PATRICK NOBLE was born near Wilmington, South Carolina. After receiving an A.B. degree from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) in 1806, he studied law and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1809. He held the rank of Major in the First Brigade o the South Carolina Militia from 1813 to 1814. Prior to serving as governor, he was Bank Commissioner in Abbeville, South Carolina; trustee of South Carolina College; Commissioner of Free Schools; a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1814 to 1824 and from 1832 to 1836 (Speaker for six of those years); aid to South Carolina Governor Andrew Pickens from 1817 to 1819; Lieutenant Governor from 1830 to 1832; Commissioner for Railroad between Charleston and Cincinnati, Ohio in 1835; and a member of the South Carolina Senate from 1836 to 1838. During his term as governor, he had to contend with the effects of the Panic of 1837, which forced the banks of Charleston to suspend specie payment in October 1839. Noble died in office and was buried in the family cemetery near Willington.