Richard Caswell (August 3, 1729 – November 10, 1789) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first and fifth governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 and from 1785 to 1787.

[2] While a member of the North Carolina House of Burgesses, a position he held for 17 years, Caswell introduced a bill establishing the "Town of Kingston" (which was later changed to Kinston as a result of the American Revolutionary War).

At the Battle of Camden Court House in 1780, his troops fled after Virginia militia broke and ran in panic, exposing him to attack without greater defense, leaving the Continentals behind to suffer defeat.

Caswell was also chosen to be one of North Carolina's delegates to the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he did not attend.

The family lived on a plantation home called Red House, which is the site of the Richard Caswell Memorial Park in Kinston, North Carolina.

[8] William, a son by his first marriage, was also colonel of Dobbs Regiment and brigadier general and in command of New Bern District during the war.

According to tradition, his body was returned to Kinston for burial in the Caswell family cemetery, near where a memorial and museum stands today.

[2] Among his many accomplishments was Caswell's proposal to use the reimbursement funds for aid rendered to the Crown during the French and Indian War for erecting and establishing a free school in every county.