William Gaston (September 19, 1778 - January 23, 1844) was an attorney, U.S. Representative, State Representative and member of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Gaston entered Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., at the age of thirteen, becoming its first student. Due to illness shortly thereafter, he also became its first dropout. After Georgetown and some education in North Carolina, he graduated from Princeton College in 1796, where he studied law. Gaston was admitted to the bar in 1798 and commenced practice in New Bern, North Carolina.
He was a member of the State senate in 1800, served in the State House of Commons from 1807-1809, and as its speaker in 1808. He was again a member of the State senate in 1812, 1818, and 1819, and was elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses (March 4, 1813-March 3, 1817). While in Congress, he obtained a federal charter for Georgetown University.
Gaston was not a candidate for renomination to Congress in 1816. He again served in the State House of Representatives in 1824, 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1831. Gaston was then appointed judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1833, holding the position until his death.
Gaston won elective office on several occasions, even though the Constitution of North Carolina before 1835 seemed to prohibit it, because Gaston was a Roman Catholic. He was largely responsible, as a member of the constitutional convention of 1835, for removing official discrimination against Catholics from North Carolina law.
Gaston died in Raleigh, North Carolina on January 23, 1844 and was interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Bern, N.C.
Gaston County, North Carolina is named after him, as are the city of Gastonia, North Carolina and Gaston Hall at Georgetown University.
His tomb reads:
WM. GASTON
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JAN. 20, 1844
AGED 65 YEARS
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