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Local figure

William Gaston

William Gaston was a trustee of the University of North Carolina from 1802 until his death in 1844, and in June 1832 he gave an oration at the university urging his audience to preserve the Union and condemning slavery. He owned a Craven County plantation and, at his death, over 200 enslaved people.

Source: NCpedia: Gaston, William (Charles H. Bowman Jr., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)

1778–1844 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

4 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 5 works by William Gaston.

Search these 4 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By William Gaston

Address delivered before the Philanthropic and Dialectic Societies at Chapel-Hill, June 20, 1832

Gaston, William · 2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

William Gaston's address to the Philanthropic and Dialectic Societies at Chapel Hill, delivered June 20, 1832 and issued in 2005 as an electronic edition by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill for its Documenting the American South database. Topics include patriotism, secession, the moral aspects of slavery, and the conduct of life pressed on the young men of the university. Part of the collection True and Candid Compositions.

NC Cardinal UNC

Letter from Judge Gaston : explaining how he, a Roman Catholic, could conscientiously hold office under the old Constitution of 1776

Gaston, William, 1778-1844 · 1887 · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

The text of a letter William Gaston wrote to Thomas P. Devereux explaining how he, a Roman Catholic, could conscientiously hold office under the North Carolina constitution of 1776. The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies printed it at Chapel Hill in 1887 from the December number of the North Carolina University Magazine.

UNC

Governors' Papers: Nathaniel Alexander, Correspondence, January 1807

Gaston, William, 1778-1844 · 1807

William Gaston is among the writers in Governor Nathaniel Alexander's letters for January 1807. The 36 images concern Hillsborough and Orange County, among other business.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

University Day -- October 12th, 1877 : cornerstone laid October 12, 1793

Spencer, Cornelia Phillips, 1825-1908; Gaston, William, 1778-1844 · 1877 · University of North Carolina?

Song sheet for University Day at Chapel Hill on October 12, 1877, marking the anniversary of the cornerstone laid on the same date in 1793. The verses are credited to Cornelia Phillips Spencer and William Gaston, and the sheet was printed without music. It deals with the university's anniversaries and with its songs and music.

UNC

Address delivered before the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies, at Chapel Hill, N.C., June 20, 1832

Gaston, William, 1778-1844; Henderson, James M. · 1858 · James M. Henderson

William Gaston's address to the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies at Chapel Hill, delivered June 20, 1832 and printed in 1858 by James M. Henderson. It concerns speeches on duty and the conduct of life, the sort of oration the two student literary societies of the University of North Carolina invited and then published.

UNC

About William Gaston

Willie Person Mangum papers,

Mangum, Willie Person,; Mangum, Arthur,; Mangum, Charity Alston Cain

Personal and political papers of Willie Person Mangum, the Whig senator from Orange County, together with papers of Arthur Mangum and Charity Alston Cain Mangum. Correspondents include Daniel Webster, William A. Graham, David L. Swain, John Chavis and Abraham Lincoln, and other topics include plantations at Hillsborough, the estate called Walnut Hill, state politics, agriculture and education.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Gaston, William, 1778-1844 -- Correspondence.

Library of Congress

Judge Gaston as a literary man

Battle, William H. (William Horn), 1802-1879 · 1860 · North Carolina University Magazine

William H. Battle writing on the literary side of William Gaston, the North Carolina judge who died in 1844. The piece ran in the North Carolina University Magazine for December 1860 and came out separately at Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gaston, William, 1778-1844.

UNC

Memoir of Hon. William Gaston : late a judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina

Manly, Matthias Evans, 1801-1881 · 1860 · Philanthropic and Dialectic Societies

Matthias Evans Manly's memoir of William Gaston, the North Carolina Supreme Court judge who died in 1844. It was detached from the November 1860 North Carolina University Magazine and printed at Chapel Hill for the Philanthropic and Dialectic Societies.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gaston, William, 1778-1844.

UNC

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

  1. William Gaston serves as a trustee of the university William Gaston sat on the university's board of trustees from 1802 until his death in January 1844, some forty-two years.Search the index · NCpedia: Gaston, William (Charles H. Bowman Jr., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
  2. The General Assembly restores the university's escheats The bill passed the House 82 to 35 and the Senate 32 to 23, returning escheated property whose Tennessee land warrants later became the university's endowment. Maurice Moore, one of the first students, was among its strongest advocates. People: Benjamin Smith, William GastonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 139
  3. Students move into the finished South Building Subscriptions Caldwell gathered on tours of the state in 1809 and 1811, about $8,220, let contractor John Close finish the Main Building begun in 1798. Students moved in during 1814. People: Joseph Caldwell, John Haywood, William GastonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 134
  4. Trustees meet in emergency session over the university's debts With debts of about $37,500 and only some 82 paying students, a special meeting of trustees at Chapel Hill on June 21, 1830 called the whole board to Raleigh on July 19. There a committee under James Iredell reported on the finances, and the board adopted a memorial drawn by Thomas Ruffin asking the General Assembly for relief. People: Joseph Caldwell, Willie P. Mangum, Thomas Ruffin, William GastonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 326
  5. The Institute of Education names Gaston to a committee to petition the legislature on popular education At its second meeting, held during the 1832 commencement, the North Carolina Institute of Education voted to memorialize the General Assembly on popular education and named William Gaston, Frederick Nash and David L. Swain to the committee. People: Frederick Nash, David L. SwainSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 346
  6. Trustees name the new chapel Gerrard Hall The trustees sold Major Charles Gerrard's 2,560-acre service tract in Tennessee for $6,400, voted $2,000 of it toward finishing the new chapel that had stood unfinished since about 1824, and resolved that the building be known forever as Gerrard Hall in his memory. People: George E. Badger, William Polk, William GastonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 350
  7. Duncan Cameron gives his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people Duncan Cameron deeded his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people, with any children the women would bear: Gabriel, Mima, Simeon and Sarah in Orange County, and families at the Mill Quarter plantation in Person County, among them Phillip and Jenny and their children Randol, Jim, Ellen, Nancy and Phill. Cameron acknowledged the deed before Justice William Gaston at Raleigh on January 1, 1835. People: Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, William GastonOrange County Deed Book 26, p. 184 (Register of Deeds images read 2026-10-01); abstract in the Register of Deeds' slave records
  8. A trustee committee under William Gaston makes the faculty's liquor rule a university by-law In 1837 the faculty made it a dismissable offence to bring liquor into the college buildings or to be publicly drunk. A trustee committee chaired by William Gaston recommended that the rule become a by-law of the university.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 435
  9. Frederick Nash of Hillsborough is appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court Nash was named to the Supreme Court in 1844, following William Gaston's death. Eight years later his colleagues made him Chief Justice. People: William GastonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 90
  10. University trustees name the burying ground the College Graveyard After Judge William Gaston died in 1844, faculty members asked the trustees for a separate burying ground in sight of the campus for eminent men of the university, starting with Gaston's body brought from Raleigh. The trustees let the petition lapse and in June 1845 named the existing ground the College Graveyard instead. People: William GastonSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 17

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as William Gaston, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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