USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 16
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For this purpose, an election was ordered. In the precinct of Chowan, after the writ of election, issued by president Glover, was read, by Daniel Halsey, the deputy marshal, one Robert Fendall gose, and read a similar writ, is-und by president Carey. The election weut on, and five members were chosen. The votes were counted, and there appeared ninety-four votes for the members chosen, and sixty-five for another ticket. The successful candidates were all friends to president Glover's pretensions. Edward Moseley, the kader of the minority, bitterly complained of unfairness in the election, and made all the confusion he could.
On the Ilth of October, the assembly met at captain Heckelfield's, on Lathe river. Nin. members came from the precinct of Chowan, Give of whom were re- turned by the deputy marshal as chosen by the majority. Robert Fendall returned those, as well as the five chosen by Edward Moseley's party, he being one of them. Of the latter, four only attended; the fifth, thinki 's his election illegal, staid at home.
The house began by ordering these nine men out, and after some debate, called in Edward Moseley's party. be being one of them, and ordered the other five to be forcibly kept ont. They chose Edward Mo-eley speaker, and presented him as such to presi- dent Carey and his council.
The house consisted only of twenty-six members, including the five from Chowan precinct. Out of the twenty-one, eight were Quakers, who knew that presi- dent Glover would not suffer them to take their seats, without taking the oath: six were from the county of Bath, all under the influence of president Carey : two or three, of the remaining seven, were chosen by the
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Quakers of Pasquotank precinct. So that the five members from Currituck precinct could not make any stand: some of them went away.
Then the instrument of writing, or commission from the lords proprietors, which John Porter had brought, was read, and the house came to a resolution, that the act passed during the administration of governor Daniel, laying a fine on any person holding a place of trust or profit, who should neglect to qualify himself, by taking the oath required by law, was by that instrument suspended.
President Carey and president Glover sat in separate rooms, with their respective councils; and Robert Da- niel, as a landgrave, having a right to a seat in the upper house, sat alternately with either council.
President Glover sent a message to the assembly, by one of their body, informing them, that to settle the government, and to put the queen's laws into execution, it was necessary that the gentlemen returned should choose a speaker, qualify themselves according to law, and the house should purge itself of all unduly elected and unqualified members; for a reference had been made to the general assembly, not to any number of persons, met without authority. He observed, that. it was contrary to all law and reason, and in a very great degree derogatory to the queen's prerogative, and be- traying the trust reposed by the crown in the lords proprietors, to submit the administration of the govern- ment to any number of men, howsoever chosen and delegated, even by the unanimous voice of all the inha- bitants of the province, unless they should previously acknowledge their allegiance, which both the common law and statute required should be done by oath; a for-
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mality which the queen had imposed, and the lords proprietors could not dispense with : for in doing other- wise, the government could be surrendered to the dis- posal of persons who were traitors to the queen, or . maintained the rights of the pretended prince of Wales.
To such an assembly, he said, he would undertake to prove, 1. That be was the lawful president of the queen's. council, and that the execution of the lords proprietors' commission belonged to him, and to no other person : 2. That Thomas Carey was not president, nor had been lawfully invested, or possessed, with any power of go- vernment, since his departure to South Carolina : 3. That, although the powers of government should be extinct in him (Glover) by death, or the command of the lords proprietors, Thomas Carey was not qualified to be elected to the office of president.
He added, that if the gentlemen now met assumed to themselves the arbitrary power of proceeding in any other manner, he, as president of the council, and com- mander in chief, charged and commanded all civil and military officers, and all the queen's loving subjects, to forbear aiding or assisting them, in the execution of such arbitrary powers.
He concluded, that as the assembly had rendered themselves incapable of deciding on the matter that was to have been submitted to them, he protested against all they had done, and would do, against him, or any act of his administration: and, because Thomas Carey had publicly threatened, surreptitiously, without any form of law, to take his life, and that of others who had assisted him in keeping the peace ; he appealed to the queen, in her court, at Westminster, and offered himself as her prisoner, to be sent in chains, if the matter required it.
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to the governor general of Carolina, in Charleston, and thence to England : provided, that Thomas Carey and John Porter, who had been the chief causes of the un- happy troubles that had distracted the country, should bind themselves, with sureties, to prosecute him there.
The message was returned to president Glover, by the member by whom he had sent it, who informed him he was instructed to say that the house should not concern themselves therein.
The Quakers would show themselves singular, coming to the table with their hats on, laying their hands on the book, repeating the words of the oath, using the word declare instead of the word swear, and then having their explanation of the sense or meaning in which they took it entered underneath, they subscribed, with- out kissing the book, and declared they took it in that sense, and no other.
The society for the propagation of the gospel in fo- reign parts, lately established in England, sent over this year the reverend Mr. Adams, and the reverend Mr. Gordon, to whom they allowed handsome salaries. The former took charge of the two eastern precincts, Currituck and Pasquotank; the other had under his pastoral care the two eastern ones, Perquimans and Chowan. The act for building three churches, passed under the administration of governor Daniel, had been partially carried into execution. Two churches had been built : the one in the precinct of Chowan was so small, and so inartificially put together, that the inhabi - tants talked already of building another. A better one had already been built in the precinct of Perquimans ; both, however, were very small. The people in the precinct of Chowan were very ignorant; few of them
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could read, and fewer, even among the better sort, could write; yet, most of them were serious and weil inclined, and ready to embrace, both in public aud in private, all opportunities of being instructed. The precinct of- Perquimans, was chiefly inhabited by Quakers, and Mr. Gordon complained, that his flock in that part of the di- vision, was ignorant and loose in their morals, and unconcerned in religion.
Mr. Adams gave a better account of his parishioners in the precinct of Pasquotank. In their way of living, he observed they had much the advantage of the rest of the colony, being much more industrious and careful, and above all, were to be commended for their order, seriousness and decency, during worship. The roads in their precinct, were worse than in the western ones ; but it was more thickly settled: it contained thirteen hundred souls, nine hundred of whom, professed them- selves members of the Church of England. The pas- tor considered this precinct as the principal branch of his division, and made it chictly his residence. Curri. tuck, the other precinct, including the Sound Banks, and a portion of the shore on the south side of Albe- marle sound, was the least pleasant part of his district: it contained eight hundred and thirty-nine souls. The weather was damp and cold in winter, and the mos- chetos rendered the country extremely unpleasant, in summer.
The clergymen landed, with the belief that they should meet with great discouragement in their mission, and entered on the execution of its duties with great resolu- tion, and received great countenance, from most of the persons, in the administration of that kind of govern- ment, which existed in the country.
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In the following year a considerable number of French Huguenots, who had emigrated to Virginia, on the repeal of the edict of Nantz, by Louis XIV., had settled near the Manakin towns, on James river, and came over, headed by Phillipe de Richebourg, a clergyman of their profession ; a number of them began a settlement on Trent river, near the spot, on which a toll bridge was afterwards built on that stream ; the rest removed to South Carolina, and formed an establishment on Santee river, which was afterwards made a parish, by the name of St. James.
Parliament this year, passed a statute, (6 Anne, c. 30,) for enforcing the due execution of the procla- mation of the queen, of the 18th of June, 1704, to regulate the currency of foreign coin, in the several colonies and plantations in America.
Carey, as receiver of the quit rents, having neglect- ed to settle his accounts, the proprietors, by an instru- ment of writing, which they sent by John Porter, one of their deputies, removed him from office, and ordered him to come over and give an account of his conduct; which he refused to do, and continued his opposition te the colonial government.
The depredations of the French in the palatinate, com- pelled the inhabitants to desert their country. Twelve thousand of them, in the most forlorn condition, sought refuge in London. The queen, for some time, sup. ported them out of the privy purse. She was after- wards helped by the benevolence of her subjects, and twenty thousand pounds were subscribed and paid into the treasury of the city, for the relief of these fugitives, who were finally disposed of as colonists, in Ireland and
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North America. Several of them came to Carolina, and Edward Tynte, who had succeeded Sir Nathaniel John- ston in the government of the province, was directed to grant land to them, in the county of Bath, the population of which was, as yet, very thin.
Christophe , Baron de Gra ifenreidr, a Swiss nobleman from the Canton of Bern, was at this time in England, with a considerable number of his countrymen, desirous of migrating to America.
The lords proprietors, considering that the value of their estate, in the province of Carolina, depended on its pop- ulation, offered encouragement to the palatines and Swiss, in order to induce them to remove to Carolina. Ships were provided, and orders were given for the transportation of those, who offered to go and settle on the lords proprietors' lands.
The baron was created a land grave. Louis Mitchell, one of the principal characters among the Swiss, had ten thousand acres of land allotted to him, on the rivers Neuse and Cape Fear, or any of their branches, at the rate of ten pounds sterling for every one thousand acres, and five shillings of quit rent. One hundred thousand acres were reserved for him, at the same price, provided they were taken within seven years. One hundred acres were given to every man, woman and child, free from quit rent for ten years.
This was a valuable acquisition to the northern part of the province. Besides a great number of palatines, fifteen hundred Swiss followed the baron. They set- tled chiefly on Neuse and Trent rivers; and for their accommodation, Thomas Pollock laid off a tract of land, at the confluence of Trent and Neuse, for a town, which in compliment to the leader of the Swiss, he called New Y. CARO. 30
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Bern; the city of Bern, in Switzerland, being the place of nativity of this nobleman.
The absence of a regular government, in North Car. olina, now gave rise to great feuds and distraction; the partisans of presiden: Glover, irritated by the persecu- tions they experienced from president Carey, sought a temporary refuge in the neighboring province of Virginia.
The missionaries complained, that these commotions retarded the progress of the gospel, and even encouraged the ridicule of its ordinances. They, however. perse- vered in their work, in the hope that the feuds might subside. Their expectations were disappointed, and Mr. Gordon despairing of being any longer useful, em- barked for Europe, carrying letters from the principal inhabitants of the precincts of Chow in and Pasquotank, stating that he had discharged his functions with great fidelity among them, and indefatigably employed his time in promoting the interest of religion, in the colony.
In the month of October, Graaffenreidt and Mitchell, contracted with the commissioners appointed by the queen, for the relief and protection of the palatines, to transport to North Carolina, a greater number of them. These persons received, each, twenty shillings in clothes, and five pounds ten shillings, were paid for their trans- portation and comfortable settlement ; they were com- posed of ninety-two families, and Graaffenreidt and Mitchell agreed to allow two hundred and fifty acres to each family, to be divided among them by lot, free from rent for five years, and afterwards, at the rate of one half per cent. Carolina money.
Provisions were allowed them for one year, payable at the end of the year.
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Two cows and calves, a sow and pigs, two ewes and lambs, with a male of each kind, to each family, the value whereof was payable in seven years, with one half of the stock then remaining; tools and implements, for felling wood and building houses gratis.
In the month of December, these palatines arrived 'at the confluence of Trent and Neuse rivers, where they began a settlement, near that of the former.
The Rev. Mr. Adams, though much dejected at the departure of his colleague, resolved to make further efforts ; but the public distract on, could not be com- proed. The parties grew more and more embittered against each other; and, though he behaved with un- bounded moderation and unwearied zed, in his pastoral functions, he was compelled, wearied by the hardships he met wit", to abandon the hope of doing any good, and determined to return to England, in 1710. His congregation bore testimony to his good conduct, and assured his employers, he had waded through every difficulty, under the vigilant eye of his most malicious enemy, without having been charged with any thing unbecoming a minister of Christ. As he was prepar- ing to embark he feil sick and died.
In the month of August, Edward Hyde, who had been chosen to govern the northern part of the province, arrived, with instructions to governor Tynte, to com- mission him as nis deputy. He found the governor dead: this circumstance left him without power, as he had no testimonial of his authority, except unoffi- cial letters, from some of the lords proprietors to their deputies, but he was so successful in his endeavors to conciliate both parties, and the inhabitants were so anxious for some settled form of legal government, that
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all the lords proprietors' deputies, without even the ex- ception of Thomas Carey, solicited him to assume the supreme command, as president and commander in chief, until his commission as governor should arrive, He was, accordingly, appointed and sworn as such.
The adherents of president Glover received him with sincere, and those of president Carey with apparent, cor- diality. The planters, who had sought a shelter from the political storm, in Virginia, now returned to their estates, and one of them high in antaority, io a congra- tulatory letter to the governor, on his arrival, hoped " that he would settle the religion, laws, and liberty of the province, on such a sure foundation, that they might not be trodden again by the Quakers, Atheists, Deists, and other evil disposed persons."
During the confusion, the white people were suffered to fall on the Indians, to redress their real, or pretended, wrongs, which was attended with direful consequences: for, although they succeeded by such means against one tribe, there were others that took the alarm, when they found that the English broke their faith with the Indians. Every act of violence was not attended with like suc- cess, and the next was made accountable for the want of success of the former. Hostilities began in the month of December. Some of the Meherrin Indians, fell on the most distant settlement, on Chewan river, and killed two or three individuals. It was a misfor- tune that the whites had been allowed to settle on land contiguous to the Indians. This ought to have been prevented, even when not objected to by the natives, on account of the difficulty of preserving a good under- standing, between them and the whites, while they lived so near.
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This summer, some galleys were sent to protect the coasts of Virginia and Carolina, which proved a great relief to. those two colonies, laboring under daily alarms and terrible apprehensions, and discouraged by the fre- quent insults and depredations of the privateers of the enemy, and, often, vexed to stand the helpless specta- tors of their own losses.
In the winter, the Indians began their irruptions anew. " They," says a letter of a gentlemen in office, of the 25th of December, " daily gather strength, and have again besieged a party of inhabitants, in a small fort they had hastily thrown up for their protection. The distractions, among the white people, gave the Indians all the facility they could wish for destroying us. The late assembly appears to have resolved to sacrifice their country to their private resentments, and because they could not introduce into the government, the persons most obnoxious in the late rebellion and civil war, they will make no provision for defending any part of the country, and are now dissolved without doing any business "?
Tranquility was now restored, and continued to pre- vail, till an election of representatives to the first assem- bly, under the new administration, took place. Carey's party having been unsuccessful, he protested against the legality of the authority, under which the election had been holden.
At the meeting of the legislature, a law was passed for securing his person, and that of some of his accom. plices. Provision was made, for compelling him to account for the moneys he had received during his administration.
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These acts are not extant at this day; but colonel Spotswood, then governor of Virginia, in a' communica- tion to lord Darmouth, secretary of state, observed, "they were too severe to be justified; and, indeed, showed more the resentment of the makers, for the inju- ries they had received, than their prudence in healing the distractions of the country."
On the adoption of these measures, Thomas Carey left his seat at the council board, and, repairing to the precinct of his residence, collected a party of armed men, at the head of whom, he bid defiance to the chief magis- trate and the legislature. He fortified his house, en- trenched it, and raised a battery, on which he placed some cannon. His success, in these measures of de- fence, emboldened him to act in the offensive. He caused himself to be proclaimed president and comman- der in chief, and by proclamation established a court of justice; and fitted out a brig, furnished him by a leading Quaker, armed it with six guns, and with her and a barca longa, filled with fusiliers, he sallied forth, and came to an anchor with his naval force, near a plantation, to which governor Hyde and his council had removed. On the appearance of this armament, an express was despatched to governor Spotswood, of Virginia, for as- sistance. The council of that province advised the go- vernor to offer his mediation to both parties, and to en- deavor to induce governor Hyde to procure a suspen- sion of the acts passed against Thomas Carey, and the latter to suffer the administration of the government to proceed undisturbed, till the pleasure of the lords proprietors was known.
Governor Spotswood immediately despatched a man, well qualified for moderating the resentment of the par-
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ties, with letters to governor Hyde and Thomas Carey. This mediator was well received, by governor Hyde and his council, who declared, that, for the peace of the country, they were ready to yield their assent to any terms that could, with justice and honor, be proposed. Thomas Carey made the same proposition; but an interview having taken place between the contending parties, on the suggestion of the mediator, he treicher- ously attempted, though without success, to secure the governor and his council, and make them prisoners. Enraged at his failure, he warned the mediator to return to Virginia ; and avowed his determination, not to treat otherwise than with his arms.
A few days after, though the conduct of Thomas Carey was sufficient to show what little faith ought to be given to any treaty with him, or his party, the medi- ator went to him and urged him to declare what his de- mands were, and prevailed, with difficulty, upon him, to furnish a specification of them. At length, Carey produced a paper containing his proposals, of which he very unwillingly allowed a copy to be taken, which he refused to subscribe. These, with a very trifling alteration, were acceded to by governor Hyde and his council ; but Carey still persisted in withdrawing from the terms of accommodation, and the mediator returned to Virginia.
Thomas Carey now increased his naval force, hoisted his flag at the topmast head of his brig, and came within gun shot of the house, within which, the governor and council sat. An express was again despatched to Vir- ginia, to solicit some assistance of men and arms. The queen's council for that province, considering how diffi- cult it was to foresee how far a party of such desperate
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men, should they meet with success in their first at. tempt on the government of Carolina, might carry their disorganizing arms ; that the rebellion, excited a few years before, by general Bacon, had at first a much less dangerous appearance ; that the insurgents would pro. bably endeavor to seduce their negroes, some of those, in the frontier counties, having been already carried away, to be employed on board of the armed vessel, ad- vised governor Spotswood to raise the militia of the southern counties of Virginia, and send them to the re- lief of governor Hyde ; and application was made to the commander of the king's ships, in Virginia, for some boats to go round and attack Carey's shipping. Before any relief could be sent, Carey attempted the landing of some of his men, under the fire of bis brig; but they were repulsed by the militia of the neighborhood, which governor Hyde had time to collect. They returned on board, and their chief sought a safe retreat in the stamps of Tar river, where he raised his standard, and endeavored to bring the Tuscarora Indians into an alli- ance. For this purpose, he despatched to them Edward Porter, one of his council who endeavored, by promises of great rewards, to induce them to cut off all the inhabi- tants of that part of the province, who adhered to gover- nor Hyde. This was acceded to by some of the young warriors ; but when the matter was debated in council, the old men dissuaded them from listening to Porter.
Governor Spotswood, in a letter to lord Darmouth, complained of the reluctance he found in the inhabitants of the counties of his government bordering on Car- olina, to march to the relief of governor Hyde. These counties were chiefly settled by Quakers, and he imputed their backwardness to the religions precepts of their sect,
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especially, seeing that their brethern in Carolina were Carey's main allies, who, not only formerly, acted as his council, and openly supplied him with provisions, and. an armed brig, but also took upon themselves military titles in the civil war.
Thomas Carey now retired to the house of one Roach, in Pamplico, which he fortified. This man had lately joined Carey, and was the supercargo of a ship just arrived from London, and he supplied the insur- gents with trading guns and ammunition from her cargo.
In the month of July, Carcy went to Virginia, where governor Spotswood caused him to be apprehended, in order to make him give security for his good behaviour. While under examination, Carey prevaricated so much, that governor Spotswood shipped him off, on board of a man of war, bound to London.
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