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Local figure

Hugh Williamson

Hugh Williamson of Chowan County, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, was one of the 25 trustees who met at Hillsborough in August 1792 and chose by ballot to place the University of North Carolina within fifteen miles of Cyprett's Bridge in Chatham County. He later served as secretary of the board of trustees from 1795 to 1801.

Source: Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, Vol. 1 (1907)

1735–1819 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

6 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 2 works by Hugh Williamson.

Hugh Williamson
Hugh Williamson

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 Hugh Williamson

Governor Alexander Martin (2nd Administration) Correspondence: March 6-December 26, 1790

Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819 · 1790

Hugh Williamson is among the correspondents in Governor Alexander Martin's letters from 6 March to 26 December 1790, during his second administration. County boundaries are a recurring matter, and the 33 images touch Anson, Cumberland, Granville, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Orange counties.

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

Governors' Papers: Samuel Johnston, Correspondence, March 1789

Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819 · 1789

Hugh Williamson, one of North Carolina's delegates in Congress, writes in these March 1789 letters of Governor Samuel Johnston. The 18 images also concern the State of Franklin and the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations, with Hillsborough among the places named.

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

About Hugh Williamson

Session of December 1793-January 1794: House Committee Reports

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1793

Committee reports of the North Carolina House of Commons, December 1793 to January 1794, 91 images. They open with the memorial of John Taylor and the petition of William Taylor before the Committee of Privileges and Elections, and a rejected petition from Randolph County residents. Rivers and navigation, elections, lawyers, ferries and the University of North Carolina recur, with the Haw River among the waterways.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819.

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

Session of December 1793-January 1794: Petitions (Real and Confiscated property)

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1793

Petitions and memorials on real and confiscated property sent to the General Assembly in its December 1793 to January 1794 session, 53 images. Petitioners include James Gammill, William Thornton, Dr. Jeremiah Nelson, Francis McCorkel and James Fletcher. Granville grants, Cherokee and Chickasaw lands, estates and enslaved people figure in the papers.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819.

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

Session of November-December 1789: Joint Select Committees: Reports and papers, December 3 - December 14

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1789

Reports and papers of joint select committees of the General Assembly, 3 to 14 December 1789. They include a report on warrants drawn for Colonel Alexander Outlaw's guard station on the Tennessee River and one on a petition of Timothy Riggs, Rutherford County surveyor. Orange is among the counties named. Seventy-seven images.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819.

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

Governors' Papers: Samuel Johnston, Correspondence, August 1788

Stokes, Montfort, 1762-1842 · 1788

August 1788 papers of Governor Samuel Johnston, 42 images. Montfort Stokes, Hugh Williamson, Richard Winn and Charles Thomson are among the correspondents. Relations with the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek peoples and the State of Franklin run through the month, and Hillsborough is named.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819.

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

House Joint Resolutions: May 1-17, 1783

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1783

House joint resolutions of May 1 to 17, 1783, from the Assembly's Hillsborough session. They settle what was owed to Samuel Johnston and Whitmell Hill, former delegates to Congress, review the court-martial of Chowan County's Colonel James Blount, and touch on Moravians, Quakers, Mennonites and Cherokee affairs. 73 images.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819.

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

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 342.73 CRA The Federal Convention of 1787: North Carolina in the Great Crisis Craige, Burton · 1987

    North Carolina's part in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, told by Burton Craige (1875 to 1945) with biographical sketches of the state's delegates: William Blount, William R. Davie, Alexander Martin, Richard Dobbs Spaight and Hugh Williamson. Archibald Craige published it in 1987, the Convention's bicentennial; 200 pages with portraits, a bibliography and a folded color facsimile map in a back pocket.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.6 WIL The History of North Carolina Williamson, Hugh · 1812

    Hugh Williamson, the Pennsylvania-born physician who was North Carolina's surgeon general in the Revolution and signed the federal Constitution for the state, wrote this two-volume history after settling in New York. Thomas Dobson published it in Philadelphia in 1812, with a folding map. It was the first history of the state written after the Revolution and deals mainly with the colonial period.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. General Assembly at Hillsborough elects Alexander Martin governor and grants western land to Continental soldiers The Assembly met at Hillsborough, heard Governor Thomas Burke's message about his capture, and elected Alexander Martin governor on April 22. Its laws granted land in a western military reservation to officers and soldiers of the Continental line and directed the sale of confiscated Loyalist estates. People: Alexander Martin, Thomas Benbury, Hugh Williamson, Thomas BurkeColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina Senate, Apr 15 to May 18, 1782 (vol. 19, pp. 1–128)
  2. Assembly at Hillsborough elects Abner Nash and Hugh Williamson delegates to Congress On May 3, 1782, a joint ballot of the General Assembly at Hillsborough elected Abner Nash, Hugh Williamson, Benjamin Hawkins and William Blount as the state's delegates to Congress for the year. Nash had been returned to the House for Jones County, and Williamson sat for the town of Edenton. People: Hugh Williamson, William Blount, Benjamin HawkinsSearch the index · Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina House of Commons, Apr 16 to May 18, 1782 (vol. 16, pp. 1–177)
  3. General Assembly at Hillsborough opens the western land office and passes an act of pardon Meeting at Hillsborough, the Assembly re-elected Alexander Martin governor and chose Hugh Williamson, Benjamin Hawkins, Abner Nash and Richard Dobbs Spaight as delegates to Congress. Its laws opened a land office for western lands to redeem specie certificates and pay army arrears, and an Act of Pardon and Oblivion covered wartime offenses, with exceptions. People: Alexander Martin, Abner Nash, Hugh Williamson, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Richard Caswell, Benjamin HawkinsColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina Senate, Apr 18 to May 17, 1783 (vol. 19, pp. 129–232)
  4. General Assembly at Hillsborough cedes the state's western lands to Congress The spring 1784 Assembly at Hillsborough passed an act ceding to Congress the state's claim to lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and an act giving Congress power to levy import duties. The House of Commons chose Thomas Benbury as speaker and elected Hugh Williamson and Richard Dobbs Spaight as delegates to Congress. People: Alexander Martin, Hugh Williamson, Thomas Benbury, Richard Dobbs SpaightColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1784 (Apr 19 to Jun 03, 1784; vol. 24, pp. 543–649)
  5. University trustees ask Benjamin Hawkins to gather information on American colleges At their July 1791 meeting the university trustees named Senator Benjamin Hawkins, Samuel McCorkle and Hugh Williamson to gather information on the laws, rules and buildings of American colleges, with their income and spending, and to estimate what the university's own buildings would cost. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Hugh WilliamsonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 15
  6. Meeting in Hillsborough, UNC's trustees adopt the ordinance placing the university within fifteen miles of Cyprett's Bridge Twenty-five of the university's forty trustees gathered at Hillsborough on August 2, 1792. They balloted for Cyprett's Bridge as the center point on August 3 and on August 4 adopted the ordinance fixing a fifteen-mile radius and naming the site commissioners. In early November a commission chaired by Frederick Hargett toured the area and recommended New Hope Chapel Hill in southern Orange County. People: Alexander Martin, Hugh Williamson, Richard Dobbs SpaightDocumenting the American South: Site Selection for the University of North Carolina
  7. A trustee committee under Samuel McCorkle reports the university's first plan of studies Named at New Bern on December 4, 1792, the committee proposed teaching languages with English first, history, mathematics, natural philosophy, botany, agriculture and architecture, and buying scientific apparatus. A newspaper notice of December 12 inviting teachers for this course drew no applicants. People: David Stone, Samuel Ashe, Hugh Williamson, Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Alfred MooreDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 48

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Hugh Williamson, 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.

Research sources

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Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Hugh Williamson Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

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Books about Hugh Williamson

Books by Hugh Williamson

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Williamson, Hugh, 1735-1819, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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Picture: Hugh Williamson. Public domain. Photograph by The original uploader was JW1805 at English Wikipedia.; Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.; via Wikimedia Commons

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