Alexander Gaston (1735-1781)

He was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He was educated at Glasgow University and became a Surgeon in the British Navy. At the conclusion of the Seven Years War (1763) he chose to settle in New Bern which was then the largest town in North Carolina and where he purchased 2,000-acres. In 1775, he married his wife, Margaret, a devout Catholic from Cumberland in Northern England who had been visiting her brothers who had set up as merchants in New Bern. Despite their backgrounds, during the Revolution the Gastons both firmly espoused the American cause and Alexander served as a Captain in the North Carolina Militia. In 1777, he was appointed Judge of the Court of Oyer and Termina for the District of New Bern. In 1781, his plantation was raided by British troops and despite his wife having thrown herself at the feet of the British Captain, begging him to spare her husband, the Captain shot Gaston dead as he tried to escape by boat. He had three children but the eldest died in infancy.