David Gillespie (surveyor)

David B. Gillespie was an American land surveyor and politician. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons as a representative from Bladen County and was the first person granted a document in the nature of a diploma from what is today the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received the document prior to leaving the university to assist Andrew Ellicott with determining the Southern boundary of the United States. Gillespie served in the North Carolina militia as a Major in the War of 1812.

Early life and education
David Gillespie was born April 5, 1774, on his fathers plantation, known as Golden Grove, in Duplin County, Province of North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He was a founding member of the Philanthropic Society and the Concord Society at the university, along with his younger brother Joseph, and was its first president. The Concord Society's first meeting was held on August 10, 1795. The Concord Society split from the older Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, likely due to a disagreement about having an officer position known as the Censor Morum. The Censor Morum had grand powers and duties and was intended "to inspect the conduct and morals of the members and report to the society those who preserve inattention to the studies of the University, in neglect of their duties as members, or in acting in such a manner as to reflect disgrace on their fellow-members." Gillespie motioned for the Concord Society to be renamed the Greek Philanthropic Society on August 29, 1796. He became the first person to receive a certificate in his name "in the nature of a diploma" by the university before he left to be the assistant to the secretary, Andrew Ellicott, on the commission to determine the Southern and Western boundary of the United States with Spanish Florida and Louisiana.

Career
George Washington appointed Ellicott as commissioner to determine the thirty-first parallel in cooperation with a Spanish commission first led by William Dunbar and after Dunbar was replaced, by Stephen Minor. David Gillespie accepted the position of assistant surveyor for Ellicott, later becoming surveyor pro tempore for the United States boundary commission and afterwards the chief surveyor, replacing Thomas Freeman. The survey encountered some difficulties with the Native Americans, namely the Eufala, the Seminole, and the Upper Creek, and Ellicott at times feared for Gillespie's safety in some of his writings. Gillespie wrote to his father about the political events that surrounded the transfer of the Natchez region, near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, to the United States in 1795. Some of his letters indicate his dissatisfaction with Ellicott. After his United States Survey of the Coast Service, he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons and represented Bladen County in 1807 and during the War of 1812, from 1812 to 1813.

In the War of 1812, Gillespie served as a Major of the 4th Regiment of the First Brigade of the North Carolina militia. He served under lieutenant colonel Alfred Rowland, the grandfather of U.S. congressman Alfred Rowland.

Personal life
David Gillespie was the son of James Gillespie, a U.S. congressman, and Dorcas Mumford Gillespie. He married Sarah Street, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Clopton Street. Gillespie owned a number of slaves and a plantation.

One of his daughters, Elizabeth (also known as Eliza), at the age of 14 married John A. Robeson, a descendant of William Bartram. Robeson inherited Bartram's plantation, known as Ashwood. Elizabeth, along with a slave known as Dorcas, purported to have seen ghosts at the plantation and it was consequently pulled down in 1856 or 1857.

Legacy
Twenty-three papers of Ellicott and Gillespie's manuscripts from their survey can be accessed at the Library of Congress's division of manuscripts. Some of his papers have been digitized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries as part of the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library.