
Born near Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), he was the fourth of five sons and twelfth of 13 children born to the former Sarah Rutherford (daughter of the lower Shenandoah Valley's first congressman) and her husband Daniel Bedinger. Although his father died when Henry Bedinger was young, he received a private education appropriate to his class at private academies in Shepardstown and across the Potomac River in Frederick, Maryland. When he turned 18 years old, he received a job as assistant clerk in the Hampshire County, Virginia clerk's office at Romney. His grandfather, the first Henry Bedinger (1729-1772) had emigrated from the Alsace region. His uncles Major Henry Bedinger (1753-1843) and George M. Bedinger had fought as patriots in the American Revolutionary War, with Henry Bedinger then briefly representing Berkeley County part-time in the Virginia House of Delegates, as well as owned one slave in the 1787 tax census for Berkeley County, and helped found the town of Meckenburg in 1794 (which became Shepherdstown). When about twenty, this Henry Bedinger moved to the Jefferson county seat, Charles Town, and began reading law under the supervision of his brother-in-law William Lucas.