Brig. Gen.John Willis, Natchez, MS

Brig. Gen.John Willis was born circa 1759, in Robeson County, North Carolina, and died in Natchez, MS in April, 1802. He married, Asenath Barnes, in 1779 and raised 12 children. He helped emancipate his first-cousin, Rev. Joseph Willis of Bladen County, NC. John became a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina in 1782, 1787, 1789 and 1791, a member of the Senate in 1794, and of the House of Representatives in 1795. In the same year that he helped obtain Joseph Willis’ “legal freedom,” 1787, he was appointed as one of a committee of five, from North Carolina, to ratify the Constitution of the United States. This was just in time for North Carolina to enter the Union, as the twelfth state, and to assist in the election of Gen. George Washington as the first President. In 1795, Gov. Samuel Ashe commissioned John as a Brigadier General in the 4th Brigade of the Militia, Continental Army. The land that the county seat of Robeson County, Lumberton, North Carolina is located on was donated by him, from his Red Bluff Plantation.

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