William Hooper was one of three North Carolinians to sign the Declaration of Independence.
William Hooper was born in Boston Massachusetts in 1742. He graduated from Harvard College in 1760, continued his studies in the law, and settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1767. In 1773 he represented Wilmington in the General Assembly of North Carolina.
He attended the Continental Congress in 1774 and signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. As with other Declaration signers, the British sought to capture Hooper during the Revolutionary War. He evaded capture, but the British destroyed his property in Wilmington. He then moved to Hillsborough, where his family has fled earlier.
In 1789 he was appointed to the Federal Bench, but a year later he retired due to failing health. He died in October of 1790.
William Hooper was originally buried in a churchyard in Hillsborough. In 1894, the managers of the then private Guilford Courthouse battleground, seeking to make the site North Carolina's first Revolutionary War cemetery, arranged to have Hooper's remains disinterred and reburied at the Guilford Courthouse Battleground site. A Memorial, alternately called the Signers' Monument or the Hooper-Penn-Hewes Monument, marks the location of Hoopers's remains. His remains were reinterred with another signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Penn. The grave of the third signer, Joseph Hewes, was lost and the whereabouts of his remains is unknown.
There are some who disapprove of these reburials and this monument is not featured very prominently in the Military Park's literature. (The park does try and put a positive spin on the affair with interpretive signage, calling the relationship between the Military Park and the Signers a "symbolic" one.) Hooper and Penn, while certainly important figures in North Carolina and United States history, played no role in the battle that was fought here.
As a side note, Hooper's grave in Hillsborough is still located in the churchyard and there is no indication that his body was ever moved. A State Historic Marker continues to refer to the burial site, although it does read "Was buried a few yds W". Otherwise, it looks like Hillsborough wants to retain the illusion that Hooper is still in his orginal grave.
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The Signers' Monument at Guilford Courthouse is the final resting place of John Penn and William Hooper. The monument honors all three of North Carolina's "Signers" and the figure is representative of all three.