He was a member of the Convention which met at Halifax on the 12th of
November, 1776, to form a State Constitution, associated with
Waightstill Avery, John Phifer, Robert Irwin and Hezekiah Alexander.

The Wilsons were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and were arrayed by early
education, civil and religious, against tyranny in any form. The
eldest brother, Robert Wilson, who lived for many years in Steele
Creek congregation, was the father of eleven sons, seven of whom were
at one time (all who were old enough) in the Revolutionary army.
Shortly after the Revolution, Zaccheus Wilson moved to Sumner county,
Tennessee, and there died at an advanced age.

_Ezra Alexander_ was a son of Abraham Alexander, the President of the
Mecklenburg Convention of the 20th of May, 1775. He and William
Alexander each commanded a company in Colonel William Davidson's
battalion, under General Rutherford, against the Tories assembled at
Ramsour's Mill, near the present town of Lincolnton. He was also
engaged in other military expeditions during the war, whenever the
defence of the country demanded his services.

_Charles Alexander_ and _John Foard_, two of the signers, served as
privates in Captain Charles Polk's company of "Light Horse" in 1776,
in the Wilmington campaign, and in other service during the war. John
Foard was, for many years, one of the magistrates of Mecklenburg
county, and both have descendants living among us.

_David Reese_ was a son of William Reese, a worthy citizen of Western
Rowan (now Iredell county), who died in April, 1808, aged _ninety-nine
years_, and brother of the Rev. Thomas Reese, whose ministerial labors
were chiefly performed in Pendleton District, S.C., where he ended his