USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 25
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1740 - -
C. R., IV, 468, 500, 504
260
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1740
his fortune and wrecked his health. Smith, however, did not survive long enough to engage in this new controversy. In 1744 he died, and John Montgomery succeeded him as chief justice ; himself surviving only a few months, when Edward Moseley was appointed to the position.
Moseley chief justice
The Spanish war
For years there had been a constant disregard by the English traders of the commercial regulations which Spain had thrown around the commerce of her American colonies with a view of excluding foreign trade and maintaining an exclusive dealing with the mother country. The contract of the English for the importation of negroes, known as the Asiento. increased their facilities for smuggling and main- taining an illicit trade with the Spanish colonies, which was carried on with great gain, particularly by the merchants of Jamaica. There were besides other causes of differences be- tween England and Spain, which, however, in the spring of 1739 had been amicably settled by a convention; but the convention was not promptly carried into effect, and the English traders, fearing that their trade would be cut off by it, were clamorous in demanding a "free sea" even in the Spanish Main .* To please them war was declared with Spain on a point that was of unusual interest to the English colonies in America, as it related to unrestrained commercial intercourse with the Spanish settlements to the southward.
1740
C. R , IV, 421
In view of these hostilities, in the summer of 1740 Gov- ernor Johnston received instructions to raise such troops as could be obtained in the province, and he called a special session of the Assembly to make provision for them. The members were zealous in their patriotic ardor, and with notable unanimity appropriated £12,000 sterling for the maintenance of the levies: and the governor hired four vessels at Edenton, three companies of a hundred men each being raised in the northern counties, and one vessel at Wil- mington, where a hundred men enlisted, to convey them on the expedition. So ready were the people to go that many
*While the merchants were clamoring. one Jenkins, a sailor, ap- peared before Parliament and exhibited one of his ears that had been cut off by the Spaniards. This turned the scale against Wal- pole's peace policy. and the war became known as "the war of Jenkins's ear."
261
THE SPANISH WAR
more companies could have been obtained had adequate pro- vision been made for them.
174.
to Cartagena
These troops were originally intended to operate with the Expedition expedition under General Oglethorpe against St. Augustine, and some of them were despatched on that service. That expedition having failed. they sailed for Jamaica, where the British forces were concentrated. Captain Innes commanded one company, and with him were Lieutenant Pringle and Lieutenant Douglass, who appear to have come from Eng- land. They sailed from Wilmington on November 26, 1740, and were actively engaged in the West Indies. Later these forces were in Admiral Vernon's expedition against Carta- gena, where, after meeting with some successes. the want of co-operation between the army and the navy worked their ruin. Not only were there great losses on the land, but after the troops were driven to re-embark a fever broke out among them and nine out of ten of the colonial contingent succumbed to disease, the entire loss in the expedition being over 20,000 men. But few of the North Carolina troops returned. That they bore an honorable part in the opera- tions may be gathered from the fact that Lieutenant Pringle was wounded at the siege of Boca-Chica, while Captain Innes won such distinction and his merit was so thoroughly recognized that in 1756 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. Colonel Washington was glad to serve under him.
The decision of the Board of Trade
After the act relating to the rents had been in operation 1741 some two years the governor was humiliated at receiving information that it had been disallowed by the king. The passage of the act had been obtained by him after a long conflict with the Assembly, and it happily settled many con- tentions ; but the half dozen merchants in London trading to North Carolina protested against the provision which allowed a commission to fix the value of the currency ; and for that reason the entire settlement of the vexed questions was annulled. It is no wonder that the governor's patience was taxed beyond measure by this untoward and unwise action. But that was not his only disappointment ; the other
Quit-rent law disallowed
262
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1741 C. R., IV, 287
The Great Deed
questions submitted by him were all decided practically ad- verse to the positions he had taken. In February, 1738, the law officers made their adverse report, but it was held up three years at London and not communicated to Governor Johnston until 1741, notwithstanding his anxious solicitude for decisive instructions. In regard to the Great Deed, it was held that that instrument was revocable, but that its revoca- tion could not affect grants made while it was in operation ; and whether it was revoked by the commission and instruc- tions to Governor Sayle in 1669, as contended by. Johnston and McCulloh, depended on whether Albemarle was within Sayle's territory-which, indeed, had been limited to "south and west of Cape Carteret"; and even were it within that territory, the board considered that a long and quiet enjoy- ment of land would cure all defects of title.
The quit rents
The greater question was as to the payment of the quit rents, and its decision was entirely in conflict with the gov- ernor's views and sustained Moseley and the Assembly at all points in the controversy. It was held that the rents were not payable in specie, but might be paid in commodities at the market value, and that the place of payment was on the farms.
C. R., IV, 291
Laws confirmed
Concerning Johnston's contention that the whole body of the laws were a nullity. it was decided that as they had been in use among the people and acquiesced in by the Proprietors they were not void and could not be repealed by the Crown ; still they made an exception in regard to the biennial act, and held that it was in the province of the king to repeal and annul that for special reasons, as had been done.
Blank patents
C. R., IV, 322
-------
After a full examination into the matter of blank patents, the nature of which was fully explained to them by Gov- ernor Burrington, the law officers decided that notwithstand- ing the Lords Proprietors had ordered their land office to be closed. yet the patents were good if the Proprietors were made privy to them, or had afterward received the con- sideration money ; but those issued after notice of the king's purchase were not good ; and they held that the circuinstance that the patents were blank as to boundaries was not of itself sufficient to avoid them; and if any of the patents were voidable, the proper course to annul them was by infor-
THE BOARD ADVERSE TO JOHNSTON'S CLAIMS 263
mation in the courts. These decisions, however, were not for three years communicated to the governor, who in ignorance of them had maintained his position on the matters involved with partisan loyalty and devoted zeal in behalf of what he regarded were the legal rights of his sovereign. Disheartened in the extreme, for the only gratification he 583 had enjoyed was in the repeal of the biennial act, the governor, receiving no salary whatever, nevertheless con- tinued to apply unavailingly for new instructions, until at length, in 1747, the humiliating answer came that he had . better try to get a new act passed for the collection of rents not containing the objectionable feature of a commission to fix the value of the currency that had caused the rejection of the former act. He had asked for bread and they gave him a stone.
But notwithstanding this ill-usage, Governor Johnston would abate nothing from the tenor of his original instruc- tions, and the receivers of rents would not settle them for commodities, and now rated the provincial currency at only one-tenth the value of specie. As great as was this rate of depreciation, it was equaled in the neighboring province of South Carolina, where for three-quarters of a century the currency was never at a less discount than 700 per cent. ; and where twenty-eight of the merchants of Charleston having, in 1722, presented a memorial complaining of broken pledges in not retiring the currency, the Assembly ordered them all into the custody of its officers.
The people of North Carolina. however, were not content with having their currency rated so low, and abstained from paying their rents; and so little money was collected that the governor's salary remained unpaid ; and especially was thiis the case after the northern part of the province had been set apart to Earl Granville, the rents in arrears as well as those annually to accrue in that territory after 1744 being the individual property of that Proprietor, while those accru- ing in the lower portion of the province, which had not been so long settled, were of comparatively insignificant value.
Embarrassed by his pecuniary condition, other matters bore equally hard on the governor. Civil war was raging in his
I744
C. R., IV,
Currency ten for one
Governor's salary unpaid
264
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1744
Matters in dispute settled
native country,* where the young Stuart prince had erected the standard of his father and had gathered around him his zealous Highlanders, while the low-country Scotch, being Presbyterians and followers of John Knox, adhered to the Protestant house of Hanover. The situation of his kindred and friends gave him much concern ; and because of the war with Spain and then with France, the seacoast of the prov- ince was opened to easy assault, and its defenceless con- dition was the occasion of much uneasiness; forts should be built and a militia organized ; assemblies and general courts had been constantly held at Edenton, which was too inaccessible as a seat of government, and a more convenient location was desired, where the officers should reside and the public records be kept ; the acts of the Assembly were in confusion and a codification indispensable; the time for which the provincial bills were to run was about to expire, and provision should be made for renewing them; while other subjects of almost equally grave importance claimed attention. Yet assemblies would meet, and because of jealousy between the houses or disagreements with the gov- ernor, little or nothing was accomplished. Still, one by one these subjects were considered, and occasionally some would be acted upon, except alone that establishing a seat of gov- ernment ; as to that there was an irreconcilable difference between the houses, the northern members of the Assembly insisting on Bath, the governor and the council, of whom a majority resided on the Cape Fear, proposing New Bern; so there could be no agreement.
Granville and Johnston counties I746 C. R., IV, 831. 834
Westward expansion
But whatever were the perplexities of government, the province continued to grow in population and importance. Virginians from the beginning had flocked across the border. After the old precincts at Albemarle were well occupied, these immigrants from the adjoining province possessed themselves of Bertie, and there the population became so numerous that in 1741 the new county of Northampton had to be erected. Five years later the first settlement that the Virginians had made on the Tar had so expanded that Edge-
*It is said that Governor Johnston's brothers were in this rising.
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265
IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE
combe had to be divided, and Granville was portioned off on the western frontier; while in like manner Johnston County ( first proposed to be named Essex) was formed from the western part of Craven, extending up the course of the Neuse.
In New Hanover 22,000 acres of land had been surveyed for McCulloh between the Northeast and Black rivers, and 50,000 acres were located for him a little higher up, which were under the care of Dr. William Houston, near Soracte and the Golden Grove, where the Irish and Swiss settlers had been established in 1736. In 1736 George Vaughan, a bar- rister of Dublin, Ireland, purchased of a Mr. Hewitt 12,000 acres of land situated in this territory and apparently a part of the 50,000 acres laid off for McCulloh and his associates ; and the next year, 1737, John Sampson, a nephew of Vaughan, settled on the tract as agent. Three years later Vaughan resolved to appropriate the land, together with one hundred slaves, to the purpose of Christianizing five Indian tribes* then said to be in the vicinity ; and under an arrange- ment Sampson sought to carry out these general purposes, but for some reason the plan appears to have miscarried. Indeed, the settlement of upper New Hanover prospered so well that in 1749 a new county was formed out of that terri- tory, at first proposed to be called "Donegal," or Fane, but on consideration was named Duplin, in honor of Lord Dupplin, one of the Board of Trade.
And even a still more interesting movement was witnessed on the other branch of the Cape Fear. Some Scotchmen had been induced, perhaps through the influence of Governor Johnston, to come to that region shortly after his appoint- ment, and later there were large accessions of the same population. In 1739 Colonel McAlister arrived with three hundred and fifty Scotchmen in one body. After the disaster at Culloden the adherents of Charles Edward were put to the sword and threatened with extermination. The chieftains and more prominent leaders were quickly despatched, while the humbler people were hunted like wild animals in a chase and butchered without compunction of conscience. The
*Indian relics are still found widely scattered throughout Duplin and Sampson counties.
1746
S.R., XXIII 248, 249
Court Records, New Hanover County C. R., IV, 1064
Duplin County
C. R .; IV, viii
The Scotch migration
266
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 1734-53
1746 -
Culloden
Highlanders in Cumber- land, 1746
bloody work was, however, at length arrested by a tardy proclamation of mercy, and a pardon was issued under the great seal exempting from the death penalty nineteen out of twenty who had escaped the terrible slaughter. To deter- mine who should be the victims of this melancholy fate, there was resort to the haphazard chance of casting the lot. Those undefended by fortune perished, the other nineteen being adjudged to suffer only expatriation-a merciful boon, per- petual exile. The removal of entire clans was enforced, and hundreds who. not being involved in the trouble, might have remained in their desolated country preferred to abandon their beloved mountains and share the fortunes of their com- patriots rather than remain in their deserted homes. Indeed, the feudal tenures of the olden time were then destroyed. and the ties that bound the clansmen to their chiefs passed away, introducing new conditions that were intolerable to the Highlanders. Some influences turned the tide of migra- tion to the upper Cape Fear, where a number of their High- land companions had already located. So that in 1746 the vicinity of the present town of Fayetteville was occupied by a considerable colony of these unhappy Scotchmen, and shipload after shipload of these unfortunate people disem- barked at Wilmington and then penetrated far into the wilderness of the interior. In 1749 Neal McNeal at one time brought over five hundred with him, and they scattered through Bladen, Anson and what is now Cumberland counties. Five years later the stream began to flow again, and from that time onward there were constant arrivals from the Highlands of Scotland, until a vast territory was occu- pied by them. Beliol, of Jura. one of the Hebrides Islands, found employment for a vessel regularly engaged in bringing in annually Scotch emigrants, who were reared almost within hail of classic Iona, the hallowed home of primitive Presby- terianism. Even as late as in 1775 a colony of three hundred and fifty arrived, and joined their kindred on the upper Cape Fear.
Vass, Hist. New Bern Presby. Church
Anson County C. R., IV, 888, 1064
From South Carolina other colonists had pushed up the Peedee, taking possession of the fine lands along that river far to the west of the Bladen settlements, so that in Septem- ber, 1748, they besought the council for the benefit of a new
267
ANSON COUNTY ORGANIZED
county, saying that there were between two hundred and 1746 -- three hundred white tithables in the Peedee country a hun- dred miles distant from the court-house ; and in answer to S. R., XXIII their prayer a county was established called Anson, in honor 343 of the brave commodore whose fame at that time was resounding throughout the world. Indeed, so rapid had been C. R., IV, the progress of settlement that when, in 1746, Moseley and the other commissioners for running the Granville line reached the Saxapahaw, at the present southeast corner of Chatham County, they found settlers and houses already- there, though the country was but sparsely occupied, and the region to the west was as vet uninhabited.
Sir John Carteret. who held high office at Court, perhaps animated by an ambition to be the sole possessor of immense territories in the New World, had, in 1729, declined to dis- pose of his share on the purchase by the Crown of Carolina. and by the king's command his portion was set apart to him in severalty adjoining Virginia, and the dividing line was agreed to be the parallel of latitude 35° and 34', by which about two-thirds of the province became his individual prop- erty. Carteret, by the death of his mother, had just then succeeded to the title of Lord Granville. He had the year before overthrown the Walpole administration, and was sec- retary of state ; and he had uncontrolled ascendancy over the king, and was "not only the most brilliant debater, but the ablest statesman of his time."
In the winter of 1743 his line was run from Hatteras to His line run Bath, and in the spring of 1746 it was continued to Saxapa- haw, passing near the present towns of Snow Hill and Princeton; and when extended farther west it became eventually the southern boundary of the counties of Chatham, Randolph, Davidson, and Rowan. From the time it was run all the interest of the Crown ceased in the rents within that extensive territory, they belonging exclusively to Gran- ville, who appointed Moseley and Halton his agents for col- lecting the rents and making grants in his name.
This division of the province between the king and Gran- ville, and the conflicting interests of the northern and southern counties, and the desire of the governor to estab- lish a seat of government in New Bern, led to one of the
Granville's territory
268
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1746
most strenuous struggles that marked the course of public affairs.
The unarmed rebellion
Nov., 1746 C. R., IV, 870
The Assembly was composed of fifty-four members. of whom, as the northern counties had five each while the southern counties had but two, the majority always lay with Albemarle : so to compass his purpose with regard to estab- lishing a seat of government the governor skilfully resorted to management. An Assembly having met in New Bern in June, 1746, and the houses having disagreed as between Batlı and New Bern, the governor prorogued the body to meet at Wilmington in November, at a time when the northern mem- bers would be engaged in sending their cattle and hogs to Virginia for sale, and could not conveniently attend at so remote a place. The Albemarle representatives, relying on their power to break a quorum by remaining away, agreed on that course and did not go to the Cape Fear. In former years the result would have answered their expectations ; but with the growing importance of the Cape Fear region and the divergence of interests that had arisen between the sec- tions new conditions had come to defeat these calculations. When the house assembled, there being eight old members and seven newly elected, fifteen in all, in attendance, the speaker, Sam Swann, calling to his aid the rule of the British Parliament by which 40 members out of 556 constituted a quorum, declared a quorum present, and the house proceeded to business. Only two bills were passed, but these were of great importance. By one of them the seat of government was fixed permanently at New Bern, where public papers were required to be kept, instead of at the private residences of the officers in the different parts of the province, as had been the practice; and circuit courts were established to be held throughout the province: while the other was intended to destroy the inequality of representation by allowing to each county in the province two representatives and no more. This was a direct blow at the northern coun- ties, which the Albemarle people furiously resented. They declared that by the constitution of the province the original Albemarle counties had a right to five members, of which
C. R., IV, 838, 843
269
THE UNARMED REBELLION
they could not be deprived ; and that a quorum of the house consisted of a majority of all the members, and that a less number could not lawfully pass a bill. They asserted that the governor had by artifice and trick devised this proceeding, and as they had fallen into the trap, they now prepared to meet the emergency by a counter-plot. By agreement, they were to abstain from attending future sessions; and their declaration that the act establishing the seat of government and appointing commissioners to erect the public building at New Bern was a nullity raised an obstacle in the way of. giving effect to that law which could not be overcome. and the buildings were not erected. The governor issued writs for a new Assembly to meet in February, ordering the sheriffs to return but two members from any county, but the Albemarle people disregarded these instructions and voted for five members as formerly. Throughout the whole region there was concert of action, and the entire section was tinited as one man to preserve their constitutional rights. When the Assembly met the elections in those counties were held void, and new writs were issued for another election, but the people to a man abstained from voting. There were Northern no elections held. The northern counties would not be rep- resented by less than five members. Both sides, however, appealed to the higher authority of the Crown : but the law officers in England, who during the whole colonial period acted on a high plane and sought to be fair and impartial, would not decide except on a full hearing, and required testimony to be taken in the province as to the disputed facts. This delay brought no harmony to the province, and as months passed the interests of the sections conflicted more and more. The public men who had formerly acted in unison drifted apart ; faction and party spirit ran high, and the prov- ince became divided into two sectional parties, whose antag- onism constantly grew in bitterness.
The governor did not choose to risk another Assembly, or They refuse perhaps deemed it ill-advised to disturb existing conditions, obedience so year after year the Assembly elected in February, 1747. continued to meet under successive prorogations. Having no representatives. the northern counties refused to obey the laws enacted by the Rump; they did not recognize the new
1747
The two repudiated acts C. R., IV, 835, 864 Feb., 1747
counties not represented
270
JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1734-52
1747 C. R., IV, 1312
circuit courts, and especially they would pay no taxes to support a government in which they had no share; and as the northern inhabitants would pay no taxes, after a while neither would the southern, who would not bear the burden of government alone. The house eventually became like the Long Parliament in England, a body exercising the func- tions of government, but no longer representative of its con- stituents. While its enactments had the force of law in the southern counties, in the northern they were utterly dis- regarded.
The Spanish invasions
S. R.,XXII, 403
Notwithstanding the defection of the northern members, the Assembly had to deal with matters of general interest. Particularly did the defenceless condition of the coast give great concern. In 1741 several Spanish privateers took pos- session of Ocracoke Inlet, and seized the vessels arriving S. R., XXII, there. They also landed and carried off the cattle of the in- 262, 278 habitants. Eventually they were driven away, but their depredations were so great that provisions had to be sup- plied to the distressed people at a cost to the province of more than £10,000.
Aug., 1747 Again in 1744 they harassed the coast ; and in 1747 boldly entered the harbor of Beaufort. Major Enoch Ward hastily gathered some militia and held them at bay until August 26th, when they succeeded in gaining possession of the town itself. In a few days, however, Colonel Thomas Lovick and Beaufort Taken S. R., XXII, 263 1748 Captain Charles Cogdell came to the rescue with a sufficient force, and early in September the Spaniards were expelled, suffering considerable loss. At least ten of the invaders were captured. But so successful were these forays that the next summer they were continued, and the coast was ravaged. Early in July some of the Spanish ships lay in the harbor of the lower Cape Fear, while a company of militia held the S. R.,XXII, shore against them. 286
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