David Gillespie (surveyor)

David B. Gillespie (April 5, 1774 – September 28, 1829) was an American land surveyor and politician. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons as a representative from Bladen County and the North Carolina Council of State. He was the first person granted a document in the nature of a diploma from what is today the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received the document prior to leaving the university in 1796 to assist the astronomer Andrew Ellicott with determining the Southern boundary of the United States after the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain. Gillespie served in the North Carolina militia as a second major in the War of 1812.

David B. Gillespie, the son of James Gillespie^[1][2] and Dorcas Mumford Gillespie,^[3] was born on April 5, 1774, in Duplin County in the Province of North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.^[4] He was a founding member of the Philanthropic Society^[5] and the Concord Society at the university, along with his younger brother Joseph, and was its first president. The Concord Society's first meeting was held on August 10, 1795. The Concord Society split from the older Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, likely due to a disagreement about having an officer position known as the Censor Morum.^[6] The Censor Morum had grand powers and duties and was intended "to inspect the conduct and morals of the members and report to the society those who preserve inattention to the studies of the University, in neglect of their duties as members, or in acting in such a manner as to reflect disgrace on their fellow-members."^[7] Gillespie motioned for the Concord Society to be renamed the Greek Philanthropic Society on August 29, 1796. He became the first person to receive a certificate in his name "in the nature of a diploma" by the university before he left to be the assistant to the secretary, Andrew Ellicott, on the commission to determine the Southern^[8] and Western boundary of the United States with Spanish Florida and Louisiana.^[9]

George Washington appointed Ellicott as commissioner and Thomas Freeman as surveyor to determine the thirty-first parallel^[10] in cooperation with a Spanish commission first led by the astronomer William Dunbar and after Dunbar returned to his home in September 1798, by the Spanish's surveyor, Stephen Minor.^[11][12] David Gillespie accepted the position of assistant surveyor for Ellicott,^[9] and was one of two assistants of Ellicott, the other being his son Andrew Ellicott Jr.^[13][a] The original surveyor of the commission was Thomas Freeman, who likely attained the position through political means.^[15] Freeman quarreled with,^[16][17] was thought to have acted "improper"^[13] and to be "insufferably arrogant", and "a detriment to the work of running the line" by Ellicott, who suggested for Freeman to be removed.^[15] A letter written by the Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, to Ellicott about Freeman's conduct mentions his actions were considered "wholly unwarrantable".^[18] Gillespie was appointed surveyor pro tempore for the United States boundary commission by Ellicott in Freeman's stead and afterwards was made the chief surveyor^[12] after the work began.^[17]

The survey encountered some difficulties with the Native Americans, namely the Eufala, the Seminole, and the Upper Creek, and Ellicott at times feared for Gillespie's safety in some of his writings.^[12] In one letter to Ellicott, Gillespie mentioned that Miccosukee warriors under their king, "a man of violent passions", had set out on July 4, 1799, to stop the surveyors. The Miccosukee leader calmed after hearing from Spain and the United States.^[18] Gillespie also wrote to his father James about the political events that surrounded the transfer of the Natchez region, near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, to the United States in 1795. Some of his letters indicate his dissatisfaction with Ellicott.^[9][19] After his United States Survey of the Coast Service, he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons and represented Bladen County^[20] in 1807^[21] and during the War of 1812, from 1812 to 1813.^[22][23]

In the War of 1812, Gillespie served as a second major of the Fourth Regiment of the First Brigade of the North Carolina militia. He served under lieutenant colonel Alfred Rowland, the grandfather of U.S. congressman Alfred Rowland.^[24]

He was first elected to the North Carolina Council of State by the General Assembly of 1817 on December 6, 1817.^[25] He remained a councilor for several years, and was last elected as a councilor on December 18, 1823, by the General Assembly of 1823.^[26]

David Gillespie was the son of James Gillespie, a U.S. congressman, and Dorcas Mumford Gillespie.^[27] He married Sarah Street, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Clopton Street.^[28] Gillespie owned a number of slaves and a plantation, known as Lebanon Plantation in Carver's Creek.^[19][29]

One of his daughters, Elizabeth (also known as Eliza),^[2] at the age of 14 married John A. Robeson, a descendant of William Bartram. Robeson inherited Bartram's plantation, known as Ashwood.^[30] Elizabeth, along with a slave known as Dorcas, purported to have seen two ghosts at the plantation and it was consequently pulled down in 1856 or 1857.^[31]

Gillespie had twelve children with his wife Sarah:

• James Gillespie I (July 23, 1803 – January 19, 1804)
• Rebecca S. Gillespie (1804 – September 3, 1812)
• James Gillespie II (November 8, 1804 – June 3, 1847) married Susan O'Brien Flowers on November 29, 1829.
• Richard Street Gillespie (September 12, 1806 – July 9, 1878) married Elizabeth Flowers on June 5, 1832.
• Joseph Mumford Gillespie (May 3, 1808 – December 8, 1848)
• Elizabeth "Eliza" Street Gillespie (January 28, 1810 – June 2, 1898) married John Alexander Robeson on November 25, 1824.
• George Street Gillespie (October 28, 1811 – October 20, 1865) married Elizabeth "Eliza" Coddington Robeson on June 21, 1843.
• Ann Clopton Gillespie (April 13, 1813 – August 12, 1862) married James Gillespie Dickson on April 14, 1835.
• David B. Gillespie (February 28, 1815 – January 2, 1905) married Sarah Ann Davis on November 20, 1844.
• Albert Gillespie (September 25, 1817 – February 1, 1850) married Caroline F. Jones.
• Sarah Gillespie (January 22, 1820 – June 14, 1887) married David Flowers on December 12, 1843.
• Lucy Jane Gillespie (January 22, 1825 – February 14, 1889) married Thomas Jones Robeson on July 23, 1850.^[3]

In 1936, twenty-three papers of Ellicott and Gillespie's manuscripts from their survey were accessible at the Library of Congress's division of manuscripts.^[32] Today additional papers have been donated to the Library of Congress. The documents in the collection are dated from the late 1770s to 1801.^[33] Some of Gillespie's papers have been digitized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries as part of the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library.^[9] A letter, fragments of legal documents, and a list of accounts written by Gillespie can be found at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.^[4]