Montfort Stokes (March 12, 1762November 4, 1842) was an American Democratic (originally

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

) politician who served as

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

from 1816 to 1823, and the 25th

Governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Seventy-five people have held the office since the first state governor, Richard Caswell, took office in 1777. The governor serves a ...

from 1830 to 1832.

Biography

Born in Lunenburg County in the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

, Stokes was the youngest of the eleven children of David Stokes, a military officer and judge. At the age of 13, he enlisted in the

United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...

. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, Stokes was captured by the British and confined for seven months on the British prison ship ''Jersey'' in New York Harbor. He later held the rank of major general in the state militia from 1804 to 1816. After the Revolutionary War, Stokes settled in

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury ( ) is a city in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County, North Carolina, Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. ...

, farmed, served as

clerk of court 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 ...

, and studied law. There, he first met

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

, a fellow lawyer. He served as assistant clerk in the

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The Senate ...

from 1786 to 1790, was a U.S. House candidate in 1793, and as clerk from 1799 to 1816, until he was elected to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

following the resignation of James Turner. He served the remaining few months of Turner's term and then a full term in the Senate, but was defeated for re-election by the legislature in 1823. He had previously been elected to the Senate in 1804, but had declined the seat. During his Senate term Stokes changed his residency from Salisbury to

Wilkesboro, North Carolina Wilkesboro is a town in and the county seat of Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,687 at the 2020 census. The town is located along the south bank of the Yadkin River, directly opposite the town of North Wilkesbor ...

, in the foothills of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

. Stokes was then elected to 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 ...

; he represented Wilkes County in the

from 1826 to 1827 and 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 ...

from 1829 to 1830. In 1830, Stokes was elected Governor by the General Assembly on the ninth ballot, defeating Cadwallader Jones and Richard Dobbs Spaight Jr. Stokes faced Spaight for re-election again the following year and was elected by a narrow margin (98–93). During his term in office, Stokes supported construction of

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s along the North Carolina Coast; he simultaneously served as president of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

Board of Trustees. A strong supporter of President

, Governor Stokes urged the state legislature to support Jackson's anti-

nullification Nullification may refer to: * Nullification (U.S. Constitution), a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify any federal law deemed unconstitutional with respect to the United States Constitution ** Nullification crisis, the 1832 confron ...

position; Stokes was named by Jackson to head the Federal Indian Commission, overseeing relocation and resettlement of Indian tribes from the American southeast, and resigned as governor on November 19, 1832. With his new position, Stokes moved to

Fort Gibson Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any ot ...

in the

Arkansas Territory The Arkansas Territory was a organized incorporated territory of the United States, territory of the United States from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the ...

(now part of the state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

) and advocated for the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

, and

Quapaw The Quapaw ( , Quapaw language, Quapaw: ) or Arkansas, officially the Quapaw Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes in the United States, U.S. federally recognized tribe comprising about 6,000 citizens. Also known as the Ogáxpa or � ...

tribes. He died in November 1842 and is buried near Fort Gibson. Stokes is believed to be the only soldier of the

buried in

. In 1943, a United States Liberty ship named the SS ''Montfort Stokes'' was launched. She was scrapped in 1962.

Family

Stokes first married Mary Irwin and they had one daughter. After his wife died, he married Rachel Montgomery (1776–1862) and they had five sons and five daughters. His son, Montfort Sidney Stokes, fought as major in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

and died in 1862 in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

as colonel of the

1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment The 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other n ...

Hobbies

Stokes was long remembered for a game of brag versus Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate

Mountjoy Bayly Mountjoy may refer to: Places * Brockagh (also known as Mountjoy), a hamlet in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland * Mountjoy, Ontario, a neighbourhood in Timmins, Ontario, Canada * Mountjoy Castle, a castle in Magheralamfield, County Tyrone, North ...

that lasted from Thursday afternoon until 10 a.m. the following Monday at which time Bayly had to go back to work, leaving "the Senator grumbling and declaring that had he supposed that Bailey would have thus prematurely broken up the game he would not have sat down to play with him."

References

* ''Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978'',

Robert Sobel Robert Sobel (February 19, 1931 – June 2, 1999) was an American professor of history at Hofstra University and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories. Biography Sobel was born in the Bronx. He completed his B.S.S. (1951) an ...

and John Raimo, eds. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. () {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Montfort 1762 births 1842 deaths People from Lunenburg County, Virginia North Carolina Democratic-Republicans North Carolina Jacksonians Democratic Party governors of North Carolina United States senators from North Carolina Democratic Party members of the North Carolina House of Representatives Democratic Party North Carolina state senators American sailors Democratic-Republican Party United States senators 19th-century United States senators 19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly Candidates in the 1793 United States elections Candidates in the 1804 United States elections