William Richardson Davie
1756 - 1820
One of the eight delegates born outside of the thirteen colonies, Davie was born
in Egremont, Cumberlandshire, England, on June 20, 1756. In 1763 Archibald Davie
brought his son William to Waxhaw, SC, where the boy's maternal uncle, William
Richardson, a Presbyterian clergyman, adopted him. Davie attended Queen's Museum
College in Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from the College of New
Jersey (later Princeton) in 1776. Davie's law studies in Salisbury, NC, were interrupted by military service,
but he won his license to practice before county courts in 1779 and in the
superior courts in 1780. When the War for Independence broke out, he helped
raise a troop of cavalry near Salisbury and eventually achieved the rank of
colonel. While attached to Pulaski's division, Davie was wounded leading a
charge at Stono, near Charleston, on June 20, 1779. Early in 1780 he raised
another troop and operated mainly in western North Carolina. In January 1781
Davie was appointed commissary-general for the Carolina campaign. In this
capacity he oversaw the collection of arms and supplies to Gen. Nathanael
Greene's army and the state militia.
After the war, Davie embarked on his career as a lawyer, traveling the
circuit in North Carolina. In 1782 he married Sarah Jones, the daughter of his
former commander, Gen. Allen Jones, and settled in Halifax. His legal knowledge
and ability won him great respect, and his presentation ofarguments was admired.
Between 1786 and 1798 Davie represented Halifax in the North Carolina
legislature. There he was the principal agent behind that body's actions to
revise and codify state laws, send representatives to the Annapolis
and Philadelphia conventions, cede Tennessee to the Union, and fix disputed
state boundaries.
During the Constitutional Convention Davie favored plans for a strong central
government. He was a member of the committee that considered the question of
representation in Congress and swung the North Carolina delegation's vote in
favor of the Great
Compromise. He favored election of senators and presidential electors by the
legislature and insisted on counting slaves in determining representation.
Though he left the convention on August 13, before its adjournment, Davie fought
hard for the Constitution's
ratification and took a prominent part in the North Carolina convention.
The political and military realms were not the only ones in which Davie left
his mark. The University of North Carolina, of which he was the chief founder,
stands as an enduring reminder of Davie's interest in education. Davie selected
the location, instructors, and a curriculum that included the literary and
social sciences as well as mathematics and classics. In 1810 the trustees
conferred upon him the title of "Father of the University" and in the
next year granted him the degree of Doctor of Laws.
Davie became Governor of North Carolina in 1798. His career also turned back
briefly to the military when President
John Adams appointed him a brigadier general in the U.S. Army that same
year. Davie later served as a peace commissioner to France in 1799.
Davie stood as a candidate for Congress in 1803 but met defeat. In 1805,
after the death of his wife, Davie retired from politics to his plantation,
"Tivoli," in Chester County, South Carolina. In 1813 he declined an
appointment as major-general from President Madison. Davie was 64 years old when
he died on November 29, 1820, at "Tivoli," and he was buried in the
Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Churchyard in northern Lancaster County.