THE SAMUEL ASHE DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
The Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professorship in Constitutional Law was established in 1996 in the University's School of Law by Thomas Ashe Lockhart, the sixth-generation grandson of the eminent jurist, governor, attorney and co-founder of UNC-CH.
Lockhart's pledge of $333,000 will be supplemented with $167,000 in state funds from the Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create a $500,000 endowed professorship. The trust fund was established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1985, and it provides two levels of grants for endowed professorships.
The Ashe Professorship will be a reminder of the importance of a lawyer's character, independence, integrity, leadership and dedication to law and devotion to higher public education and public service, as exemplified through the life and service of Ashe. The professorship will enable the school to recruit or retain a faculty member in the area of constitutional law.
Ashe was born in 1725, probably in the Albemarle Settlement. His mother died in 1729, and his father died in 1734. Ashe then was raised by his maternal uncle, Sam Swann, in Rocky Point. Ashe attended Harvard College before returning to North Carolina to read law with his uncle.
In 1776, Ashe served as a member of the committee that drafted North Carolina's first constitution. He fought successfully for the inclusion of a Bill of Rights. In 1777, Ashe was elected as speaker of the first N.C. Senate. The same year, he was appointed presiding judge of the N.C. Superior Court, which later became the state Supreme Court.
From 1777 to 1795, Ashe served on the N.C. Superior Court. In 1786, he wrote one of the state's most significant legal decisions, Bayard v. Singleton. The case established the principal of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislative action in North Carolina 16 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion in Marbury v. Madison. The Bayard case was dramatized in the 1995 documentary "Loyalty on Trial," produced by the School of Law for its 150th anniversary. The documentary was distributed to N.C. high schools and won the Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association in 1996 for excellence in fostering public understanding of the law and the American legal system.
In 1795, Ashe was elected to the first of three one-year terms as N.C. governor. He also was president of the Board of Trustees when the University opened its doors in 1795. Ashe retired from political office in 1798, but he remained active in public and political life.
Ashe had married his first wife, the former Mary Porter, in 1746. She died between 1765 and 1769. They had three sons: John Baptista, Samuel and Cincinnatus. John Baptista and Cincinnatus died during Ashe's lifetime. John Baptista was elected governor in 1802, but he died before taking office.
Ashe married the former Elizabeth Merrick in 1769. Of his five children with her, only one, Thomas, survived to adulthood.
Ashe died in 1813 at the age of 87. Ashe County, Asheville and Asheboro are all named in his honor.
There has been a lawyer in all but one generation of the Ashe family since Samuel Ashe. Thomas Lockhart was born in 1928. He earned his B.A. from UNC-CH in 1949 and his J.D. from the University in 1951. After practicing 45 years with the Charlotte firm of Cansler, Lockhart, Campbell, Evans, Bryant & Garlitz P.A., Lockhart retired in 1995.
Lockhart is married to the former Ann Wilkinson. They have four children: Thomas Jr., John, James and Ann. Thomas Ashe Lockhart Jr. earned his law degree from UNC-CH in May 1997.
THE SAMUEL ASHE
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
2003 - 2004: Louis Bilionis