USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 15
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1696
Bath County, Lawson's map
C. R., I, 472
The Consti- tutions revised
C. R., III, 453
148
LUDWELL TO JVALKER. 1689-1704
1698
Court system modified
held by the governor and the council, with some assistants. Now a commission was issued to two of the council, one of whom was to be present at the court, and to some assist- ants. The first commission of this sort was to Samuel Swann and William Glover, and one of them was to hold the court, there being in attendance one or more of the other judges or justices. The title of chief justice was not specifi- cally bestowed on either at that time, and its earliest use appears to have been in 1713.
Court Records MISS. Off. Sec. State
The line between Carolina and Virginia disputed
About the year 1680 the uncertain location of the dividing line between Albemarle and Virginia began to attract atten- tion. Some of the inhabitants of lower Norfolk and Curri- tuck had taken out their grants from the Virginia authorities and had paid their annual dues to Virginia ; but now Albe- marle claimed payment from them, and on their application C. R., I, 386 that the line should be established, the Virginia officials pleaded ignorance of the second grant to the Proprietors, which extended their territory thirty miles to the northward. But proof being furnished, in 1692 the surveyor of Virginia ascertained substantially where the line 36° 30' would run, C. R., I, 542 and as the Old Dominion would lose considerable population and property, her authorities stubbornly resisted every attempt to have the question settled, and urged that the king should buy Albemarle and attach it to Virginia, saying that £2,000 would be a fair price.
Pirates infest the coast
Indeed, there was always some ground for apprehension that the grant to the Proprietors would be annulled and their province be taken from them. Complaints were made that pirates found ready access to Carolina, and that the gover- nors for bribes issued illegal commissions to sea rovers ; and the evasion of the navigation acts was a continual source of trouble. These allegations, however, applied to South Caro- lina rather than to Albemarle, while there was yet greater cause for scandal at Philadelphia and in all the northern
140
PIRATES INFEST THE COAST
governments. Still, there was one particular charge made 1608 against North Carolina. "Thomas Harvey," said Randolph, C. R., I, 541, 545 "put masters to great charges because of their vessels not being registered, though the time limited for registering them was not expired." This, however, would seem to indi- cate that Harvey was too exacting in demanding a com- pliance with the law. Another complaint Randolph makes against Albemarle is : "The tobacco made in that province is generally carried to Boston or to the islands near to Con- necticut colony, where it is carried to Scotland, etc., which fraud ought speedily to be prevented." In this it would Complaints against Albemarle seem that the Albemarle authorities were entirely within the law, as it was clearly their right to ship their tobacco to Boston and Connecticut, and if the traders of those northern marts afterward smuggled the tobacco into Scotland, Holland, and Ireland against the law, the offence ought not to be laid at the doors of North Carolinians. Mr. Randolph continues : "During Governor Harvey's government his Majesty's ship, the Hady, was driven ashore upon the sands between the inlets of Roanoke and Currituck. The inhab- C. R., I, 547 itants robbed her and got some of hier guns ashore and shot into her sides and disabled her from getting off. The actors were tried, and one of the chief was banished. Henderson Walker, the present governor, in no sort fit for the office." The conclusion does not appear to be well drawn from the premise. The affair happened in Harvey's time, and the government was active. That the bankers were thrifty is undeniable, as the name "Nag's Head"* would indicate. Still so notorious were the evasions of the revenue laws in all the Proprietary governments that in 1689 it was proposed in Parliament to take cognizance of the colonies in America and bring them more directly under the control of the king.
*The name "Nag's Head" is said to have been derived from a practice of the bankers fastening a lantern to the head of a horse, which as the horse walked at night would have the appearance of a light on a ship gently moved by the waves, thus alluring vessels to the shore. There was also a "Nag's Head" on the southern coast of England, so named from the same practice.
150
LUDIVELL TO WALKER, 1689-1704
1699
C. R., I, 506
For the proper enforcement of the trade regulations it was deemed necessary that the governor and other chief officers should be appointed with the king's concurrence ; but this direction at the time was not observed by the Proprietors. At length, in 1697, Parliament enacted that not only should the governors of the colony be approved by the king, but they should take certain oaths of office before qualifying. So when, in March, 1699, Governor Harvey appointed Daniel Akehurst and Henderson Walker commissioners to arrange with the Virginia authorities for establishing the dividing line, Governor Nicholson refused to recognize Harvey's authority because he had not taken the required oaths of office.
Henderson Walker governor
1699
It was during this correspondence that the governor of Virginia alleged that runaways escaping from Virginia were harbored in North Carolina, which brought out an indignant denial by Henderson Walker, who in July succeeded Harvey as governor. In his reply Governor Walker said: "I assure you that neither our laws nor our practice deserves such an imputation of evil neighborhood. Neither are there any runaways harbored here that we can discover by diligent inquiry; nor shall any such thing be suffered so far as it is in our power to prevent it." Governor Walker, whose skill as a letter writer suffers nothing by comparison with that of the governor of Virginia. then recited the laws in force in Albemarle, and specified some particular runaways who had come into the settlement, but had perished in the uninhabited parts of the country; and he expressed the belief that the same fate had befallen others seeking to escape into South Carolina. He did not rest easy under this suggestion of his Virginia neighbors.
C. R., 1, 514
Changes in Albemarle
In the course of time Colonel Jenkins, Valentine Byrd, the Harveys and manyof the old leaders in Albemarle had passed
151
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONY
away and other men had risen to prominence. Durant died in 1601, at the age of sixty-nine, while Sothel, after an unsettled life still marked by devious ways, made his exit in 1693, leaving a widow in Albemarle. Thomas Jarvis, one of the first seaters, and deputy-governor in 1691 and subse- quently, passed away in the spring of 1694. Alexander Lillington, who had figured largely in the Culpepper Rebel- lion, and whose family connection came to be the most influential in the settlement, after marrying a third wife in 1695, succumbed to disease two years later, at the age of fifty-three, Governor Thomas Harvey soon following him. But Thomas Relfe, also one of the first seaters, was still living, and survived until 1707, being then ninety-three years of age. He was one of those who made the first clearings before the name Albemarle was ever heard of on the shores of the river Carolina.
Major Sam Swann was now a resident of Perquimans, a member of the council, judge of the general court, and col- lector of customs, and Colonel Thomas Pollock, Henderson Walker, William Glover, and John Porter (speaker of the Assembly) were at the close of the century among the most influential inhabitants.
Life in the colony
A letter written about the close of the century by William S. R., XXII, Gale from Perquimans gives some insight into the affairs in 732 Albemarle at that time. Mr. Gale was just setting out on a four months' voyage to the Cape Fear, whither he had sent a shallop's load of goods to trade with the Indians. Appar- ently he intended to pass up that river and go as far west- ward as the mountains to establish an Indian trade there. A well-qualified Indian trader, he says, "secures for himself a comfortable living in this world." "All sorts of English goods are here very valuable, especially nails, carpenter's tools, hoes, axes. all sorts of linings, powder and shot, hats. stockings, and what else is requisite to make a sortable store." The most direct route of communication from England was
1700
1699
152
LUDIFELL TO WALKER, 1689-1701
1700
Social life
by London ships bound for York River. Of the Indians he said, "they live in small towns and bark cabins, palisadoed in with two or three rows of stakes. Every town or nation has its particular king and different language. They have some notion of the flood, but very obscure. They offer the first fruits of everything they eat to the devil, by whom they cure diseases, and act several strange things, as laying the wind." He mentioned some thirteen different tribes, with whom he was well acquainted and had very free commerce. "If Henry Ramsbottom was here and would work, he might live a companion for the best. His trade would bring him in £300 per annum. Others might do very well. Our greatest grievance is want of books and pleasing conversation. The Quakers are here very numerous, but as for Independents, Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and other sectaries, they have little or no place here. Most who profess themselves doctors and attorneys are scandals to their profession. The decay of Christian piety is in such large characters that he who runs may read. The second of January last it pleased God to make me happy in a son, who bears the name of his grand- father, but he has still the unhappiness to be unchristened, to my great grief, the only minister we have had of the Church of England having left us before my son was born, but it was no loss to religion, for he was ye monster of ye age."
Prices
The inventories of deceased persons filed in court afford some information of the style of life and the value of house- hold goods. Pewter dishes were in common use. A dozen pewter plates were valued at about fr. Holland sheets at fifty shillings a pair for fine ones, and thirty shillings for coarser ones, while Osnaburg sheets were five shillings a pair. A feather bed and bolster at £6. Fifteen yards of kersey at something less than £2. Plain shoes at thirce shillings per pair. A fowling piece at fr Ios. Iron pots were valued at four shillings a pound. A hand mill for grinding meal was £6; a broad axe four shillings and a hand- saw two shillings. Sheep were valued at ten shillings : cows at thirty shillings, and shoats at five shillings. Negro
153
VALUES IN THE COLONY
men were valued at £35 sterling ; negro women at £30, and children at fio. Mary, an Indian, was thought to be worth £20: and a white woman servant, probably indentured, at £2 per year for the time she had to serve. At that time cotton appears to have been cultivated. Lawson says : "The women make a good deal of cloth of their own cotton, wool and flax: some of them keeping their families, though large, very decently apparelled, both with linens and woollens, so that they have no occasion to lay their money out for clothing." But trading vessels came in often, bringing merchandise, which was paid for in produce, rather than money. There were hatters, and others skilled in different trades in the colony. Tar, pitch, corn, tobacco, etc., had a debt-paying value fixed by law. While most of the houses were of wood. there were some of brick : the lime being made from oyster shells. The women, says Lawson, are well featured and "have very brisk, charming eyes. They marry very young, some at thirteen or fourteen ; and are very fruit- ful, most houses being full of little ones. The girls are not bred up to the wheel and sewing only, but the dairy and the affairs of the house they are very well acquainted withal."
1700 --
Lawson, 142
CHAPTER XIII
THE EXCLUSION OF THE QUAKERS
Albemarle at the opening of the new century .- Religious affilia- tions .- The Quakers .-- Nathaniel Johnson governor of Carolina .--- The Church party in South Carolina .- Major Daniel succeeds Hen- derson Walker .- The Quakers excluded from office .- The Constitu- tion ignored .- A new church law .- Daniel removed .- Succeeded by Cary .- The colony grows .- Virginia disputes the boundary .- John Porter's voyage to England .-- He obtains redress .- New elements in the controversy .- Porter breaks with Glover .- Two govern- ments contending .- Both call the Assembly .- Glover departs to Vir- ginia .- Cary in possession .- The government orderly.
Albemarle at the opening of the new century
C. R., I, 572 May 24, 1689
In a decade of entire repose, undisturbed by any dis- sensions, the administration being by the people and for the people, and quiet and orderly government prevailing, the settlement had grown in population and in importance. The more influential families were attracted to Chowan, while in Pasquotank and Perquimans the Quakers had considerably increased. Their numbers may have been swollen by some few additions from abroad, but Governor Walker in 1703 attributed their growth entirely to the preachers who yearly came to Albemarle to encourage and exhort to Quaker prin- ciples. And there were none to dispute with or to oppose them, for there were no churches in Albemarle and no preach- ers. In England, before the Toleration Act was passed, in William and Mary's reign, there was some persecution of non-conformists and dissenters, to whom the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the charter and laws was an in- ducement to remove to Carolina, but they located near Charleston. There was no great influx of population to Albemarle from beyond the seas. Accessions had come from Virginia and the neighboring colonies; and even if they
1701
155
RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS
were originally adherents of the Church of England, in the absence of religious ministrations their affiliations became weakened; and, indeed, those born in Albemarle, who had never attended any religious services, could have had but slight attachment to any church. There were no missionary societies then in the world, and other than the travelling Quaker preachers, there were no missionaries. But about the close of the century the Bishop of London, to whose jurisdiction the colonies had been assigned, sent Dr. Bray to Maryland to settle some differences, and he becoming interested in the religious condition of the colonists, estab- lished the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- eign Parts, and sought to have ministers sent to America. By correspondence he inspired zeal among some of the churchmen in Albemarle, which doubtless was heightened by the general religious revival incident to the Pope's having proclaimed the year 1700 as a year of jubilee.
In that year the first minister of the Church of England was sent to Albemarle, Mr. Daniel Brett, who on his arrival conducted himself satisfactorily, but soon began such a course as brought trouble and grief to the churchmen and strength- ened the antagonism of those opposed to that communion. With the opening of the new century Governor Walker and other churchmen, in order to procure some religious services in the colony, made strenuous efforts to elect an Assembly that would establish parishes and provide for the erection of church buildings and the maintenance of ministers. And the Assembly of 1701 passed such an act. By it vestrymen were appointed in every precinct, who were, besides other duties, to erect church buildings and collect the assessments for church purposes. In Chowan, where the adherents of the Church of England predominated, the vestry met that fall and made provision for a "reader" and for erecting a chapel, which was completed the next year. Later other chapels were erected.
In April, 1703, Mr. Blair was ordained to go to Albemarle, C. R., I, and the next January reached the settlement. By that time 600
1.7.21
C. R., 1, 572 Brett, 1700
I56
THE EXCLUSION OF THE QUAKERS
1703 a "reader" had been established in three of the precincts : but there were a great many children to be baptized, "whose parents would not condescend to have them baptized with Blair, 1704 godfathers and godmothers." Besides the Quakers, Mr. Blair found many who would be Quakers, but were deterred by the moral life the Quakers enjoined; others were in faith like Presbyterians, and had preachers who baptized among them, without, however, having any manner of orders ; and lastly the Church of England people, who were the fewest C. R., I, 600, 603 in number. The four old precincts were divided by rivers along whose banks for a distance of some twenty miles lay the plantations ; and between Pamlico and Albemarle there were fifty miles of desert without any inhabitants. The Indians were numerous, and on visiting their towns he found many who could speak English and seemed to be fond of their white neighbors. Mr. Blair would have remained in the settlement, but no adequate provision being made for his maintenance, he soon returned to England, suffering the mishap of being taken prisoner by the French on his way.
C. R., I, 708 Gordon, 1708
A few years later Mr. Gordon gave a more extended account of the inhabitants. Chowan, as it was the largest of the old precincts, was the thinnest peopled. It contained no Quakers or other dissenters: but the people were very ignorant, there being few who could read and write.
The Quakers
The Quakers in Perquimans were numerous, extremely ignorant, proud and ambitious, and consequently ungovern- able. Many persons had accepted that faith, being willing to embrace any religion rather than have none at all. Pas- quotank also was largely peopled by Quakers. The roads, bad enough everywhere, were worst there, but it was closer seated than the other precincts and relatively more populous. In their way of living, the people of Pasquotank had much the advantage of the other inhabitants, being more industri- ous, careful, and cleanly ; but above all, says Mr. Gordon, "I was surprised to see with what order, decency, and seri-
I57
RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS
ousness they performed the public worship, considering how ignorant the people are in the other parishes." One of the distinctive principles of the Quaker faith was that preaching should be but the outpouring of the spirit ; that one should preach only as the spirit moves him; and on principle they were opposed to a paid ministry, and also to paying tithes to support ministers. The Quakers in Albemarle were there- fore violently opposed to the new church law, that imposed 17º1 on them the duty of contributing to the support of paid pastors, and as the next election for assemblymen after the adoption of that law drew nigh, they made the repeal of that act an issue. But about that time the act was returned by the Lords Proprietors, annulled and disapproved by them, because the provision made for the maintenance of the ministers was inadequate; and so it ceased to have effect
1703
C. R., I. 572 Mr. Blair
C. R., I, 601 without the necessity of repeal by the Assembly.
Nathaniel Johnson governor of Carolina
In South Carolina Governor Moore had led an expedition against Florida, but on his return a faction arose violently opposed to his administration, so in June, 1702, Lord Gran- ville, the Palatine, appointed Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was then residing in South Carolina, to be governor.
Under a recent act of Parliament, because of the trade 1695 regulations, a bond was required of the new governor, and he offered as his bondsman Thomas Cary, a merchant of that province, who later was to figure largely in North Caro- lina affairs.
In their instructions to Governor Johnson the Proprietors required him to observe the Fundamental Constitutions as modified in 1698. There was, however, no change made in administrative methods in Albermarle.
But while the direction to enforce the Constitutions brought no trouble in Albemarle. a period of great unrest and dis- order now began, based on religious opinions. The same differences among Churchmen that marked that period in England had found their way to the forests of Carolina.
The Church party in South Carolina
158
THE EXCLUSION OF THE QUAKERS
1704
Church uniformity in South Carolina
There were those who cried out for conformity, while others advocated toleration. Johnson's appointment was the signal for a great show of zeal by the High Church party in South Carolina, whose leaders were closely associated with Moore and sustained his administration while the opposing faction demanded a rigorous examination into the matters con- nected with the Florida expedition. By great activity, Moore's friends secured a majority in the Assembly, and by one vote carried through a bill rigidly excluding all dis- senters from the Assembly; and when this act came before the Proprietors for ratification, although violently opposed by some, it was approved by Colleton and by Granville, whose intolerance and arbitrary spirit were in full sympathy with its provisions, and notwithstanding Archdale strenu- ously objected, Granville also signed for Carteret and Craven, and it went into operation.
Major Daniel succeeds Walker
Robert Daniel deputy - governor
In April, 1704, Governor Walker died, and Governor Johnson sent Major Daniel, who was a landgrave, from South Carolina to be deputy-governor. Major Daniel had established for himself an enviable reputation for bravery and experience in business. He had won laurels during the war with the Indians and Spaniards at the south, and was highly esteemed. Some of the neighboring tribes now giv- ing trouble, he called a council of their chiefs and agreed with them for a firm peace, one of the articles being that the English were not to furnish rum to the Indians.
The Quakers excluded from office
C. R., I, 709
Up to that time the Quakers had not been required to take oaths in Carolina, being excused by the original concessions and by the Fundamental Constitutions; but soon after Daniel's arrival in the colony the act of Parliament imposing the oaths of allegiance to Queen Anne, who had just come to the throne, was transmitted to him, and he tendered them to the members of the council and other officers of the government. They were such oaths as most dissenters could take; but the Quakers would take no oath whatsoever, and
in
I59
QUAKERS REFUSE THE OATHS
insisted on their constitutional right to sign a declaration of like tenor in a book. This privilege was now denied them, and they were excluded from their places under government. And when the Assembly met the same proceedings were had, and the house was thus purged of Quakers. A large part of the population was denied the right to hold office. It was in effect a revolution, changing without legal sanction the constitution of Albemarle.
It was inconsistent with the Grand Model, subversive of the fundamental constitution of the colony and utterly repug- nant to those practices and customs which had their origin in the earliest lodgment in the wilderness and had grown with the growth of the settlements as the woof and warp of the rights of the people. The whole foundation on which the political structure of the colony rested was wiped away by this requirement of an oath of office to be taken after the prevailing English fashion ; for it is to be observed that it was not until the eighth year of George I, twenty years later, that the affirmation of Quakers was received in Eng- land in lieu of the customary oath. But on this new require- ment Governor Daniel insisted, and, carrying his design into execution, he drove the Quakers from the house and thus secured a pliant majority, who followed his leadership.
A new law for establishing the Church was enacted, and. to secure it against the possibility of repeal, he determined to exclude Quakers from future assemblies, and to this end he caused an act to be passed prescribing an oath of office to be taken by way of qualification for membership. And so the church act was passed beyond the power of repeal.
But the violence of this course resulted in commotion. C. R., I, 709 The Quakers were not disposed to be deprived by this parliamentary proceeding of the political rights they had hitherto enjoyed in the colony. They were numerous in The Quakers resist Pasquotank and Perquimans, and by uniting with the Pres- byterians and other dissenters in Bath, they were superior in power to the Church party, who were in the majority only in Chowan and Currituck. Such an alliance seems to have
1704
Win. Gordon's statement, C. R., I, 708-715
A new church law 1704
160
THE EXCLUSION OF THE QUAKERS
1705
been formed. and an effort was made to secure the removal of Governor Daniel, and they soon had the satisfaction of obtaining an order for his suspension.
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