Robert Williams | |
Order: | 4th |
Office: | Adjutant General of North Carolina |
Term Start: | 1812 |
Term End: | 1821 |
Appointer: | William Hawkins |
Predecessor: | Calvin Jones |
Successor: | Beverly Daniel |
Office1: | Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and Tennessee |
Term Start1: | November 29, 1811 |
Term End1: | November 26, 1814 |
Predecessor1: | Benjamin Smith |
Successor1: | John L. Taylor (as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina) |
Office2: | 3rd Governor of the Mississippi Territory |
Term Start2: | March 1, 1805 |
Term End2: | March 7, 1809 |
President2: | Thomas Jefferson |
Predecessor2: | William C. C. Claiborne |
Successor2: | David Holmes |
State3: | North Carolina |
District3: | 3rd |
Term Start3: | March 4, 1797 |
Term End3: | March 3, 1803 |
Preceded3: | Jesse Franklin |
Succeeded3: | William Kennedy |
Birth Date: | 12 July 1773 |
Birth Place: | Surry County, North Carolina, US |
Death Place: | Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, US |
Restingplace: | Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, US |
Party: | Democratic-Republican |
Allegiance: | United States |
Branch: | North Carolina Militia |
Branch Label: | Branch |
Rank: | Brigadier-General |
Battles: | War of 1812 |
Battles Label: | Wars |
Robert Williams (July 12, 1773January 25, 1836) was an American politician who served as the fourth adjutant general of North Carolina from 1812 to 1821. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he previously served as the third governor of Mississippi Territory from 1805 to 1809 under President Thomas Jefferson and represented North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1797 to 1803.
Robert Williams was born was born on July 12, 1773, in Surry County, North Carolina, where his family had significant political power. Since no public schools existed at the time, he received a private education appropriate to his class. He read law, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar.[1]
In 1796, although barely legal age, Williams was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives, and he served three terms, 1797 to 1803.[2] In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson appointed Williams to the federal commission empowered to determine the legitimacy of land claims in the recently acquired Mississippi Territory.[3] In May 1805 Jefferson appointed him governor, and he served until the end of Jefferson's term in March 1809. During the War of 1812, he served in the militia as the adjutant general of North Carolina.
After the 1814 death of his wife in Washington, Mississippi, Williams moved to a plantation near Monroe, Louisiana, which he called Bon Aire. He operated Bon Aire until his death in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, on January 25, 1836.[4] He was buried at Bon Aire, but the exact location of the grave is not known. It is the present-day site of the Baptist Children's Home and Sellers Baptist Maternity Home in Monroe.[5]
Williams' brother Lewis served as a Congressman from North Carolina, and his brother John served in the United States Senate from Tennessee. His cousin Marmaduke Williams also represented North Carolina in the U.S. House.