Nathan Alexander Stedman III (July 11, 1762 – November 13, 1847) was an American politician, who served as member of the

North Carolina House of Commons The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House, who holds powers si ...

(1810), the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

(1827-1828), the

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(1832-1834) and was

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accountancy, accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior- ...

of the State of

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

in 1835. He also served several years as the

Clerk of Courts A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court and administering oaths t ...

for the Chatham County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.

Early life and career

He was born 11 Jul 1762 in

Ashford, Connecticut Ashford is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 4,191 at the 2020 Unite ...

, at that time a

British Colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire. There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on ...

. He was the son of Nathan Alexander Stedman II and Prudence Hurlbut. When he was a teenager, he volunteered for the

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and served as a private for three months. He then became a privateer aboard the ''Bunker Hill'' and the ''Benjamin Sampson'', plundering British warships in support of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. He was captured and taken to Bermuda, where he spent the remainder of the war until he was released in a

prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoner of war, prisoners of war, spy, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, cadaver, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conven ...

. His subsequent request for a pension was rejected because he hadn't served long enough in the army, and privateer service did not qualify under the existing law. After his prison release, he moved to

with his brothers Winship and Elisha and settled in the Chatham County area. He became a prominent citizen of the county, establishing the Nathan Stedman Company no later than 1786. In fairly short order, he became a wealthy landowner, purchasing numerous pieces of property in Chatham County and Pittsboro. In January 1787 he was appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly as one of the Commissioners to purchase land and lay out the plat for the town of Pittsborough. In 1790, he, along with a number of others, was selected by the North Carolina legislature to form the

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Canal Company to make Cross Creek navigable and improve commerce in the area. Stedman was a member of the Whig Party of North Carolina. In 1810, he was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly representing Chatham County. He served again in 1827 and served in the Senate in 1832-33. In 1834 he became Comptroller of the State, a position he held for one year. From 1837 until his death in 1847, he served as Clerk of the Court for the Chatham County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. During the same time that he served as Clerk of the Court, he also served as Clerk as well as Member of the Board of Superintendents for

Common School A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretar ...

s, established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1840. He died on November 13, 1847, in

Pittsboro, North Carolina Pittsboro is a town in Chatham County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,743 at the 2010 census and 4,537 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Chatham County. The town was established in the late 18th century, shortly ...

. A large number of his descendants carry his name, leaving a legacy that stretches to modern times.

Cemetery controversy

In 1833, as

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...

of his father, Winship Stedman's estate, Winship's son, Nathan A. Stedman, sold a property in Pittsboro to the infant heir of Daniel McLeod, completing a transaction his father had begun a year before his death. The deed specifically exempted a 25 x 25 foot square in the southwest corner of the northern half of the property, including ingress and egress rights. That square is believed to be the family cemetery where Nathan Alexander Stedman, his wife, his brother, Winship and his wife, his parents, and other relatives are buried. The title chain for the property shows that the exemption was carried forward through each transaction, until 1939, when the restriction mysteriously disappeared. The suspected site of the cemetery is now supposedly covered with

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

and contains a

dumpster A dumpster is a movable waste container designed to be brought and taken away by a special collection vehicle, or to a bin that a specially designed garbage truck lifts, empties into its hopper, and lowers, on the spot. The word is a generic trade ...

. The cemetery was excavated by professional archeologists in April 2022. Artifacts and human remains were recovered, cataloged, and reinterred in the Pittsboro United Methodist Church Cemetery. A dedication ceremony will take place in November 2022 when the National Association of Sons of the American Revolution, Sandhills Chapter will dedicate a plaque in his name at the cemetery.

References

North Carolina state senators {{DEFAULTSORT:Stedman, Nathan Alexander 1762 births 1847 deaths State auditors and comptrollers of the United States Members of the North Carolina General Assembly People from Ashford, Connecticut 19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly