page_title: William Sharpe (politician)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: William Sharpe (politician) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: This map shows the location of members of the Fourth Creek Congregation that was located in Rowan County, Province of North Carolina. It was created by a member of the Fourth Creek Congregation, William Sharpe, in 1773 and was published in 1847. The map depicts creeks, streams, landowners, and churches in this area of Rowan County, near the present day town of Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina
context_page_description: William "Billy" Sharpe was a lawyer, politician, American Revolution patriot, and a delegate to the Continental Congress from Rowan County, North Carolina, which became Iredell County in 1788.
context_section_description: William Sharpe was a member of the Fourth Creek Congregation in Rowan County, North Carolina (near what became Statesville, North Carolina in 1789) and created a map of the church members in 1773.  
  Sharpe was a member of the North Carolina Provincial Congress in 1775. Prior to the onset of the American Revolutionary War, he served on the Rowan County Committee of Safety.
  During the war, he was an aide to General Griffith Rutherford of the Salisbury District Brigade in the Indian campaign in 1776.   William was one of four commissioners appointed by Governor Caswell to form a treaty with the Indians in 1777.  William served as Colonel commanding the 2nd Rowan County Regiment of the North Carolina militia from 1776-1777.   When the 2nd Rowan County Regiment became the Burke County Regiment of militia, he served as its commander from 1777 to 1781.  (Note there was another Captain William Sharpe, who served in the Rowan County Regiment from 1780 to 1781.  The relation to Colonel William Sharpe is not known.) 
  Sharpe served as a delegate to the North Carolina constitutional convention in Halifax in 1776, and helped to frame the first constitution of the State.  He was later appointed in 1779 as a delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779–1781, and elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1781 and 1782. 
  Sharpe placed the first bill before the legislature of North Carolina to propose a publicly supported university in the state. This bill failed, but was taken up at the next seating of the legislature and was promoted by one of the state's Revolutionary War leaders General William Richardson Davie. It subsequently passed in 1789, creating the University of North Carolina.
  He died near Statesville, North Carolina on July 6, 1818 and is interred in Snow Creek Burying Ground.
caption: Map of the Fourth Creek Congregation created by WIlliam Sharpe in 1773
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