HOLMES, Gabriel, a Representative from North Carolina; born near Clinton, Sampson County, N.C., in 1769; attended Zion Parnassus Academy in Rowan County and Harvard University; studied law in Raleigh, N.C.; was admitted to the bar in 1790 and commenced practice in Clinton, N.C.; served in the State house of commons 1794 and 1795; member of the State senate 1797-1802, 1812, and 1813; Governor of North Carolina 1821-1824; elected as a Jacksonian candidate to the Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first Congresses and served from March 4, 1825, until his death near Clinton, Sampson County, N.C., September 26, 1829; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Twentieth Congress); interment in the family burial plot on his estate.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States 1774-present.)

GABRIEL  HOLMES
GOVERNOR GABRIEL HOLMES was a native of the county of Duplin (the part now Sampson), and his ancestors were among the colonists brought to America for the purpose of settling the McCulloh and Selwyn domain in Duplin County and its vicinity. They came with the Kenans, along with Colonel Sampson.

Gabriel Holmes was born in 1769. He received his preparatory education at Zion Parnassus Academy, in Rowan County, under the Rev. Samuel C. McCorkle, and later entered Harvard College, but did not graduate. Returning to North Carolina, he studied law with John Louis Taylor, afterward chief justice, as his instructor, and was soon the recipient of political honors. In 1794 and 1795 he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from the county of Sampson. For six successive sessions, from 1797 till 1802 (inclusive), and again in 1812 and 1813, he was State senator, serving eight terms in all, in addition to his previous service as a commoner.

On the 6th of December, 1821, the General Assembly elected Mr. Holmes to the office of governor of the State, and he was inaugurated on the day following. His immediate predecessor was Jesse Franklin. Holmes served until December 7, 1824, when Governor Hutchins G. Burton was inaugurated as his successor.

When Marquis de Lafayette revisited America in 1824-25, Governor Holmes was in office when he first arrived. The following special message, which explains itself, was sent by Holmes to the legislature on November 20, 1824:

"When General Lafayette, the illustrious guest of the nation, was at Yorktown, in Virginia, I anticipated his arrival in North Carolina; and in order to make such arrangements as would comport with the dignity of the State in the reception of one whose life and fortune have been devoted not only to the establishment of liberty and independence in the United States, but to the subversion of despotism and the melioration of the rights of man in Europe, I despatched Major-General Robert R. Johnson to wait on him with a letter of invitation to our capital and other populous cities in this State.
"General Johnson has informed me that General Lafayette has accepted the invitation, and will probably visit this place about the 20th of December next.
"Permit me to suggest the propriety of the legislatures making such provision as may seem to them consistent for the reception of so great and good a personage."

General Lafayette's visit to Raleigh was delayed several months. In the meantime the term of office of Governor Holmes had expired and Hutchins G. Burton filled the executive chair. For an account of the reception of the "guest of the nation," we refer the reader to the sketch of Governor Burton, which appears elsewhere in this work. It may be well here to mention, however, that the legislature placed the whole State treasury at the governor's disposal for the entertainment of Lafayette—no limit at all being placed upon expenditures.

About a year after the expiration of his term as governor, Mr. Holmes was elected to represent his district in the Congress of the United States. He served therein from December 3, 1825, till his death, in 1829.

From 1801 till 1804 Mr. Holmes was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina, and again served in that capacity from 1817 till 1829. During his term as governor (1821-24) he was ex-oMcio president of this board.

Governor Holmes died in Sampson County on the 26th of September, 1829.    His death was a loss to the State.    He was not only a finished and profound scholar, but he possessed personal characteristics which gained for him the highest respect and the esteem of all with whom he was associated. Affable in his deportment, kind and sympathetic in his disposition, by his attainments and culture he was fitted to move in the highest circles of society, and he adorned the public offices which he filled.

The Raleigh Register of October 15, 1829, contains a brief sketch of his life, copied from the Fayetteville Observer, as follows:
"Died: At his residence in Sampson County, on Tuesday, the 26th ultimo, General Gabriel Holmes, in the sixty-first year of his age. General Holmes was educated at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, and early in life engaged in the practice of law. He was several years elected to represent the county of Sampson in the State legislature, and was for a considerable period a member of the Council of State. In 1821 he was chosen governor of North Carolina, and served a constitutional term; after his retirement from the executive chair he was elected to represent the Fifth Congressional District in Congress, and at the time of his death was the member-elect from that district. The estimation in which he was held by his constituents was fully manifested in the result of the last election; for though he was so worn down by long and painful suffering as to be unable to mix much with the people, such was their regard for his character and services that they re-elected him by a very handsome majority. In public life General Holmes was distinguished for pure, disinterested love of country; in private life, for sincere friendship and the strictest integrity; as a neighbor he was kind and benevolent; as a husband and father, affectionate and indulgent. He lived esteemed by his friends for his many virtues, and died regretted by all who knew him."

The wife of Governor Holmes was Mary Hunter, daughter of a Revolutionary patriot of Wake County, Lieutenant-Colonel Theophilus Hunter, whose biography will be found under a separate heading in this work.

Governor Holmes left several children, the most distinguished of whom was Lieutenant-General Theophilus Hunter Holmes of the Confederate army.
Marshall De Lancey Haywood.
(Source: Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to Present, By Samuel A. Ashe, Vol. III, published 1906)