Richard Dobbs Spaight II (1758 - 1802)

Preceded by 7th Governor Alexander Martin

Richard Dobbs Spaight 8th Governor of North Carolina 1792—1795

Succeeded by 9th Governor Samuel Ashe

Richard Spaight II is managed by the 1776 Project. Join: 1776 Project Discuss: 1776

Biography

Richard Spaight II served with American Founding Fathers during the American Revolution.

Richard Spaight II is an NSSAR Patriot Ancestor.
NSSAR Ancestor #: P-294360
Rank: Patriot

Richard Spaight II is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A107489.

Richard Spaight II is Notable.

Richard Dobbs Spaight
6th Governor of the State of North Carolina - 1792 to 1795.

Richard Dobbs Spaight II was born in New Bern, North Carolina, the only child of the Secretary of the Crown in the colony, Richard Dobbs Spaight I (1730-1763) and Elizabeth Wilson. His mother was the daughter of Col. William Wilson and Mary Vail (widow of Frederick Jones, Esq.). ^[1]

Richard was the great-great nephew of royal governor Arthur Dobbs. ^[2]

Orphaned at the age of eight, he was sent to attend school in Ireland and later graduated from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Richard married Mary Jones Leech in 1788. (Conflicting sources give different dates of 24 Mar 1788 and 25 Sept 1788). ^{[3] [4]} Mary was the daughter of Joseph Leech and Mary Dorothy Jones, and had the distinction of being the first lady to dance with President George Washington at a ball in Washington’s honor at Tryon Palace in 1791 in New Bern.

Richard and Mary had three sons and one daughter:

1. William Wilson Spaight (1794-1812)
2. Richard Dobbs Spaight III (1796-1850)
3. Charles George Spaight (1798-1831)
4. Margaret Elizabeth Spaight (1800-1831) (married John Robert Donnell)

Death and Burial

In the 1800 election, Richard was a candidate for the House of Representatives, and he was defeated by John Stanly, a Federalist Congressman. In September 1802 Stanly challenged Spaight to a duel, and "The parties, with their seconds, accordingly met near this town, at about half after five o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th inst. and upon the exchange of the fourth shot, Mr. Spaight received a wound in his right side, of which he expired in twenty-three hours. On Tuesday the 7th, his remains were deposited in the family vault, at his principal country seat near New Bern, with expressions of universal sorrow and all those testimonials of respect which were due to his acknowledged merit."^[5]

Richard was buried 7 Sep 1802 at the Clermont Estate Cemetery in his home town of New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, United States. ^[6]

Slavery

Spaight was an extensive enslaver. According to the 1790 U.S. Federal Census for Craven, North Carolina, he owned 71 slaves,^[7] and in the 1800 U.S. Federal Census for Craven, North Carolina, he owned 83.^[8]As a delegate to the Confederation Congress, he led a successful effort to eliminate Thomas Jefferson's proposed ban on slavery from the Northwest Ordinance of 1784.^[9]

Research Note

For those descendants of Richard Dobbs Spaight interested in DAR membership be aware the following requirement listed on the DAR page for Richard Dobbs Spaight: "Treat As New Ancestor."

This code indicates that no application or supplemental application has been verified on this ancestor since the very early days of the society. As such, this means all information on this ancestor and his or her descendants must be documented using current DAR standards. In this case, a national number may not be cited as proof."

Sources

1. ↑ "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography" v5 p402-3 (on Google books) for Richard Spaight ,I North Carolina ... "In 1756 he married Elizabeth Wilson, the daughter of Colonel William and Mary (Vail) Jones Wilson ... Mary Wilson, his wife's (Elizabeth's) mother, was the daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Lillington Vail, and the granddaughter of Major Alexander Lillington'".
2. ↑ NCpedia: Richard Dobbs Spaight
3. ↑ "North Carolina, County Marriages 1762-1979" index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XFSM-4ZC : accessed 6 Jan 2015) county courthouses, North Carolina; FHL#1,689,290; for Richard Dobbs Spaight and Mary Leech, m: 24 Sep 1788 Craven, North Carolina, USA
4. ↑ NC Governors: Richard Spaight
5. ↑ Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, North Carolina) Tue, Sep 14, 1802 page 3; Newspapers.com; Ihttps://www.newspapers.com/image/59183829/?match=1&clipping_id=172120999nsert reference here
6. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #4726
7. ↑ The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; First Census of the United States, 1790.; Year: 1790; Census Place: Craven, North Carolina; Series: M637; Roll: 7; Page: 429; Family History Library Film: 0568147
8. ↑ Year: 1800; Census Place: New Bern, Craven, North Carolina; Series: M32; Roll: 31; Page: 119; Image: 249; Family History Library Film: 337907
9. ↑ Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. Edited from the original records in the Library of Congress ... v.26 1784, p. 247.

See Also

• Patriot: Sons of American Revolution: Richard Spaight

• "Revolutionary War Graves Register" compiled by Clovis H. Brakebilll, SAR 1993

• SAR Revolutionary War Graves Register on cd by Progeny Publishing Co. of Buffalo, NY in 1998

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 15 Feb 2015), "Record of Richard Spaight", Ancestor # A107489.

• Wikipedia: Richard Dobbs Spaight

• Wikidata # (Q878563)