William Hooper was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician.
26 Facts About William Hooper
2.
William Hooper's father, William Hooper, was a Scottish minister who studied at the University of Edinburgh prior to immigrating to Boston.
3.
Hooper's father had hoped that William would follow in his footsteps as an Episcopal priest and placed his son at the age of seven in Boston Latin School headed by Mr John Lovell, a highly distinguished educator.
4.
In 1757, at age 16, William Hooper entered Harvard University where he was highly regarded as an industrious student.
5.
In 1760, William Hooper graduated from Harvard with honors, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts.
6.
However, after graduating, William Hooper did not wish to pursue a career in the clergy as his father had hoped.
7.
William Hooper studied under Otis until 1764 and once completing his bar exam decided to leave Massachusetts in part because of the city's abundance of attorneys.
8.
In 1764, William Hooper moved temporarily to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he began to practice law and became the circuit court lawyer for Cape Fear.
9.
William Hooper began to build a highly respected reputation in North Carolina among the wealthy farmers as well as fellow lawyers.
10.
William Hooper increased his influence by representing the colonial government in several court cases.
11.
In 1767, William Hooper married Anne Clark, the daughter of a wealthy early settler to the region and sheriff of New Hanover County.
12.
William Hooper moved quickly up the ranks, first in 1769 when he was appointed as deputy attorney of the Salisbury District, and then in 1770 when he was appointed deputy Attorney General of North Carolina.
13.
William Hooper advised that Governor Tryon use as much force as was necessary to stamp out the rebels and even accompanied the troops at the Battle of Alamance in 1771.
14.
William Hooper served in the Province of North Carolina House of Burgesses in 1775.
15.
William Hooper had been labeled a Loyalist and therefore he was not immediately accepted by Patriots.
16.
William Hooper eventually was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1773, where he became an opponent to colonial attempts to pass laws that would regulate the provincial courts.
17.
William Hooper was appointed to the Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry.
18.
In 1774, William Hooper was appointed a delegate to the First Continental Congress, where he served on numerous committees.
19.
William Hooper was again elected to the Second Continental Congress, but much of his time was split between the congress and work in North Carolina, where he was assisting in forming a new government.
20.
In 1777, because of continued financial concerns, William Hooper resigned from Congress and returned to North Carolina to resume his law career.
21.
In 1781, the British captured Wilmington, to where Cornwallis and his forces fell back after the Battle of Guilford Court House, and William Hooper found himself separated from his family.
22.
Finally, after nearly a year of separation, William Hooper was reunited with his family, and they settled in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where William Hooper continued to work for the North Carolina assembly until 1783.
23.
William Hooper fell in line with the Federalist Party because of his influential connections, his mistrust of the lower class, and his widely criticized soft dealings with Loyalists, toward whom he was generally forgiving.
24.
William Hooper was again called to public service in 1786, when he was appointed a federal judge in a border dispute between New York and Massachusetts, though the case was settled out of court.
25.
William Hooper was laid to rest in the Presbyterian Churchyard in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
26.
William Hooper's remains were later reinterred at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.