William Gaston

William J. Gaston (September 19, 1778 – January 23, 1844) was a jurist and United States Representative from North Carolina. Gaston is the author of the official state song of North Carolina, "The Old North State". Gaston County, North Carolina is named after him, as are Lake Gaston, the city of Gastonia, North Carolina, and Gaston Hall within Healy Hall at Georgetown University.

For the 19th century Governor of Massachusetts, see William Gaston (Massachusetts). For the Massachusetts banker, businessman, and politician, see William A. Gaston. For the Dallas landowner, see William H. Gaston.
William Gaston
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 4th district
In office
1813–1817
Preceded byWilliam Blackledge
Succeeded byJesse Slocumb
Personal details
Born(1778-09-19)September 19, 1778
New Bern, North Carolina
DiedJanuary 23, 1844(1844-01-23) (aged 65)
Raleigh, North Carolina
Political partyFederalist, Whig
Spouse(s)
Susan Hay
​
(
m. 1803; died 1804)

Hannah McClure
​
(
m. 1805; died 1813)

Eliza Ann Worthington
​
(
m. 1816; died 1819)
Children5
ResidenceCoor-Gaston House
Elmwood
EducationGeorgetown University
Alma materPrinceton University

Early life

Gaston was born in New Bern, North Carolina on September 19, 1778. He was the son of Dr. Alexander Gaston and Margaret Sharpe.[1]

He entered Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., at the age of thirteen, becoming its first student. Due to illness shortly thereafter, he also became its first dropout. After Georgetown and some education in North Carolina, he graduated from Princeton University in 1796, where he studied law.

Career

Gaston was admitted to the bar in 1798 and commenced practice in New Bern. He was a member of the North Carolina General Assembly in 1800, served in the State House of Commons (now known as the House of Representatives) from 1807 to 1809, and as its Speaker in 1808. He was again a member of the North Carolina State Senate in 1812, 1818, and 1819, and was elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses (March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1817). While in Congress, he obtained a federal charter for Georgetown University. In 1814, Gaston was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.[2]

Gaston was not a candidate for to Congress in 1816. He again served in the House of Commons in 1824, 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1831. In 1832, Gaston delivered a graduation address at the University of North Carolina, which emphasized the duties of the graduates to themselves and their communities and urged them to take action against slavery.[3]

Gaston was appointed judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1833, holding the position until his death. As a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Gaston wrote a decision that limited the control that slave-owners could exercise over enslaved humans.[4] As a legislator, Gaston had introduced the bill that established the state Supreme Court as a distinct body in 1818. Gaston was offered but declined a nomination for election to the United States Senate in 1840,[5] turned down an offer to be U.S. Attorney General for President William Henry Harrison.[6]

Gaston won elective office on several occasions, even though the Constitution of North Carolina before 1835 seemed to prohibit it, because Gaston was a Roman Catholic.[7] The young Rev. Andrew Byrne, later bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock, having contracted a serious illness during the course of his lengthy missionary labors, recuperated under the hospitable roof of judge Gaston.[8] Gaston was largely responsible, as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1835, for removing official discrimination against Catholics from North Carolina law.[9]

Personal life
Coor-Gaston House, which he bought in 1818
Elmwood (Raleigh, North Carolina)

Gaston was married three times. His first marriage was on September 4, 1803 to Susan Hay (d. 1804). He married for the second time on October 6, 1805 to Hannah McClure (d. 1813). Together, William and his second wife were the parents of one son and two daughters:[10]

  • Alexander Gaston (1807-1848), who married Eliza W. Jones and then Sarah Lauretta Murphy.[10]
  • Susan Jane Gaston (1808-1866), who married Robert Donaldson Jr.[10]
  • Hannah Margaret Gaston (1811-1835), who married Matthias E. Manly. [10]

His third and final marriage was on September 3, 1816 to Eliza Ann Worthington (d. 1819). With his third wife, Gaston was the father of two additional daughters:[10]

  • Elizabeth Gaston (1817-1874), who married George W. Graham.[10]
  • Catherine Jane Gaston (1819-1885), who did not marry.[10]

He died in his office in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 23, 1844.[6] He was interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Bern, N.C.[11] His home at New Bern, the Coor-Gaston House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[12] Elmwood, his home at Raleigh, North Carolina, was listed in 1975.[12][13]

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See also
  • Thirteenth United States Congress
  • Fourteenth United States Congress

References
  1. Biographical history of North Carolina, publisher: Charles L. Van Noman. Greensboro, N.C., 1905 and edited by Samuel A Court Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks and Charles L. Van Noman.
  2. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
  3. Alfred L. Brophy, The Republics of Liberty and Letters: Progress, Union, and Constitutionalism at Graduation Addresses at the Antebellum University of North Carolina, North Carolina Law Review (2011).
  4. Alfred L. Brophy, "The Nat Turner Trials", North Carolina Law Review (June 2013), volume 91: 1817-80]; Alfred L. Brophy, Anti-Slavery Women and the Origins of American Jurisprudence, Texas Law Review 94 (2015): 115, 133-34.
  5. Schauinger, Joseph Herman. William Gaston, Carolinian (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1949).
  6. Faulkner, Ronnie W. "William J. Gaston (1778-1844)". northcarolinahistory.org. North Carolina History Project. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  7. Weeks, Stephen Beauregard (1893). "V". Church and State in North Carolina. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press.
  8. Clarke, Richard Henry. "Rt. Rev. Andrew Byren, D.D.", Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States, Vol. 2, P. O'Shea, 1872, p. 265 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  9. "William Gaston". www.newadvent.org. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  10. "William Gaston Papers, 1744-1950 (bulk 1791-1844)". finding-aids.lib.unc.edu. Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  11. Survey Planning Unit Staff (September 1972). "Cedar Grove Cemetery" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
  12. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  13. John Baxton Flowers, III & Mary Alice Hinson (July 1975). "Elmwood" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
William Blackledge		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 4th congressional district
1813 – 1817		 Succeeded by
Jesse Slocumb
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