Background
David Holmes was born on March 10, 1770 in Mary Ann Furnance, Longswamp Township, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the second of nine children born to Joseph and Rebecca (Hunter) Holmes. His mother was of Presbyterian stock, sister of Reverend Andrew Hunter; his father, according to tradition of English descent, was a native of the north of Ireland who emigrated to Pennsylvania in his teens. Both David and his older brother, Hugh, later a Virginia judge, were born at Mary Ann Furnace in York County, Pennsylvania, but while they were still small, their parents migrated to Frederick County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Joseph Holmes established himself as a merchant in Winchester, and during the Revolution was given charge of prisoners of war held there.
Education
Holmes received his schooling at the academy in Winchester and at fifteen became his father's partner and accountant. In 1790 he went to Williamsburg to study law, .
Career
Holmes opened an office in Harrisonburg, where from 1793 to 1797 he was commonwealth's attorney for Rockingham County. In 1797 he was sent to Congress as a Jeffersonian Republican and was reelected five times. In 1809, upon the expiration of his sixth term, President Madison appointed him governor of Mississippi Territory, in which capacity he served by successive reappointments until the admission of Mississippi to the Union.
As governor he was called upon to exercise courage, discretion, and tact. The territory was menaced on its borders by hostile Creeks and not-too-friendly Choctaws who threatened at times to cut the Mississippi settlements off from communication with the states to the north. To the south, in West Florida, settlers from the United States were growing restive under Spanish taxation and Spanish authority; within the Territory, resentment against restrictions imposed on commerce by Spanish customs duties was increasing; one of the duties of the Governor of Mississippi was to restrain his people and their emigrant brethren from acts of hostility toward a power with which the United States was at peace. When the time was ripe, however, Holmes's tactful cooperation with Governor W. C. C. Claiborne was instrumental in effecting the successful occupation of the District of Baton Rouge, and the later annexation (1812) of the District of Mobile to Mississippi Territory. During the next three years came both the Creek War and the War of 1812.
In 1816 two great tracts of land to the north of the settled area were ceded to the Territory by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. The following year the Territory was divided, and the western portion admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. Holmes was a delegate from Adams County to the constitutional convention of 1817 and was chosen to be its president.
After the adoption of the constitution he was elected first governor of the state and served until January 1820, when, having declined to be a candidate for reelection, he was succeeded by George Poindexter. For a time during his governorship he was president of the board of trustees of Jefferson College. Appointed to the United States Senate in August 1820 in the place of Walter Leake, who resigned, he was subsequently elected and served until his resignation, September 25, 1825. He had meanwhile defeated Cowles Mead for the governorship by an overwhelming majority, and in January 1826 he was inaugurated, but in July, by the failure of his health, was forced to relinquish the office to Lieutenant-Governor Gerard C. Brandon. He returned to his home in Winchester, Virginia, but was shortly stricken by paralysis, and after five years of helplessness cheerfully endured, he died near Winchester, at the age of sixty-two.
Politics
Holmes was a member of the Republican Party.
