Edward Buncombe (1742–1778) was a plantation owner from the

Province of North Carolina Province of North Carolina was a province of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712(p. 80) to 1776. It was one of the five Southern Colonies, Southern colonies and one of the Thirteen Colonies, thir ...

who served as a colonel in the North Carolina militia and

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

(the army of the

Patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

side) in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. He is the namesake of

Buncombe County Buncombe County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is classified within Western North Carolina. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census reported the population was 269,452. Its county seat is A ...

in western North Carolina. In 1820, his surname (in its status as the name of that county) became the source of the derogatory American slang term, "

bunkum Buncombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is classified within Western North Carolina. The 2020 census reported the population was 269,452. Its county seat is Asheville. Buncombe County is part of the Asheville ...

" and its shortened form, " bunk" in consequence of the U.S. representative for the county, Felix Walker, invoking the county during a poorly received speech delivered on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Biography

Buncombe was born in 1742 on the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

island of St. Christopher (today St. Kitts).WNC Heritage - A Collaborative Database. Col. Edward 8Buncombe. Web page. He grew up there and in England. He immigrated to North Carolina in 1768 and settled at a plantation he had inherited near the shore of Albemarle Sound on the Atlantic coast, in what is now Washington County. In 1774, as the independence movement of the Thirteen Colonies gathered steam, he took a leading role in convening proindependence meetings, especially the First Provincial Congress, which is reportedly the first assembly anywhere in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...

to defy a royal governor.Killough, Patrick. Colonel Edward Buncombe, 1742-1778. Web page Service record: * Tyrrell County Regiment, North Carolina militia (1775-1777) *9/9/1775, a Colonel in the Tyrrell County Regiment of militia. *4/15/1776 until his death in May 1778, Colonel of the 5th North Carolina Regiment *10/4/1777, captured at Germantown, POW in Philadelphia, paroled *May 1778, fell down a flight of stairs, reopened old wounds, died as a result. He joined a local militia, the Tyrrell County Regiment of the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

militia. The " Halifax Assembly" elected him colonel of the 5th North Carolina Regiment of the

on April 15, 1776 (three days after it had passed the historic

Halifax Resolves The Halifax Resolves was a name later given to the resolution adopted by the North Carolina Provincial Congress on April 12, 1776. The adoption of the resolution was the first official action in the American Colonies calling for independence from ...

). He was wounded and captured on October 4, 1777 at the

Battle of Germantown The Battle of Germantown was a major engagement in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, between the British Army led by Sir William Howe, and the American Con ...

, fought several miles outside of the rebel capital of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, which the British had recently seized. The British army

paroled Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

him to that city. The following May 1778, Col. Buncombe fell down some stairs while sleepwalking and his wounds reopened, causing him to bleed to death. He is buried in

Christ Church Burial Ground Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia is an important early-American cemetery. It is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin and his wife, Deborah. Four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here, Benjamin Rush, ...

in Philadelphia.good-times.webshots.com. Photo of Edward Buncombe's gravestone. Tax records of 1782 say that his estate included of land and 10 Negroes. In 1791, the State of North Carolina created a new county from parts of two other counties and named it for Col. Buncombe. The present

is a combination of parts of the original one with parts of neighboring counties.

References

External links

Photo of the waymark of Buncombe Hall, Col. Buncombe's manor.Photo of Edward Buncombe's grave site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buncombe, Edward 1742 births 1778 deaths North Carolina militiamen in the American Revolution Continental Army officers from North Carolina People of colonial North Carolina People from Saint Kitts Saint Kitts and Nevis people of British descent Accidental deaths from falls Deaths from bleeding Accidental deaths in Pennsylvania Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia Buncombe County, North Carolina United States military personnel killed in the American Revolutionary War

Biography

References

Further reading

External links