21st North Carolina Governor, US Congressman. Born on the family plantation near Clinton, Sampson County, North Carolina, he was educated at Zion Parnassus Academy and Harvard University, and later studied law in Raleigh with future Chief Justice John Louis Taylor. Upon being admitted to the bar in 1790 he returned to Clinton to practice. He served in the State House of Commons from 1794 to 1795, and was an eight-term member of the State Senate (1797 to 1802, 1812 to 1813). Holmes lost his first gubernatorial bid to Jesse Franklin in 1820, but won a hotly disputed election the following year and was reelected three times, serving from 1821 to 1824. As Governor, Holmes' primary interest was in preserving North Carolina's agrarian culture and he urged the General Assembly to subsidize agricultural societies throughout the state. He was subsequently elected to the Nineteenth and two succeeding US Congresses, representing the state's 5th District as a Jacksonian candidate, and served from 1825 until his death in office. During that time he was Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department and was a close ally of Vice President John C. Calhoun. Holmes died at his Sampson County estate and was interred in the family burial ground; he was reinterred at the Sampson Burial Plot on Memorial Day, 1984. There is also a cenotaph for him at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. His son, Theophilus Holmes, was a Confederate General in the Civil War.
21st North Carolina Governor, US Congressman. Born on the family plantation near Clinton, Sampson County, North Carolina, he was educated at Zion Parnassus Academy and Harvard University, and later studied law in Raleigh with future Chief Justice John Louis Taylor. Upon being admitted to the bar in 1790 he returned to Clinton to practice. He served in the State House of Commons from 1794 to 1795, and was an eight-term member of the State Senate (1797 to 1802, 1812 to 1813). Holmes lost his first gubernatorial bid to Jesse Franklin in 1820, but won a hotly disputed election the following year and was reelected three times, serving from 1821 to 1824. As Governor, Holmes' primary interest was in preserving North Carolina's agrarian culture and he urged the General Assembly to subsidize agricultural societies throughout the state. He was subsequently elected to the Nineteenth and two succeeding US Congresses, representing the state's 5th District as a Jacksonian candidate, and served from 1825 until his death in office. During that time he was Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department and was a close ally of Vice President John C. Calhoun. Holmes died at his Sampson County estate and was interred in the family burial ground; he was reinterred at the Sampson Burial Plot on Memorial Day, 1984. There is also a cenotaph for him at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. His son, Theophilus Holmes, was a Confederate General in the Civil War.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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In memory of the Hon. Gabriel Holmes a representative in the Congress of the U. S. from the state of North Carolina who died in the recess of Congress 1829
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