USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 7
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1608
50
THE SECOND EPOCH-1629-63 PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
CHAPTER V
CHARTERS AND COLONIAL OFFICERS
The charters .- The concessions .- The Lords Proprietors and their successors .- The Palatines .- The governors, speakers of the Assembly, and chief justices.
Carolana
Sir Robert Heath's Patent-30th of October, 1629.
By this grant Charles I conveyed to his Attorney-General, Sir Robert Heath, Knight, his heirs and assigns forever so much of the Continent of America as lay between 31 and 36 degrees of North latitude,-"to have, exercise, use and enjoy in like manner as any Bishop of Durham within the Bishopric or County Palatine of Durham in our Kingdom of England ever heretofore had, heid, used, or enjoyed, or of right, ought or could have, hold, use, or enjoy. And by these presents we make, create and constitute the same Sir Robert Heath, his heirs and assigns, true and absolute Lords and Proprietors of the region and territory aforesaid."
"Know that we . . do erect and incorporate them into a Province. and name the same Carolana, or the Province of Caro- lana." "Furthermore know ye that we do give power to the said Sir Robert to form. make and enact and publish what laws may concern the public state of said Province or the private profit of all according to the wholesome directions of, and with the counsel, assent and approbation of the Freeholders of the same Province."
"Furthermore lest the way to honours and dignityes may seem to be shutt, etc. do for ourselves, our heirs and successors give full and free power to the aforesaid Sir Robert Heath. Knight. his heirs and assigns to confer favours, graces and honours upon those well-deserving citizens that inhabit the aforesaid Province. and the same with whatever titles and dignityes (provided they be not the same as are now used in England) to adorne at his pleasure."
1629
C. R., I, 5
.
GREAT SEAL OF THE LORDS PROPRIETORS OF CAROLINA
SABIZOLTAO
103
51
THE CHARTERS OF 1663 AND 1665
The charter to the Lords Proprietors
1663
By the first charter, King Charles II on the 20th day of March. 1663, granted to the grantees, the same territory conveyed to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, and in large measure granted the same powers : such, for instance, as that the grantees, with the consent of the freemen, should make laws, etc .. and that they might bestow titles of nobility, not being the same as those in use in England; and also authorizing freedom in religion. The second grant made the 30th of June, 1665, extended the territory conveyed so as to embrace "as far as the north end of Currituck River, or Inlet. upon a straight, westerly line to Weyanoke Creek, which lies within or about the degrees of 36 and 30 minutes northern latitude: and so west. in a direct line. as far as the south seas : and south and westward as far as the degrees 29. inclusive." In other respects the charters were the same; except the provision establishing religious freedom is somewhat fuller in the second.
First and second charters of Charles 1I, 1663, 1665
The original Lords Proprietors
Edward Hyde.
George Monk.
William Lord Craven.
John Lord Berkeley.
Anthony Lord Ashley. Sir George Carteret. Sir William Berkeley.
Sir John Colleton.
After Clarendon's death, his share was bought in 1679 by Seth Sothel, on whose death in 1694, it was assigned to Thomas Amy. a London merchant, who had been very active in promoting coloni- zation. Eventually this share passed to Honorable James Bertie. after whom the county of Bertie was named.
The share of the Duke of Albemarle was acquired by John Gran- ville. Earl of Bath. who dying in 1701, was succeeded by his son. John Lord Granville. In 1709 the Duke of Beaufort acquired this share and devised it to James Bertie in trust for his sons. Henry and Charles Somerset. His name appears in a county and in the seaport town called in his honor, when he was Palatine.
The Earl of Craven's share, he having no descendants. passed to his grand-nephew, William Lord Craven, whose son William. Lord Craven, succeeded him. That name is also perpetuated in a county.
The share of John Lord Berkeley came to his son. John. an admiral of great merit : but it had been forfeited, and in April, 1698, was sold to Joseph Blake, on whose death it descended to his son of the same name.
On the death of Shaftesbury, his share passed to his son, Lord Ashley.
The devolu- tion of the shares
52
CHARTERS AND. COLONIAL OFFICERS
1663-1775
George Carteret dying in 1679, was succeeded by his infant son. who was represented by the Earl of Bath. This second George Carteret dying about 1695. was succeeded by his son. George Car- teret, who at the time of the purchase by the Crown in 1729, was lieutenant-governor of Ireland, and in 1742 overthrew Walpole's administration and became prime-minister. About that time, on the death of his mother. the Countess of Granville. he became Lord Granville. He would not sell his share to the Crown, and in 1744 it was set apart to him in the northern half of North Carolina. After the Revolution it was held by the State, although his heirs brought suit to recover it, but failed in the courts.
On the death of Sir William Berkeley, 1677, his share was sold by his widow to John Archdale for his son Thomas. Afterward in 1684 she and her husband, Philip Ludwell, sold it again to Sir Peter Colleton for 300 pounds. Sir Peter purchased it for himself and three other Proprietors and the title was conveyed to Thomas Amy in trust for them.
In 1705 this share was acquired by John Archdale, who in 1709 conveyed it to John Dawson, his son-in-law. Later it was sold by decree of the Court of Chancery and purchased by Hugh Watson as trustee for Henry and James Bertie.
Sir John Colleton's share on his death in 1666 descended to his son, Sir Peter, who held it until 1694. and who was succeeded by his son. Sir John Colleton. All of the shares were bought by the Crown in 1729, except that of Sir George Carteret.
Palatines
I. Duke of Albemarle. October 16, 1669.
2. John Lord Berkeley, January 20, 1670.
3. Sir George Carteret. February 5. 1679.
4. William Earl of Craven, November 20, 1680.
5. John Earl of Bath, April, 1697.
6. John Lord Granville, January 10, 1702.
7. William Lord Craven. 1708.
S. Henry Duke of Beaufort. November 8, 171I.
9. John Lord Carteret. August 10, 1714, and he so continued until the sale to the Crown in 1729.
John Lord Berkeley did not attend the meetings of the Proprietors after 1671, Shaftesbury being then the particular manager.
Governors of Albemarle under the Proprietary Government William Drummond, appointed October, 1664-October, 1667. Samuel Stephens, appointed October, 1667. Died December. 1669. Peter Carteret, appointed October, 1670. Left colony May, 1673.
McCrady's South Carolina, I, 716
53
GOVERNORS, SPEAKERS AND CHIEF JUSTICES
John Jenkins, president of council, appointed May, 1673. 1663-1776 Thomas Eastchurch. appointed November, 1676. Never qualified. Thomas Miller, appointed 1677. Deposed by Culpepper. John Culpepper, in power, 1677-78.
Seth Sothel, appointed 1678. Captured by Algerines.
John Harvey. appointed February 5. 1679. Died August, 1679. John Jenkins, president of council, appointed November, 1679. Henry Wilkinson, appointed February 16, 1681. Seth Sothel, arrived 1682. Deposed fall of 1689.
Governors of North Carolina under the Proprietors
Philip Ludwell, appointed December 5, 1689.
Thomas Jarvis, deputy, 1691-94. Thomas Harvey, deputy, July, 1694-July, 1699. John Archdale, governor, 1695. Henderson Walker, president of council, 1699-1704. Robert Daniel, deputy governor, 1704-05.
Thomas Cary, deputy governor. 1705-06.
William Glover, president of council. 1706-08.
Thomas Cary, president of council, 1708-January, 1711.
Edward Hyde, governor. January. 1711-September, 1712.
Thomas Pollock, president of council, September, 1712-14. Charles Eden, governor, 1714-22. Thomas Pollock, president of council, 1722. William Reed, president of council, 1722-23. George Burrington, governor, 1724-25. Sir Richard Everard, governor, 1725-31.
Governors of North Carolina under the Crown
George Burrington, February 25, 1731-November, 1734. Gabriel Johnston, November. 1734-July, 1752. Nathaniel Rice, president, July, 1752-January, 1753. Matthew Rowan, president. January, 1753-November, 1754. Arthur Dobbs. November, 1754-March 28, 1765. William Tryon, March. 1765-June 30, 1771. James Hasell, president of council, July 1, 1771-August, 1771. Josiah Martin, August, 1771. Expelled 1775.
Speakers of the Assembly George Catchmaid. 1666. Thomas Eastchurch. 1675. Thomas Cullen, 1676. John Porter. 1697. Edward Moseley, 1708.
William Swann, 17II. Edward Moseley, 1715. Edward Moseley, 1722. Maurice Moore, 1726.
John Baptista Ashe, 1727.
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54
CHARTERS AND COLONIAL OFFICERS
1663-1776 -
Thomas Swann, 1729.
Sam Swann, 1756.
Edward Moseley. 1731.
John Ashe, 1762.
William Downing. 1734.
John Harvey, 1766.
John Hodgson, 1739.
Richard Caswell, 1770.
Sam Swann. 1743.
John Harvey, 1772-75.
Chief justices of North Carolina
Christopher Gale, 1712.
William Smith, 1734.
Tobias Knight, 1717.
John Montgomery, 1743.
Frederick Jones, 1718.
Edward Moseley, 1744.
Christopher Gale. 1722.
Eleazar Allen, 1749.
Thomas Pollock, 1724. Christopher Gale, 1724.
Enoch Hall. 1749.
James Hasell, 1750.
William Smith, 1731.
Peter Henley, December 5, 1755.
John Palin, 1732.
Charles Berry, 1758.
William Little, 1732.
James Hasell, 1765.
Daniel Hanmer, 1733.
Martin Howard, 1766-76.
John Campbell. 1755.
CHAPTER VI
BEGINNINGS OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT IN ALBEMARLE
Conditions in America .- Virginia under the treaty with Parlia- ment .- Roger Green's explorations .- The king of Roanoke Island. -- Permanent settlement on the Carolina Sound .- The Restoration. -The Cape Fear explored .- Berkeley receives instructions as to Carolina .- The name Albemarle .- The Quakers .- The grant of the Lords Proprietors .- William Drummond, governor of Albemarle .- The second grant.
Conditions in America
The disturbed condition of England prior to her civil war led to an immense emigration to the New England plantations, and at the close of that period of unrest, marked by the execution of the king in 1649, settlements had ex- tended into Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Maryland also had prospered, and Virginia's population, which in the first years after settlement increased but slowly, numbered twenty thousand souls, and extended far into the interior and well along the sluggish waters of the Nansemond.
The region south of the thirty-sixth parallel, which under the name of Carolana had, in 1629, been granted by King Charles I to his attorney-general, Sir Robert Heath, had not been settled : and the wilds of Carolana remained un- occupied save by the copper-colored aborigines.
While the civil war was raging at home, the Puritans of New England adhered to Parliament, but Virginia remained faithful to the Crown, winning by her loyalty the name of the Old Dominion; and upon the death of his father, Charles II, then in exile, transmitted to Sir William Berke- ley, who had been the royal governor for a decade, a new commission confirming his authority.
Virginia under the treaty
Parliament, however, was not indifferent to the attitude of those colonies that continued to sustain the monarchy. and its power being fully established at home, in convenient
-
1660
56
BEGINNINGS OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
1652
season took measures to assert its supremacy in Virginia. On one hand. it threatened war: in the other it held out the olive branch of peace, offering terms that could hardly be refused. The Old Dominion preferred peace, and a formal treaty was agreed to in 1652 that secured to Virginia almost complete independence. The Assembly obtained the right of choosing all the officers of the colony, including the governor, who had formerly been appointed by the Crown, and of defining their duties and privileges. It also secured the high power of regulating commerce, and, without regard to the British navigation acts. it declared that trade should be absolutely free with all nations at peace with England. The right of suffrage was extended to all freemen, and "Dissenters" had full religious liberty ; but under one clause of the treaty the prayer-book was not to be used in the churches. Of churches, there were none except in the very heart of the colony, and ministers were so few that a bounty was offered for their importation .*
Bancroft, I, 231
Thus between the treaty of peace, in 1652, and the Restoration, in 1660, the Old Dominion enjoyed a republi- can government, and local independence. Indeed. Virginia has the distinction of having been the first community in the world whose government was organized on the principle of manhood suffrage, where all freemen, without exception, had an equal voice in the government, and their representa- tives chose the administrative officers and controlled public affairs. It was near the close of a decade of growth under the favorable influences of virtual independence, that the in- creasing population led to an overflow of the inhabitants into the territory north of the Albemarle Sound, and per- haps the movement was quickened by some apprehensions that the downfall of the Commonwealth, then imminent, would usher in a new era of religious intolerance.
Roger Green's exploration
The Nansemond penetrates near to the head waters of the Chowan, and before 1653 Roger Greent had explored
*In 1658, while the Dissenters still held sway, Quakers were banished.
+Roger Green is mentioned as "Clarke," by which he is understood to have been a clergyman, and it may be, if he was a member of the
57
EXPLORATION EXTENDED
that fertile region, and some of the inhabitants of Nanse- mond were considering a removal to that attractive country. Green obtained from the General Assembly of Virginia a grant of ten thousand acres for the one hundred persons who should first seat on the Roanoke and on the lands on the south side of the Chowan; and "as a reward for his own first discovery and for his encouraging the settlement," he was granted a thousand acres for himself. But while his enterprise may have led to the subsequent settlement, no memorial of his being concerned in it has come down to pos- terity. The waters of the great sound had been explored and were well known to Virginians, and about the year 1646 two expeditions had been made from Virginia against the Indians on the sound : one by land, under General Ben- nett, and the other by water, under Colonel Drew. Drew's vessels entered Currituck Sound and proceeded as far as the Chowan River. At the mouth of Weyanoke Creek he had an encounter with the Indians, with whom, however, he soon established a peace; and shortly afterward Henry Plumpton, who had been on that expedition, together with Thomas Tuke and several others, purchased from the Indians all the land from the mouth of Roanoke River to Weyanoke Creek. But they did not take possession, and no settlement was made at that time.
In 1654, Francis Yardley, then governor of Virginia, imentioned in a letter that small sloops were employed in visiting the sounds of Carolina, and in hunting and trading for beavers. In that year such a vessel, having left a couple of her crew near Lynnhaven, where Yardley resided, he sent his son and some other men to hunt for the sloop. These visited the ruins of "Sir Walter Raleigh's fort" on Roanoke Island, then in a good state of preservation, and had friendly intercourse with the king of the Roanoke Indians, whom they induced to visit the governor at his home. When the king of Roanoke came to Lynnhaven, he brought with him his wife and one son, and during their sojourn
1653
Bennett and Drew in Car- olina, 1646
C. R., I, 576
Explora- tions, 1654
The king of Roanoke Island
Church of England. he was seeking to lead his flock to new homes, where they could use the prayer book without restraint.
58
BEGINNINGS OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
1654 there they all accepted Christianity and were baptized. Yardley sent six carpenters to Roanoke Island to build an English house for the king, whose son remained at Lynn- haven to be taught to "read out of a book." With the co- operation of this king, an extensive exploration was then made throughout the eastern portion of Carolina, where a Spaniard was found living among the Tuscarora Indians, and a purchase was made from the Indians of the territory drained by three rivers, covering a large scope of country, which probably lay north of Albemarle Sound. There were further explorations, and in 1656 the General Assembly of Virginia commissioned Colonel Thomas Drew and Captain Thomas Francis to make discoveries between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear.
Hening's Statutes
Permanent settlement on the Carolina Sound
But whatever settlement was then in contemplation, it was probably arrested by an outbreak of the Indians, who now began active hostilities on the northern confines of Vir- ginia. In 1656, several fierce tribes, known as the Rechahec- rians, several hundred strong in warriors, established them- selves near the falls of the James, and in a great battle defeated the forces sent against them. But while this dis- aster and the Indian depredations to the northward for a time checked any movement to establish distant plantations in the wilderness, yet when peace was restored and the de- sire to seek new locations again began to be felt, the favor- able situation of the region bordering on the Carolina Sound speedily attracted the attention of the adventurous pioneer. On the south it was protected by the wide sound; on the north and east the Indians were but few and had much intercourse with the whites; on the west were the Tus- caroras, who although a strong and brave nation, were not unfriendly in their disposition. Their hunting grounds that lay southward toward the Neuse had not been encroached upon, while many traders, trafficking in their furs, supplied them freely with those commodities they desired. Distant from the vicinity of the fierce and troublesome tribes of the upper James, the mild climate and fertile soil of the region
1556 The Recha- hecrians
59
THE FIRST PIONEERS
bordering on the landlocked sounds near Nansemond offered many inducements to settlers, and so it came about that in 1659, or thereabouts, the permanent settlement of Carolina began. It was a movement so natural that the particulars are not recorded in the local annals of the time. A few active spirits, perhaps more adventurous than their neighbors, resolved to make new homes in a more attrac- tive locality. It was no great company. perhaps a dozen or twenty men, who may have come from Nansemond through the wilderness, or may have brought their supplies and implements for house building by water from some con- venient point in Virginia. The roll of these companions in the enterprise of establishing "new plantations" to the south- ward has not been preserved, and only incidentally have the names of some of them been recorded. All we know is that they came not as conquerors, writing their names in blood on the scroll of Fame, nor yet were they exiles from the habitations of mankind for conscience' sake. It was a time of peace in Virginia, when the freemen still governed themselves, chose their own officers and made their own laws. It was not oppression that drove these first settlers into the wilderness. They were not discontented with the democratic-republican institutions under which they were living. They were not fleeing from the ills of life, nor plunging into the primeval forest to escape the tyranny of their fellow-men. But they were bold, enterprising, hardy Virginians, nurtured in freedom's ways, who were wooed to this summer land by the advantages of its situation. The movement involved no great change. It was merely a removal of a few miles beyond the outlying districts of Nansemond. with water communication to the marts of trade on the Chesapeake. Nor did they come without the sanction of the Indians, who were to be their neighbors in these "new plantations." They bought their land from the king of the Yeopims with the consent of his people, and their doorsills were not stained with blood, nor were their spirits tortured with apprehensions of butchery. They came in peace and were received as friends by the native inhabitants who sur- rounded them. Among the earliest who were seated were
1650 --
Permanent settlement, 1559
Reasons for settlement
60
BEGINNINGS OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
1661 -
Durant, 1662
John Battle, Dr. Thomas Relfe, Roger Williams and Thomas Jarvis; and with the first who came was George Durant, who, however, did not select a plantation at once, but spent two years in exploring, and bestowed much labor and cost in finding out the country, with its rivers, channels, passages, and conveniences, and then he bought from Kilcocanen, king of Yeopim, with the consent of his people, a tract on Roanoke Sound, upon a point then known as Wikacome, but ever since called Durant's Neck. This conveyance bears date March 1, 1661, but as the English year then began on March 25th, that date may answer to March, 1662. In this deed, Kilcocanen mentions that similar purchases had previ- ously been made by other settlers; and a few months later Durant purchased a second tract from the friendly king of the Yeopims .*
Durant at once began his clearing, and as the location of any previous settlement has not been ascertained, Durant's Neck is the oldest known clearing in Albemarle.
Quickly after the arrival of these first pioneers others were attracted to the "new plantations." Lawson, writing about fifty years later, mentions that "the first settlement was by several substantial planters from Virginia and other planta- tions : and the fame of this newly discovered country spread through the neighboring colonies and in a few years drew a considerable number of families to join them." Among those who followed, buying Indian titles, were George Catchmaid, of Treslick, Gentleman; John Harvey and Captain John Jenkins.
1665
Thomas Woodward, the surveyor-general and a member of the council when the government was first established in Albemarle, writing to the Proprietors on June 2, 1665, refers to the quitrent exacted by them, and says that the people will not "remove from Virginia upon harder conditions than they can live there it being land only that they come for." Woodward also mentions that he had been many years endeavoring and encouraging the people to seat Albe-
*Recorded in Book A, Perquimans County Records.
61
REASONS FOR SETTLEMENT
sirle, and that "those that live upon a place are best able 1665 to judge of the place, therefore the petition of the General C. R., I, 100 Assembly that was here convened will deserve your Honor's serious consideration."
It appears that the people were drawn to Albemarle because of the land, but protested against paying a higher quitrent than was exacted of them in Virginia, and they gave expres- ion to their wishes in a petition of the Assembly at the first session held in Albemarle.
These early purchases were made on the supposition that the lands were beyond the limits of Virginia, and the first settlers probably thought they would be free from the pay- ment of quitrents and other public charges. They believed themselves outside the bounds of the Old Dominion and within the wilds of Carolina. Of Carolina the Common- wealth had taken no notice, but now the Commonwealth itself had passed away, and the change in the mother country inaugurated changed conditions in the forests of the Roanoke.
The House of Commons, that half a century before had emphasized, by the Petition of Right, its unswerving and resolute purpose to maintain constitutional liberty, was the wealthiest body that had ever assembled in England. It fully represented in the purses of its members the property of the kingdom. After varying developments, active hos- tilities subsequently began between the Long Parliament and the king, and in the course of the struggle the army under the control of the Independents came to be the ruling element, Oliver Cromwell, as its general, attaining supreme power. By excluding a large number of the House of Commons ; by abolishing the House of Lords ; by parcelling wait England into satrapies governed absolutely by his major- Kenerals, who systematically levied forced contributions from the inhabitants, and by controlling parliaments at will, Cromwell laid the foundation for a widespread sentiment in favor of a return to the old constitution. In deference to
The Res- toration
62
BEGINNINGS OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
1660
this public demand, he contrived a simulation of the three estates, and he himself became Protector, representing the sovereign ; and in semblance he established a House of Lords, appointing to it nobles of his own creation. But the military influence controlled by the Independents dominated, and the discontent continued to grow in volume and intensity. Property that had opened the struggle with Charles I now cast about for some hope of security, and the Presbyterians equally with the Churchmen were ready to try the Stuarts once more as an escape from the domination of the Inde- pendents. Such were the conditions on Cromwell's death, when his son Richard succeeded to his office, but could not wield his power. The army, recognizing Richard's feeble- ness, fell away from him, and Cromwell's system, losing its military support, tottered to its fall. The end of the pro- tectorate had come. At a call from the army the "bloody rump," which Cromwell had disbanded and suppressed, again met, while cries for a free Parliament rang throughout the kingdom. General Monk, in command of the forces in Scot- land, maintaining an impenetrable silence, twice purged his army of Independent zealots, and marched rapidly to London, where he arrived in February. Under the lead of Ashley Cooper, a man of great wealth and of superior talents, who had espoused the cause of constitutional liberty but had separated himself from Cromwell's government. the majority of the Long Parliament who had been ejected by Pride's Purge, after many years of exclusion, in March, 1660. forced their way back to their seats, and after calling for the election of a new Parliament, adjourned sine die that body which had survived through so many years of turmoil and revolution. The new Parliament, known as the "Convention Parliament," met on the 25th of April. Ashley Cooper hastened with a delegation to Holland to invite Charles to occupy his throne. Monk, still sphinxlike, controlled his fifty thousand red coats -- the uniform of Cromwell's Iron- sides-who, appalled, in gloomy silence submitted to the complete and final overthrow, by their own general, of the
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