Robert Strange, Jr. (1796-1854) was born in Manchester, VA, educated at Hampden-Sydney College and Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), and moved to Fayetteville, NC, in 1815 to practice law. In 1815 he married Jane Kirkland, with whom he had six children. From 1818 until his death he was a director of the Bank of Cape Fear. Strange was elected to the NC House of Commons in 1821, became judge of the NC Superior Court in 1826, and from 1836 to 1840 served in the US Senate. In June 1837 he delivered a speech to the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies on the role of the imagination (as embodied by the Societies) in intellectual development. He also published several poems and a novel set in North Carolina, Eoneguski, or The Cherokee Chief (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 5:459).