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CHAPTER X

CAROLINA AS A PROPRIETARY PROVINCE. THE ALBEMARLE SETTLEMENT, NORTH CAROLINA

While the experiments at Cape Fear and on Ashley river were in progress, another colony was slowly developing on Albemarle sound and Chowan river. Its inhabitants came from Virginia and New England, a few from Bermuda, a few also from various parts of the British Isles. At a later time this colony was strengthened and extended southward to the Pamlico and Neuse rivers by French Protestants, Swiss, and Germans from the Palatinate. But during the period of which we are now speaking its population was English, was chiefly of colonial origin, and numbered only a few hundreds. As occurred elsewhere, especially in the colonies south of the Delaware river, the people of this province established themselves in straggling settlements or detached plantations along the courses of the rivers and sounds. So peaceful was the attitude of the natives during the first generation, that the colonists were not forced to seek protection in compact settlements. They were also kept apart by the deep streams and broad sheets of water which intersected the country from east to west. These streams facilitated travel to and from the coast; but to intercourse and the building of roads along north and south lines, or along east and west lines north of Albemarle sound, they presented almost as serious obstacles as did the forests themselves. The sandy and treacherous coast line proved an hindrance, as in the days of Raleigh, to settlement from Europe.

When the redoubtable James Blair came to the Albemarle country as a missionary, in 1704, he found “mighty inconveniences

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in travelling there.”¹ He stated that the roads were not only “deep and difficult to be found,” but that there were seven great rivers in the country, five of which could not be crossed with the aid of horses alone. Over one of the other two the Quakers had established a ferry, but nobody except themselves was permitted to use it. Along the banks of these streams settlers were then scattered for a distance in each case of twenty miles or more, while the land back from the streams was almost wholly unimproved. Blair declared that he would sooner undertake a journey from England to Holland, than to go from the Albemarle settlements to those on the Pamlico; for the only means of transportation across the upper sound which intervened was a small periagua, while beyond lay a wilderness fifty miles broad. These statements are confirmed by the accounts of other missionaries² who remained longer in the country than did Blair.

The proprietors indeed, as we have seen, treated this part of their province with systematic neglect, and after 1670 their efforts were concentrated on the development of the southern part of their dominion. In a letter of theirs written in 1676 we find it stated that the reason of this neglect was the failure of the inhabitants of Albemarle to settle the region of the Pamlico and Reuse rivers, so that by this means intercourse might have been made possible between the northern and southern parts of the province. The proprietors stated in 1676³ that, because of their failure to do this, they looked upon the settlers of Albemarle as a people that neither understood their own interests nor regarded those of the proprietors. They admit, however, that they had recently learned their mistake, for they had been told that it was not the people, but Governor Carteret and the officials, who were to blame. When attempts had been made to open communication by land with Ashley river and to settle the Neuse country, they had been repressed by these officials with great violence. Some who had settled on the south

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of Albemarle sound had been ordered to return, though to their great inconvenience.

These statements reveal a lack of observation and a perversity of reasoning which is unusual, even for this group of proprietors. Had they lived in the country, as Blair did, they would have perceived the reason why the middle region was not filled with settlers. It could be entered successfully only from the coast, and not from the north or the south. The streams and shoals of Cape Hatteras checked communication by sea, and the forests and broad, deep rivers had a similar influence on land. The failure of the experiment at Cape Fear naturally diverted attention for a long time from the coast at that point. All who cared to settle in Carolina were more satisfactorily provided for in other places. Carteret was in office for only a short period; and had the course of settlement tended strongly toward the middle country, we may be sure that the governors would not have had the desire or the power to stay its progress for any long period. At no time did colonists flow into the Carolinas—especially North Carolina—in a vigorous stream, and the current was not strong enough to break through the natural obstacles. Settlements crept slowly back from the coast, and spread out laterally even more slowly. Both colonies existed largely in isolation till late in the colonial period. The backwardness of North Carolina is to be accounted for in part by its isolation.

The extent to which the board of proprietors neglected Albemarle is indicated by a reference to the idea, which prevailed in that region, that Sir William Berkeley was the only proprietor. It was for this reason, as we shall see, that Thomas Miller was sent to Virginia to be tried for treason. A rumor was also abroad, which this letter was intended to discredit, that the proprietors desired to sell Albemarle. They declared that they intended to keep the province intact, and Albemarle, particularly because of its nearness to Virginia, they believed was a material aid in the peopling of the rest of Carolina.

Though the forms of a proprietary government were kept up and the proprietors expressed themselves as pleased with

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some things that were done, yet there was such lack of system and continuity in their control that a great degree of independence was enjoyed by the colonists. The characteristic features of the proprietary system were to a large extent obscured. Aristocratic elements and tendencies were almost wholly lacking. Such was the weakness of the executive and the lack of developed institutions and traditions, that conditions akin to anarchy sometimes prevailed.

At the outset it was thought that this colony might be organized under two governments, one on the south and the other on the north side of the sound. Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia and one of the proprietors, was empowered to appoint a governor and six councillors for each of these settlements. The proprietors reserved to themselves the appointment of a secretary and surveyors, while the governor and councillors were to appoint all other officers. In the granting of land the officials were to be guided in a general way by the “proposals” of 1663. Understanding that the earlier settlers in the Albemarle region had already purchased large tracts from the Indians, the proprietors, fearing that these might be kept out of the market, instructed Berkeley, if possible, to induce those who held by Indian title to take out patents from the proprietors and to be content with the proportions allotted to others. In the fall of 1664 Berkeley appointed William Drummond, a former resident of Virginia, as governor of the entire settlement. For reasons just stated the colony for a considerable time was confined wholly to the northern shore of the sound. An assembly was held, possibly in 1665, but all of its records have perished.¹ From a later source it is inferred that since the time was near for the payment of quitrents to begin, this assembly petitioned the proprietors that the inhabitants of the county of Albemarle might hold their lands on the same terms as those under which land was held in Virginia.

Drummond, after a governorship of three years, is supposed to have been removed by Berkeley. In the autumn of 1667 the proprietors, acting, it is possible, under the advice of Berkeley, and on suggestions from the colonists, appointed

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Samuel Stephens governor of Albemarle.¹ He was given authority to select a council, and, if the proprietors failed to act, a secretary and surveyor-general, all to serve during the pleasure of the board. The instructions issued to Stephens were the Concessions of 1665, though in 1668 these were partially superseded by the provisions of the Great Deed of Grant relating to land.

That an assembly was held in 1669 is made more probable by the existence of nine acts,² which were confirmed by the proprietors in January, 1670, and which contain references to landgraves and caciques and to the count palatine as the head of the proprietary board. None of these provided for the establishment of offices or courts, or in any way changed the government of the colony. In one of them the court of the governor and council is referred to as in existence; this was to be expected, and it was probably the only judicial body in the little group of settlements. Provision was made in the laws for the collection of thirty pounds of tobacco as a part of the costs of every suit at law, and that this should go for the support of the governor and council. The chief object of the laws was the encouraging of settlement by the temporary exemption of newcomers from the payment of taxes and from prosecution in suits originating outside the colony, and by provisions limiting the size of grants to commoners and requiring the speedy improvement of grants.

When the Fundamental Constitutions were sent over, substantially the same instructions were given to the governor and council of Albemarle as to those of the southern colony. The ten deputies, five appointed and five elected, now became the grand council, while the governor and the five appointed deputies acted as the palatine’s court. The governor and the council were empowered to establish such courts as they saw fit, until the “grand modell” could be put into force; they were also authorized, with the consent of an assembly, to make necessary laws. Albemarle was divided into four precincts, from each of which five delegates were elected, who with the deputies constituted the assembly. We know that an assembly was held in 1672, and another in 1673.³

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The former passed at least fifty-four acts, all of which are lost. Four acts of no great importance, passed by the assembly of 1673, were received by the proprietors in November of that year. The form of enactment was, “by the Pallatine and the rest of the Lords Proprietors by and with the advice and consent of the Grand Assembly.” The name “parliament” was not used.

In 1677 we get the first view of the political and social conditions which existed in the Albemarle settlements. For this we are indebted to the representations¹ made to the proprietors and to the home government by the various parties who were concerned in the so-called Culpepper rebellion. At the time the number of tithables, or working hands between the ages of sixteen and sixty, was about 1400,² of whom one-third were Indians, negroes, and women. Estimated upon this basis, it is supposed that the total population was between 2500 and 3000. About 800,000 pounds of tobacco were annually raised on the plantations of the colony, besides an abundance of cattle and Indian corn. Those were the chief products of a population which was almost wholly agricultural. The tobacco was a valuable article of export, in return for which European goods and materials were obtained. As the nature of the coast prevented large craft from entering, small vessels from New England and Virginia took the tobacco to these colonies, whence it was shipped, in large part at least, direct to the continent, and goods were brought back on the return voyages. New Englanders and many residents of Albemarle, notably Valentine Bird, the collector, and George Durant, the first settler, were interested in this illegal trade. Governor Peter Carteret, who was a relative of the proprietor and had been chosen by the grand council to succeed Stephens, on his return to England was charged by the proprietors with encouraging the New England trade and discouraging settlement south of Albemarle sound. John Jenkins, when Carteret left, as deputy governor continued the same policy,³ and was said to be under the control of Durant.

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Bacon’s rebellion in Virginia had just been suppressed, and with the insurgents in that movement many in Albemarle had sympathized. It may be supposed that some refugees sought protection there against the vindictive measures of Governor Berkeley. But of greater immediate importance was the arrival, about three years before, of John Culpepper, who, because of his “turbulent and factious carriage,” had been forced to leave the Ashley river settlement.¹ Evidence is conclusive that the hold of the proprietors over Albemarle was very weak, and that their attempt to establish a nobility was viewed with the utmost aversion. All restraints upon freedom of trade and attempts to draw a revenue from the province in connection with their enforcement were regarded in the same manner. In general the anarchical tendencies of colonial life find perhaps better illustration in the Albemarle settlements at this time than elsewhere in the British-American colonies. We have a vague report of the forcible displacement of Jenkins, and then of a counter movement supported by military force which dissolved the assembly, dispersed the palatine court, and arbitrarily placed and displaced officers. In this Culpepper shared.²

In November, 1676, in order if possible to restore quiet and check illicit trade, Thomas Eastchurch, a relative of Lord Treasurer Clifford and formerly speaker of the assembly in Albemarle, was appointed as its governor. He was instructed³ to divert the trade of the colony from New England to the mother country. As measures contributory to this he was ordered to establish three port towns and to send to the proprietors an exact statement of the depth of the water at low tide in the inlets along the Albemarle coast, that they might know when and where ships from across the ocean could best load and unload. At the same time Thomas Miller was appointed deputy of the Earl of Shaftesbury, secretary, and collector of the royal customs in Albemarle county. Only a year or two before Miller had been indicted for using foul and seditious language concerning the king, and had been taken to Virginia for trial. There he was acquitted,

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and went thence to England to report the proceedings to the proprietors. Owing to the delay of Eastchurch in the West Indies, Miller was sent on in advance with a commission from the new governor to act as president of the council and commander of the militia. On the strength of this last appointment Miller, as soon as he arrived in the colony, began to exercise the powers¹ of deputy governor.

Miller, who supplanted Bird and Culpepper as collectors, seems at the outset to have been quietly received, and to have been for a time successful in the administration of the customs. He and his deputies seized 817 hogsheads of tobacco, and goods illegally imported to the value of £1242.² But, if we are to believe the statements of the proprietors, he rashly undertook to change the law or practice of elections, to lay heavy fines, and to issue warrants commanding some of the chief men of the colony to be brought before him alive or dead. Reference³ is also made to the raising of a guard of soldiers, which cost the province twenty thousand pounds of tobacco.

The effect of Miller’s conduct was to provoke an uprising, which began on the arrival from Europe, in December, 1677, of Captain Gillam, one of the New England traders, and of George Durant. Miller tried to arrest both these men on charges connected with illegal trading,⁴ but was seized and imprisoned by a body of thirty or forty men in Pasquotank precinct. With him his deputy, Biggs, and several of the proprietors’ officials were also arrested. Hudson, another deputy, was arrested in the lower precinct. Their papers and all the tobacco and money which had been collected by the prisoners were also taken. Culpepper, Bird, Durant, and Crawford were among the leaders of the uprising. A tumultuous demand was raised by some that the authority of the proprietors should be thrown off; this, however, the leaders did not expressly favor.

But, assuming powers of government, Culpepper and his followers called an assembly. Amid tumultuous proceedings at Durant’s house a grand jury was impanelled, which

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under directions from Culpepper found a bill¹ against Miller and his deputies. They were about to proceed to their trial when a proclamation was brought from Governor Eastchurch, who had reached Virginia on his way to Albemarle. The assembly was at once adjourned, and steps were taken to prevent Eastchurch from entering the colony. These were successful, and the governor soon died in Virginia. Miller and his deputies were retained in prison, the insurgents carrying on the government for about one year.

Culpepper during a part or all of that time acted as collector of customs. Biggs, and finally Miller, escaped, and carried their ease to England. Culpepper and Gillam were both arrested there, in consequence of charges by Miller and Biggs, and full inquiry was made into the case both by the proprietors and the English government. Culpepper was tried before the king’s bench for treason, but through the influence of Shaftesbury he was acquitted. The statement which Shaftesbury made to secure his acquittal was a confession of the failure at the time of proprietary government in Albemarle. He said that Culpepper was guilty only of riot, treason being then impossible in Albemarle, for there was no settled government in that colony. The proprietors, though holding that Miller had acted without lawful authority, finally agreed to see to it that, if possible, his losses and those of his deputies were made good, and that they were protected against vexatious suits.² Culpepper was ordered to restore the funds he had seized, but whether or not he obeyed we do not know. Seth Sothell, one of the proprietors, was appointed governor in 1681, but, owing to his capture on the outward voyage by pirates, he did not reach Albemarle till two years later. John Harvey, whom the proprietors had appointed president of the council, and after him Jenkins and Wilkinson, who held appointment for brief terms as governors, were able meanwhile to carry on the government peacefully. An act of oblivion was passed, and neither governors nor collectors were disturbed in the performance of their duties. This all means that the proprietors, such was their weakness and inefficiency, compounded

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with disorder and riot, that they might retain the nominal hold which they had over the northern half of their province.

Respecting Sothell’s administration, which continued from 1683 to 1688, it is impossible to speak with full assurance. Only brief accounts of his character and doings have reached us, and they proceed from his enemies. If the complaints¹ which were made against him were true, he was one of the most corrupt and arbitrary of governors. He was charged with unlawfully imprisoning parties; with detention of them on the false charge that they were pirates; with the unjust seizure of private estates, particularly that of George Durant, which he was said to have converted to his own use without process or color of law; with the refusal to admit a will to probate, and with the acceptance of bribes. It is said that, when Thomas Pollock proposed to go to England to complain of the injustice² which was being done, the governor imprisoned him without showing cause for his act. According to these representations, he used both his judicial and executive powers to their fullest extent for the purpose of plundering the inhabitants of the province. The toleration of such conduct by the colonists for a series of years, if not wholly incredible, may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that Sothell was a proprietor and that he did not interfere with illegal trade. But finally he was seized and preparations made to send him to England for trial. He then begged that his case might be heard by the next general assembly. The prayer was granted, and that body banished him from the colony for a year and decreed that he should never again hold the governorship. Of Sothell’s career in South Carolina—which immediately followed this—we have already spoken. At its close, ignoring the command of the proprietors to return to England and submit to an investigation, he went back to Albemarle, where he spent the two remaining years of his life.

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The career of Sothell, whether all the charges against him be true or not, illustrates the degree to which, under the Fundamental Constitutions, a governor might be independent of the proprietors. Sothell was both proprietor and governor. Though an appointee and agent of the board, as soon as he arrived in the province he was more than that. By virtue of a place in the proprietary board, which he had reached solely through purchase, he outranked the deputies more than governors ordinarily would do. He might well afford for a period to ignore their commands. The colonists could not with safety oppose him, as they might one who was solely an appointee. As usual, the proprietors did nothing that was effective either to enable him to clear his reputation or to bring him to justice if he was guilty.

During the early period of its existence Albemarle was administered by governors and presidents who were independent of those on Ashley river. Not until the appointment of Philip Ludwell in 1691 was the executive power in all the “counties,” or really in the two provinces, united in one. For the preceding two years’ Ludwell had been governor of Albemarle, but of his administration there nothing is known. Under Ludwell and his successors, until 1712, the northern settlements were administered by deputy governors, who, with one exception, were the immediate appointees of the governors resident at Charlestown. At the beginning of that period the two parts of the province began to be known respectively as North and South Carolina. Alexander Lillington and Thomas Harvey were the two deputy governors under Ludwell and Archdale. On the death of Harvey, in 1699, Henderson Walker was president of the council. By virtue of that office he became acting governor, and continued such till his death² in 1704. The appointment of deputies was then resumed, and continued until 1712. Then Colonel Thomas Pollock was elected president, and brought the province to the close of the Tuscarora war. Pollock was again president for a brief time in 1722. But, with that exception, North Carolina had distinct governors of its own ever after 1713.

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The governors of South Carolina, even during the years when they appointed deputies for the northern province, paid little or no attention to its affairs. The proprietors also continued toward Albemarle their policy of systematic neglect, save when internal anarchy compelled brief attention. Occasionally, as in earlier times, they left it without government. The appointees were nearly all colonists. The elected presidents, of course, were such. None, except Archdale, were connected with the families of the proprietors. The proprietors apparently corresponded very little with the governors, and the governors scarcely ever wrote to the proprietors. None except the usual formal instructions were given them by the proprietors.

In Albemarle, as on the Ashley river, the council continued to have an elected element until 1691. Ludwell’s instructions brought it to an end in both provinces. After 1718 the deputies were appointed by joint action of the proprietors, and not by the separate act of each proprietor.¹ Of the council in its legislative capacity we have no distinct records in the proprietary period. The extant records of the executive council begin in 1712.² In its executive capacity the council advised the governor concerning appointments, regulated fees, approved the payment of salaries, ordered the arrest of parties for the non-payment of taxes, ordered out men and supplies for defence, shared in negotiation with the Indians and with neighboring colonies, laid embargoes on the exportation of corn in times of scarcity. The governor and council watched over the interests of the province in general, so far as they received any attention. The council was also very largely occupied with territorial administration. Together with the secretary and the receiver-general, it administered the territorial affairs of the province. Many references to its activity in this direction appear in the records. Many petitions were presented to it for the re-grant of land which had been improved or settled. It declared good all surveys which did not prejudice the rights of the proprietors. It ordered rent rolls made out. The

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question of the form in which quitrents should be paid, repeatedly came before it.

In matters of a quasi-judicial nature the council granted letters of administration and guardianship, committed minors as apprentices, ordered the arrest of parties who were committing serious offences against the security or good order of the province. Sometimes punishment was inflicted on such parties at the command of the council.

The council, like the assembly and the general court, met at various places within the province, their sessions being held in private houses. In this respect the contrast between North and South Carolina is very marked. As it was necessary for the members to travel long distances, attendance was burdensome. Prior to 1718 members of the council appear to have paid their own expenses, but an order was then issued that they should be paid out of the proprietary revenue.¹

Gradually the Albemarle settlements, or Albemarle county in its original sense, expanded into a true province. North of the sound four precincts were formed—Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, and Currituck. After settlement had extended somewhat to the south of Albemarle sound, the proprietors directed that the name Albemarle county should be confined to the region north of that body of water. Governor Archdale was ordered to erect between Albemarle sound and Cape Fear as many counties as the progress of settlement, encouraged by him, would justify. But not until 1705, when Thomas Cary was acting as deputy governor, did he and his council erect the settlements south of the sound into Bath county. This was divided into three precincts, while others were later organized, extending as far south as Cape Fear river. The precincts of North Carolina were, in fact, counties in the ordinary and modern sense of the term, and they came later to be so called.

With the gradual increase of population and its expansion southward, the Quakers assumed an increasing importance among the dissenting sects in North Carolina. Their appearance in the province dates from the missionary journeys of Edmundson and Fox in 1672. They immediately became

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most numerous in Perquimans and Pasquotank precincts.¹ It is stated that by 1700 three monthly meetings had been organized in those precincts. The North Carolina yearly meeting began in the same region and about the same time. But later, especially in the early eighteenth century, the Quakers began to settle toward the south and west. There is no evidence that they took interest in political affairs until John Archdale,² during his term as governor, began introducing them into the council and courts, after which they became successful candidates for election to the assembly. As yet no religious tests or provisions requiring the oath existed in the laws of Carolina, which would exclude Quakers from office. That they would contribute nothing directly to the military strength of the province, was certain, while it was equally certain that they would strengthen the democratic tendencies which it had been theoretically the purpose of the proprietors to hold in check. Especially would they oppose attempts to secure a church establishment or in any way to limit religious freedom. The capacity of the people for passive resistance to unwelcome measures would also be increased. Among the dissenters in the province, in addition to Quakers, were Presbyterians, Lutherans, French Calvinists, and Irish Catholics.

At the time when the political activity of the Quakers was developing, the English Church began to send missionaries into the colony and to perform its religious offices where hitherto they had been totally lacking. During the presidency of Henderson Walker, after considerable effort, the Anglicans secured in 1701 an assembly which passed an act for the establishment of the church in North Carolina. It provided for the laying out of parishes, the building of churches, and the support of ministers by a public levy on all tithables.³ The original act has not been preserved. Active steps were at once taken for the execution of the measure, long before it was submitted to the proprietors or

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received their assent. The dissenters meanwhile were roused to activity by its passage, and prepared to change the majority in the assembly and secure its repeal. But before they had an opportunity to act, the proprietors repealed the measure on the ground that the sum of £30, which was designated in the act as the yearly maintenance of each minister, was too small.¹

On the death of Henderson Walker, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was governor of both the Carolinas, appointed in 1704 as his deputy for the northern province Colonel Robert Daniel. He was already a prominent resident of South Carolina and was an ardent churchman. It is certain that he was personally in favor of the extreme Anglican policy which Johnson, acting under instruction from Lord Granville, forced for a time upon South Carolina. Though the contemporary sources of information are very scanty, it has been maintained with a considerable degree of probability that in 1704² the passage of an act by the North Carolina legislature was procured, which not only provided again for the establishment of the church, but also for a religious test.³ Martin states that the act provided for “a fine on any person holding a place of trust who should neglect to qualify himself by taking the oath required by law.” The act itself, like its predecessor of 1701, has been lost, but it has been supposed that it was substantially a copy of the measure which in the same year raised such a storm in South Carolina. In the northern province the commotion which was occasioned by the act was almost as great.

But the Quakers were directly assailed from another quarter. In the same year (1704) the act of parliament of the first of Anne, which imposed a new oath of allegiance, arrived. It made no express exception in the favor of Quaker office-holders, neither did it mention the dominions. The Quakers refused to take the oath and were removed by Daniel from their offices. A province law was also passed, that no

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one should hold a position of trust without taking the required oaths. The act for the establishment of the church, with that requiring the oaths, together occasioned the so-called Cary’s rebellion. While the disturbance lasted we hear much more of the question of oaths than of the church question. But all the dissenters in the province seem to have been profoundly stirred, which would have scarcely been true if the point at issue had merely been that of the oaths.

John Ash, who was sent by the South Carolinians to England to complain of the passage of the act for the establishment of the church, was compelled to find passage from Virginia, and went thither over land through Albemarle. Edmund Porter was appointed by the dissenters of Albemarle to accompany Ash. Porter, with the help of Archdale, secured from the proprietors an order addressed to Governor Johnson to remove Daniel from the deputy governorship. This he obeyed, and Thomas Cary, who had been collector of quitrents for the proprietors, and who is said to have been concerned in civil troubles in South Carolina, was appointed in his place. Cary was a churchman.

The new governor not only tendered the oaths, but caused an act to be passed which provided that any one who should promote his own election, or sit and act as a member of the assembly, without duly qualifying himself by taking the oath, should be fined £65. So offended were the Quakers at this that in 1706 they sent John Porter to England, who again, with the aid of Archdale, induced the proprietors to suspend Johnson^’s authority in North Carolina, remove Cary, and empower the council of the province to choose a president. Porter, on his return in 1707, called together the Quakers, for a number of whom he had procured deputations from the proprietors, and, in the absence of Cary and the rest of the councillors, chose William Glover president. Glover was a churchman, and, declining to be used as a tool by those who placed him in office, insisted as his predecessors had done that the oath should be taken. Porter now called all the members of the council together, both those who had recently been superseded and those who had not yet been

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sworn, declared Glover’s election illegal, and chose Cary in his place. Against this Glover and Colonel Pollock protested, and in consequence of it the province at once became divided into hostile factions.

Both Glover and his rival now issued writs of election,¹ and it was agreed that the assembly to be chosen should decide which was the rightful president. Of the seven precincts—four in Albemarle county and three in Bath county—five chose Cary members. All the members from Bath, and those from Pasquotank and Perquimans precincts in Albemarle, were his adherents. Moseley, a supporter of Cary, was chosen speaker. On the strength of representations then made by Porter, the assembly voted that the proprietors had disallowed both of the laws requiring the oaths, though the Quaker members later went through a form of declaration. Cary was chosen president by this body, but was not recognized by Glover and his party. In this divided condition, without recognized and legal government, the province remained for two years, 1708 to 1710, and apparently no effort was made by the proprietors or their representatives in South Carolina to pronounce definitely in favor of either party. Though no hostilities of importance seem to have occurred, some of Glover’s leading supporters retired into Virginia rather than live under what they considered an illegal government and amid conditions so unsettled.²

In the summer of 1710 Edward Hyde arrived in North Carolina as the deputy of Governor Tynte of the southern³ province. But the sudden death of the latter had made it impossible for Hyde to procure his commission, and therefore he had to refer for proof of his claims to statements in private letters.⁴ But these were convincing; Glover at once retired in his favor; Governor Spotswood of Virginia recognized him, and most of the wealthier inhabitants of

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North Carolina submitted to his government. Cary did this at first, but later put himself again at the head of a factious opposition. Hyde called a council, opened the courts which had been closed during the recent disturbances, and in the summer of 1711 summoned an assembly. He was thus organizing what proved in the end to be a legal government, but he was forced to wait nearly a year and a half for his commission as governor from the proprietors, and did not take the oaths of office till May,¹ 1712. The assembly, which had been elected under influences favorable to an establishment, passed acts requiring that the oaths should be administered and lawful government maintained. It also provided for the recovery of the rents and fees which Cary had collected and of the deeds of land to the Palatines which were in his possession. All of Cary’s acts were declared illegal and void, and he, with Porter, was ordered to be taken into custody.²

But Hyde was unable either to execute the laws or to bring the prisoners to trial. Cary soon escaped, declared himself president, and prepared with a brigantine and a force of men to attack Hyde. In this move, which was essentially warlike in its character, Cary probably had the assistance of only a few of the Quakers. The governor and his council retired to a place of safety and sent an urgent message to Virginia for aid. Governor Spotswood and his council resolved at first to try mediation. Therefore they sent John Clayton³ with two letters to Cary, the one conciliatory in tone, and the other—to be delivered only in case he should persist in his rebellion—declaring the purpose of the Virginia government to support Hyde. At first Cary expressed his willingness to confer with his opponent and even named a place. But soon after, whether from fear of foul play or not, he changed his mind, and advanced again to attack the governor. Clayton now returned to Virginia bearing a request for armed assistance. Spotswood ordered out the militia of the southern counties and sent a body of marines from a guardship into Carolina. But before they reached

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the Chowan, Cary abandoned forcible resistance and with a few of his associates retired into the Tuscarora country, whence they soon passed into Virginia. There they¹ declared their purpose of going to England to justify their conduct before the proprietors. Spotswood, as soon as he ascertained by examining them that their only desire was a fair trial, hastened their departure, with such information as he could give about the uprising. Sometime later a preliminary complaint was sent over by Hyde and his council, who in the meantime had resumed the unobstructed administration of government.

In November, 1711,² Cary was granted two hearings by the proprietors, and replied in person and in writing to Governor Hyde’s accusations. But the board of proprietors was weaker and more indifferent than it had been at the time of the previous rebellion. The pressure to which it, in connection with all the other colonial proprietors, was being subjected by crown and parliament, reduced the board to impotence in the face of internal disorder. It was content to let disturbances end as they might and with as little offence as possible. Sorrow was expressed that³ Hyde had been compelled to resort to force to uphold his government. He was instructed to have Cary’s accounts with the proprietors audited; also to make all possible reparation to those who had suffered injury. A full account of the disturbances should be submitted, so that, if the queen should require an answer, it might be given in satisfactory form. Beyond this no action seems to have been taken.

With the outbreak of the Tuscarora war, for which the divided state of the province furnished an excellent occasion, civil broils were forgotten in the common effort to save the province from ruin at the hands of the savages. In 1713, soon after the close of the Indian war, Charles Eden was appointed governor, and enjoyed a peaceful and successful administration of eight years. By an assembly in 1715 the laws of the province were revised and for the first time systematically arranged and printed. By one of the acts of that session⁴

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provision was made for the establishment of the church and for the division of the province into parishes. But, as in the law by which in South Carolina the church secured its permanent establishment, all reference to a religious test was omitted. The act was allowed to go into effect and, by virtue of it, during the remainder of the colonial period the confession of the minority of the inhabitants of North Carolina became entitled to legal privileges.

During the session of 1715 and for two or three years thereafter Edward Moseley, supported by certain others who had been sympathizers with Cary, led an opposition to the governor. Moseley was in 1715 speaker of the assembly. A series of resolutions was secretly passed by that body, censuring the government for impressing inhabitants under pretence that it was for the public service, for alleged ill treatment of the Core Indians, and for refusing to accept bills of credit in payment of fees and quitrents. The resolutions were intended for submission to the proprietors, but, if presented, they called forth no action which was favorable to the objects of the petitioners. When, in the following year, their existence became known to the council, it by formal vote condemned them, both on account of their contents and because they had been clandestinely passed. In 1718 Moseley,² because, in conjunction with Maurice Moore, he had seized the journals of the council and other public papers from the house of the deputy secretary, was heavily fined, deprived of his license as an attorney, put under security for good behavior, and declared incapable of holding office for three years. This severe penalty not only closed the career of Moseley as a leader of opposition, but indicated that the province was emerging from its earlier and anarchical conditions, and government within it was assuming a firmer texture. The peace of proprietary North Carolina was not again seriously disturbed.