Thomas Person (1733–1800) was an American politician, Anti-Federalist organizer, and brigadier general in command of the

Hillsborough District Brigade The Hillsborough District Brigade of militia was an administrative division of the North Carolina militia established on May 4, 1776. Thomas Person, Brigadier General Thomas Person was the first commander. Companies from the eight regiments of t ...

of the

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 ...

militia during 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 ...

Early life

Born January 19, 1733 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 ...

to William and Ann Person. He married his cousin, Johanna Philpot; the two had no children, and his nephew William Person Little was adopted as his heir. General Thomas Person spent most of his life in service to

Granville County, North Carolina Granville County is a county located on the northern border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,992. Its county seat is Oxford. The county has access to Kerr Lake and Falls Lake and is part of t ...

Pre-Revolution career

In 1756, after several years working for

Earl Granville Earl Granville is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is now held by members of the Leveson-Gower family. First creation The first creation came in the Pee ...

as a surveyor, Thomas Person was recommended for the position of Justice of the Peace for Granville County. By the year 1762, he had become the county's

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

. After his election to represent Granville County in the

Province of North Carolina The Province of North Carolina, originally known as the Albemarle Settlements, was a proprietary colony and later royal colony of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776.(p. 80) It was one of the five Southern col ...

House of Burgesses in 1764, Thomas Person would find himself on the side of the disaffected colonials in the

War of the Regulation The Regulator Movement in North Carolina, also known as the Regulator Insurrection, War of Regulation, and War of the Regulation, was an uprising in Provincial North Carolina from 1766 to 1771 in which citizens took up arms against colonial offi ...

. When the

Battle of Alamance The Battle of Alamance, which took place on May 16, 1771, was the final confrontation of the Regulator Movement, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over various issues with the Colonial Government. The Regulators primarily wanted reforms ...

ended in defeat for the Regulators, Governor

William Tryon Lieutenant-General William Tryon (8 June 172927 January 1788) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of North Carolina from 1764 to 1771 and the governor of New York from 1771 to 1777. He also served durin ...

issued a series of amnesty proclamations for combatants and rioters, from which Thomas Person was specifically excluded, even though he was not present at the battle. Person was held for three weeks in Hillsborough but was eventually released without trial, due either to lack of evidence or his personal friendship with Edmund Fanning. In spite of his issues with Governor Tryon, Representative Person continued to serve in the state General Assembly until the beginning of the

, when he was named to the extra-legal

North Carolina Provincial Congress The Provincial Congress of North Carolina was an extralegal representative assembly patterned after the colonial lower house that existed in North Carolina from 1774 to 1776. It led the transition from British provincial to U.S. state govern ...

. This body would eventually "concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency."

Revolutionary war service

On May 4, 1776, Person was commissioned a brigadier general in command of the

of the North Carolina militia. His service consisted mostly of raising troops and collecting supplies rather than fighting on the field, and he turned over command the following year to

John Butler John Butler may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John "Picayune" Butler (died 1864), American banjo performer; may have been used by a number of performers * John Butler (artist) (1890–1976), American artist * John Butler (author) (born 1937), ...

, who would lead the unit in the

Battle of Guilford Court House The Battle of Guilford Court House was fought on 15 March 1781 during the American Revolutionary War, near Greensboro, North Carolina. A 2,100-man British force under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated Major General Na ...

. Person spent the rest of the war serving on the North Carolina Council of State.

Anti-Federalist

After the war ended, Thomas Person became a leader of North Carolina's

Anti-Federalists The Anti-Federalists were a late-18th-century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed History of the United States Constitution#1788 ratification, the ratification of the 1787 Uni ...

. They opposed the ratification of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

on the grounds "that the Senate would become a bastion of aristocratic privilege, that an imperial president would overawe a complacent Congress, and that an intrusive federal court system would engender costly and oppressive litigation". Though there was broad support for the anti-federalists in North Carolina (outside of the wealthy coastal regions), the ratification by 11 of the other colonies and the formulation of the

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

made it clear that ratification was inevitable by the end of 1789. Nevertheless, at the

Fayetteville Convention The Fayetteville Convention was a meeting by 271 delegates from North Carolina to ratify the US Constitution. Governor Samuel Johnston presided over the convention, which met in Fayetteville, North Carolina, from November 16 to 23, 1789 to debate ...

in 1789, Thomas Person would vote Nay.

Later years

General Person was an early supporter of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. He granted them a gift of one thousand silver dollars to complete their chapel, which later bore his name. He sat on the inaugural Board of Trustees and is listed on the Memorial to Founding Trustees outside Person Hall which also bears his name. When

Caswell County Caswell County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state. At the 2020 census, the population was 22,736. Its county seat is Yanceyville. Partially bordering the state of Virginia ...

was divided in 1791, the newly formed

Person County Person County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 39,097 as of the 2020 census. The county seat is Roxboro. Person County is included in the Durham- Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, whic ...

was named in honor of General Thomas Person. He died on November 16, 1800, at the home of his sister, Patty Person Taylor. The Patty Person Taylor House was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975. By the time of his death in 1800, Thomas Person owned over 125 square miles of land in

and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. He also owned at least 34 slaves that he kept at his estate, Goshen, in

. Person's Ordinary at

Littleton, North Carolina Littleton is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 674 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Littleton was named after William Little, ...

, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Person, Thomas 1733 births 1800 deaths Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives People from Granville County, North Carolina Militia generals in the American Revolution North Carolina militiamen in the American Revolution Members of the North Carolina Provincial Congresses Members of the North Carolina House of Burgesses