Caswell, Richard, 1729-1789

Richard Caswell (August 3, 1729 – November 10, 1789) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first and fifth governor of the state of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 and from 1785 to 1787. He also served as a senior officer of militia in the Southern Theater of the American Revolutionary War. He was a signatory of the Continental Association and thus considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Born in Harford County in the Province of Maryland (present day Baltimore), he moved with his family to New Bern, North Carolina in 1746. Caswell was appointed deputy surveyor for the province in 1750 and served as clerk of the court of Orange County, North Carolina from 1752 to 1754. Having studied law, he was admitted to the bar in 1754 and commenced practice in Hillsboro, North Carolina. From 1754 to 1771, Caswell served as a member of the North Carolina House of Burgesses. While there, Caswell introduced a bill establishing the "Town of Kingston" (which was later changed to Kinston as a result of the American Revolutionary War). Caswell represented North Carolina in the Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775.

When the militia district of New Bern was formed on May 4, 1776, Caswell was appointed to command that minuteman region. As such, he led the Provincial Congress' force at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. Soon thereafter, the Provincial Congress disbanded minuteman battalions in favor of militia. In 1780, he was commissioned major general of militia and state troops. After his defeat at the Battle of Camden Court House, Caswell returned home with an unnamed illness. In the meantime, the North Carolina General Assembly appointed William Smallwood of Maryland to the command of North Carolina's militia without informing Caswell, so he resigned on October 21, 1780. When Smallwood returned to Maryland in January 1781, the General Assembly once again appointed Caswell major general of militia, and he retained the position until the end of the American Revolution.

Caswell was president of the North Carolina Provincial Congress that wrote the first Constitution of North Carolina in 1776. As the congress adjourned, it elected him acting governor. He took the oath of office on January 16, 1777. Under the new constitution, the state Legislature ("General Assembly") re-elected him as the first governor in April 1777. Caswell stepped down in 1780, as the state constitution allowed only three consecutive one-year terms, to command of the militia. Caswell served as comptroller general in 1782 and as a State Senator from 1782 to 1784. In 1785 and 1786, Caswell was again elected governor. He was chosen to be one of North Carolina's delegates to the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he did not attend. At the time of his death in 1789, he had returned once again to the North Carolina General Assembly, this time serving as Speaker of the Senate.

Caswell died in Fayetteville, North Carolina. According to tradition, his body was returned to Kinston for burial in the Caswell family cemetery, near where a memorial and museum stands today.