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Davie, William Richardson

William Richardson Davie (1756-1820), the son of Archibald and Mary Richardson Davie, emigrated with his parents, a brother, and a sister to South Carolina in 1764, settling near Lancaster. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1776 and during the Revolutionary War became well known for his guerilla warfare against Lord Cornwallis. After the war he married Sarah Jones, practiced law in Halifax, NC, and became a politician. Having helped to draft the US Constitution, Davie successfully guided efforts to ratify it in North Carolina. From 1792 to 1798 he was Grand Master of the North Carolina Masons. In 1798 he became the last Federalist governor of North Carolina, and in 1800 he helped negotiate the French Convention, ending an undeclared naval war with France. Losing an election for a seat in the US Congress in 1803, Davie retired to his South Carolina plantation Tivoli, but he maintained an active correspondence with members of the University's board of trustees, on which he served from 1789 to 1807. He was survived by three sons and three daughters (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 2:28-29).