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Very little is available on the relatives of William Blount, but it has been established that he was the great-grandson of Thomas Blount, an English settler who came to Virginia soon after 1660 and settled on a North Carolina plantation. The generations that preceded William in the Blount family resided in North Carolina, eventually gaining political status. William's brother (William Grainger Blounts uncle), Thomas Blount, was born at “Blount Hall,” Craven (now Pitt) County, N.C. on May 10, 1759 He was educated at home, at the age of sixteen years hr entered the Continental Army and was captured and sent to England as a prisoner of war after the Revolutionary War engaged in the mercantile business in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. He was a member of the State house of commons in 1788; elected to the Third Congress and as a Republican to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses (March 4, 1793-March 3, 1799); unsuccessful candidate for election in 1802 to the Eighth Congress; elected to the Ninth and Tenth Congresses (March 4, 1805-March 3, 1809); unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1808 to the Eleventh Congress; elected to the Twelfth Congress and served from March 4, 1811, until his death in Washington, D.C., February 7, 1812, at which time he was laid to rest in the Congressional Cemetery. |