Hugh Waddell was born in Lisburn, County Down, Ireland, the son of Hugh and Isabella (Brown) Waddell. He spent several years of his boyhood in Boston, Massachussets, whither his father had fled after a fatal duel. After the death of his father, who had returned to Ireland and found himself propertyless there, young Waddell emigrated to North Carolina.
In 1754, soon after his arrival, he went as a lieutenant with the regiment of James Innes to help Virginia drive the French from the Ohio and was promoted to be a captain, although mismanagement caused the troops to be disbanded in the summer without active service. In the winter of 1754-55, he was clerk of the council of the new governor, Arthur Dobbs, who had been a friend of his father in Ireland. In 1755 Dobbs ordered him to protect the frontier from the Cherokee and Catawba. In Rowan County near present-day Statesville, he built Fort Dobbs, authorized by the Assembly of 1755, a substantial three-story blockhouse of oak logs, and commanded its garrison until late in 1757. With Virginia commissioners he negotiated an offensive-defensive alliance with the Cherokee and Catawba in 1756. "Finding him in his person and character every way qualified as he was young, active and resolute, " Governor Dobbs sent him as major in command of three companies to aid the expedition of John Forbes against Fort Duquesne in 1758; and in this successful campaign he "had great honour done him being employed on all reconnoitring parties, and dressed and acted as an Indian . " Indian outrages on the frontier in 1759 caused Dobbs to send him as colonel in command of two companies, with authority to summon the militia of the frontier counties and cooperate with South Carolina or Virginia; and in February 1760 with great gallantry, he defended Fort Dobbs against an Indian night attack. He visited England and Ireland in 1768.
He owned land in Rowan, Anson, Bladen, and New Hanover counties and had mercantile interests with his brother-in-law, John Burgwin, at Wilmington and in the back country. He was a justice of the peace in Rowan and Bladen and intermittently represented each in the colonial assembly - the former in 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760; the latter in 1762, 1766, 1767, and 1771. He was one of the chief leaders of the "inhabitants in arms" who at Brunswick on Feburary 19-21, 1766, defied the new royal governor, William Tryon, and offered successful armed resistance to the enforcement of the Stamp Act. Nevertheless, his relations with Tryon were close. He commanded the armed escort of the governor on his visit to the Cherokee in 1767 and in 1771 volunteered his services for the military suppression of the Regulators in the back country, who were violently resisting excessive taxes, exorbitant fees, and dishonest local government. As general and commander in chief under the governor, he was ordered to raise troops in the west and join the eastern forces headed by the governor. Intercepted by armed Regulators near Salisbury, he was unable to take part in the battle of Alamance on May 16, but soon thereafter he marched with troops to pacify the western counties. Dobbs in 1762 and Tryon in 1771 recommended him for appointment to the council. He died from an illness of several months' duration and was buried at "Castle Haynes. "
His military renown as the foremost soldier in the colony before the Revolution, his marriage, and his character and ability brought wealth, social prestige, and political influence. Waddell formed and led a provincial militia unit in Rowan County, North Carolina and the Ohio River Valley during the French and Indian War and the Anglo-Cherokee War, and supervised the construction of Fort Dobbs near the settlement of the Fourth Creek Congregation. His career was well-served by close connections to several provincial governors of North Carolina.
In 1762 he married Mary, the daughter of Roger Haynes of "Castle Haynes" near Wilmington, and settled at "Bellefont, " Bladen County.
