 One
of the eight delegates born outside of the thirteen colonies, Davie
was born in Egremont, Cumberlandshire, England, on June 20, 1756. In
1763 Archibald Davie brought his son William to Waxhaw, SC, where
the boy's maternal uncle, William Richardson, a Presbyterian
clergyman, adopted him. Davie attended Queen's Museum College in
Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from the College of New
Jersey (later Princeton) in 1776.
Davie's law studies in Salisbury, NC, were interrupted by military
service, but he won his license to practice before county courts in
1779 and in the superior courts in 1780. When the War for
Independence broke out, he helped raise a troop of cavalry near
Salisbury and eventually achieved the rank of colonel. While
attached to Pulaski's division, Davie was wounded leading a charge
at Stono, near Charleston, on June 20, 1779. Early in 1780 he raised
another troop and operated mainly in western North Carolina. In
January 1781 Davie was appointed commissary-general for the Carolina
campaign. In this capacity he oversaw the collection of arms and
supplies to Gen. Nathanael Greene's army and the state militia.
After the war, Davie embarked on his career as
a lawyer, traveling the circuit in North Carolina. In 1782 he
married Sarah Jones, the daughter of his former commander, Gen.
Allen Jones, and settled in Halifax. His legal knowledge and ability
won him great respect, and his presentation of arguments was
admired. Between 1786 and 1798 Davie represented Halifax in the
North Carolina legislature. There he was the principal agent behind
that body's actions to revise and codify state laws, send
representatives to the Annapolis and Philadelphia conventions, cede
Tennessee to the Union, and fix disputed state boundaries.
During the Constitutional Convention Davie
favored plans for a strong central government. He was a member of
the committee that considered the question of representation in
Congress and swung the North Carolina delegation's vote in favor of
the Great Compromise. He favored election of senators and
presidential electors by the legislature and insisted on counting
slaves in determining representation. Though he left the convention
on August 13, before its adjournment, Davie fought hard for the
Constitution's ratification and took a prominent part in the North
Carolina convention.
The political and military realms were not the
only ones in which Davie left his mark. The University of North
Carolina, of which he was the chief founder, stands as an enduring
reminder of Davie's interest in education. Davie selected the
location, instructors, and a curriculum that included the literary
and social sciences as well as mathematics and classics. In 1810 the
trustees conferred upon him the title of "Father of the University"
and in the next year granted him the degree of Doctor of Laws.
Davie became Governor of North Carolina in
1798. His career also turned back briefly to the military when
President John Adams appointed him a brigadier general in the U.S.
Army that same year. Davie later served as a peace commissioner to
France in 1799.
Davie stood as a candidate for Congress in 1803
but met defeat. In 1805, after the death of his wife, Davie retired
from politics to his plantation, "Tivoli," in Chester County, South
Carolina. In 1813 he declined an appointment as major-general from
President Madison. Davie was 64 years old when he died on November
29, 1820, at "Tivoli," and he was buried in the Old Waxhaw
Presbyterian Churchyard in northern Lancaster County. |
