Person:Matthew Locke (3)

BIOGRAPHY: From a history of Tryon Co, NC 1770, State Records of North Carolina, Vol. 23, p.803: "Whereas, the boundry between the county of Rowan and the counties of Mecklenburg and Tryon hath not yet been ascertained, by reason whereof the inhabitants within the disputed bounds of the said counties refuse to give in a list of taxables, or pay their taxes in any of the said counties; Be it enacted, That Thomas Neal, Thomas Polk, Matthew Locke, Griffith Rutherford and Peter Johnson be appointed commissioners to run dividing lines between said counties."

BIOGRAPHY: From THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, Sunday, May 20, 19??, article by Dr. Archibald Henderson, Matthew Locke, Statesman, Needed Biographer. (exerpts)

The Matthew Locke home stood on the road between Salisbury and Concord, about five miles south of Salisbury, and in 1881 was occupied by Mr. Philip Owens.

Matthew Locke, son of John and Elizabeth Locke, was born in 1730, either in England or Ireland.

He ran a line of wagons --- "White Steamers," of the sort afterwards known in Pennsylvania and all over the country as Conestoga wagons -- between Salisbury and Salem to Charleston, South Carolina. There were large country stores at both Salisbury and the Moravian town of Salem; and here were collected and stored the principal industrial products of the back country. The trade in peltries, chiefly deer skins, but some bear, mink, otter and beaver skins, was immense; and England and foreigh countries was the destination of many of these peltries. Upon one occasion a caravan from Bethabara hauled three thousand pounds, upon another four thousand pounds of dressed deerskins to Charleston. In the early 'fifties thirty thousand were annually exported from the province of North Carolina.

Matthew and his brother Francis were engaged in this freight line of wagons. On the return journey from Charleston, the wagons brought many articles greatly desired by the people of the back country, cut off from many of the conveniences and luxuries of civilization. Records preserved by the Moravians fortunately record these activities of the Locke brothers. Below are records for the year 1762: RECORDS OF 1762. "Francis Locke brought his wagon to take a load of deer skins to Charleston." "Matthew Locke's wagon came and carried a load of wax and tallow to Charleston." "Matthew Locke's wagon returned frokm Charleston with half a pipe of wine and cask of fish oil." "The Locke wagons arrived with goods for the store, but the deer skins sold for a low price, as they were shipped to England. One of the wagons brought hides for the tanner and took goods from the store to Charleston" At another place in the Moravian records appears this observation: "Mr. Locke, who deals in wine, had some to sell, but at 12 shillings per gallon. If we cannot buy and cheaper, we will have to buy from him."

...Matthew Locke, Thomas Person, Timothy Bloodworth and Joseph McDowell were elected by the House of Commons in 1787 as delegates to the Federal Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, but they were not confirmed by the Senate.

BIOGRAPHY: RESOLUTE AND CONSPICUOUS. Matthew Locke took a resolute and conspicuous stand, in many violently contested questions, in political and religious matters. A prominent vestryman of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Salisbury, he took a broad view of religious matters and favored giving the right to ministers of other denominations to perform the ceremony of marriage. He was champion of education inthe higher branches, supported the bill for founding and endowing Queen's Museum or College at Charlotte, and actively supported the bill to establish a State university. In 1774 he introduced the bill for the establishment of inferior courts of pleas and quarter sessions and the division of the State into six judicial districts....

Matthew Locke was a candidate for the Seventh Congress, being opposed by the Federalist, Archibald Henderson, who retained the seat. Some time ago I was fortunate as to discover a rare newspaper Locke's address to the voters in this campaign, whi gives a clear image of Locke's attitude and views, especially in regard to the expenditure of public money. "To the freemen, of the Counties of Rowan, Irecell, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, and Montgomery. Gentlemen: At the request of a number of my fellow-citizens concurring with my own inclination, I purpose to be a candidate at the ensuing election, for a seat in Congress. I declare myself a real friend to the Federal government, and a zealous defender of the Constitution, which I have often sworn to support but do not implicitly rely upon a belief, that all the present measures of Government have been wisely adopted, and impartially administered; but do believe, that millions of dollars hae been expended, that ought to have been saved. These measures I have always opposed, and shall always in a legislative capacity, think it my duty, to give my negative to all propositions or attempts, that in my opinion, have a dtendency, unnecessarily to oppress the citizens or enslave posterity. "I have been for a number of years honored with your suffrages to represent you in the Congress of the United States, and fully believing that on a fair investigation of my political conduct. whilst in your service, I shall stand acquitted from the calumny raised against me in my absence, to which I impute the result of my last unsuccessful attempt. Should I again be the object of your choice, my exertions shall not be wanting to render myself worthy of your confidence, and to convince your, that no one has the welfare of his country more sincerely at heart, than Your most obedient Humble servant, MATTHEW LOCKE July 15, 1800.

Matthew Locke's first wife died in 1790. While a member of Congress in Philadelphia he was married again, to Mrs. Elizabeth Gostler, on July 20, 1798. After the death of General Locke in 1801, she returned to Philadelphia and died there....

BIOGRAPHY: from DICTIIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY, article by James S. Brawley

LOCKE, MATTHEW (1730-7 Sept. 1801), colonial and Revolutionary leader and member of Congress, was born in Northern Ireland, the son of John and Elizabeth Locke. His parents moved to Lancaster County, Pa., where his father died in 1744; his widowed mother married John Brandon and moved to Anson County, N.C., probably in 1752, when John Brandon acquired 640 acres on Grants Creek in present-day Rowan County. Matthew, of course, was grown by this time, and on 25 Mar. 1752 he purchased 200 acres adjoining Brandon's farm. Acquiring still more land, he built his home on the road to Charlotte. His chief occupation at this tiime was trading skins from the backcountry in Charles Town, S.C., for needed articles, some of which he sold in the North Carolina Moravian settlements. He also delivered to Charles Town goods produced by the Moravians. Matthew and his brother, Francis, became wealthy through this trade.

Matthew Locke's first public responsibility came during the Regulator uprising in the backcountry. On 7 Mar. 1771 the officers of Rowan County appointed him and three other men to meet with some Regulators to iron out difficulties that existed between them. Locke and his companions agreed to repay any unlawful fees to those from whom they were illegally extracted. This action mollified the Regulators gathered near Salisbury and they dispersed. Moving into politics, Locke was elected to the colonial Assembly in 1771 and served until 1775.

As the break with England became more apparent, Locke moved decidedly towards the Patriot cause. By this time he was middle-aged and had more to lose than most men of his stature if the cause were lost. In September 1774 he was named to Rowan County's first Committee of Safety, and the next year he became a delegate to the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. Here he served on the committees to persuade the disaffected to be friends of liberty, to finance the colony, and to make arrangements for minutemen throughout the colony. He saw further service on a committee charged with making arrangements for governing the colony in the absence of royal authority when Governor Josiah Martin departed. Governor Richard Caswell afterwards commended Locke for the performance of these duties. In April 1776 he was a delegate to the Fourth Provincial Congress at Halifax. There the members adopted the Halifax Resolves instructing North Carolina's representatives in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to concur with other delegates in voting for independence, making North Carolina the first colony to take such action.

Later in 1776 he was a member of the Rowan committee on secrecy and intelligence, which probed the activities of those not in sympathy with liberty. In this capacity he was probably responsible for the arrest of John Dunn, a founder of Salisbury, and Benjamin Booth, both of whom were suspected of treason. It was to Locke's home on the Charlotte road that these two men were taken after their arrest. They had signed a document that was later found to support royal authority. Locke also was paymaster of the troops in the Salisbury District, the largest in the state, comprising the six frontier counties.

While a member of the Halifax congress, Locke was chairman of the committee to settle and allow military accounts. As a member of the final (Fifth) Provincial Congress at Halifax in November 1776, he participated in drawing up the state's first constitution. Between 1771 and 1780, as a member of the House of Commons, Locke was generally occupied with procuring supplies for the Continental army as well as the state militia. His experience as a trader enabled him to purchase in 1778 a great quantity of skins which he sent to Pennsylvania to be made into shoes for troops. In the same year John Moore, a Tory, gathered about two thousand troops in Tryon County. To meet this threat, a force of equal number was called out and directed to assemble at Salisbury. Because General Griffith Rutherford was absent in South Carolina at that time, Matthew Locke was appointed brigadier general pro tempore of the Salisbury District to command the force. He had no chance to engage the enemy, however, as the Tories dispersed on orders of Lord Charles Cornwallis, the British commander.

Locke served in th e North Carolina House of Commons (1777-80, 1783-84. 1785, and 1789-93) and the state senate (1782 and 1784-85). At the national level, he was a mdmber of the last Continental Congress, sitting from 3 Nov. 1788 to 2 Mar 1789. On many social and political questions of the day, Locke took a resolute and conspicuous stand in the state legislature. He favored giving ministers of all denominations the right to perform marriages, and he advocated the abolition of property qualifications for sufferage and officeholding, championing the cause of universal manhood suffrage. In so doing, he anticipated this reform by almost a century. In education, he supported the bill for founding and endowing Queens's Museum at Charlotte and promoted a bill to establish a state university.

As a delegate to the Hillsbourogh Convention of 1788 to consider the new U.S. Constition, Locke spoke for the poor, radical, and democratic farmers who were apprehensive that the new government would be expensive and oppressive. The opponents by a vote of 184 to 84 adopted a resolution neither rejecting nor ratifying the Constitution, but declaring that a declaration of rights ought to be laid before the Congress to be incorporated into the new Constitution. In the second convention, which met in Fayetteville in November 1789, Federalists overwhelmed the opponents and north Carolina adopted the Constitution. Locke, however, still opposed, voted with the minority.

The Federalists, riding a wave of popularity, elected John Steele of Salisbury as the congressman from their district. He was reelected, but the policies of his party, which he advocated, proved to be unpopular, and in 1793 Matthew Locke, "the honest farmer." replaced Steele. In Congress, Locke became a charter member of Jeffersonian democracy in North Carolina. He consistently followed taken by North Carolinian Nathaniel Macon, a Jeffersonian who was Speaker of the House.

Locke was seldom given to oratory and rarely spoke on the floor of Congress. However, he brokke the rule when he made a forceful speech in December 1796 abainst a bill calling for the payment of state debts. Locke denounced the "unfairness and privacy of the settlement," as North Carolina owed the federal government half a million dollars when it had assumed that it would be a creditor.

Although an elderly man, Locke was reelected in 1796 and 1798 to sreve four more years in the House of Representatives. In the election of 1800 the "honest farmer" lost to Archibald Henderson, the "professional gentleman" who was a Federalist, and so ended Locke's public career. Basil Gaither of Salidbury defended Locke in his last bid for office by stating that he trusted farmers more than lawyers (Henderson was a lawyer) "who jump out of the cradle into college, and out of college into government, such men not having a feeling sense of the necessities of the great mass of mankind whom they represented."

Following Locke's death, an obituary in the Raleigh REGISTER edited by Joseph Gales, a staunch Jeffersonian, bemoaned the passing and called him a "friend and fixed Republican" who had "served his state admirably in Congress." He was buried in Thyatira Presbeterian Church cemetery in Rowan County.

Locke was married first to Mary, a daughter of Richard [sic, should be John] Brandon, and had at one time four sons in the Revolution. One of them, Lieutenant George Locke, was killed at Kennedy's farm near Charlotte in a skirmish with the Brittish. Francis [sic] Locke's household in 1790 consisted of three males over age sisteen, including himself, two males under sixteen, two females, including his wife, and twenty seven slaves. Mary Locke died on 31 July 1790. While in Congress Locke courted and in 1798 married Elizabeth Gostelowe, widow of a Philadelphia cabinetmaker.

RESEARCH: From: "jschulke" To: Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 6:23 AM Subject: [RowanRoots] Rowan Co., NC research materiel on surname Jones

RESEARCH: We acknowledge sureties indebted to Samuel Johnston governor or his successors in office in the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds for the .. of which we bind ourselves, executors, adm'r and to be void on condition that there be no legal obstruction to marriage between Thomas Jones and Polly Lock. Witness our hands and seals this 23'rd day of October 1788(9?) Signed and released in presence of Wil Alexander Thomas Jones (seal) Matthew Lock (seal)

Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots Record Name: Matthew LOCKE Cemetery: Thyatira Pres Ch Cem Location: Rowan NC 49 Reference: Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol.3, p. Serial: 11393; Volume: 3

North Carolina Revolutionary War Soldiers Rowan County?Matthew Locke, James Smith, Moses Winslow, Samuel Young, William Kennon, William Sharpe, Robert Lanier.

Epitaph reads "A promoter of civilation. A legislator and patriotic friend to country. In his private character a tender husband, affectionate parent, Indulgent master, benevolent to poor, and attentive to his happiness."

1798 2 Defeated in Congressional election by staunch Federalist, Archibald Henderson.

BET 1776 AND 1799 Member Provincial Congress of Philadelphia that met on Nov. 12, 1776 to plan the Constitution

BET 1793 AND 1799 2 U.S. Representative from NC, elected to the 3rd, 4th, abd 5thCongress

Vestryman of the Episcopalean (Anglican before the Rev. War) church in Salisbury, NC.

Residence: Locke Plantation, Locke Township, Rowan Co., NC

Note: DEEDS: Rowan County North Carolina Deed Abstracts Vol I, 1753-1762, Abstracts of Books 1-4, Jo White Linn. (page 7) 1:197-198. Granville to Matthew Lock of Anson for 10 sh. Sterl. 200 A in Anson adj. John Brandon. 25 Mar 1752. Wit: Jno. Haywood, Jas. Carter.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Matthew Locke (U.S. Congress).

1. ↑ The Old N State and the New.

   Sources:
   Title: The Old N State and the New
   Author: Archibald Henderson
   Repository:
   Call Number:
   Media: Book
   Page: 483