Son of, Alexander Sprunt and Jane Dalziel
Sprunt, who came to America and settled at
Kenansville, Duplin County, in 1852. They
remained in this County only two years,
moving on to Wilmington, NC.
Dr. Sprunt held many public positions,
including British vice consul, German
consul, Chairman of the Board of
Commissioners of navigation and pilotage,
President of the Wilmington Produce
Exchange, President of the Seamen's
Society, President of the State Literary
and Historical Association of NC,
President of the North Carolina Folk Lore
Society, Trustee of the University of
North Carolina and was a member of the
Wilmington Board of Education. Numerous
honors were conferred upon him, among
those being Doctor of Laws, by the
University of North Carolina, election
to membership in the Alpha chapter of the
Phi Beta Kappa Society of William and
Mary College.
Dr. Sprunt married Luola Murchison,
daughter of Col. Kenneth McKenzie
Murchison, November 27, 1883. Three
children were born of this union, Kate
and Marian, who both died in childhood,
and James Laurence Sprunt.
Dr. James Sprunt, as an acknow-
ledged authority on the history
of the Lower Cape Fear, was well
aware of the contributions of
such famous citizens as Cornelius
Harnett and William Hooper. In his
own lifetime he personally knew the
Honorable George Davis and Captain
John Newland Maffit & sailed with
Maffits' son Eugene Anderson
Maffitt on the Blockade runners.
Sprunt was a close friend
of Woodrow Wilson. When Sprunt
died, there would be so many
tributes to his life and character
that it took a book of one hundred
pages just to contain a selection
from the public obituaries,
tributes, and resolutions that
honored his memory. Such an out-
pouring of affection and respect
for one individual was unprece-
dented in the history of
Wilmington and has never been
equaled again. Few Wilmington-
ians have ever merited an
obituary written in the
"London Times", but Dr.
Sprunt did.

From Diane Cashman bio
in the republished
Chronicles of The Cape Fear
River. (1992)