William Richardson Davie William Richardson Davie ( June 20 , 1756 – November 29 , 1820 ) was a military officer and the tenth Governor of North Carolina from 1798 to 1799 , as well as one of the most important men involved in the founding of the University of North Carolina . He was a member of the Federalist Party and is a " Founding Father of the United States . " Early life . Davie was born in England , but immigrated to the American colonies in 1763 , when his father , Archibald Davie , brought him to the Waxhaw region near Lancaster , South Carolina ( later thought to be where Andrew Jackson was born ) . He was named for his maternal uncle , William Richardson , a prominent Presbyterian minister in South Carolina , although unlike many historians have concluded , Davie was not adopted outright by his maternal uncle . However , when William Richardson died , Davie , as his nephew , inherited 150 acres of land and a large library . As an adolescent , Davie studied at Queen ' s Museum , later Liberty Hall , in Charlotte , then matriculated to the College of New Jersey ( now Princeton University ) , from which he graduated with honors in 1776 . Revolutionary War . After leaving New Jersey , Davie began to study law in Salisbury , North Carolina , under Spruce Macay ( pronounced " " Muh - coy " " ) , who would later provide Andrew Jackson with his own legal training . In December 1778 , Davie left Salisbury to join 1 , 200 militiamen led by Brigadier General Allen Jones of Northampton County , NC . Jones ' s force advanced toward Charleston , South Carolina , with intentions to aid the port city as it prepared its defenses against possible British assault . That threat receded , so Davie and the rest of Jones ' s men returned to North Carolina after marching as far south as Camden , South Carolina . Davie resumed his studies in Salisbury , but in the spring of 1779 , he closed his law books again to reenter military service . This time , though , Davie did not volunteer for an existing force ; he helped to raise and train a local cavalry troop . For his work in forming " a Company of Horse in the District of Salisbury , " he received a lieutenant ' s commission in April from North Carolina Governor Richard Caswell . Davie did not remain in that junior rank for long . In May 1779 , he and his company were attached to the legion of General Casimir Pułaski , who earlier in the year had moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina to help bolster American positions in and around Charleston . Promoted to the rank of major under Pulaski , Davie assumed command of a brigade of cavalry . On June 20 , 1779 , just two days shy of his twenty - third birthday , Davie led a charge against British forces at the Battle of Stono Ferry outside Charleston . He suffered a serious wound to his thigh in that engagement , fell from his horse , and narrowly escaped capture . While convalescing from his injuries , Davie resumed his legal studies back in Salisbury . He was presented an honorary sword by the citizenry for his exemplary conduct and courage . Soon he completed or " stood " his examinations and in November 1779 obtained a license to practice law in South Carolina . In the late spring and summer of the following year , Davie , now fully recovered , again formed an independent company of cavalry . He led that mounted force in several actions during the summer of 1780 . Shortly after the Battle of Hanging Rock , Davie received word of a new army moving into South Carolina under General Horatio Gates . At the Battle of Camden on August 16 , 1780 Gates was soundly defeated . While the Continentals fought hard , his militia largely fled without much if any of a fight . Gates and what remained of his army fell back into North Carolina . Davie narrowly missed the battle . Instead of retreating north along with Gates and the remnants of the American army , Davie moved south towards the enemy and Camden to recover supply wagons and gather intelligence on enemy movements . In the time between Camden and the Battle of Kings Mountain , in October 1780 , Davie ' s cavalry was the only unbroken corps between the British army and what was left of the Continental forces . Davie ' s most audacious action as a cavalry officer came at the Battle of Charlotte on September 26 , 1780 . Ordered to cover the American army retreat and hinder the British invasion of North Carolina , Davie , now a colonel , and 150 of his mounted militia set up defense in what was then the small village of Charlotte , North Carolina . He dismounted several of his men and had them take station behind a stone wall at the summit of a hill in the center of town . Other dismounted soldiers where scattered on the flanks with a reserve of cavalry . At about noon , the British army under General Lord Cornwallis appeared . Cornwallis ' forces numbered at least 2 , 000 Redcoats and loyalists . After three charges of British cavalry and infantry moving on his right flank , Davie and his men retreated northward . Cornwallis subsequently occupied Charlotte , but he remained there less than two weeks , withdrawing his forces from the " hornets nest " after receiving news of the defeat of Loyalist forces by backcountry militia at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7 , 1780 . As Cornwallis ' s army marched back toward South Carolina , Davie directed his men to shadow and skirmish with enemy units and to disrupt and intercept their communications . Davie ' s military service in the Revolution changed dramatically after December 1780 , when General Nathanael Greene arrived in North Carolina to take command of the American army in the " Southern Department . " Headquartered in Charlotte , Greene desperately needed more provisions and equipment for his soldiers as he prepared to counter the certain return of Cornwallis to North Carolina . Davie ' s leadership skills and knowledge of the region ' s terrain and inhabitants impressed Greene , who in January 1781 persuaded the experienced cavalry officer to relinquish his field command so that he could serve as the army ' s commissary - general . In that position Davie spent the final stages of the war carrying out the crucial but often thankless tasks of locating , organizing , and transporting supplies often using his own funds for General Greene ' s ever - needy troops , as well as for North Carolina ' s militia . Post - war service . After the war , Davie rose to prominence in North Carolina as a traveling circuit court lawyer and orator . He was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons on multiple occasions from 1786 through 1798 . He served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ( leaving before he could sign the document ) and argued for its passage at the North Carolina State Conventions in 1788 and 1789 . Davie served as Grand Master of the North Carolina Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons from 1792 to 1798 . Davie was elected governor of North Carolina by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1798 . During his administration , the state settled boundary disputes with South Carolina and Tennessee to the west . He resigned as the state ' s chief executive when President John Adams enlisted him in 1799 to serve on a peace commission to France , where bilateral negotiations resulted in the Convention of 1800 . Davie remained active in the state militia and in the newly formed United States Army . He served in the state militia during the 1797 crisis with France ( immediately preceding the Quasi - War ) and was appointed brigadier general in the Army by President Adams . After his return to North Carolina , Davie continued to be active in Federalist politics . He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives against Willis Alston in the 1804 election . ( Alston , elected as a Federalist in 1798 , joined the Democratic - Republican Party during the Jefferson administration ) . Founding the University of North Carolina . As a member of the North Carolina General Assembly , Davie sponsored the bill that chartered the University of North Carolina . Davie laid the cornerstone of the university in October 1793 in a full Masonic ceremony as he was the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina at the time . He is recognized as the university ' s founder and served on its board of trustees from 1789 to 1807 . Davie also received the institution ' s first honorary degree in 1811 , an LL . D . , and was given the title " Father of the University . " The " Davie Poplar " tree on the campus is , as legend has it , where Davie tied his horse in the late 1790s to pick out the site for the state ' s first university . A portrait of Davie hangs in the chambers of the Dialectic Society , the oldest student organization at the university . Later life . After his unsuccessful run for the House of Representatives Davie retired from public life to his estate , Tivoli , in South Carolina . During the 1812 presidential election , Virginia Federalists who refused to support the candidacy of dissident Democratic - Republican DeWitt Clinton against incumbent Democratic - Republican James Madison nominated presidential electors pledged to Rufus King for president and Davie for vice president . This Federalist slate was defeated by a wide margin ) . During the War of 1812 , Davie served in the army as well , but declined an offer from President James Madison to command the American forces . Davie was keenly interested in thoroughbred horses . In 1809 , he purchased a champion race horse from William Ransom Johnson , a native of North Carolina who was known in American racing circles as " The Napoleon of the Turf . " The horse , " Sir Archy , " cost Davie the then - staggering sum of $ 5 , 000 . That price reflected the horse ' s greatness and his promise as one of the foundation sires in American racing . Nearly a century and a half later , in 1955 , as further testament to Sir Archy ' s standing , the stallion was among the first class of horses inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs , New York . Davie died at his Tivoli estate in 1820 . He was preceded in death by his wife , the former Sarah Jones , whom he married in 1782 . Davie is buried at Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church in South Carolina . Sarah , who died at the age of 39 in 1802 , is buried in the Old Colonial Cemetery in Halifax , North Carolina , and was the daughter of Allen Jones . Davie County , North Carolina , established in 1836 , is named in his memory , as are schools in Davie County and Roanoke Rapids , North Carolina , and a park in Mecklenburg County , North Carolina . His Tivoli plantation is now part of the Landsford Canal State Park in Chester County , South Carolina .