Church, and by
his walk and conversation, its firm supporter.

By the east wall of the graveyard at Hopewell Church, is a row of
marble slabs, all bearing the name of Alexander. On one of them, is
this short inscription:

"John McKnitt Alexander,
Who departed this life July 10th, 1817,
Aged 84."

It is a singular fact, that the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration
were all, with perhaps one or two exceptions, members of the
Presbyterian Church. One of them, Rev. Hezekiah J. Balch, was a
Presbyterian preacher, and nine others Elders of that Church, which
may be truly styled, at and before the Revolution, the "nursing mother
of freemen."

_Waightstill Avery_ was an eminent lawyer, born in the town of Groton,
Connecticut, in 1747, and graduated at Princeton College in 1766.
There were eight brothers of this family, and all true patriots; some
of them were massacred at Fort Griswold, and some perished at Wyoming
Valley. Some of the descendants still reside at Groton, Conn., and
others at Oswego, and Seneca Lake, N.Y. He studied law on the eastern
shore of Maryland, with Littleton Dennis. In 1769, he emigrated to
North Carolina, obtained license to practice in 1770, and settled in
Charlotte. By his assiduity and ability, he soon acquired numerous
friends. He was an ardent advocate of liberty, but not of
licentiousness.

In 1778, he married near Newbern, Mrs Leah Frank, daughter of William
Probart, a wealthy merchant of Snow Hill, Md., who died on a visit to
London. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at
Hillsboro on the 21st of August, 1775. In 1776, he was a delegate to
the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax to form a State
Constitution, with Hezekiah Alexander, Robert Irwin, John Phifer and
Zaccheus Wilson as colleagues. He was appointed to sign proclamation
bills by this body. On the 20th of July, 1777, with William Sharpe,
Joseph Winston and Robert Lanier, as associates, he made the treaty of
the Long Island of the Holston with the Cherokee Indians. This treaty,
made without an oath, is one that has never been violated. In 1777, he
was elected the first Attorney General of North Carolina.

In 1780, while Lord Cornwallis was encamped in Charlotte, some of the
British soldiery, on account of his well-known advocacy of
independence, set fire to his law office, and destroyed it, with all
his books and papers. In 1781, he moved to Burke county, which he
represented in the Com