Background
William Bingham was born on July 7, 1835, in North Carolina, United States, the fourth child of William James and Eliza (Norwood) Bingham. His grandfather, the Rev. William Bingham, was a Scotch-Irish Protestant who came from Ireland after being involved in the plots which culminated later in Emmet's Rebellion. He taught at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1789 until 1793, when he established at Pittsboro a school of his own which he removed, after serving for a time as professor of Latin in the University of North Carolina, first to Hillsboro and later to Mount Repose. He died at the age of seventy-two years after gaining an enviable reputation as scholar and teacher. His eldest son, William James Bingham, the second headmaster of the Bingham School, was also a successful teacher. Before the Civil War he was interested in plans for the emancipation of the negroes and for returning them to Africa, but when the War broke out he gave his whole heart to the Southern Confederacy.