William Richardson Davie

Map Of Kings Mountain Battle Showing Catawba River

Rev. William Richardson was a Presbyterian clergyman, who, in the year 1763, resided in the Waxhaw settlement, on the Catawba River, in the present State of South Carolina. He married a lady named Davie, the sister of Archibald Davie, who came from the village of Egremont, near Whitehaven, a seaport on the Irish Sea, in the county of Cumberland, England.

Source

 Mr. Richardson had no children of his own, and therefore adopted his wife's brother's son, named for himself, William Richardson Davie, who thus became heir to his large estate. He was born at said Egremont, June 20, 1756.

Young Davie was a regular and successful student at Nassau Hall College, Princeton, N. J., where he graduated with honor in the autumn of 1776. Having chosen the profession of law, he began his legal studies in Salisbury, N. C. But in December, 1777, he left his books for a while to engage in the military service of his country. Commissioned as lieutenant of dragoons, he soon rose to the rank of major, and was in Pulaski's legion. He was in the army of Lincoln, engaged in the defence of Charleston; was in the battle of Stono Ferry, near that city, June 20, 1779, where he was badly wounded, and in several other severe actions. He was hastening to join the army of Gates, when that army received a total defeat at Camden, Aug. 16, 1780. While the American forces were mostly driven from the field, Davie, now a colonel, continued to harass the enemy to the utmost, and not without success. [Source]