Hugh WILLIAMSON, Congress, NC (1735-1819)

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.

Bibliography

Potts, Louis W. ``Hugh Williamson: The Poor Man's Franklin and the National Domain.'' North Carolina Historical Review 64 (October 1987): 371-93.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present