Constitution Week Celebration: Why Not At His Gravesite?



Gravesite and sepulcher of Richard Dobbs Spaight



National observance of Constitution Week began on September 17 at 3:30 p.m. with Ringing of the Bells locally at Tryon Palace by the Richard Dobbs Spaight Chapter, Daughters of the Revolution, other DAR Chapters, schools and groups across the nation. The Ringing of the Bells commemorates the time on Sept. 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, including New Bernian Richard Dobbs Spaight, met for the last time to sign the document they created.

My thoughts, as I read in the Sun Journal, the Ringing of the Bells ceremony by the Richard Dobbs Spaight Chapter would be held at Tryon Palace, were “why not at his gravesite?”

We are so fortunate to have the honor of having a signer of the constitution buried in our community. Since the purpose of this week of observance is to promote study and education about the constitution, does it not seem we should be commemorating Constitution Week with an observance ceremony at Richard Dobbs Spaight’s gravesite?

This famous New Bernian, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr., a Revolutionary War patriot, a delegate to the Federal Constitution Convention of 1787 and the North Carolina Ratification Convention of 1788, and the first native born Governor of the state of North Carolina (serving three terms) is buried in his family’s sepulcher at Clermont adjacent to Madam Moore’s Lane. This property, owned by the MacDonald family for many years, was bequeathed by the late Ms. Hughrena MacDonald to the state of North Carolina as a part of Tryon Palace to insure this historic property/site was preserved for perpetuity.

Constitution Week presents the perfect opportunity to bring public awareness to this very historic site, especially since the actual initiative to have President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Congress officially proclaim September 17 – 23 as Constitution Week was led by Gertrude Caraway of New Bern, a member of the Richard Dobbs Spaight Chapter and President General of the National Society of the DAR.

Perhaps, Constitution Week 2013, the 226^th anniversary of the signing of the constitution, will include an observance at this hallowed gravesite.

Tell us what you think?

Susan Moffat-Thomas

Richard Dobbs Spaight...a followup to the September 6 blog

Grave plate inside sepulcher

As a person who loves history and reading biographies of famous people who made a difference that improved the lives of the general public, I am always amazed at the important role New Bern and New Bernians played when North Carolina was a colony, in the founding of this nation and its important on-going role in our country’s history.  I suppose I’m particularly impressed having grown up in Michigan, which became a part of the U.S. in 1787 as a Northwest Territory, finally admitted as a state in 1837 and settled in large part by immigrants who came to the United States during the Great Migration between 1850 and 1900.

In moving to New Bern, I was very impressed to learn the gravesite of a signer of the constitution who played a major role in our country’s founding as a Revolutionary War patriot, a delegate to the Federal Constitution Convention of 1787 and to the North Carolina Ratification Convention of 1788, and the first native born Governor of the state of North Carolina (serving for three terms) was located just outside the city limits on Madam Moore’s Lane. My thoughts then and now  are…how cool is that? How many cities can claim such a honor? 

Being appointed to serve on the County’s Bicentennial of the Constitution Committee in 1987 provided the opportunity for me to pull people together (Commissioners, Swiss Bear Board members and other community minded people) to make improvements to the gravesite and be accessible to the public, an accomplishment I took great pride in.

After I wrote the blog (published on September 6th, the day Richard Dobbs Spaight died in 1802 at the age of 44 from wounds inflicted in a duel) I drove to the site to take a few pictures and was dismayed to see weeds in the drive way, inside the sepulcher and a heavy layer of mold on the grave plate….the site  looked forlorn, sad and abandoned.

It seems to me, a County and City that prides itself on its history, reconstructed Tryon Palace with its emphasis on this period of time as the first colonial and state capital, worked for years to develop tourism as an industry, an industry key to the revitalization of our downtown focusing on our historic attractions and the preservation of our historic assets including historic cemeteries, that this site would be at the top of the list of historic attractions. But for some reason, an enigma to me, this  historic cemetery in which a signer of the constitution is buried, is long forgotten.

In closing and in tribute to this founding father, I would like to share with our readers the epitaph on General Spaight’s tomb…that is no longer legible. How sad is that?

      Here are deposited the remains of

GEN. RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT

      who departed this life on the 6^th of September, 1802

Aged 44 years

He is gone, lamented by the good and revered by the brave.

He is gone, loaded with the honors of his country and the benedictions of his friends.

    So sleeps the brave who sink to rest

    By all their country’s wishes blest.

    When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,

    Returns to deck his hollowed mold;

    So there shall find a sweeter sod,

    Than Fancy feet have ever trod.

    By fairy hands his knell is rung

    By forms unseen his dirge is sung,

    There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,

    To bless the turf that wraps his clay.

    And Freedom shall awhile repair,

    And dwell a weeping hermit there.

Tell us what you think!

Susan Moffat Thomas
Executive Director