James Wellborn, army officer and legislator, was born in that part of Rowan County that first became Surry County and then Wilkes County in 1778. Here he made his home during a long life, holding public office and operating a large plantation on land that his wife had inherited some two miles from the county seat town of Wilkesboro. In 1800 Wellborn owned 12,321 acres of land and seventy-five slaves. Willie P. Mangum, who visited Wellborn in the spring of 1820, praised the beauty of the Wilkes County area. He further commented: "I have seen in one stock at Col. Welbourns [sic ] 340 Cattle, & 70 or 80 of them that are fattening are in better order than I ever saw any animal of that description. They are raised without expense by sending them into the inexhaustible range of the mountains in the warm season of the year."

Wellborn married Rebecca Montgomery, the daughter of Colonel Hugh Montgomery, of Salisbury, a native of England. Her twin sister, Rachel, married Governor Montfort Stokes. The two sisters inherited large tracts of land from their father and, with their husbands, donated land for the town of Wilkesborough. Wellborn and his wife were the parents of several children, but his eighteen-year-old son, James, Jr., died in November 1827.

In a journal kept by Elisha Mitchell in 1827–28 on a journey to the mountains when he called on James Wellborn, he wrote: "What Wellborn's real character is I cannot make out. He has been a member of the Baptist church and will not allow of no swearing about him. He left the church under the idea that he was unfit to remain in it. He seems to have a religious paroxysm." An obituary in an Asheville newspaper noted the he was "highly esteemed for his strict integrity, great liberality and sterling patriotism." Wellborn died at his residence in Wilkes County and was buried in a nearby family cemetery enclosed by a stone wall. In 1992 Wendell H. Edgerton, of Wilkesboro, the owner of a new factory nearby, pleading ignorance, had the cemetery bulldozed and the site leveled.

Credit: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell

~North Carolina - The War of 1812~
*Most North Carolinians were folded into the US Army's 10th Regiment under Colonel James Welborn of Wilkes County, who resigned his commission as a general in the North Carolina Militia in order to join the regulars.

The main body of North Carolina troops destined for the Canadian front, the 10th Regiment under Colonel Wellborn, never took part in the fighting because the war came to an end while they were en route. Although not many Tar Heels engaged in military combat, those who did made excellent records of themselves. The total number of North Carolinians killed in combat was eighteen (18).*

*http://www.carolana.com/NC/1800s/antebellum/war_of_1812_military_units.html

The son of William Wellborn and Hepzibah Stearns. Husband of Rebecca Montgomery, the daughter of Hugh Montgomery and Catherine Sloan. Married 60 years.

U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
Name: James Wellborn
Gender: Male
Birth Place: NC
Birth Year: 1767
Spouse Name: Rebecca Montgomery
Spouse
Birth Place: NC
Spouse Birth Year: 1772
Marriage Year: 1794
Number Pages: 1

"James Wellborn and Rebecca Montgomery were married February 13, 1794 in Wilkes County, NC"
(Info received from a 3rd gr-granddaughter on 5 Oct 2012)

James Wellborn and Rebecca Montgomery Wellborn were the parents of eleven known children:

Rachel Starnes Wellborn (Cannon) 1795–1841
Nancy Matilda Wellborn (Starnes) 1797-1842
William Wilkes Wellborn 1799-1864
Lucy Barton Wellborn 1801-1810
Rebecca Mariah Wellborn (Franklin) 1804-1878
Catherine Sloan Wellborn (Parks) 1806-1829
James Johnson Wellborn 1808-1828
Eliza Adeline Wellborn (Ledbetter) 1809-
Hepzibah Mary Wellborn 1812-
Hugh Montgomery Wellborn 1816-1865
Samuel Chapley Wellborn 1816-1856

The children of James Wellborn and Rebecca Montgomery are:
Rachel Stearns Wellborn 11 October 1795
Nancy Matilda Wellborn 1 May 1797
William Wilkes Wellborn 8 November 1799
Rebecca Moriah Wellborn 4 November 1801
Lucy Barton Wellborn 10 June 1804
Catherine Sloan Wellborn 18 March 1806
James Johnson Wellborn 17 March 1808
Elizabeth Adeline Wellborn 14 December 1809
Hepzabeth Mary Wellborn 14 July 1812
Hugh Montgomery Wellborn 10 August 1816
Samuel Chapley Wellborn 10 August 1816"
(Info received from a 3rd gr-granddaughter on 5 Oct 2012)

1850 Census Value of real estate owned: $11,890.

GENERAL JAMES WELLBORN

In his day General James Wellborn was probably the most prominent man in the county. He married Rebecca Montgomery, one of the two heirs to the large tracts of land known as the Moravian surveys.

James Wellborn was appointed General of the militia about the close of the Revolutionary War. From the year 1796 to 1835 General Wellborn served in the State Senate thirty years. He served in succession from 1796 to 1811, from 1817 to 1821, in 1823 and 1824, in 1828 to 1829, in 1832 and in 1834 and 1835. Prior to 1835 members of the General Assembly were elected each year, so Wellborn was elected thirty times in 39 years. The fact that a men can stand so popular for 39 years is honor enough for one man. I doubt if the world can furnish a like example.

During his terms in the Senate General Wellborn made strenuous efforts to have the State build a turnpike road from the mountains to the sea, but he failed. That was before any railroads were built in North Carolina and the turnpike would have been a great thing for the people of the west, but east had the majority and they knew that the people of the west had to come to them for their necessities turnpike or no turnpike, and they were not willing to be taxed to build the road for accomodation of the people of the west.

It was largely through the efforts of General Wellborn that his brother-in-law Montfort Stokes, was twice elected to the United States Senate and once elected to Governor of the State.

He was buried in his family cemetery on his plantation "The Bends" about 3 miles west of Wilkesboro.