McWILLIE, William, governor of Mississippi, born near Liberty Hill, Kershaw district, South Carolina, 17 November, 1795; died in Kirkwood, Mississippi, 3 March, 1869. He was preparing for college when the regiment commanded by his father, Colonel Adam McWillie, was ordered to Haddrell's point during the war of 1812. He became adjutant, and served until the close of the campaign, when he entered South Carolina college, and was graduated there in 1817. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1818, and practised with success in Camden, and was elected president of a bank in that city in 1836. From 1836 till 1840 he served successively in each branch of the South Carolina legislature. In 1845 he removed to Mississippi, where he had established a plantation ten years before. He was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1851, and in 1858 became governor of Mississippi, which office he held until 1860. Although advanced in years, he took an active part in the political agitations of the secession period.