William Richardson Davie

The lifetime contributions of William Richardson Davie 1756-1820 are exemplary. His biography is a personal glimpse into the significant history that molded the United States. WR Davie was an American Revolutionary War Hero, a framer of the US Constitution, founder of the first state university, (UNC-CH), and the 10th Governor of North Carolina. In 1792, he was elected a grandmaster of Grand Lodge of Freemasons of North Carolina. During the time when horse racing was the most popular spectator sport, Davie was owner of the famous racehorse, Sir Archie.

Davie emigrated from England at an early age with his Scottish Presbyterian parents to the Waxhaws region along the borders of North and South Carolina and was educated by a staunch Presbyterian minister uncle. The struggle for independence from England influenced Davie to interrupt his studies and join the militia in the Waxhaws. The ambush-type fighting led Lord Cornwallis to note that this area around Charlotte was a ＂hornet’s nest of rebellion.＂

After the war, Davie married a daughter of a general and moved to Halifax, NC where he established his law practice. He was an ardent Federalist, contributing to the framing and ratification of the US Constitution. When he was forty-eight years old, he lost a congressional election due to the Democratic-Republican influences of Thomas Jefferson and subsequently decided to retire to his South Carolina plantation but continued to serve, being tasked with resolution of border dispute between NC and SC and with negotiation of land treaties with Native Americans. Davie died at age 64 and is buried at the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church where his uncle was previously minister.

Blackwell Pierce Robinson (1916-1991), a member of the History Department at UNC Greensboro for many years, wrote the definitive biography of William Richardson Davie using original letters and personal documents which was originally published in 1957 by the University of North Carolina Press.