Willie Jones

Who was Willie Jones?

Willie Jones was an American planter and statesman from Halifax County, North Carolina. He represented North Carolina as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780. Allen Jones, his brother, was also a delegate to the congress.

In 1774, 1775 and 1776, Jones was elected to represent either the county of Halifax or the town of Halifax in the North Carolina Provincial Congress. For a brief time in 1776, as the head of North Carolina's Council of Safety, he was the head of the state's revolutionary government, until Richard Caswell was elected as Governor.

Thereafter, Jones served in the North Carolina House of Commons and the North Carolina Senate and was elected to the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787 but declined to accept his seat. He led the faction that opposed North Carolina's ratification of the Constitution in 1788.

Among his last public roles was helping to determine the location of Raleigh, the new state capital, in 1791. He moved to Raleigh and died there in 1801. He was buried in an unmarked grave on ground that is now occupied by St. Augustine’s College.