USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 24
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Johnston cordially received
About the middle of January the governor in great state made his journey through the counties from Brunswick to Edenton, where he met the Assembly. being received with every manifestation of cordial approbation ; and. indeed, the Assembly, generally so parsimonious, made an appropriation of £1,300 to pay the expenses of his equipage on that occasion.
Jan., 1735
Moseley being in the upper house, as the council was now called when acting as a part of a law-making power. in con- formity with the disposition to assimilate the Assembly to Parliament, William Downing was chosen speaker of the lower house; and there was a continuation of the same influ-
249
CURRENCY ISSUED
ences that formerly controlled the action of that body, and the zeal of the representatives to maintain the rights of the people was unabated.
On one point at least the governor, the council and the C. R., IV, 81 house were agreed : they found a common ground in their denunciation of Burrington and his appointees. Smith, the oldest councillor, presided over the upper house ; and he and Porter and Rice, along with Moseley and Moore, were fierce in their arraignment of the deposed governor and of his profligate tools and accomplices, alleging that they had per- secuted and expelled from the province his Majesty's officers, whose lives were in danger, and were only preserved by timely and hasty flight; and the Assembly and Governor Johnston heartily joined in the general condemnation.
In its first flush of patriotic ardor the Assembly made an allowance to the king of £1.300 for the service of the public in the province, and ordered bills to the amount of £10,000 to be struck off ; and passed an act to call in the outstanding paper money, which had been largely counterfeited, and to issue' £40,000 of new bills in exchange; also acts limiting suffrage to freeholders, according to the instructions of the governor to conform the Assembly to Parliament; and for establishing the precincts of Onslow and Bladen, allowing them representatives in the house. But notwithstanding this disposition to be on friendly terms with the governor, the old points of controversy again arose to disturb the har- mony ; and especially was the house settled in its purposes that the quit rents should be paid either in current paper money or in produce on the farms, while the governor, who was sustained by a majority of the council, held that they were payable in specie.
Disagreement over the quit rents
When Chief Justice Smith was in England he learned that the Lords Proprietors had ordered all enactments of the Assembly to be certified to them, and such as were not con- firmed by them were to expire at the end of two years; and as the practice of certifying the acts to the Proprietors for confirmation had fallen into desuetude, he ascertained that of the whole body of laws in the province only six had been
1735
The Assembly and the governor
C R., IV. 150, 154. 155 S.R .. XXIII, 117
Onslow and Bladen
C. R., IV, 201, 290
250
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1735
confirmed, and therefore he considered that all others had ceased to have legal effect. So impressed was he with this view that he submitted the matter to the law officers of the Crown with a request for instruction ; but no decision was reached and no instruction was given at that time on the points he raised.
C. R . IV, 9-4
Governor Johnston, however, had no hesitation in agree- ing with Smith, and made this view the basis of his position in discussing the quit-rent subject with the Assembly ; and a majority of the council also sustained the chief justice and Colonel Halton, to whom the matter of the rents had been referred as a committee, in holding in effect that pay- ments were to be made in silver, and that his Majesty could collect his rents without asking the consent of the Assembly ; and, indeed, the conduct of the chief justice was such that in a controversy between him and Moseley, in the presence of the speaker and other members of the house, Moseley, giving way to his indignation, struck him, and was bound over to the general court to answer for the assault.
C. R., IV, 33
Quit rents
The Great Deed
The governor, who relied on the rents to pay his salary, being sustained by the chief justice and a majority of the council, also took the advanced position that two years after the Great Deed was signed the Lords Proprietors, by their action, revoked it, and it was therefore a nullity ; and insist- ing that the laws which had formerly been confirmed were no longer operative, he declared that he would proceed to collect the rents in silver, and that those who were not con- tent to make the payments he demanded could settle up arrears and move out of the province, abandoning their homes and the lands they had improved. This suggestion but added fuel to the flames ; and Moseley, to whose custody the Great Deed had been committed by the previous Assembly, now formally presented it to Speaker Downing for safe keeping. Being unable to move the house from its position, Johnston on March Ist made a great show of indignation and prorogued the Assembly.
C. R., IV, 20, 112
Undeterred by opposition, the governor asserted his pur- pose to proceed; and notwithstanding the general opinion that there must be an act of Assembly providing for the col- lection of the rents, he assumed that his personal views
251
JOHNSTON QUARRELS OVER QUIT RENTS
should necessarily control, and he determined to make it plain that he was master of the situation, and issued a proc- lamation requiring all rents to be at once paid to the receiver- general. However, he so far yielded to the circumstances C. R .. IV, 67 of the inhabitants as to assent that the rents might be paid in paper currency instead of silver, but at the rate of seven for one; and if not voluntarily paid, the receiver was to distrain ; and in that case eight for one was to be exacted ; and he proceeded to erect a court of exchequer, with Smith as chief baron, the particular business of the court being to enforce the collection of the rents. There was, however, no C. R., IV, receiver in the province, the king's receiver-general, John 15 Hamerton, being a resident of South Carolina; so to facili- tate the collections Eleazar Allen was appointed receiver for North Carolina, a proceeding which so angered Hamerton that he issued a proclamation warning the people not to make any payment to Allen. But this only served to rouse the governor's spirit, and he ordered that assistant receivers should be appointed to attend at every precinct court house and make distress if need be. Some rumors of discontent were heard because of this new turn of affairs, and the governor was astute in selecting and appointing militia officers who would sustain his administration. He did not propose to brook opposition to his methods, and was ready to enforce his will at every hazard.
Nearly all of the councillors then resided on the Cape Fear, and the growing importance of that region, together with its fine navigable river, led the governor at first to make that his residence instead of Edenton.
He was, however, at points with the Moores because of their landholdings, some of their lands having been obtained under oid blank patents, which they had bought, and which the governor considered as in fraud of the rights of the king ; and he viewed the town of Newton with more favor than he did Brunswick, and perhaps determined to locate there.
Wilmington incorporated
Immediately on his return from Edenton, in 1735, doubt- less at his instance, an application was made to the council 43
1735 -
C. R., IV, 8
March, 1735 C. R., IV,
252
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1735 to incorporate that rival of the older settlement in which the Moores were interested, but the councillors apprehended that they had not the power.
C. R., IV, 44, 45
However, he proceeded to give signal proofs of his favor to Newton. He ordered that on May 13th a land office should be opened there; also on the same day a court of oyer and terminer was appointed to be held there; also the court of exchequer, of which William Forbes and James. Innes were designated as assistant barons ; and likewise the council. Truly, that May 13. 1735, was a gala day for the little village, which had already made progress in its struggle for trade and importance against the established seat of local government lower down. The governor, realizing its ad- vantageous situation, threw all of his influence to secure its ascendancy. He bought land there, as did also Colonel Halton, Captain Innes. Captain Rowan and Woodward. the surveyor-general, and James Murray, who came to be a close friend to the governor ; and the next year an act was intro- duced to incorporate the town under the name of Wilming- ton, in honor of the governor's patron at Court; but the Moores were able to defeat the measure in the house. How- ever, a session or two later the bill was brought forward again. The council was composed of eight members. The presiding officer, Chief Justice Smith, voted for the bill, making a tie ; and he then voted a second time to break the tie ; and the bill being hurried to the house, was put through before the Moores had time to oppose its passage. This occasioned a strong remonstrance from those interested in Brunswick, who protested that it was illegal for a member of the council to cast two votes. At the next session the house again passed the bill to cure this alleged defect.
Wilmington incorporated
Immigrants
C. R., IV, 72 74
Attention now began to be attracted to North Carolina, and particularly to the region drained by the Cape Fear River, as a home for settlers, and Governor Johnston stimu- lated interest among his friends in Great Britain by his letters and representations. Before he had been in the gov- ernment a year he was in communication with Mr. Dobbs and some other gentlemen of distinction in Ireland, and
253
THE MCCULLOH GRANTS
with Henry McCulloh, a kinsman of his and a merchant in 1735 London, relative to their sending over families ; and Captain C. R., IV, 73 Woodward, as their attorney, selected a tract on Black River, in New Hanover, of sixty thousand acres for them; and in January, 1736, McCulloh petitioned the Board of Trade for two other tracts, one at the head of the Northeast and the other at the head of the Northwest River, which were C R., IV. allowed him. Simultaneously with this movement, Governor 685, et seq. Burrington, then in London, and Mr. Jenner proposed to settle a colony of Swiss between the Neuse and the Cape" C. R., IV, Fear rivers, and asked that a new precinct should be laid 156, 157 off in that region for them; but later the location desired was changed to one nearer the mountains. However, this McCulloh's proposed colony seems eventually to have been merged in grants McCulloh's undertaking. This enterprising gentleman was appointed by Governor Johnston his agent in England, and he also secured an appointment as inspector-general of the grants and revenues of the king in South and North Caro- C. R., IV, lina; and a few months later, having associated two mer- 668 chants, Huey and Crymble, and some other gentlemen with him, he obtained an order for twelve tracts of land of one hundred thousand acres each, not to be at a greater dis- tance from each other, however, than ten miles, and each tract to be subdivided into eight equal parts. For these tracts the grantees were not to begin to pay quit rents until the expiration of ten years, having that time for settlement. The grants were ordered to be located on the head waters of Neuse, Peedee and Cape Fear rivers, and they were the basis of the immense land interest subsequently held by McCulloh in North Carolina.
To induce the immigration of settlers, it was urged that the climate on the Cape Fear was as good as that of England ; that living was cheap ; that fortunes were easily made ; that those who came early and took up land would find that its value was doubled yearly, as had been the case on the lower part of that river. These inducements appealed strongly to enterprising young men to leave the well-occupied marts of Britain and seek their fortunes in a country where hope promised them such advantages. Captain Innes, a man of unusual merit, seems to have accompanied the governor when
Letters of a Loyalist
254
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1736
he arrived, and among those who were induced through the influence of the governor to come over in the fall of 1735 was James Murray, a young Scotchman, then resident at London, who brought with him a stock of goods, and arrived on the Cape Fear January 1, 1736. Not being able to obtain a house at Newton as he had intended, he opened his store at Brunswick, where he found ready sale for all of his merchandise except "wigs." These fashionable orna- ments of dress, much to Murray's disgust, he was unable to dispose of. either at Charleston or on the Cape Fear.
James Murray
Free Masons
But if the people would not wear wigs, they nevertheless brought with them the ideas and habits of the people at home. In 1735 they made application to the Grand Lodge of England for a charter of a Free Mason's lodge, which was granted under the name of Solomon Lodge: and one of the first buildings erected in the village of Wilmington was a Mason's lodge.
Swiss, Irish and Scotch C. R., IV. 685-687
The first considerable number of families coming together were Swiss, who arrived about the end of 1736, and a colony of Irish, who were settled on the upper waters of the North- east ; among the latter being Colonel Sampson, the Owens,* Kenans and Walkers ; and in September, 1739, the McNeals, Duncan Campbell, Colonel McAlister and several other Scotch gentlemen brought over three hundred and fifty Scotch people, who settled in the western part of Bladen Precinct. Earlier a colony of Welsh settled in the upper part of New Hanover County, on what has since been known as the "Welsh Tract."¡ To encourage such colonies the Assembly exempted from taxation for ten years all bodies of Protestants settling in the province numbering forty persons, and in particular appropriated £1,000 for the benefit of the Scotch settlers.
The South Carolina dividing line
Governor Burrington having fortunately postponed settling the boundary line of South Carolina, Governor Johnston appointed commissioners for that purpose, one of
Records New Hanover County, 1737
*The Holmes family appears to have located at first in Edge- combe and then to have removed to Duplin.
fIn March, 1737, the Welsh Tract extended from Burgaw Creel: to Widow Moore's on Black River, and then to the bounds of the precinct, embracing Duplin and Sampson counties.
255
JOHNSTON URGES PROGRESS
whom was Eleazar Allen. The commissioners met at Allen's residence, Lilliput, near Brunswick, on April 23, 1735, and agreed that a due west line should be run from Cape Fear along the seacoast for thirty miles, and then proceed north- west to the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and then run west. A week later they ran the line to Little River, and in S. R., XI, September continued it seventy miles to the northwest; and 149 two years later it was extended in the same direction twenty- two miles. There the work was discontinued until 1764, when the line was run west to the vicinity of Catawba River.
When the receivers first began to collect the rents, which were then several years in arrears, many persons paid, and the governor was much gratified at the success of his plan of proceeding without the sanction of the Assembly ; but at length, on rents being demanded in Chowan, Moseley re- fused to give his countenance to a proceeding he deemed illegal and subversive of the rights of the people. He de- clined to pay, and others thereupon stood with him, and collections almost wholly ceased.
While his officers were meeting with success the governor had had no use for an Assembly. and being determined to set his face against the biennial act, under which elections were held without his writs, he dissolved the Assembly so chosen in September, 1735, without permitting it to convene. The next year he issued his writs for a special election of assemblymen, and convened the Assembly in September, 1736. In his address to that body he urged that the interests of the people and of the province would be best subserved by promoting religion and education, and asked that provision should be made for public worship, and that at least one school should be established in the province. The house at that time, however, had more pressing matters to con- sider than the academic promotion of virtue. and called the attention of the governor to the unlawful action of those who were collecting rents under his orders, and declared that their conduct was an intolerable grievance. Nevertheless, the house passed a fee bill, which the governor rejected, and also a bill providing for a rent roll and for the collection of rents, and for quieting possessions, by the provisions of which all blank patents were declared valid, the validity of
1735
C. R., IV, 246
The new Assembly Sept., 1736 C. R., IV, 225, 226
2.56
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
C. R., IV, 241, 272
1736 the Great Deed reaffirmed and the rents declared payable in commodities, rated at specified values ; and the value of the paper money was to be annually fixed by a commission com- posed of the governor, four members of the council and the speaker and six members of the Assembly, to be chosen by the house. This bill was so clogged with provisions which, in the opinion of a majority of the council, were detrimental to his Majesty's interest, that the upper house rejected it, and the governor, having twice unavailingly called the house to attend him, prorogued the obstinate Assembly until March; and when it then met. the house having ordered into custody the officers who had been collecting the rents from unwilling citizens under compulsion from fear of distraint, the governor promptly dissolved it.
The governor appeals for instructions
C. R., IV. 250
C. R., IV, 267
In the meantime Governor Johnston had immediately after the adjournment of the first Assembly made a full representa- tion to the Board of Trade of the differences between the people and himself. He had urged that the Great Deed had been revoked by the Lords Proprietors : that except six un- important laws the former legislative enactments had never been confirmed and were now nullities; that especially the biennial act ought to be repealed; that the blank patents ought to be set aside ; and he asked instructions as to these matters as well as in regard to the Assembly's contention about the rents. But the Board of Trade took no heed and his appeals for direction were in vain. No instructions having been received in reply to his request, Governor Johnston now advised the Crown officers at home that unless the old laws were annulled his Majesty would have very little to do in his province, for the people had taken especial care to make themselves independent both of the Crown and of the Lords Proprietors ; and he asked that a company of troops, that would not be under the direction of the Assembly. might be sent to the province and he be commissioned as captain of it. Evidently the governor was minded to carry out his will and purposes even by force if necessary: and perhaps there was some occasion for troops, for when at the general court a man was imprisoned for insulting the marshal of the court, the people of Bertie and Edgecombe, understanding that his offence was non-payment of quit
257
QUIT-RENT TROUBLES
rents, rose to the number of five hundred and approached Edenton with the purpose of rescuing him, cursing the king, and with their hearts full of rebellion. While it was only in these two precincts that the people openly embodied, yet the seeds of insurrection were widely disseminated, and the governor hastened to advise McCulloh that the biennial act should at once be repealed and that the people should be warned and commanded by a royal proclamation to obey the governor. With this spur, the Board of Trade during C. R., IV, the sunimer obtained from the king an order repealing that July, 1737 law; and conformably thereto, in November Governor Johnston issued a proclamation giving notice of its repeal. Biennial Act repealed Such was the ending of one of the muniments of liberty and safeguards of freedom which Shaftesbury had embodied in his celebrated Fundamental Constitutions in the early days of the settlement.
At an Assembly held in New Bern in March, 1739, the dis- position to fashion the province after the model of England had its effect, and an act was passed converting the precincts into counties, and for appointing sheriffs in each of them, but as that necessarily supplanted the official functions of the marshal, that office was abolished, and Colonel Halton was allowed a money consideration for his damages. Provision was also made for holding circuit courts, and at an adjourned session a month later the struggle over the quit-rent trouble, which had lasted so many years, was adjusted by a compro- mise, which was very agreeable to the governor, provision being made for a rent roll and the rents to be paid in a limited number of commodities, such only as the governor approved-tobacco, hemp, flax, deer skins and beeswax ; and the value of the provincial currency was to be fixed by a commission as in the bill formerly rejected by the council. One of the considerations for the passage of this bill by the Assembly was that it confirmed the blank patents, in which - nearly all of the chief men of the province were in some measure interested, and it gave an assurance of title to lands which they had improved, in some instances at great ex- pense.
On the other hand, the governor and his officers had for some time been without compensation for their services, and
1736
Precincts converted into counties S. R , XXIII, 120
Rent roll prepared
258
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1739
as this arrangement opened the way for the payment of their salaries, it was very gratifying to his Excellency, who hastened to send the act to England with his approval and urgent request for its confirmation. In the meanwhile, not doubting that it would be confirmed, he put it into operation, and that cause of disagreement between the administration and the opposition was regarded as entirely removed. Still, the antagonism between the governor and the Moores, who were spoken of by the administration as "the family," re- mained ;* but this cause of difference being settled, Eleazar Allen abandoned the governor and joined "the family," which put the administration in the minority in the council. This unexpected defection of Allen led the governor to immedi- ately appoint as councillor James Murray, on whose fidelity he could relv.
Progress in the colony
Products
The exports of the Cape Fear River had now become rel- atively considerable. The vast pine forests were filled with light wood, being the heart of the resinous pine after the body of the fallen tree had decayed many years before, and the business of making tar engaged a large part of the popu- lation ; indeed. so much of this staple article of commerce was speedily produced that the markets of the world soon became overstocked. The Moores and their friends, who together had brought some twelve hundred slaves to the settlement, began in 1735 the culture of rice, of which large crops were now being produced for export; and in 1738 George Lillington reported to the Assembly that he had brought the culture of indigo to perfection ; while particular efforts were made in various parts of the province to grow hemp and flax. The silkworm was also introduced, saw- mills had been erected, bricks were burned, and much prog- ress was made in comfortable living as well as in profitable commerce.
Chief Justice Smith impeached
There had been constant accessions to population, and the chief matters of difference between the people at large and the administration having been settled, an era of good will was ushered in. and there was a period of quietude and of steady growth. Still the chief justice did not give satisfac- tion in his courts. In some measure he seems to have *Murray's "Letters of a Loyalist."
259
THE BUSH ASSEMBLY
justified the opinion expressed of him by Burrington, and there were many complaints of his irregular proceedings. At length, in 1739, matters reached a crisis, and there was a determination to impeach him. The Assembly was to have met in New Bern in November, but because of adverse winds C. R., IV, the members from Albemarle, who were coming by water, 351, 352 were delayed, and only twenty-six members at first appeared. That number was sufficient for a quorum and the body might have been organized. But the chief justice had been very useful to the governor, and it was alleged that in order to protect this officer, with the governor's connivance. resort was had to management, and Smith procured four members to take to the bushes and absent themselves, thus preventing an organization. After waiting two or three days, a majority of the council advised a dissolution-advice which the gov- ernor hastened to follow, and the impending impeachment was thus avoided. From the method pursued to break the quorum that Assembly became known among the people as the "Bush Assembly." A new election was, however, at once Feb., 1740 ordered, and when the body met Smith managed to secure the good will of a majority by promising to have passed a certain bill allowing some additional commodities to be re- ceived in payment of taxes and in discharge of debts, the rating of these commodities to be at a very high value. Sir Richard Everard, the son of the foriner governor, however. presented and pressed the resolution of impeachment, setting out in detail some eighteen impeachable offences: but a majority of the house, being thus won over to the cause of the chief justice, cut short the time for bringing forward the testimony, and by a preponderance of six votes held that the evidence presented was insufficient to justify the pro- ceeding. So Smith not only thus avoided the blow, but, indeed, during the year found an opportunity of dealing one to his old enemy, Hanmer, who had been used by Burrington to keep him out of his office. Hanmer was charged with per- jury and tried before Smith and convicted. He begged for mercy, but Smith was obdurate, and imposed on him such a heavy punishment that in 1743 Hanmer, being then released from prison, petitioned the Crown for relief against the chief justice, who, he alleged, had persecuted him and destroyed
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