Preceded by 16th Governor Benjamin Smith |
William Hawkins 17th Governor of North Carolina1811—1814 |
Succeeded by 18th Governor William Miller |
William Hawkins was born at his family plantation, called Pleasant Hill, in what is today Vance County, North Carolina. He was one of twelve children born by his mother Lucy Davis Hawkins. His father, Philemon Hawkins III, was a planter and member of the North Carolina General Assembly. As a young man, Hawkins studied law in North Carolina under Judge John Williams and at Princeton University.
Hawkins served as assistant Indian agent in Georgia and in 1801 negotiated a settlement with the Tuscarora of Bertie County. He served in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1804, 1805, 1809, 1810, and 1811, serving as speaker of the General Assembly during his last two terms. He was elected the 14th Governor of North Carolina in 1811, 1812, and 1813 for three consecutive one-year terms. During the War of 1812, Gov. Hawkins supported the military efforts of the federal government and assisted in raising a volunteer militia of 7000 troops.
Hawkins’s wife was Anne Swepson Boyd of Mecklenburg County, Virginia (daughter of Richard and Jane Swepson, and widow of Alexander Boyd) , whom he married in 1803. They were the parents of six children. He died in Georgia some two years later, on May 17, 1819, in the residence of Robert Alston in Sparta, Georgia. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the town of Sparta, Georgia.[1]
William and Ann had the following children[2]:
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William is 19 degrees from Herbert Adair, 20 degrees from Richard Adams, 19 degrees from Mel Blanc, 24 degrees from Dick Bruna, 17 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 32 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 18 degrees from Sam Edwards, 16 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 16 degrees from Marty Krofft, 15 degrees from Junius Matthews, 13 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 18 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.