Matthew Locke (U.S. Congress)

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Matthew Locke (1730 - 7 September 1801) was a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1793 and 1799.

Locke, born in the north of Ireland in 1730, from where he migrated to settle in Rowan County, North Carolina. He was named treasury commissioner of the colony of North Carolina in 1771, and elected a member of the safety committee of Rowan County on August 8, 1774, and to the committee of secrecy, intelligence, and observation of Rowan County on September 23, 1774.

He was a delegate to the Provincial Congresses in Hillsborough, North Carolina and Johnston Court House in 1775, then as a member of the Colonial Congress at Halifax in 1776 and a delegate to the state Constitutional Convention of 1776.

The paymaster of troops in the Salisbury District in 1775, Locke was a brigadier general of North Carolina troops during the American Revolutionary War. He served several terms in the legislature, including periods in the North Carolina House of Commons from 1777 to 1781, the North Carolina Senate form 1781 to 1782, and in the House of Commons again from 1783 to 1792. Locke again was a delegate to the 1789 state Constitutional Convention called to consider ratification of the United States Constitution; he voted against ratification.

Affiliated with the Democratic-Republicans, Locke was elected to the 3rd United States Congress in 1792 and served for three consecutive terms (March 4, 1793 - March 3, 1799) before being refeated for re-election in 1798. After retiring from Congress, Locke was engaged as a planter and was an extensive landowner; he died in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1801 and is buried in the Thyatira Churchyard, near Salisbury.

Locke was the uncle of North Carolina Senator Francis Locke and the great-great-great-grandfather of Arkansas Representative Effigene Wingo.