Gaston was born in New Bern, North Carolina on September 19, 1778. He was the son of Dr. Alexander Gaston and Margaret Sharpe. He entered Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., at the age of thirteen, becoming its first student. Due to illness shortly thereafter, he also became its first dropout. After Georgetown and some education in North Carolina, he graduated from Princeton University in 1796, where he studied law.
Career
Gaston was admitted to the bar in 1798 and commenced practice in New Bern. He was a member of the North Carolina General Assembly in 1800, served in the State House of Commons from 1807 to 1809, and as its Speaker in 1808. He was again a member of the North Carolina State Senate in 1812, 1818, and 1819, and was elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses. While in Congress, he obtained a federal charter for Georgetown University. In 1814, Gaston was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. Gaston was not a candidate for to Congress in 1816. He again served in the House of Commons in 1824, 1827, 1828, 1829, and 1831. In 1832, Gaston delivered a graduation address at the University of North Carolina, which emphasized the duties of the graduates to themselves and their communities and urged them to take action against slavery. Gaston was appointed judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1833, holding the position until his death. As a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Gaston wrote a decision that limited the control that slave-owners could exercise over enslaved humans. As a legislator, Gaston had introduced the bill that established the state Supreme Court as a distinct body in 1818. Gaston was offered but declined a nomination for election to the United States Senate in 1840, turned down an offer to be U.S. Attorney General for President William Henry Harrison. Gaston won elective office on several occasions, even though the Constitution of North Carolina before 1835 seemed to prohibit it, because Gaston was a Roman Catholic. The young Rev. Andrew Byrne, later bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock, having contracted a serious illness during the course of his lengthy missionary labors, recuperated under the hospitable roof of judge Gaston. Gaston was largely responsible, as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1835, for removing official discrimination against Catholics from North Carolina law.
Personal life
Gaston was married three times. His first marriage was on September 4, 1803 to Susan Hay. He married for the second time on October 6, 1805 to Hannah McClure. Together, William and his second wife were the parents of one son and two daughters:
Alexander Gaston, who married Eliza W. Jones and then Sarah Lauretta Murphy.
Hannah Margaret Gaston, who married Matthias E. Manly.
His third and final marriage was on September 3, 1816 to Eliza Ann Worthington. With his third wife, Gaston was the father of two additional daughters:
