Each day George Washington’s diary records the arrival of delegates as they reach Philadelphia. His entry today is positive: “The Representation from No. Carolina was completed which made a representation of five States. Dined and drank tea at Mr. Morris’s.” Only a majority of delegates from two States is now required for the convention to begin.
Massachusetts is one of those not yet represented but on March 10 its representatives were appointed: Francis Dana, Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb Strong. Earlier today, Gorham wrote to Caleb Davis, a member of the Massachusetts legislature, reminding him their commission required three delegates to represent the State. King, he knows, is on his way to Philadelphia, but he has not heard from either Dana or Gerry.
As a member of the Confederation Congress, Gorham wants to stay in New York to assure a quorum for the Congress, but he is also “extremely desirous of attending the Legislature at least some part of the next session.” However, he will leave for Philadelphia tomorrow, if necessary. But first, he asked Davis to implore Dana and Gerry to hurry to Philadelphia. If they cannot attend, “get others appointed in their place.”
North Carolina’s William Blount also posted a letter today, updating his brother on the illness which has kept him from attending the convention. He is suffering from “piles” (hemorrhoids), “the most painful teasing complaint that I have ever experienced.” Nevertheless, he is relieved that three of his colleagues arrived in Philadelphia today. Otherwise, he “should have set out for that place on tomorrow or next day, intolerable as traveling certainly would have proved.” The three he identified are William Davie, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr.
Like the majority of delegates to the convention, the men from North Carolina share much in common. Each of them served in either his State militia or the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and each served in the legislature of his State as well as the Confederacy Congress. Many directly participated in the work of transitioning his colony to statehood, but few can claim a life of such twists and turns as that of the intrepid Hugh Williamson who earned the nickname “Benjamin Franklin of North Carolina.”
Hugh Williamson was born in 1735 in West Nottingham Township in the frontier region of the province of Pennsylvania. The eldest of ten children, he was steeped in Scots-Irish values of thrift, self-reliance, and Presbyterian doctrine. After being educated in a country school, he attended the Academy of Philadelphia and later entered the College of Philadelphia where he was a member of its first graduating class.
A brilliant scholar, Williamson excelled in many areas, including languages and Euclid’s Elements. Initially, he chose the ministry and moved to Connecticut where he studied theology and was soon licensed to preach the Gospel. Before long, his interests, always eclectic, took him in a new direction. He was appointed Professor of Mathematics at his alma mater in 1761 and continued there until he left for Europe three years later to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After completing his medical education at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands (submitting his thesis in Latin) and a grand tour of Europe, he returned to America by 1768 to set up his medical practice in Philadelphia.
Invited to join the American Philosophical Society, he was soon appointed to a committee to observe Mercury’s and Venus’s transit across the sun. His written report was published in the first volume of the Society’s Transactions. Later he read a paper on the electric eel before the Royal Society in London and received acclaim for other scientific contributions.
In 1773, on his way to England, Williamson stopped over in Boston. There he became acquainted with local colonial leaders and witnessed the Boston Tea Party. Being the first eyewitness to carry the news to England, he was summoned before the Privy Council to testify about the event and colonial affairs in general. When the Privy Council began to deliberate punitive measures against Boston, Williamson bluntly warned them that such action would simply fuel anti-British sentiments and rebellion. His open letter to England’s Lord Chief Justice, Plea of the Colonies, solicited support of English Whigs for the American cause and was noticed in both England and America.
Williamson was in the Netherlands when he learned the colonies had declared independence. He immediately sailed for home, was captured by a British man-of-war off the Delaware capes and managed to escape and deliver important dispatches to the Continental Congress. Finding no medical position available in George Washington’s new Continental Army, he returned to medical practice in Philadelphia and, at the same time, joined a business venture with his brother to import medicine and other scare items from the West Indies, challenging the British blockade. He made Edenton, North Carolina, the base of their operations. Taking a liking to Edenton, he decided to settle there.
Williamson became acquainted with Richard Caswell, North Carolina’s governor and major general of the militia, and offered his services. Soon, Caswell appointed him surgeon general for North Carolina. After the battle of Camden, Williamson voluntarily went behind enemy lines under a flag of truce to care for American prisoners where he convinced British military authorities to observe specific sanitary and dietary rules, keeping their own command and the American prisoners free of disease. Later that year, serving under General Gregory in the Great Dismal Swamp, he used the same health protocols, resulting in only two of one thousand soldiers dying from disease and none granted sick leave.
In April 1782 he was elected to the North Carolina legislature from Edenton. Enjoying a few dinners with Hugh Williamson will be a highlight for anyone attending this convention!