Hugh Williamson
| Hugh Williamson | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 4th district |
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In office March 4, 1791 – March 3, 1793 |
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| Preceded by | John Steele |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Mebane |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd district |
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In office March 19, 1790 – March 3, 1791 |
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| Preceded by | district created |
| Succeeded by | Nathaniel Macon |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 5, 1735 West Nottingham Township, Pennsylvania |
| Died | May 22, 1819 (aged 83) New York City, New York |
| Resting place | Trinity Church Cemetery, New York City |
| Political party | Anti-Administration Party |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Apthorpe |
| Profession | Physician, scholar, politician |
Hugh Williamson (December 5, 1735 – May 22, 1819) was an American physician and politician. He is best known as a signatory to the U.S. Constitution, and for representing North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention.
Williamson was a scholar of international renown. His erudition had brought him into contact with some of the leading intellectuals of the Patriot cause and, in turn, with the ferment of political ideas that eventually found expression in the Constitution. During the American Revolution, Williamson contributed his talents as physician and natural scientist to the American war effort. His experiences in that preeminent event of his generation transformed the genial scholar into an adroit politician and a determined leader in the campaign for effective national government. This leadership was evident not only at the Convention in Philadelphia but also, with telling effect, during the ratification debates in North Carolina.
Williamson's career demonstrates the rootlessness that characterized the lives of many Americans even in the 18th century. Born on the frontier, he lived for significant periods of his long life in three different regions of the country. This mobility undoubtedly contributed to the development of his nationalistic outlook, an outlook strengthened by wartime service with interstate military forces and reinforced by the interests of the planters and merchants that formed his North Carolina constituency. These experiences convinced him that only a strong central government could adequately protect and foster the political, economic, and intellectual future of the new nation.
Williamson was born in West Nottingham Township, in what was then the frontier region of Pennsylvania. His fragile health as a youth weighed against his beginning a career in the family's clothier business. His parents instead sent him to a private academy and, in 1754, to the College of Philadelphia (today's University of Pennsylvania). Williamson graduated in the school's first class, on May 17, 1757, five days before his father died. After teaching at Philadelphia Academy, Williamson moved to Connecticut and obtained a preacher's license but factional disputes among the local clergy and a resurgence of ill health led him to abandon a career in the ministry. Upon completing a bachelor's degree at Penn in 1760, Williamson joined his alma mater's faculty as a professor of mathematics.
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