William Patrick Mabson

William Patrick Mabson Sr. ( or 1846 – December 20, 1916), was an American educator, minister, newspaper owner, editor, and politician. He was a state legislator in North Carolina for at least two terms, active during the Reconstruction era. Mabson was one of the founders of Freedom Hill (now Princeville) in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

Biography William Patrick Mabson Sr. was the son of an African American woman, Eliza Moore, and a prominent white man, George W. Mabson, in Wilmington, North Carolina. His date of birth was either or November 1, 1846. His brother was George Lawrence Mabson, North Carolina's first Black lawyer. After the Civil war he moved to Freedom Hill, North Carolina. He and two others are credited with incorporating the town, now known as Princeville. He worked as a school teacher in 1867, a career he followed into the 1880s. He was also a delegate to North Carolina's 1875 constitutional convention. In 1880 he lost the election to Benjamin Hart, and his political career ended. Only a few issues of the Austin Searchlight exist in archives, and little is known about this former newspaper. Mabson died on December 20, 1916, in Austin, Texas.