Cornelius Harnett, Jr., (1723-1781) represented Wilmington in the colonial Assembly and was a Revolutionary War statesman. In 1755, he joined other merchants, traders, and planters in petitioning the Board of Trade for relief on trade restrictions. He led several groups of protestors and resistors against British Parliament actions, like the Stamp Act, leading up to Independence. Later during the American Revolution he served as one of North Carolina's delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. A deist, he may have been one of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy's intended victims.