Author: Robert Franklin Hook

Matthew McCauley was born in 1755 in Carrickfergus, Antrim County, Ireland.

As a young man, Matthew McCauley was an outspoken critic of the British government in northern Ireland, where his family had lived since the 1600s. He became such a thorn in the side of the local authorities that a price was placed on his head. To save his life, his older brother, William McCauley, arranged to have him hidden in a barrel marked either "whiskey" or "china" and smuggled aboard a ship bound for America. On arrival, he came to Orange County, North Carolina. When the American Revolution began, he volunteered for service in the Continental Army.

He was a Captain in the 10th North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line, serving throughout the Revolutionary War. He was with his regiment at Valley Forge in the Winter of 1777-1778 and fought in the battles at Whitesell's Mill and Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. In September 1781, while in charge of a militia company responsible for guarding Hillsboro, North Carolina, Matthew's company fought and was captured by the large Loyalist army led by Colonel David Fanning in what is known as the Battle of Hillsboro. He was forced to march to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was held aboard the prison ship Eske for six months before he was exchanged. He was imprisoned on the Eske at the time of the Battle of Yorktown.

On 3 February 1780, he married Martha Johnston in Orange County, North Carolina. They had the following known children:

• John married Nancy Fletcher O'Kelly
• Charles married Elizabeth Wilson
• William married Virginia Stuart
• Jane married Benjamin Goodman
• Martha married John King
• Elizabeth married Samuel Parks Neville
• George married Elizabeth McCauley
• Eleanor married Wilson Atwater
• Matthew married Mrs. Mary Lunch Ellis

Following the War he operated a tavern, a well-known mill recognized for producing fine flour and cornmeal, and other successful enterprises. In time, he became a large landowner.  He was always an advocate for education and when plans were underway for establishing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he gave 100 acres of land to be sold, the proceeds to go to the building of the university. There were only five citizens of Orange County who stepped up to give land for this endeavor.

The Patriot died near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on 6 September 1821. Matthew and his wife are buried in the McCauley Cemetery near University Lake, Chapel Hill. His role in the history of the University of North Carolina is recognized on a marker at the cemetery. The marker was dedicated on 13 July 1939 at a ceremony where Dr. Frank Graham, president of the university, the North Carolina Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and other dignitaries participated.

Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!

Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.

Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here: Patriot Biography Do's and Don'ts

Send your submission¹, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space

---

¹Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.