CASWELL, Rien..km) (1729-S9). A patriot soldier of the American Revolution, and the first Governor of the State of North Carolina. He was born in Maryland, emigrated to North Carolina in 1746, studied and practiced law, and :soon became prominent in Colonial politics. He was a member of the Colonial Assembly from 1754 to 1771, and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1770 and 1771. He also attained prominence as an officer in the Colonial militia, and on May 16, 1771, commanded the right wing of Governor Tryon's forces in the battle of Alamanee against the insurrectionary Regulators. He was aetive as a member of the Whig, or Patriot, Party in the discussions which preceded the Revolution, and in 1774 and 1775 was a delegate to the Continental Con gress. In September, 1775, he was appointed one of the treasurers of North Carolina. He con manded the minutemen, numbering about 1000. who. on February 27, 1776, defeated a force of Loyalists. mostly Scotch emigrants.
tinder Donald Macdonald. at Moore's Creek, N. C.; and for this victory, the effect of which, says Fiske. "was as contagious as that of Lex ington had been in New England" (Fiske. The American Rerolut ion, L. 1771. he was appointed brigadier-general of the Newbern District. In 1776 he was a member of the committee of the Provincial Congress which drew up the State Constitution—one tradition attributing the au thorship of that document altogether to him— and from 1776 to 1778 he served as Governor. In 1760 be commanded the North Carolina militia during the invasion of the State by the British, and took part in the battle of Camden on August 16. lie afterwards served as Speaker of the State Senate and Controller-General from to 1785, and as Governor, for a second term, from 1785 to 1787, and in 178!1 was a member of the State convention which ratified the Federal Constitution.