WILLIAMSON, Hugh, a Delegate and a Representative from North Carolina; born on Oterara Creek, in West Nottingham Township, Pa., December 5, 1735; attended the common schools; prepared for college at Newark, Del., and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1757; studied theology, and was licensed to preach in 1758; resigned, owing to ill health, in 1760; professor of mathematics in the College of Philadelphia; studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Utrecht, Holland; returned to Philadelphia and practiced; engaged in business; member of the American Philosophical Society, and was a member of the commission to observe the transits of Venus and Mercury in 1773; at the time of the "Boston Tea Party" he was examined in England by the privy council regarding it; returned to America in 1776 and settled in Edenton, N.C.; engaged in mercantile pursuits; during the Revolutionary War was surgeon general of the North Carolina troops 1779-1782; Member of the State house of commons in 1782 and 1785; member of the Continental Congress 1782-1785, and 1788; delegate to the Federal Convention in 1787, and signed the Constitution; member of the State ratification convention in 1789; elected as a Federalist to the First and Second Congresses and served from March 19, 1790, until March 3, 1793; moved to New York City in 1793; engaged extensively in literary pursuits until his death in New York City, May 22, 1819; interment in the Apthrop tomb in Trinity Churchyard.
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[ Top ]Gilpatrick, Delbert H. "Contemporary Opinion of Hugh Williamson." North Carolina Historical Review 17 (January 1940): 26-36.
Hosack, David. A Biographical Memoir of Hugh Williamson . . . Delivered on the First of November, 1819, at the request of the New-York Historical Society. New York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1820.
Potts, Louis W. "Hugh Williamson: The Poor Man's Franklin and the National Domain." North Carolina Historical Review 64 (October 1987): 371-93.
Williamson, Hugh. A discourse on the benefits of civil history [microform]: delivered before the New-York Historical Society, December 6, 1810. [New York : s.n., 1810].
___. The History of North Carolina. 1812. Reprint, Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., [1973].
___. Observations on the climate in different parts of America, compared with the climate in corresponding parts of the other continent [electronic resource] : to which are added, remarks in the different complexions of the human race : with some account of the aborigines of America: being an introductory discourse to the History of North-Carolina. New-York: Printed and sold by T. & J. Swords, no. 160 Pearl-street, 1811.
___. The Plain Dealer, or, Remarks on Quaker Politicks in Pennsylvania: numb. III, to be continued. By W.D., author of no. I. Philadelphia: Printed [by W. Dunlap], 1764.
___. The Plea of the colonies, on the charges brought against them by Lord M-------d, and others, in a letter to His Lordship. London: J. Almon, 1775.
___. What is sauce for a goose is also sauce for a gander [microform] : being a small touch in lapidary way, or tit for tat, in your own way: an epitaph on a certain great man / written by a departed spirit and now most humbly inscrib’d to all his dutiful sons and children, who may here-after close to distinguish him by the name of patriot. Philadelphia: Armbruster, 1764.
