10 Facts About Waightstill Avery

Waightstill Avery was an early American lawyer and officer in the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution.

Waightstill Avery is noted for fighting a duel with future US president Andrew Jackson in 1788.

Ellsworth would go on to become a congressman, a framer of the Constitution, and a Justice of the Supreme Court; the two remained fast friends, even after Avery moved to North Carolina following graduation.

Waightstill Avery quickly became a successful attorney in the Piedmont region of the state.

Waightstill Avery took a leading role, along with other Princeton graduates like Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, and David Caldwell, in the unsuccessful attempt to win a Royal charter for what would have been North Carolina's first college, in 1771.

Waightstill Avery was elected to the colonial assembly in 1772 and served as attorney-general for the Crown.

In 1775 and 1776, Waightstill Avery was elected to the North Carolina Provincial Congresses and in that capacity helped draft the first Constitution of North Carolina in 1776.

Waightstill Avery was the first Attorney General of North Carolina and a colonel in the state's militia during the American Revolutionary War; he served in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Waightstill Avery was among the early instigators clamoring for the colony's independence from Great Britain.

In 1788, Waightstill Avery was challenged to a duel by Andrew Jackson, then a young lawyer in the western territory that would become Tennessee.