Montfort STOKES, Congress, NC (1762-1842)

STOKES, Montfort, a Senator from North Carolina; born in Lunenburg County, Va., March 12, 1762; served in the Revolutionary War in the Continental Navy; was captured by the British and confined for seven months on the British prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor; after the Revolutionary War settled in North Carolina and engaged in planting; clerk of the State senate 1786-1791; clerk of the superior court of Rowan County, N.C.; elected as United States Senator in 1804, but declined; trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1805-1838; about 1812 settled in Wilkesboro, N.C.; elected in 1816 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Turner; elected at same time for the full term and served from December 4, 1816, to March 3, 1823; chairman, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Fifteenth through Seventeenth Congresses); member, State senate 1826; member, State house of representatives 1829-1830; Governor of North Carolina 1830-1832, when he resigned; appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1832 as a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners and resided at Fort Gibson in what is now Oklahoma; was later appointed as a commissioner to negotiate treaties with various tribes of Indians in the West and Southwest; appointed agent for the Cherokee Indians 1837-1842, when he was made subagent for the Senecas, Shawnees, and Quapaws; died at Fort Gibson, November 4, 1842; interment in Fort Gibson Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Foster, William. “The Career of Montfort Stokes in North Carolina.” North Carolina Historical Review 16 (1939): 237-72; Martin, Mrs. John N. “Stokes Notes.” William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser. 8 (January 1928): 124-33.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present