North Carolina booklet : great events in North Carolina history

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Vol. VII. APRIL, 1908
13he
No. 4
NortrK Carolina Dooklef:
GREAT EVENTS
IN
NORTH CAROLINA
HISTORY
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
BY
THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY
DAUGHTERS oFthe REVOLUTION
CONTENTS
Page
St. James's Churchyard (A Poem) - - - - 245
By Mrs. Lula Clark Marlcham
The Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry - - 248
By James C. MacRae
The Expedition Against the Row Galley, "General Arnold"
—A Side-light on Colonial Edenton - - - 267
By Rev. Robert Brent Drane, D.D.
The Quakers of Perquimans - - - - - 278
By Julia S. While
An Early Peace Society in North Carolina - - 290
By Marshall DeLancey Haywood
Biographical auid Geneological Memoranda - - 30
1
By Mrs. E. E. Moffitt
Abstracts of Wills Previous to 1 760 - - - 310
By Mrs. H. DeB. Wills
SINGLE NUMBERS 35 CENTS $1.00 THE YEAR
t
^
W>
KNTEEKD IN THK POST-OFFICK AT RALEIGH, N. (.. AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER.
'.i
The North Carolina Booklet.
Great Events in North Carolina History,
The Booklet will be issued quarterly by the North Carolina Society
Daughters of the Revolution, beginning July, 1908. Each Booklet will
contain three articles and will be published in July, October, January,
and April. Price, $1.00 per year, 35 cents for single copy.
Editors :
Miss Maby Hilliard Hinton. Mrs. E. E. Moffitt.
VOLUME VIII.
1. John Hai-vey Mr. B. D. W. Connor.
2. An Early North Carolina Peace Movement, 1819-1823.
Mr. Marshall DeLancey Hayioood.
3. The Historical Movement in North Carolina.
4. North Carolina Women of the Revolution Dr. Richard Dillard.
5. Battle of Kings Mountain Dr. William K. Boyd.
6. Convention of 1835 Judge Henry G. Connor.
7. General Thomas Person Dr. J. G. de Boulhac Hamilton.
8. Schools and Education in Colonial Times, Dr. Charles Lee Smith.
9. Reprint of Reverend George Micklejohn's Sermon before Tryon's
Army—May, 1771.
10. General Jethro Sumner Dr. Kemp P. Battle.
11. Historic Duels of North Carolina Mr. F. M. Harper.
12.' Our Colonial Historians: Hakluyt, Lawson, Brickie, Williamson
jB*. Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, D.D.
The Booklet wiU contain short biographical sketches of the writers
who have contributed to this publication, by Mrs. E. E. Moffitt.
The Booklet will print abstracts of wills prior to 1760, as sources of
biography, history and genealogy, by Mrs. Helen DeB. Wills.
Parties who wish to renew their subscriptions to The Booklet for
Vol. VIII, are requested to give notice at once.
Address
MISS MARY HILLIARD HINTON,
"Midway Plantation,"
Raleigh, N. C.
\,
V^ol. VII. APRIL, 1908. No. 4
'Bhe
OHTH GflROIilNfl BoOKliET
Published by
THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY
DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION
The object of the Booklet is to aid in developing and preserving
North Carolina History. The proceeds arising from its publication will
be devoted to patriotic purposes. Editors.
[VI
*'' Carolina! Carolina! Heaven'' s blessings attend her
!
^
While we live we will cherish, protect and defend her." "v
O
ADVISORY BOARD OF THE NORTH CAROLINA
BOOKLET.
Mrs. Spier Whitaker. Mrs. T. K. Brunee.
Professor D. H. Hill. Mr. R. D. W. Connor.
Mr. W. J. Peele. Dr. E. W. Sikes.
Professor E. P. Moses. Dr. PaciiARo Dillard.
Dr. Kemp P. Battle. Mr. James Spkunt.
Mr. Marshall DeLancey Haywood. Judge Walter Clark.
EDITORS:
Miss Mary Milliard Hinton, Mrs. E E. Moffitt.
OFFICERS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY
DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION,
1906-1908.
REGENT
:
Mrs. E. E. MOFFITT.
VICE-REGENT
:
Mrs. WALTER CLAEK.
HONORARY REGENT:
Mrs. spier WHITAKER.
RECORDING SECRETARY:
Miss LOUISE PITTINGER.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY:
Mrs. W. H. PACE.
TREASURER:
Mrs. frank SHERWOOD.
REGISTRAR
:
Miss MARY MILLIARD MINTON.
GENEALOGIST
:
Mrs. HELEN De BERNIERE WILLS.
Founder of the North Carolina Society and Regent 1896-1902:
Mrs. spier WHITAIiER.
regent 1902:
Mrs. D. H. HILL, Sr.*
regent 1902-1906:
Mrs. THOMAS K. BRUNER.
*Dled December 12, 1904.
THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Vol. VII APRIL, 1908 No. 4
SAINT JAMES'S CHURCHYARD.
BY MES. LUI.A CLAKK MAEKHAM.
A bit of ancient England dropped adown
Amid these alien streets,
Where 'neath the soft, blue. Southern sky, there beats
The throbbing life-tide of the crude J^ew World; ^
The old gray church keeps guard, o'erblown p
By winds of many winters ; here have been unfurled ^
The sunset banners of an hundred years
;
^
On these old, leveled, grass-grown graves the tears fc
Were dried a long, long century ago. ^:
ti-
^^
u
With stately step and slow, t-j
O'er the smooth velvet of this grassy aisle, . U
Perchance the proud Cornwallis walked, the while
Pondering his lofty dreams of power and fame
And thinking of the waters, vast and gray, ^
Which stretched their stormy leagues between Ig;
This untamed land and his loved island, fair and green;
It may be that a grim
Foreboding came of sore defeat and shame
To cloud his haughty l}row, an augury
Of dire disaster Avaiting him
At Yorktown far away.
Past these gray walls the Eedcoats marched one day
With measured step and glittering swords aglow.
Unwitting that for them the end was nigh
Of weary warfare ; that they marched to meet
In one last test their scorned, provincial foe.
To lay their proud swords at those ragged feet.
246 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
And here to-day one lies
Wrapped in bis garb of glory for a sbroud.
Tbe careless, bubble-seeking crowd
Goes idly by, and recks not that tbe eyes
Here closed in sleep once flasbed witb ardor bright
To lead the blind young nation to the light
:
The lofty brow that long has turned to dust
Wrought in its fervid brain the daring dream
Of liberty triumphant in a proud, august,
Great nation born of great souls like his own.
He w^as the White Knight of undimmed renown
;
Patriot, soldier, statesman, not a gleam
Of wealth or fame allured him, and he swerved
'Not from his chosen path although it led
Through sacrifice and loss, through doubt and dread.
Content if but his country's cause were served.
We can not tell to wdiat far distant stars
His bark of life was steered so long ago ; .
On what high embassies he has been sent, what holy wars
For truth and right aw^aited him ; we know
That here each flower, each crystal drop of dew
Is a wdiite message from the heart of him.
Each buoyant breeze that sweeps in from the sea
Is whispering of his golden dreams come true.
Each radiant star that lights the evening's blue
Forever keeps his name from growing dim.
And while yon marble finger silently
Points to the heaven which claimed him for its own,
While one leal. Southern heart holds on its throne
The love of country and of right,
The fearless scorn of tyrrany and might,
Cornelius Harnett lives and can not die.
SAINT JxiMES^S CHURCHTxYRD. 247
And so, year after year, till ages have gone by.
These ancient graves will wait the mighty word,
When with his trumpet blast, the Angel of the Lord,
With one foot on the sea and one upon the shore.
Proclaims "Time was, time is, but time shall be no more!"
And those who sleep below so tranquilly
Through their hushed hearts will feel the thrill of birth
Which wakes to find new heavens and new earth.
THE FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT
INFANTRY COMPANY.
BY JAMES c. Macrae,
(Dean of Law School, University of North Carolina.)
"He that hath, no stomach for this tight let him depart."
The last decade of the Eighteenth Century was a time of
trouble and perplexity to the young Republic which had so
recently achieved its independence and taken place among
the ]S[ations.
Indeed, from the peace of 1783 to the defeat of Packen-ham,
some thirty years later, the permanent existence of the
United States was an unsolved problem. Threatened on the
one side by the ill-concealed enmity of its former sovereign,
and urged, on the other, by the officious efforts of its former
friend and ally to embroil it in foreign wars. With no stand-ing
army, a long and unprotected coast line, and a small,
though gallant, naval armament, its hope and reliance was
upon its citizen soldiery.
ISTorth Carolina was, at the end of the century, one of the
strongest States in the Union, with all the elements of future
prosperity. It had no cities nor large towns in its borders,
but it had a populati<.ui filled with the spirit of liberty. It
was in those early days when the life of the Republic seemed
threatened with foreign wars that the town of Fayetteville
on the twenty-third of August, 1798, called its young men
together to organize a volunteer military company.
Robert Adam, a young Scotch merchant, was elected Cap-tain,
John Winslow, Lieutenant, and Robert Cochran, En-sign.
These were leading citizens of Fayetteville in their
day, and up to the present time their successors have been
the worthiest representatives of their community.
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 249
This sketch is largely made from an address delivered on
the occasion of the Centennial of the Company, with such
addenda as may embrace some reference to the very impor-tant
public services rendered by the Company since the close
of its first century. A history of the organization would
require much larger space than has been allotted to this pa-per,
but the archives of the command contain full records
and rosters, and one may find in several instances five genera-tions
of Fayetteville men upon its rolls.
The characteristic of this organization from its inception
may be summed up in the word, duty. Its leaders and pro-moters
were men of intelligence and position.
It was not formed for the simple purpose of giving grace
to holiday pageants, but for the defense of the people in
their rights and liberties.
It realized the true conception of a citizen soldiery ; for
its members were citizens as well as soldiers.
The same spirit which induced them to submit to discip-line,
that they might become efficient soldiers, led them also
to take up the responsibilities incident to citizenship, without
the bearing of which there can be no real enjoyment of the
benefits of good government.
So, they were the upholders of law and order, and in times
of agitation were ever ready to preserve the peace.
The strength and value of a military organization in a
community, under the direction of cool and intrepid men
(for with any other leaders they become a firebrand and a
source of anxiety and of danger), can only be fully appre-ciated
by those whose business it has been to execute the laws.
In times of excitement, when there is danger of some out-break
of popular violence, the advantage of an organized body
of disciplined men, under proper officers, to be called out in
the last resort, is simply incalculable.
The community whose foremost men constitute such a
body is comparatively safe from intestine trouble.
250 THE NORTH CAEOLIISrA BOOKLET.
The machinery of the civil law is ordinarily all-sufficient
in itself.
A very large majority of the people are obedient to law, and
it is an easy matter, when public sentiment is rightly direct-ed,
to administer the same for the welfare of all concerned.
But men, taken collectively, are sometimes, like the indi-vidual,
overborne by passion ; and while under its impulse
they may break down the barriers which ages of exertion and
sacrifice have built up around their liberties.
It is on occasions of such temporary bursts of lawlessness
which are liable to occur in human society that it becomes
necessary, under our system, to call in the citizen soldiers
to assist the civil arm.
The great efficiency of the State Guard of jSTorth Carolina
to-day is attested by the fact that it is so seldom necessary to
bring them into actual aid of the civil authority.
So potent is their influence that the bare knowledge that
such an organization is in existence and ready for action at
a moment's warning, is sufficient in general to prevent any
serious outbreak. Such has been the happy case of this
community for all these hundred years.
For most of this period there have been other military
coinpanies here just as good and just as true, wdiich, in the
mutations of time, have risen and flourished and passed away,
but this old company has lived through every change.
With the exception of those occasions when it was absent
in active service, and when, in the overpowering calamity
which fell upon us all, we were deprived of our arms, it has
ever been the bulwark of these people's safety and the nucleus
around which they might rally for defence.
It was organized in those unsettled times when the States
of the American Union, having just emerged from the seven
years struggle for freedom, each found itself face to face
with the great problems of government which, pending the
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTKY. 251
conflict, had been held in abeyance ; political feeling ran
high ; the spirit of peace had not yet calmed the passions of
the recent combatants ; and it seemed that the new and scarce
formed nation was about to face as enemies those who had
been its recent friends and allies. The first apparent neces-sity
was the establishment of an armed militia for protection
against all foes, both foreign and domestic.
It was then, before the laws which were soon after passed
for its organization, that this company was bronght into ex-istence.
And on July 23, 1807, when a second war with England
was imminent and the President had warned the militia to
be in readiness for an emergency, this company tendered him
its services in the following resolution which was commnni-cated
to the President
:
Eesolved unanimously, That we very much admire, and highly ap-prove
of the dignified, manly and independent sentiments contained in
the proclamation of the President of the United States: and having
observed that he has ordered the raising of 100,000 militia, to hold
themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warning, and it is his
pleasure to accept Volunteers to compose a part thereof.
Resolved unanimously. That the Fayetteville Independent Light Infan-try
Company, officers and soldiers voluntarily tender their services, with
this declaration that although as citizens, they highly appreciate the
blessings of peace, yet, as citizen soldiers, they are ever ready to avenge
an insult offered to their country by any nation whatever, and pledge
themselves to be ready, whenever called upon, for the defense of such
measures as may be adopted by the Government.
In acknowledgment of this tender Mr. Jefferson, nnder
his own hand, wrote as follows
:
To Captain John McMillan and the
Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Cotnpany:
The oft'er of your services in support of the rights of your country
merits the highest praise. And whenever the moment arrives in which
these rights nuist appeal to the public arm for support, the spirit from
which your offer flows, that which animates our nation, will be their
sufficient safeguard.
Ly
252 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
To the legislature wil be rendered a faithful account of the events
which have so justly excited the sensibilities of our country, of the
measures taken to obtain reparation and of their result ; and to their
wisdom will belong the course to be ultimately pursued.
In the meantime it is our duty to pursue that prescribed by the
existing laws, toward which should your services be requisite, this offer
of them wil be remembered.
I tender for your country the thanks you so justly deserve.
Thomas Jefferson.
Washia'gtox, July 31, 1807.
In 1813, wlien the enemy threatened to make a landing
on onr coast, it promptly marched to AVilmington, and there
was the special bodyguard of Governor Hawkins, the Com-mander-
in-Chief of the North Carolina forces. Upon the
conclnsion of its tonr of service it was relieved from dnty in
the following commnnication
:
To Lieutenant Wm. Barry Grove.
Sis:—I am commanded by his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief
of the state of, North Carolina, to express through you to the officers
and privates of your company, the very high approbation which they
merit, and which they have met with, for their prompt and soldier-like
march to one of the vulnerable points of our state when it was in-vaded.
And to his Excellency it is a high gratification that all com-posing
your company have done all that could be expected from officers
and soldiers. Stimulated by this laudable example, it is confidently
hoped the militia of the state of North Carolina will derive much
benefit.
On your arrival in the town of Fayetteville you will dismiss from
duty the members composing your company. I am, with much regard,
Your obedient servant, F. N. W. Burton, Aid.
In 1825, it attended LaFayette npon his visit to Fayette-ville,
the name of this town having been changed in 1784
from Cross Creek to honor the distinguished soldier who had
done so mnch to achieve for ns our liberty.
In 1846, when i^Torth Carolina was called upon to send a
regiment to Mexico, while it was, of course, impracticable
that this company, composed as it was of the leading business
and professional men of the town should go on foreign ser-
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 253
vice, it sent out a noncommissioned officer, Sergeant W. E.
Kirkpatrick, to take command of the Cumberland Company,
F, of the North Carolina Regiment, as its Captain, advanced
him to the same rank in its own company, and at the close of
the Mexican war received him with distinguished honors.
In those peaceful days which followed, it continued to be
the pride and glory of the town, ready in every emergency
;
foremost on every festive occasion—making casual visits to
its brother commands in other towns, and keeping up its
own esprit dii corps by a generous rivalry with the other com-panies
of the town.
On the 15th of April, 1861, after the Confederate States
had been formed by the resumption of the sovereignty of the
State of South Carolina and those to the south of her, Presi-dent
Lincoln issued his proclamation calling upon the States
for 75,000 trooj)s ''to put down these combinations," and this
was the declaration which brought about the war between the
States.
Immediately upon the publication in Fayetteville of this
proclamation, on the 17th day of April, the Independent
Company unanimously tendered itself to the Governor of
North Carolina to serve in opposition to the coercion policy
of the Federal Government of which North Carolina was still
a part.
Its tender was accepted, and its first service, in conjunc-tion
wnth the other companies of the town and county, was
the taking possession of the United States Arsenal at Fayette-ville,
where it remained as guard until May 7, w^hen, being
relieved, it went into camp on Harrington Hill, and on the
morning of the 9th of May, 108 strong it went to Raleigh,
whither it had been preceded by the LaFayette Light Infan-tr\%
a magnificent company, with which it was at once em-bodied
into the First Regiment of North Carolina Volun-teers;
and on the 20th of Mav, 1861, when the ordinance of
254 THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
secession was adopted by the people of North Carolina in
convention at Raleigh, it was already tasting the never-to-be-forgotten
hospitality of the people of Richmond in camp at
Howard's Grove in that famous city.
Though it had offered itself for ten years or the war, it
had been mustered in for six months. It served its term on
the Peninsula ; its regiment, having taken a leading part in
the engagement at Big Bethel, received the name of the Bethel
Regiment, which was retained by its successor, the 11th
ISTorth Carolina Troops.
Upon the return of the company home at the end of six
months, while its organization was retained, its members,
many of them having been fitted for command by their ser-vice
in the ranks, became officers in other companies and
regiments and on the general staff".
Many entered the ranks of other commands and there illus-trated
the effect of the fine discipline to which they had been
subjected under the tutelage of their old Regimental Com-mander,
D. H. Hill.
A remnant remained at home and kept up the organiza-tion.
Too few to form a separate company in the field, they
performed a tour of duty at and near Fort Fisher, as part
of the Clarendon Guards. For a few years after the close
of the war they were not permitted to bear arms, but they
kept their organization, meeting each year upon their anni-sary
for that purpose. It was not long, however, before the
federal troops were withdrawn, and the days of reconstruc-tion
were over, and at once they were re-ecpiipped and armed.
In 1876 this company with its distinguished guests to-day,
the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, S. C, was
part of the Centennial Legion, and assisted in the opening of
the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and before its
return visited Boston by special invitation, where its officers
and men were treated with marked consideration.
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 255
For some years it constituted the first company of the
Second Regiment of the State Guard and attended the annual
encampments, but upon the adoption by the Guard of a dis-tinctive
uniform for all its members, this company having
been allowed by special legislation to select its own uniform
and preferring to retain that which it wears to-day, became
by order of the Commander-in-Chief, the late Governor
Fowle, an unattached company of the Xorth Carolina Troops.
State of North Carolina, General Headquarters,
Adjutant-General's Office,
Raleigh, May 3, 1890.
General Order No. 6.
Company A, Second Regiment North Carolina State Guard, is allowed
to withdraw from the State Guard and is restored to its former status
as an independent Company, to be designated as the Fayetteville Light
Infantry Company, under the Act of the General Assembly of 1819. It
Avill be subject only to orders from the Commander-in-Chief.
It will retain the arms and equipment now in its possession, but the
overcoats heretofore issued to it whilst a member of the State Guard
will be returned to Col. F. A. Olds, Quartermaster General, who, upon
receipt of the same will deliver to said Companj^ the bond executed by
said Company for said overcoats.
By order of the Commander-in-Chief.
James D. Glenn,
Adjutant-General.
Recently it became again a company of the State Guard,
and the question has arisen as to its right to wear the Con-federate
gTay and is still unsettled.
Xo wonder, then, that with its record of long and faithful
service, this ancient and honorable corps has become well
known in ]Srorth Carolina and beyond its borders. ISTo won-der
that it has been the recipient of marks of special regard
from time to time at the hands of the Legislature.
In 1819 a joint resolution was passed by the General Assem-bly
giving to its commanders the rank of Major and to its
Lieutenants that of Captain "so long as the corps shall con-tinue
to hold itself armed and equipped agreeably to the tenor
256 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
of its rules and regulations." As I had occasion to say in an
address to this company on its 81st anniversary, in the
year 1859 an act was passed to encourage this company, by
the terms of which its officers and men were exemj)ted from
the performance of jury duty; but this favor was unani-mously
declined upon the g-round that its duty as soldiers
did not and ought not to relieve its members from any of the
duties incident to citizenship.
Thus was evinced the high spirit of the corps and the de-votion
of its members to the performance of duty.
Could I recount to j^ou the pleasant traditions and some
of the peculiar customs pertaining to this company it might
afford you some amusement, but they are already perpetuated
in successive addresses which have been delivered on the for-mer
anniversaries.
Some day, and it is to be hoped at no great distance, your
historian will gather them into a book and hand them down
the line, that those who come after you may, like you, par-take
of the spirit of the fathers.
The last public act performed by this company was a few
weeks ago in Raleigh, when it followed the remains of the
great man who had been the President of the Confederate
States, as they passed to their place at Hollywood, testifying
the respect of its members for his memory, and seeking par-ticipation
in whatever may be awarded of praise or blame
to him who was the embodiment of all that was left of their
common cause.
If by any strange mischance the career of this company
was closed with its century of service, what an honorable end
it would have reached before giving up its arms and passing
into history, that its last act should have been to follow the
bier of Jefferson Davis as it bore him to his eternal rest.
Organized, as this company was, a few years after the
adoption of the Constitution of the United States by the
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 257
State Convention assembled in this town, of the circum-stances
of which adoption, the fierce and bitter contest, the
thorough discussion, and the guarantees of personal freedom
and State autonomy required before final action, we have
all been made quite familiar by the recent celebration in this
place of its centennial, and the splendid oration there pro-nounced
by Senator M. W. Eansom, and the impromptu
speech of great merit by Senator Vance, the officers and men
were thoroughly imbued with the first principles of loyalty
to the State, which was its sovereign, except as to certain
powers and jurisdictions for special purposes granted to the
general government. They have ever been true to these tra-ditions,
and, recognizing certain changes tending to strength-en
and perpetuate the union of sovereign States brought about
by the submission of the question in dispute to the ultimate
arbitrament of arms, they are, as ever, true and steadfast in
their devotion to North Carolina and the Constitutional
Union of which she now forms an independent and inde-structible
part.
ISTo call has ever been made by the State authorities which
this company has not obeyed with alacrity.
Distinguished among, and not above, its comrade com-panies
by reason of its great age and repeated services ; the
last public relic of the hallowed past, except the venerable
University which is its senior in years but is perennial in its
strength and in the renewal of its youth ; surviving the old
Constitution, the best ever made for a free people ; surviving
the old judiciary system and the executive and legislative de-partments,
for they all gave place in 1868 to the new ideas
and forms of government begotten of the last revolution, it
ought to have some mark by which it may be known among
its fellows.
It might, under the special laws which govern it, have
chosen to be recognized by the old uniform of blue and buff
258 THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
which it wore for many years. But when it came to take
up its arms again after an enforced suspension, it was thought
it might be well to cling to that garb which typified its great-est
service to the commonwealth ; it was thought that it might
serv^e to teach the coming generations to revere the memory
of the fathers who wore the gray; to know that there rests
no stain of treason upon those who, clad in the Confederate
colors, lost all but honor on the field of battle.
It was thought that it might further illustrate for those
who shall see it march wherever duty calls in future years,
that they who took the parole of honor to bear faitliful alle-giance
to the United States were none the worse for the
struggle they had made to comiDass the freedom of the State
;
that their patriotism was in no way weakened, and that the
old comjDany could be as instant in discharge of duty to con-stituted
authority in this year of grace, 1893, as they were in
the days of '61 ; that it might serve to bind to the grand
future of a united and prosperous nation in the 20th Century
the traditions of the no less glorious Confederacy, when the
gray-clad soldier marched with Robert Lee and rode in the
column where Wade Hampton led.
And so, at the sacrifice of much that was pleasant and com-panionable
and profitable, this company, in no spirit of in-subordination,
but simply in the exercise of a discretion
granted years ago by those who made the laws which govern
us, has chosen to retain the gray uniform as an object lesson
in the teaching of those things which will serve to lead en-thusiastic
youth to honor virtue and heroism, whether its
reward is victory, or its issue death.
We arc honored by the presence at our festival of comrades
from Virginia and South Carolina whose splendid companies
vie with ours in age and which, like ours, have renewed their
youth and yet preserved the traditions of the early days of
the Republic.
e
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 259
Each of them, like our own, has been the pride of its State
and the honor of its community. Hj
We have already welcomed them to the freedom of the 3
city. We thank them for the soldierly distinction with which HJ
they have come to join us in the celebration of our natal day. *~*
The Richmond Light Infantry Blues celebrated its centen- hi
nial in May ; it shares with us the honor of having tendered F^
its services to the President in 1807, and taken part in the ^
war of 1812, and its record in the late war has covered it with ^
glory. And in this connection there is a tender episode in ^
its history which binds it fast in our affections. It was in ^
a gallant defense of the soil of our own State at Roanoke Is- ^
land on the 9th day of February, 1862, that its peerless ^
3'oung commander fell pierced with the messenger of death. ^
His last words made the battle cry of the command until SSli
the scene closed upon the remnant left at Appomattox
:
"Fight on, fight on, keep cool."
Of all the lifeblood poured out for years on Southern soil
there was none that welled from kuightlier heart than that
of Jennings Wise.
Our kindred and friends, the Washington Light Infantry,
from the sister Carolina, have come to us from the citadel of
liberty, the city <fi Charleston.
They, too, have traced their lineage from those early days
of our country's history, have added to the glory of South
Carolina in all her struggles for constitutional freedom, and
we are bound to them by all the ties of a common cause and a
common fate. Their record in the war of 1812 and that be-tween
the States was worthy of the reputation of their State
and city.
To add to the interest of the occasion, they bear with them
the crimson flag of the Cowpens and of Eutaw, the banner
under which Virginia and the twin Carolinas rushed to vic-
9
260 THE KOETH CAKOLINA BOOKLET.
tory. Long may this sacred standard remain in the keeping
of the brave and gallant men who hold it now.
May the friendships formed between the two commands
in 1876 ripen now into more intimate knowledge of each
other as distance has been so shortened by the new lines of
communication between Charleston and our town,
]^othing could have been more appropriate than the partici-pation
of these representatives of our neighbor States in the
celebration of our centennial.
When each of these commands was formed there was a
fresh memory of the heroic campaigns of 1780-81, when the
patriot troops of Virginia and the Carolinas dealt the blow
to FergTison at Kings Mountain, which turned the tide that
had overborne the State of South Carolina and was intended
to crush out liberty in North Carolina and Virginia. With
the Maryland Line and Washington's Light Horse they
gained a victory at the Cowpens, under Morgan.
And after Cornwallis had been forced at Guilford to turn
his course to the sea and abandon his idea of conquest, again
they struck at Eutaw such a blow as resulted in the retreat
of the invader to the coast, and the virtual redemption of
South Carolina.
In all these desperate encounters the men of the three
States stood together and the Maryland Line, the Delaware
Contingent (the blue hen's chickens) and the Georgia troops.
Light Horse Harry Lee and Swamp Fox Marion and Sum-ter,
and old Ben Cleveland and Shelby and Graham and
Campbell and Washington raised such a storm as swept the
land of the invader and drove Cornwallis to his fate at
Yorktown.
How fitting it is that we should meet here on common
ground and recount the exploits of the fathers, keep alive
their grand traditions and resolve that we shall ever stand
together, in war and in peace, as soldiers and as citizens.
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTKY. 261
The founders of this company have long since gone to
their rest.
Fifty years ago there was a day of brave rejoicing. An
address was delivered by Ed. Lee Winslow, Esq., an old
member of the company which was in itself a complete his-tory
of its first half century.
In 1850 on this day you were addressed by Hon. Robert
Strange who had been the Major Commandant, a Senator
and a Judge. His elegant oration has been printed with
Mr. Winslow's and is preserved in the archives.
In 1873, a distinguished South Carolinian, though a na-tive
of Fayetteville, Hon. W. S. Mullins, came to join with
us in the celebration of the eightieth anniversary and address
his former comrades.
Time fails me to call over the list of the honored officers
and members of this corps who have passed away.
God rest them in the land of Peace.
It is easier to speak of the olden times, the first years of
the organization, because we never knew the actors in those
stirring scenes, they were already in the halls of history when
we were born.
But when we come to read the names of those who, in
the vigor of manhood, took part in tlie festivities of the semi-centennial,
or when we recall the names of those who have
since been its members and have gone, we are brought into
the visible presence of our fathers and our brethren and the
ground is hallowed where we stand in the show of our own
memories.
It was an established custom in the olden time that on the
1st of May the company should appear in garments of immac-ulate
white and act as escort of the fair young Queen of the
May to the scene of her coronation, and for that day of all
the year its fealty belonged to her majesty alone.
In later times, for one day in the year, it is under the
orders of the Ladies' Memorial Association in the celebration
262 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
of the solemn rites which they have instituted over the graves
of the Confederate dead.
And for the small service it has rendered her she returns
a tenfold devotion. No sacrifice has been too great for her
to make in the past for the benefit of this company. Its
silken banners are always the workmanship of her fair hands.
Its festive board is garnished with her exquisite taste.
But how can I recount the many tokens of her favor ? She
is here to-day in all her loveliness to grace the festival. If
I could express a wish that would include all good to the
members of this old company it should be that each one shall
be truly worthy of the tender love of one of these fair women.
For the members of the Veteran Corps and those of the
dispersed abroad, who are here to join in this most interest-ing
occasion, we have the heartiest welcome. They will re-joice
to see that at the entrance of the old company upon its
second century it has laid the foundations of an elegant ar-mory,
under whose temporary roof we assemble to-day, and
wdiich it expects from time to time to enlarge and beautify
and embellish until it shall be in itself a history of the corps.
God speed the young men in this undertaking. May they
realize that there is something of responsibility in taking up
the escutcheon which bears the insignia of the F. I. L, I.
upon it.
" He that hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart."
May they live and flourish and uphold the ancient reputa-tion
of the Corps and hand it down the iSTew Century with
undimned lustre and renown.
So passed into history the first century of the existence of
this command and the years rolled quickly on.
The controversy concerning the right of the Company to
select and wear its own uniform under the resolution of 1819
was revived and became sharp and decisive.
An order from Governor Carr to the Company in 1893 had
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTKY. 263
required the return of the arms and other public property in
its possession and had dropped the Company from the State
Guard for failure to parade for inspection dressed in the regu-lation
uniform, although it had been expressly invited by a
former administration to resume its place in the State Guard
as an unattached company subject to orders direct from the
Commander-in-Chief. The order was resented by the Com-pany
and itself set right in a long correspondence and after
a long- report by a committee of leading members of the Com-pany
to whom it was referred. This report is spread at
length upon the records and reserves forever as a complete
vindication of the action of the command under rather trying
circumstances.
But the order of the Governor was promptly obeyed, the
arms and other property of the State returned, and the Com-pany
as promptly armed and accoutred itself and tendered its
services to the Governor as an independent volunteer organi-zation
of the North Carolina Militia under the law of 1819.
Then came a time of great festivity. The Company was
immensely popular, especially with the ladies, on account of
its distinctive uniform.
In May, 1894, it had the post of honor on the occasion of
the unveiling of the Confederate Monument on Capitol
Square in Raleigh, and was treated with distinguished consid-eration.
In the month of January, 1898, there was a great mid-winter
fair under its auspices in Fayetteville, which was at-tended
by several of the visiting military companies, and
there seemed to be for the community and for the country at
large an era of lasting peace and prosperity.
The large and convenient armory was completed, the arch-ives
were kept therein, and the walls were adorned with tho
beautiful banners it had borne in its various service, and with
the portraits of its worthy members and commanders.
264 THE NOKTII CAROLINA BOOKLET.
To appropriate the words of one of its most devoted mem-bers
and sons, the late Col. John D. Cameron, of Asheville
:
The organization was formed of the best blood of Fayetteville ; it was
the pride of the sons to succeed the fathers, and such has been religiously
observed. Service in such a company has always been esteemed an
honor; and, for nearly a century, joining the Independent Company has
been almost an essential to the young man of Fayetteville, as a formal
declaration of manhood, as the assumption of the toga virilis hy the
youth of Rome.
Lawyers, physicians, merchants, mechanics, all have taken their turn
in the ranks, and in their turn have succeeded to command; the course
of promotion is uniform and inflexible; the lowest corporal, if he serves
long enough, will in time rise to the rank of INIajor, but can only do
so when those above him have passed through the same course by the
rise and withdrawal of those who have attained the highest rank.
By this time the old town, itself scarred all over by fires of
war, had begun to look up again ; the old landmarks were
being removed by the march of progress.
"Camp Adam" on Haymount, named for its first com-mander,
where the beautiful May festivals used to be held,
is now ceasing to be a memory. And the old shooting ground
on Cross Creek where, after the target firing on the 23rd of
August, the long tables groaned with the weight of the feast,
and the shady grove resounded with eloquent periods, as the
rippling waters made cool the summer air, and the "Forest-ers
Spring" afforded purest beverage, either straight or
mixed, according to the taste of the drinker. And historic
"Cool Spring" higher up the creek where on wdiose banks
for a century the company was accustomed to halt for re-freshments
and fire its memorial volley over the grave of old
Isaac Hammond, the colored fifer, whose last wish it was to
be laid where he might hear the music of the fife and the
drum ; are not all these things written in the rich chronicles of
the old Independent Company ?
Even now some of the quaint customs of the grandfathers
are preserved. The young member of this company, be it
FAYETTEVILLE INDEPENDENT LIGHT INFANTRY. 265
officer or man, who takes unto himself a wife, must sure as
fate meet the ordeal for every new-made benedict in the rank
and file, a free ride around the company, thrice repeated, on
the arms of his comrades at the next regular muster.
But the new century, so full of peaceful promise, had not
gone far before in the clear sky rang out the call to arms, and
of course the reveille sounded at the armory, and the citizen
soldiers without a moment's hesitation took up their duty
and responded to the summons, and young husbands and
fathers and younger boys, whose furthest thoughts on yes-terday
had been of battles, were putting on their armor and
off to the wars as their fathers had gone before them.
It was an easy matter now to settle the question of uni-forms.
This comp'any was mustcn-ed into service of the
United States as company A, Second Regiment, N. C. Volun-teers
for the Spanish war.
Perhaps because of its being unattached to one of the regi-ments
of the State Guard, or by some other strange mis-chance,
its natural place at the head of the first regiment v/as
filled by others, but it was supposed that ISTorth Carolina's
two regiments, so promptly tendered and accepted would
have been among the first at the front.
The first regiment reached Havana, and the second, de-layed
by the work of preparation on the part of the govern-ment,
was held in Raleigh for some weeks and then distribu-ted
along the coast awaiting transportation, when by reason of
the total destruction of the Spanish ISTavy and the overpower-ing
rush of the first American troops who reached the field,
the war was brought to a sudden determination. And soon
the men were at home again engaged in their ordinary avoca-tions.
The organization is kept up ; the company is now a
part of the State Guard of North Carolina and a beautiful
arrangement has been made, well-pleasing to all concerned.
There is a battalion, the Gray and the Blue.
266 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
For all special occasions the company musters in the colors
of the I^orth Carolina State Guard, whatever it may be, blue
now, but soon to be turned into some invisible khaki color,
possibly gray.
But when the anniversary comes, or Washington's or Lee's
birthday, or the first of May, then it is the Gray Company,
the old Independent, its commander a major, and all its lieu-tenants
captains.
The armory has been disposed of to the United States, its
site is to be occupied by a public building; a newer and a
finer armory will soon be provided and the progressive city of
Fayetteville will take as much pride in the future of this
ancient and honorable corps as the fathers and mothers did in
the old company, whose history, like a golden thread, runs
through the annals of the municipality and of the State.
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ROW GALLEY
"GENERAL ARNOLD"—A SIDE LIGHT ON
COLONIAL EDENTON.
BY REVEREND ROBERT BRENT DRANE, D.D.,
(Rector of St. Paul's Church, Edenton, N. C.)
A><
111 the year 1781, the American colonies were yet in the
life and death struggle for political freedom from England
and the southern portion of them was the scene of many im-portant
actions. The incident herein treated is not given in
the histories, but the fact and its importance to the Edentoni-ans
are witnessed to in "The Life and Correspondence of ^
James Iredell," and in certain papers of Josiali Collins, Esq.,
heretofore unpublished.
Writing in that vear to James Iredell, Samuel Johnston, A?
"
. . . S
says: "All Europe have their eyes on America, and particu- ^',
larly the Southern States. Much will depend on our exer-tions
and success. The great and sudden fall of the old con-tinental
money has occasioned very great convulsions and dis-satisfaction
in this city and has reduced all paper currency
to a very doubtful state, very many refusing to have any-thing
to do with it." And again, "We shall suffer much in
this campaign, it will be very bloody, but I hope it will be the
last. * * * ^ly hopes and expectations of a favorable
issue to our troubles are very sanguine."
Such was the spirit of the leading men of Edenton in the
face of the invasion of their region by Cornwallis, both by
land and water.
In those days and for long afterward the port of Edenton
was much more important than we of today know it, since the
development of Norfolk and the railroads has given trade
greater facilities than through our shallow sounds. As the
''Port of Roanoke" Edenton was entered by many vessels of
^
KA
268 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
the foreign trade, and this suggested to the British invader
an avenue of distress to the Americans, which they entered.
At the time above indicated and for the cause here speci-fied,
many Edentonians sought safety in flight across the
sound, particularly to Bei'tie County ; and AVindsor was
crowded with fugitives, especially w^omen and children, who
seem to have made the best of the situation. Familiar letters
of those days anticipate for us the scenes of Refugee Life in
our "Sixties." Good humour and old fashioned hospitality
prevailed. NeV'S from the front was continually conveyed
by the gentlemen in person, passing and repassing, and
through the letters sent by "'expresses," or messengers, to
their loved ones and their business correspondents. *
Under date of 2Sth May, 1781, Charles Johnson writing
from Edenton to James Iredell gives some particulars relative
to one of the most formidable of the British predatory boats
in Albemarle Sound, the Row Galley ''General Arnold." t
-I *Tlie following subscription paper illustrates this aspect of the life
;. of that day:
. "We, the subscribers, being willing and desirous of establishing a
4 Post between this Town [Edenton] and that of Suffolk, in Virginia,
^'^ for the purpose of receiving the earliest News and Intelligence in the
Present Critical times, do agree to pay the several sums affixed against
our Respective Names, the same to be paid into the hands of Robt.
Smith, Esq., for the purpose of Employing a Eider once a fortnight.
i,i^ Given under our hands this 6th of May, 1775."
Signed for five shillings each by J. Charlton, John Pearson, Charles
Bondfield, Arch'd Corrie, George Gray, S. Dickinson, Thos. Benbury,
Wm. Hoskins, Roger Pye, Wm. Boyd, Wm. Littlejohn, Geo. Russell,
Arch'd Campbell, Jno. Green, Jno. Horniblow, Chas. .Johnson, Robt.
Patterson (K. Williams?):
and for ten shillings each bj' Jos. Blount, Thos. Jones, Rob. Smith,
Michael Payne, Quintin Miller, Jos. Montford, Andw. Little, James
Blount, Jas. Iredell, Sam'l Johnston.
t In J. E,. B. Hathaway's Hisfl. and Gen'l. Register, Vol. 3, No. 2,
page 299, it is made probable that the infamous Benedict Arnold visited
Edenton in 1774.
A SIDE LIGHT ON COLONIAL, EDENTON. 269
"We last night returned from a cruise, unfortunately not
having taken the galley, our principal object; but as we were
so ha2)py as to retake Mr. Smith's schooner, in which his
whole property was embarked, it gives, as you may conceive,
every person concerned in the expedition the most heartfelt
satisfaction. Ten of her hands [the Galley's] were taken by
about the same number of ours in j\Ir. Johnston's canoe, after
a smart fire on both sides, in which, however, nobody was
wounded. We pushed them so close that they were obliged
to set fire to Mr. LittleJohn's schooner and, under favor of the
night, made their escape. We are now fully employed in fit-ting
out three or four armed boats to go in pursuit, Nelson's
brig proving improper for the service, as the Galley can
always get in shoal water, where a large vessel can not follow
her. If she does not immediately leave the sound, or is not
reinforced, which the prisoners seem to expect, I have not the
least doubt of our people taking her. The inhabitants, in
general, and sailors have, and do, turn out unanimously. I
never sav/, nor could hope to see, so much public spirit, per-sonal
courage and intrepid resolution—it would please you to
see it. I am convinced that was the measure adopted of fit-ting
out one or two armed vessels, we might laugh at all at-tempts
of the enemies' plundering banditti.
"I feel for Mrs. Dawson's exposed and unprotected situa-tion.
I'm apprehensive this is but a prelude to what we
must expect upon return of the enemies' boats from the plun-der
of James Kiver, but thanks to Providence for the forma-tion
of our natural fortifications, which will hinder their
small craft being supported by their large ships."
Robert Smith, owner of schooner above happily retaken, a
considerable merchant of Edenton, w^riting to Iredell from
Eden House, in Bertie County, says : "I am just going over
to town to know the worst. They have o-iven me a pretty
little switching, but it might have been worse; they have
270 THE NORTH Cx^ROLIiVA BOOKLET.
ruined poor Littlejohn and would have left me nothing had
thev not have taken fright. * * * j apprehend this visit
is only a prelude to many such we are to expect."
Another glimpse of the situation is seen from Mrs. Blair's
letter to Iredell: "I think it Avill be very wrong for my
sister to stay below any longer, for though these boats come
up to cut out vessels, it is, T think, more than probable they
will call at plantations, and those in particular where they
see good houses, for there they will expect rich plunder. I
believe they seldom want information where the most is to be
had. I should think it would be better for Mrs. T3awson also
to get out of the way, if it was only on account of the con-tinual
dread and uneasiness she will continue to be under."
Judge Iredell, writing to his wife, under date Edenton,
30th May, 1781, adds something: ''The boats went yester-day,
four of them, under the respective commands of Captain
Gale, Captain Bateman, Captain Addison, and Captain
Finch, all together having about fifty men, or perhaps more.
They are Mr. Johnston's canoe, Mr. Pollok's, the Caswell's
barge, and Bonitz's boat, and each, I believe, has a swivel,
besides muskets. The men are well chosen, and went with
excellent spirits, without any kind of riot or disorder. The
Galley, when the last account came, was in the marshes. Two
other boats were to go from Perquimans, and two, it was ex-pected,
would be fitted out by the Bankers below.* * * *
Mr. Smith has lost several of his papers, though not the most
valuable, his table and other linen and clothes, and vei*y near
seven hhds. of rum.
Littlejohn has lost little, I am told, except his schooner.
Two of his negroes are returned."
While such was the agitation in and a1x)ut Edenton and
Mrs. Johnston's friends were advising her to vacate "Hayes,"
the family seat, just out of town, to follow her friends to
Bertie County for safety, her husband, Samuel Johnston, in
A SIDE LIGHT ON COLONIAL EDENTON. 271
attendance on the sessions of the Continental Congress at
Philadelphia (whence we heard from him, in the opening of
this paper) wrote his friend James Iredell: "I am sorry
people were in such haste to remove themselves and property
from Edenton. I rather conld have wished they had thought
of defending it, which would have been attended wath less risk
and expense, in my opinion, for till the concpiest of Virginia
is effected, which I Hatter myself will not speedily take place,
I scarcely think you will be molested wdth any considerable
invasion, and if the plundering parties meet with opposition
they will grow sick of the business.
''However, every one will, and has a right to, judge for him-self
on these occasions.'"^ * * Should a few fortunate
events cast up in our favor, I hope there Avill be no more of it
after this summer,—if otherwise, God knows where it will
end, for America con never submit."
The above quotations from letters and the documents to
follow, (now printed for the first time) show us something of
the people,—who they were and how they felt, and what they
did ; that they were not disposed to be "like dumb driven cat-tle."
There is an absence of heroics which saves the situation
from being comical ; in view of the one row cjalley of the
British, a shallow draught boat, which might have been
floated in the barrels and hogsheads of rum listed as captured
by her and as provided for sustaining the courage of the
various crew^s of sloop, galley, and dispatch boat fitted out
against her. We may suppose that the lack of information
concerning her whereabouts and purposes tended to exaggerate
the gravity of the situation. For, since the days of Taci-tus,
"omne ignofum pro magnifico."
At any rate the Edentonians were not going to take any
chances on a duel-like encounter with the "General Arnold.''
They believed in "team play," and they did not scorn the sug-gestion
of auxiliaries from Perquimans, nor even from the
2Y2 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
distant Bankers whose familiarity with the shoal waters of
Currituck and Eoanoke should well qualify them to cope with
a row galley which affected the marshes.
Fifty-nine men, leading citizens, subscribed £74,500, or
$186,250 in their accounts. Lest they should seem to us ex-travagant
in their preparations to give the enemy's row galley
a proper reception, let us recall the expense which our govern-ment
has just now incurred for the war-vessel, North Caro-lina,
$7,000,000, in much better money, too.
The following are transcribed from papers in the hand-v/
riting, mostly, of Josiah Collins. There are many interest-ing
autograph signatures
:
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ROW GALLEY, GENERAL ARNOLD.
Where as the Navigation of this state will be rendered dangerous
unless a stop is put to the depredation of the Enemy by the capture
of their Galley now in Albemarle Sound
—
For the encouragement of those who are willing to turn out for the
purpose, we the subscribers in behalf of themselves and the State in
general, which will doubtless reimburse them for all sums they may
Advance for a measure of such publick utility, do promise and engage
that should they be so fortunate as to make prize of the galley called
the General Arnold or any other of the enemies' armed Vessels, the
whole of such Vessel or Vessels shall be divided in Just propportions
amongst them, and shou'd they retake any Vessels made prize of by the
enemy they shall be entitled to the whole of such part as the Law
allows in such cases, without any deduction whatever on account of the
Boats or Vessels they gain, which Boats or Vessels shall not be entitled
to draw any part of such prizes
—
It is further agreed that shou'd any person receive A Wound that
may disable him shall be entitled to receive three shares over and
above as aforesaid and shou'd any person be so unfortunate as to lose
his life, his wife and family (if he have any) shall receive four shares,
over and above, as aforesaid.
The subscribers promise and agree to the sum of One Hund'd pounds
per day for each man who shall engage in this enterprise untill such
time as the Cruise is finished, besides being sufficiently provid'd for in
provision. Rum, &c., &c.
A SIDE LIGHT ON C0L02\IAL EDEIN'TON. 273
1. Thos. Benbury. 28. Geo. Gray.
2. Janie3 Neilson. 29. John Blackburn as for as
3. Robt. Hardy. £1,000.
4. Nath'l. Allen. 30. Stephen Cabarrus.
5. Chas. Johnson. 31. Wm. Bonitz.
6 Mich 1. Payne. 32. William Gumming.
7. Wm. Littlejohn. 33. Alex'r. Black.
8. Joseph Smith. Xehemiah Bateman.
9. S. Dickinson. 34. Jas. Whedbee as far as £1,000.
10. Sam'l Cooley. 35. Gavin Hamilton.
11. Josiah Collins. 36. Wm. Scott.
12. Areh'd. Bell. 37. Jno. Horniblow.
13. Jos. Blount. 38. J. Mare.
14. Wm. Bennett. 39. John Etheridge.
15. Nath'l Allen for Robt. Smith. 40. Pamburse.
16. Wm. Boyd. "
41. Enoch Sawyer.
17. Will'm Skinner. 42. David Meredith.
18. T. Barker. 43. Thos. Ming, £1,000.
19. Chas. Pettigrew. 44. John Bennett.
Jas. Lutin. 45. James Webb, junr.
20. Wm. Savage. 46. Ditto for Willis Langley.
21. B'n. Bryor. 47. Joseph Underbill.
22. Ed. Blount. 48. Samuel Black.
23. Wm. McDonald. 49. Chris'r. Clark.
24. Henry O'Neil. 50. Nich's. Long.
25. Wm. Roberts. . 52. David Lawrence.
W"m. Gardner. 53. Michael" Levy.
26. Robt. Egan. 54. John Baptist Beasley.
Thos. Bonner. 55. John Anderson.
27. Fine & Scott.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS ON THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ROW GALLEY,
GENERAL ARNOLD.
1. Thomas Barker, W. B £1,500
2. Thomas Benbury, pd. J. C. & B 1,500
3. James Nelson, pd. W. B 1,500
4. NathT Allen, pd. J. C 1,500
5. William Sawj^er, J. B 1,500
6. Genl. Skinner, W. B 1,500
7. Robert Smith, pd. J. C 1,500
8. John Horniblow, pd. J. C 1,000
9. Joseph Underbill, pd. J. C 1,000
10. John Baptist Beasley, W. B 1,000
11. Mich'l. Payne, W. B 1,000
12. Charles Pettigrew, pd. J. C 1,000
13. Gavin Hamilton, J. B 1,000
274 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
14. William Bonitz, W. B 1,500
15. Robert Hardy, J. S 1,500
16. Joseph Smith, J. S 1,500
17. Willis Langley, J. B 1,.500
18. James Webb, W. B 1,000
19. Samuel Dickinson, W. B 1,500
20. Enoch Sawyer, J. C 1,000
21. Jno. Blackburn, £1,000 pd. J. C 1,000
22. Thos. Ming, £1,000 pd. J. C 1,000
23. Roullack, W. B 1,000
24. David Lawrence, pd. J. C 1,000
25. Fine & Scott, W. B 3,000
2G. Henry ONeil, W. B 1,000
27. Robert Eagan, J. B 1,000
28. Josiah Collins 1,500
29. Geo. Gray, pd. J. C 1,000
30. Will'm McDonald, J. S 1,000
31. Benjn. Bryce, J. B 1,000
32. Sani'l. Cooley, J. B 1,000
33. Arch'd. Bell & Co., J. B 1,500
34. Alex. Black, pd. J. C 1,-500
35. Chas. Johnson, pd. J. C 1,500
36. Sam'l. Johnston, pd. J. C... 1,500
37. Joseph Whidbee, J. C. 1,000
38. William Littlejohn, J. B 1,500
39. Joseph Blount, J. B 1,500
40. Thomas Bonner, J. B 1.000
41. William Bennett, pd. W. B 1,500
42. Christ'r. Clark, pd. J. C 1,500
43. Nehemiah Long, pd. J. C 1,000
44. William Scott, J. S 1,500
45. William Armstrong. J. S 1,500
46. John Mare, J. B 1,000
47. John Etheridge, J. S 1,000
48. Dominique Pamburse, J. B 1,000
49. Samuel Black, J. S 1,000
50. John Stewart, J. S 1.000
51. Edmund Blount, J. S 1,500
52. Rich'd. Blow, by Wm. Bennett, Esq'r 1,500
53. David Meredith, W. B 1,000
54. Stephen Cabarruce, J. S 1,000
55. Levy, J. S 1,000
56. Nehemiah Bateman, J. S 1.000
57. Geo. Wynns, pd. J. C 1,500
58. William Boyd, pr. W. B 1,500
59. William Roberts, J. B 1,000
A SIDE LIGHT ON COLONIAL EDENTON. 275
A List of Seamen and Marines on board of the Galley Tartar, viz:
William Proby, Cap 1 *MichaeI Young 15
tValentine Nohell, 1st Lu 2 *Jolin Gucy 16
tJacob Butler, 2nd ditto 3 *George Jackson 17
tJames Luten, Cap. of Mareins.. 4 *Frederick Morris 18
*Malvin Moore, Cap. of the Tho. Mann, pilate 19
Ward Boat 5 *Jeremiah Johnson 20
*Cap. Cannon Master 6 *Emamiel Spaniard 21
*William Heaker 7 *Marino Spaniard 22
*Henry Flury 8 *John Moore 23
*Thos. Gates, Steward 9 *John Fife 24
*Thos. Gaskins 10 *Henderson Lviten, Sr 26
*David McKinsey 11 *Henry Roads 27
*Abraham Clark 12 *Daniel Leonard 28
*Moses Gregory 14 Samuel Twine 29
6 Days Wages on board of the Galley Tartar 29
• : 6
Dollars 174
To Sundry Expenses 7
Dollars 181
To Sundries pr. acct 12%
193%
Amt. brot. over 193%
Capt. Proby for his trouble over and above his daily paj' 6
£52.14 199%
3. 2
£55.16
Received Edenton, August 12, 1782, of Josiah Collins One Hundred
Ninety-Nine and five-eighths Spanish Milled Dollars, being in full for
the within account. W. Proby."
The Subscribers to the Expedition against the Row Galley, General
Arnold, to Joseph Smith, William Bennett, Joseph Blount, and Josiah
Collins, Commissioners appointed by the said subscribers.
1781. Dr.
June 7. To 40% galls. Rum @ £240 £9,640
1 Barrel Pork 2,000
264 lbs. Bread 80d 1,056
t These lines have pen line drawn through names, but numbers remain.
3
P5
276 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Bags for ditto 480
40 lbs. Sugar, £24 960
20 lbs. Coffee, £30 600
8 lbs. Pork for hands to go over the Sound
to fetch Mr. Pollock's Canoe 80
8 lbs. Bread for do. do 32
Negro hire for do. do 60
12 lbs. Muskett Balls 360
15,318
9 days hire of 40 men, £40 36,000
Cash paid the Captains for Sundry ex-penses
while on the Cruises 2,162
5 lbs. Nails 180
14 Swivell Balls 140
Amt. Messrs. Sam'l Cooley & Co., acct 485
2 Sadies and 2 Worms. 8d 640
2 gin cases.
Error in Cash paid Capt. N. Bateman 362
Cash paid Negro hire going over the Sound
with M. Pollock's Canoe 100
Mr. Geo. Gray for Liquor for Sailors 200
Thos. Ming, amt. of his acct 1,920
6 pr. Handcuffs, £320 1,920
The Sloop commanded by Capt. Cross.
The Galley commanded by Capt. Simons.
The Dispatch Boat, Capt. Yeomans.
1782. To JosiAH Collins, Dr.
July 30th—
To 10 gallons rum, 14d £7.
To 100 lbs. salted Pork, 8d 3. 6. 8.
To 104 lbs. Ship Bread, 5d 2. 3. 4.
To 10 lbs. Beacon, 8d — 6. 8.
To 2 Tinn Potts, 12d 1. 4. —
To IVa lbs. Tallow — 1. 6.
To IVs lbs. Nails, % 5. —
To Cash paid 28 Hands for 2 days Hire each at 8d 22. 8. —
To do. pd. Capt. Yeomans for boat hire 1. 4. —
£37.19. 2.
The effect of all this upon the hostile "row galley" does not
appear, so far as this writer has been able to discover.
Lord Cornwallis's surrender to General Washington at
Yorktown on the 19th of October, 1781, practically ended the
A SIDE LIGHT ON COLONIAL, EDENTON. 277
war. The date of the last account above given, 1782, Julj
30, may suggest a continuance of the expedition much longer
than the original subscribers bargained for. The treaty of
peace was finally signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. While
we are guessing, possibly there was a parallel here with the
Americans' victory in the battle of ISTew Orleans, in the later
war of 1812, won after the treaty of peace had been signed, of
which they knew not. At the least, let us be sure that the
event of this expedition justified the means adopted by the
people of Edenton and their neighbors to rid their sound and
America of such a pest as the Row Galley General Arnold,
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS.
BY JULIA S. WHITE.
To write of the Quakers of Perquimans County involves
almost the complete history of the Friends' Church in North
Carolina for the first seventy-five years of its existence. It
also involves the beginning of all jSTorth Carolina church his-tory
; for, so far as known, the first religious gathering in the
State was a Quaker meeting. Says the Rt. Rev. Joseph
Blount Cheshire in the jSForth Carolina Booklet of April,
1906, page 261: ''Quakerism was the only organized form
of religion in the colony, with no rival worship among the
people for the rest of the seventeenth century (1672). * * *
It drew to itself a number of the intelligent and well-disposed
inhabitants, especially of Perquimans and Pasquotank. * *
These zealous and self-sacrificing men deserve to be held in
honorable memory, who at the expense of so much time, labor,
and bodily suffering, cultivated the spiritual harvest in that
distant and unattractive field. Quakerism did not begin the
work of settlement, and of reclaiming the wilderness for civi-lization,
but it has the greater honor of having brought some
organized form of Christianity to the infant colony, and of
having cared for those wandering sheep whom others neg-lected."
The first Quaker in Xorth Carolina was one Henry Phil-lips,
who had been a member of that church in x^ew England
previous to his coming to Carolina in 1665; though William
Edmundson, an Irish Quaker preacher, was the real instiga-tor
of Quakerism among the settlers. This "traveling
Friend" after much hardship reached a place probably not far
distant from where the town of Hertford now stands, and in
a three days stay held two religious services. One of these
two was at the home of Henry Phillips, who, with his family,
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS. 279
had wept for joj at the coming of Edniundson, not having
seen a Quaker for seven years. The second of these services
was at the home and bj the invitation of one Francis Toms, a
justice of the peace, who with his wife had at the first meet-ing
"received the truth with gladness." Edmundson was
followed in a few months by George Fox himself, the founder
of the church. Fox's carefully kept diary gives much in-sight
into the methods and route of travel as well as the con-ditions,
social and religious, in the infant settlement. Xo
doubt his coming had much to do in fostering and establish-ing
the church, especially by instigating his letters of advice
written after his return to England.
Four years later Edmundson returns to Carolina and says,
'"Friends were finely settled and I left things well among
them." All of this occurred in what is now Perquimans
County; and from that day to this (1672-1908), a term of
two hundred and thirty-six years, Friends have been promi-nent
citizens of that county.
Friends (this term is far preferable to Quaker, though the
latter has no longer the opprobrium of its origin) until very
recent years included in their church organization four dis-tinct
assemblies, viz : the Preparative, the Monthly, the
Quarterly, and the Yearly Meeting. The first has now been
done away with and all yearly meetings which have adopted
what is known as the Uniform Discipline are no longer a
court of final appeal or distinct within theinselves as in early
days, but are subject to the action of the Five-Years Meet-ing,
or rather the consensus of opinion of all the Friends on
the American continent.
Of the transactions of their various meetings for business
the Friends have been unusually careful to preserve a record,
and these manuscripts are now invaluable to the student, giv-ing
not only an insight into the social condition of the time,
but also the methods of church discipline and authority and
280 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
the doings of its members. The faithful records of the mar-riage
certificates with the signatures of the witnesses, the
chronicling of births and deaths, all give the genealogist a
mine yielding rich returns.
The oldest record preserved by the Quakers of ISTorth Caro-line
is a marriage certificate of Christopher Nicholson and
Ann Attwood, both of Perquimans, and dating 1682, which
it will be noted, is just ten years after the visits of Edmund-son
and Fox. The regular minutes of the business meetings
do not begin till later, and these are rather fragmentary as
they were not properly collected till 1728.
The first organization of Friends in Perquimans County
was known as Perquimans Monthly Meeting. After 1764 it
was called Wells.' This meeting finally set off Sutton's
Creek Monthly Meeting and transferred itself to Piney
Woods Monthly Meeting in 1794. Piney Woods Monthly
Meeting is the only monthly meeting in that county at the
present time, and is, as shown, the direct outgrowth of the
first organization of Quakers in the State. The Wells'
meeting house stood not far from the present town of Win-fall,
just across the road from the Jessup homestead. A
rather interesting episode occurs in the annals of this meeting.
It seems that one Jonathan Pearson had for some reason
filled up the spring to which Friends of this meeting had had
access. He was "churched" in regard to the same and so the
spring was opened again.
Almost coequal with the growth and development of Qua-kerism
in Perquimans County was that in Pasquotank
County, and the two monthly meetings joined in constituting
a superior, or quarterly meeting known as Eastern Quarter.
This was done in 1681, and in 1698 the yearly meeting was
established, embracing only the one quarter and the two
monthly meetings. For nearly three-quarters of a century
(till 1757) this was the condition of the church.
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS. 281
Perquimans County continued to be the radiating center
for Quakerism for the first century of the State's history;
that is, until the great migratory wave of Quakers from Nan-tucket,
JSTew England, Pennsylvania, and other points north
had swept into our borders and organized themselves and as-serted
their powers. Then the Quakers of Perquimans
shared their power and a new quarterly meeting was estab-lished
in the section near where Guilford College now stands,
which by way of distinction was called Western Quarter.
The migratory spirit was in the air and the old Teutonic
blood which had made our sturdy forefathers first cross the
Virginia border now impelled many of them to move from
the lowlands to the Piedmont section of the State. But for
eighty-eight years (till 1786) the yearly meeting of iSForth
Carolina (that is the highest authority in the church) was
held either at Perquimans or Old I^eck or Little Piver—all
in Perquimans County. Then there was a series of years
(1787-1812) in which the yearly meeting alternated between
Perquimans and Guilford Counties, with four exceptions
when Pasquotank claimed the honor. So that it is only in
recent years, 1812-date, that Perquimans County has not been
a rallying point for the Quakerism of the whole State.
As to what part of the population the Quakers were, there
is no means of determining; but this fact is assured, that
prior to 1700 the Quakers had things much their own way in
church and state and that this "golden age" of ^North Carolina
Quakerism culminated in the appointment of a Quaker gov-ernor,
John Archdale, who, though giving his time and energy
to South Carolina, left an impress and gained much prestige
and recognition for his co-religionists in North Carolina.
Early in the eighteenth century the Quakers began to need
all the metal which was in them in order to breast the tide of
opposition and to remain true to what they believed right.
Governor Walker aroused the Church of England in such
282 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
words as these addressed to the Bishop of London: "My
Lord, we have been settled near this fifty years in this place,
and I may justly say most part of twenty-one years, on my
own knowledge, without priest or altar, and before that time,
according to all that appears to me, much worse, George Fox
some years ago came into these parts and by strange infatua-tions,
did infuse the Quakers' principles into some small
number of the people; which did and hath continued to grow
ever since very numerous, by reason of their yearly sending
in men to encourage and exhort them to their wicked princi-ples
; and here was none to dispute nor to oppose them in car-rying
on their pernicious principles for many years, until
God, of his infinite goodness was pleased to inspire the Rev.
Dr. Bray * * * to send in some lx)oks * * * of the expla-nation
of the church catechism, etc." * * *
"My Lord, I humbly beg leave to inform you, that we have
an assembly to sit the 3rd of November next, and there is
above half of the burgesses that are chosen are Quakers, and
have declared their designs of making void the act for estab-lishing
the church ; if your lordship, out of his good and pious
care for us, doth not put a stop to this growth, we shall the
most part, especially the children born here, become
heathens."
This quotation, lengthy as it is, is yet of great intrinsic
value. It shows a great antagonism on the part of the writer
for the Quakers, and incidentally their origin, growth and
present power. That one-hal£ the burgesses were of the
Quaker faith is about the nearest approximation we can se-cure
as to relative numbers in their community, and this was
in their years of waning power too.
But more than all, it shows us the beginnings of a long
struggle between church and state, and the beginning of a
protest on the part of the Quakers which has eventually result-ed
in the existence of many of the civil and religious privi-
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS. 283
leges of today ; notable among them is the privilege of affir-mation
by any individual and in any court of justice, rather
than the taking of the legal oath.
That a vigorous effort was made and much legislation se-cured
toward making the Church of England the church of
the Carolinas is easily shown by a study of the legal enact-ments
of the time. That the Quakers were for a long time
the only organized body of Dissenters must necessitate credit-ing
them with trying to stem in its beginning the current
which was about to sweep from us religious tolerance and in-dividual
liberty. To be sure in later years (from 1750- )
the Presbyterians were much more potent in this struggle,
but the Quakers held the fort until that time. As to taking
the oath (and the laws of our State have on the face of them
seemed lenient toward Quakers), it will hardly be claiming
too much to say that the universal privilege of affirmation in
any court of justice in our State is an outgrowth of Quaker
influence. It must not be overlooked, however, that it was
just this matter of taking an oath which first put the Quakers
out of politics and which eventually made it a disownable
offense for any members of the Friends' Church to hold of-fice
under the government. It is only in recent years, very
recent years, that Friends have awakened to the fact that
they may without being untrue to the tenets of their faith
hold office. We are glad to realize that they are again making
themselves a part of civic life and doing their part politi-cany,
as well as socially, in the great civic awakening which is
spreading over our country.
Another point in which the Quakers figure largely in the
early law annals of our State and in which the Quakers of Per-quimans
must have been prime movers, as it occurred in the
years when they were the leaders of Quakerism in the State, is
in regard to taking up arms. They paid gladly their militia
fines which were thrice the usual tax on property ; and while
284 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
these taxes were heavy at times, and long imposed, i. e., till
1783, the Quakers then were even more so than now, it seems,
extremely careful to meet all financial obligations, so that
there was credence in the old adage, ''A Quaker's word is as
good as his bond." While today the man who would vouch
for the genuineness of an article of production must call it
"Quaker Oats," "Quaker Gelatine," etc.
That the Quakers were a large majority of the inhabitants
of Perquimans in 1723 can be almost assured from the fol-lowing
data. At that time the law of 1715 was in force
which provided "that no Quaker or reputed Quaker shall by
virtue of this act (that is of affirming instead of taking the
oath) be qualified or permitted to give evidence in any crimi-nal
causes or to serve on any jury, or bear any office or place
of profit or trust in the government." Now we have a list of
jurymen in the various precincts for the year 1723, and while
Pasquotank and Chowan have 156 and 142, respectively,
Perquimans has only 54, and Perquimans was just as old a
province as either of the other two. Furthermore, in this
list the surnames so familiar in Quaker records are conspic-uously
absent. Despite all this, in the formative days of the
civil and ecclesiastical history 'of the Old ISTorth State, the
Quaker was a very influential individual ; and shall we not
claim that this wide influence of what Weeks calls the "flower
of Puritanism," was the great influence which preserved our
State from any dark pages of history, pages which mar the
annals of Virginia and Massachusetts, and place us along
with Pennsylvania in matters of justice to the Indian and
opposition to Vv'ar ?
So much for the Quakers of Perquimans and their relation
to the State. It now remains to be told of their workings
among themselves. Their records show many points of in-terest
and much which seems to us like an infringement of
personal liberty and that the church was overstepping its
bounds.
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS. 285
With the special privilege granted the Quaker in regard to
the marriage rite, it is matter of much pride to the church
that it exercised so much care in this regard. Upon every
occasion careful inquiry is made in regard to the life and
conversation of the parties wishing to marry, and especially
in regard to their freedom from marriage relations ; and then
the church has its representatives present at the wedding and
they must be responsible and rejiort on the good order main-tained
at the ceremony and produce to the meeting the mar-riage
certificate ahvays very carefully and explicitly written,
with the names of many witnesses to the ceremony affixed
thereto. The whole thing with the signatures is properly re-corded
in the church books provided for that purpose.
It might be said on passing that these records which the
Friends have always been so careful to keep are one of the
fruitful sources for genealogical study before mentioned.
"Marrying out," that is, marrying some one not in mem-bership
with the Friends, was a disownable offense ; and it
was thus that the Quakers lost many members. The cburch
would not grant its permission to a marriage request some-times,
and such a thing as a man's not having paid his debts
would hinder no less than grosser evils if such were detected.
Indeed, it has always been a care of the Quakers to keep
their outward aft'airs in proper condition, and in the early
days of the Perquimans records, where boundary lines were
not marked with sufficient definiteness, one of the principal
matters of church record is the settlement hy the church of
such differences as may arise in regard to land tenure. The
manner in which these differences were settled is something
like this : the two contesting parties would each name an
equal number of individuals to act as arbitrators, and the
church would appoint one; and generally such a committee
reached a satisfactory conclusion. Should either party ap-peal
to the courts for justice, he was immediately "churched,"
286 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
and if no acknowledgement was made, he was disowned.
"Brotiier goeth to war with brother and that before the un-believer/'
had a very vivid meaning to the Quaker fathers.
The Perquimans records show time and again that its mem-bers
were under surveillance if they were not prompt and
exact in the payment of their debts. In 1769 a party is dis-owned
for bankruptcy. This is the actmil wording of the in-quiry
which was made at least once a year, and generally
oftener, for nearly two hundred years in the Quaker church
:
"Do you maintain strict integrity in all transactions in trade
and in your outward concerns ; and are you careful not to de-fraud
the public revenue ?" or something in substance the
same.
Other matters which concerned the Quakers of Perqui-mans
in the pioneer days seem trivial only as they give an in-sight
into the social customs of the time and also what the
Quakers regarded as right. Por example, one Friend asked
the church for the privilege of wearing a wig, and the request
was not granted; but some years later another request came up
and the ])rivi]ege iras granted, with the advice ''to wear a
plain one."
So soon as a member was known to be "drinking to excess"
or "using bad language," he was at once "churched ;" and
twice the records of Perquimans show where individuals were
up before the church for "striking or whipping their wives,"
and once a Friend is reputed to be keeping a tavern. The
committee of investigation is appointed and the tavern keeper,
by forsaking his chosen business, is restored into good fellow-ship.
But these are of the early days. At the present time there
are two hundred and ninety-six Friends in Perquimans and
Chowan Counties (the latter has only about thirty-five).
These all belong to Piney Woods Monthly Meeting, which is
composed of Piney Woods and Up Piver meetings for wor-ship.
THE QUAKERS OV PEtRQUIMANS. 287
Quakerism in Perquimans has long- been on the wane.
The peremptory way in which Friends have disowned its
members make us ahnost w^onder that any at all are left.
But it was not disownment any more than migration which
brought about the present condition. The Teutonic spirit
which made the people first migrate into the State was the
same which, working in their descendants, caused them to
move further South or over West, seeking new lands and new
environment. For there was a decided exodus from Per-quimans
to points South and also to points in central Caro-lina.
As the Quakers were very careful to take their church
credentials with them, it is easy to follow them from place to
place as they moved.
The Quaker protest against slavery and war, when he
found he could not remove the one from our midst much as he
succeeded in getting it out of his church, and when he would
not take part in the other—the Quaker's protest, I say, was a
very quiet one, that of leaving the State ; and the Quakers of
Perquimans were among those who so largely settled the free
States of Ohio and Indiana. It was this migration which
left the Quakers on their original site not a weak body, but
shorn of much of its strength.
What the Quakers have been to the county and the com-munity
is best shown by stating a few facts. For seventy-two
years the Quakers of Perquimans have maintained an
academy at Belvidere which has always stood for high grade
work and has been, and still is, recognized as one of the most
worthy institutions for secondary education in the State.
This institution now enrolls about one hundred and thirty
pupils per year who are here prepared for any of the leading
colleges of our State.
The Total Abstinence Society of Perquimans and Chowan
Counties, which claims to be the second oldest temperance
organization in the State, dating back to the early part of the
288 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
nineteenth century, while by no means an exclusively Quaker
organization, had as its founders men of Quaker faith and
such have always been its ardent supporters, working shoulder
to shoulder with the Baptists. This fact is worthy of men-tion
at this time ; for in the recent election in Edenton the
temperance forces at work there felt and acknowledged the
fruits of the work of this pioneer organization.
Shakespeare says, ^'What's in a name ? That which we call
a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet ;" and on the
naming of their places of worship, the Friends had no ear
for the artistic or euphonious, but were purely local. This
strict adherence to facts is full of hints to the research stu-dent,
and the hallowed associations are just as sweet as if we
had not such names to bring them up as those named below.
All of the Friends' meetings, that is, all of the places in
which church services have been held in Perquimans County,
aside from the private houses first used, are as follows : Per-quimans,
Wells', Suttons' Creek, Old Neck, Little Eiver,
Boice's, Beech Spring, Piney Woods and Up River.
As to the people, the surnames which appear in the Quaker
records of these meetings are names still to be found in Per-quimans
and adjoining counties or are among those trans-planted
to central Carolina and the middle West, l^otable
among them are Nicholson, Albertson, White, Winslow, New-by,
Toms, Bagley, Elliott, Blanchard, Nixon, Cannon and
others equally as important, but the list is already too long.
I mention the last for it is not a matter of conjecture, but a
matter of history that the present Speaker of the House,
Joseph G. Cannon, is not only of Quaker extraction through
his mother, but also on his father's side ; and that were the
Cannons of Guilford County traced back a few generations,
Perquimans might come in for a share of the honor, if such
there be, attaching to our countryman.
THE QUAKERS OF PERQUIMANS. 289
While Quakerism in Perquimans has much to be proud of
in its past history and can pride itself in the worthy citizens
which it has produced, we believe none in the past can sur-pass
some of the standard-bearers of the present day, and
though the outlook in that county might be more hopeful, the
outlook for Quakerism in the State was never more encourag-ing;
and we know that much of the brain and sinew of the
Perquimans Quakers are only transferred and are now work-ing
in other and more aggressive portions of our State, look-ing
steadily to the future, but .never unmindful of the past.
AN EARLY PEACE SOCIETY IN NORTH
CAROLINA 1819=1822.*
BY MARSHALL DeLANCEY HAYWOOD.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In these days of The Hague Tribunal, Carnegie peace en-dowments,
and general efforts to substitute arbitration for
force of arms in settling the disputes of nations, we of the
present time are inclined to claim for our own generation
credit for a movement which has gone on, in one form or
another, through ages past. Thoughtful men in all times
have labored to avert wars or lessen their horrors, and yet
some of the bloodiest and most desolating conflicts recorded
in history have been carried on in the name of religion. IvTot
only in the Crusades, where Christian fought infidel, has such
warfare raged ; but even more bloody and bitter still have
been the turmoils when princes of the earth really thought
they did God an acceptable service by slaying and burning
those who differed from them only in a doctrinal way, while
fellow-worshippers of Jesus Christ. The altar of military
glory and popular applause has had devotees from time im-memorial,
and will so continue to have until the changing
natures of men shall bring forth that brighter day when the
nations shall learn war no more.
David Low Dodge, of IS^ew York, is generally regarded
as the father of the organized peace movement in America.
He published, in 1(S09, a tract called The Mediator s King-dom
not of this World. In 1812 he first proposed the forma-tion
of a peace society, and the ISTew York Peace Society was
organized at his home in August, 1815. Similar organiza-
*An address delivered before a Conference on Arbitration and Arma-ment
in the hall of the House of Representatives at Raleigh, N. C.
March 23, 1908.
AN EARLY PEACE SOCIETY. 291
tions soon sprang up in other States, including North Caro-lint,
where the Raleigh Peace Society was formed in 1819.
It was on April 21, 1819, that the Raleigh Peace Society
proceeded to organize. We are fortunate in hnding in The
Star and North Carolina State Gazette, a Raleigh paper of
April 30th following, an account of the first meeting, when
"a number of respectable gentlemen of the town and its
vicinity" met and elected oificers, also adopting a constitu-tion,
which is given in the same newspaper. The meeting
was presided over by William Shaw, as Chairman pro tem-pore;
and Jeremiah Battle, M.D., acted as Secretary. The
officers elected were William Peck, President; Richard Fen-ner,
M.D., Vice-President; Kimbrough Jones, Recording
Secretary; Jeremiah Battle, M.D., Corresponding Secretary;
and Sterling Wheaton, M.D,, Treasurer. The preamble and
constitution of the Society were as follows
:
^'We, the subscribers, impressed with the belief that the
Gospel is designed to produce peace on earth ; and that it is
the duty of all good men to cultivate, and, as far as they have
power, to diffuse a spirit of kindness, do agree to form our-selves
into a society for the purpose of disseminating the
general principles of peace, and to use all proper means,
within the sphere of our influence, to promote universal har-mony
and good will among men.
"Article 1st. This Society shall be called the Raleigh
Peace Society.
"Article 2d. The officers of this Society shall be a Presi-dent,
Vice-President, Secretary, Corresponding Secretary,
and Treasurer.
"Article 3d. Any person subscribing this constitution
and paying one dollar annually shall be a member of this
Society; or, by the payment of ten dollars, on subscribing,
shall be considered a member for life.
4
292 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
"Article 4tli. It shall be the duty of the President, or, in
his absence, the Vice-President, to preside at all meetings,
and to call a meeting at the request of any three members.
The Secretary shall record the proceedings; and the Corre-sponding
Secretary shall conduct the correspondence under
the direction of the President and Society. The Treasurer
shall collect subscriptions, receive donations, and hold all
moneys subject to the disposal of the Society.
"Article 5th. The annual meeting of the Society, which
shall be the stated meeting for choosing officers and transact-ing
business, shall be holden on the first Monday after the
fourth of July.
"Article 6th. This constitution shall not be altered ex-cept
at an annual meeting, and by a vote of two-thirds of the
members present."
The above-quoted newspaper, in its issue of May 21, 1819,
gave a copy of a letter addressed to a peace society in England
by the Czar of Russia, who was then, as his successor is now,
crying "peace, peace," when there was no peace—especially
in his own dominions.
Another old paper. The Raleigh Register, throws consider-able
light on the peace movement at that time in North Caro-lina.
It happened that the Society's first anniversary fell
on Monday, July 5, 1819 ; and, as the day preceding was the
nation's birthday and fell on Sunday, the usual Fourth of
July festivities had to be postponed till the 5th day of July,
both occasions falling on the same day. In a religious way
the Raleigh Peace Society observed Sunday, July 4th, and
held its business meeting on Monday. The Raleigh Register,
of July 2, 1819, contained this notice: "To afford an oppor-tunity
to the citizens to hear both sermons on Sunday, the
Rev. Dr. McPheeters will preach the Independence Anni-versary
Sermon at the Presbyterian Church at 10 o'clock,
and the Rev. Mr. Charlton will preach the Anniversary Ser-
AN EAKLY PEACE SOCIETY. 293
mon of the Peace Society at the Methodist Church at 12
o'clock. The Peace Society will meet at the State House on
Monday at 5 o'clock p. m. for the election of officers for the
ensuing year, and for the transaction of other business."
The above services by the Peverend William McPheeters
and the Reverend G. W. Charlton were held at the appointed
time, Mr. Charlton's sermon being from the text, "Blessed
are the peacemakers." On the next day the Peace Society
held its regular meeting and elected the following officers
:
William Peck, President; William Shaw, Vice-President;
Daniel DuPre, Recording Secretary ; Jeremiah Battle, M.D.,
Corresponding Secretary; and Sterling Wheaton, M.D.,
Treasurer, In the proceedings published in The Raleigh
Register, of July lOth, we learn that a memorial was drawn
up to be forwarded to the President and Congress, asking
that international treaties should be made to prohibit priva-teers
from operating in naval warfare, and citing a treaty of
this nature made through Benjamin Franklin with Prussia.
On this point, at least—the desire to abolish privateering
—
the wishes of the Society were gratified eventually, but not
until many of its members had passed to the realm above,
where the Prince of Peace reigns supreme. Says the above
account: "It was gratifying to see at this anniversary all par-ties,
professions, and conditions of men unite for the holy
purpose of diffusing and cherishing the pure Gospel prin-ciples
of j)eace and general benevolence. Men who fill high
stations in the civil and military departments of our govern-ment,
ministers of three different denominations of Chris-tians,
and those who were opposed in politics at a time when
parties existed amongst us, all cordially joined hands in +his
work, and enrolled their names as members of the Society."
Some Korth Carolinians, it would seem, had fears that
their right to answer a call to arms in time of war, even to
repel invasion, would be curtailed by the Peace Society ; and.
294 THE NORTH CAKOLINA BOOKLET.
to quiet tliese misgivings, the armouncement was made: "It
may be proper to notice an error which some few uninformed
persons have fallen into respecting this Society, They have
suj)posed its principles were those of passive submission and
non-resistance. Far from it. No man, by becoming a mem-ber
of this Society, surrenders his independence of thinking
and acting, and many of them distinctly avow their determi-nation
to take up arms to defend their country whenever the
occasion requires. But they all unite in the endeavor to do
away with the necessity of wars, and hope to do so by means
first suggested and attempted by the great and good Henry
the Fourth, of France, in an age not sufficiently enlightened
and humanized for plans of such extended beneficence."
From the extract, just quoted, it will be seen that the tenets
of the Raleigh Peace Society were identical with those now
advocated by those who favor arbitration and armament
—
peace if possible, but war if necessity should require it.
The Raleigh Peace Society recommended as reading mat-ter,
for the instruction of the public, a series of pamphlets
entitled The Friend of Peace.
In the year 1820, the annual meeting of the Raleigh Peace
Society was announced for July 10th by The Raleigh Regis-ter
of July 7th. It was also stated that the Reverend Wil-liam
Hooper, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, would preach the annual sermon in the Methodist
Church on Sunday, July 9th. This meeting, together with
the religious services, no doubt took place, though the later
newspapers fail to enlighten us as to this.
In 1821, it was expected that the anniversary sermon be-fore
the Society would be delivered by the Reverend Mr.
Crocker in the Baptist Church on Sunday, July 8th, but the
Reverend Dr. McPheeters preached on that day, as, for some
reason, Mr. Crocker did not deliver his promised discourse.
Mr. DuPre, the Recording Secretary, published a report of
AN EAKLY PEACE SOCIETY. 295
some length in The Raleigh Register of July 20th, and this
expresses regret over the small gains in membership during
the preceding year. Yet at that time there were thirty-eight
members of the Raleigh Peace Society, and about thirty-five
similar organizations throughout the United States, contain-ing
an aggregate membership of over sixteen hundred. The
Society in Raleigh kept up a fraternal correspondence with
peace societies in several distant States, the newspapers men-tioning
among these one in ISTew Lebanon, Ohio, another in
Richmond, Indiana, and also one in Great Britain. At or
near Cincinnati, Ohio, was a peace society made up exclu-sively
of women.
Though the Raleigh Peace Society in 1821 had a balance
of only ten dollars in its treasury, it had—since its formation
in 1819—purchased six hundred and sixty-six pamphlets,
periodicals, etc., advocating the cause of peace, and had two
hundred and fifty-two undistributed copies on hand.
So far as I can learn, the last public announcement by the
Raleigh Peace Society was under date of July 3, 1822, when
the statement was made that the annivarsary sermon would
be preached in the Methodist Church on Sunday, July 14th,
by the Reverend George M. Anderson, and that a business
meeting would occur on July 15th. This meeting was prob-ably
the Society's expiring effort, for the faith of its mem-bers
was tried by failure. Yet faith they had, and strong
faith too, in the ultimate success of the cause they advocated.
One of their last public declarations—made while the Society
was declining in power—said : "The cause we advocate is the
happiness of our species. We know of whom it is said, 'he
maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.' We know
also who hath said, 'the nations shall learn war no more'
—
and we know him who hath called the peace-makers 'blessed'.
With a knowledge so rich, so animating, how can we despair
of ultimate success ? Though our march may be slow, it will
296 THE NOKTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
be sure; and must end in universal peace on earth and good
will among men."
Before closing the above account of the old Raleigh Peace
Society, a word or two concerning its officers may not be alto-gether
devoid of interest ; and so we shall give, in a very
brief way, some account of each one.
William Shaw, who presided over the first meeting and
was later Vice-President of the organization, was a Scotch-man,
born in Ayrshire about the year 1763, and died in Ra-leigh
on December 27, 1827. He came to America early in
life and lived for more than thirty years in Raleigh, of which
town he was postmaster for a considerable length of time.
He was a merchant ; and, besides his possessions in Raleigh,
he owned lands in Scotland, and at Cape May, IsTew Jersey,
bequeathing the former to his nephew. He was married, but
left no children, yet had relatives in ISTorth Carolina. He
was a zealous Christian, and an elder in the Presbyterian
Church. In his will he bequeathed $150 to the Bible So-ciety
of ISTorth Carolina, $150 to the Foreign Missionary
Society, $150 to the Presbyterian Missionary Society, and
$50 to the Raleigh Female Tract Society.
William Peck, who was President of the Peace Society
upon its organization, was born in l^orfolk, Virginia, April
1, 1772 ; was carried to Petersburg, in the same State, when
a child, and came to Raleigh in February, 1798. He spent
the remainder of his life in Raleigh, and died there on June
21, 1851. In his religious affiliations he was a Baptist. In
recording his death, Seaton Gales, editor of The Raleigh Reg-ister,
wrote as follows : 'Tor more than fifty years he has
been actively engaged in business ; and, in the midst of its
fluctuations, he pursued the even tenor of his way, neither
elated by prosperity nor depressed by adversity. He learned
in early life to rely on himself for success rather than on the
favors of friendship, and thereby acquired an independence
AN EARLY PEACE SOCIETY. 297
of character which elevated him above the reverses of fortune
and secured the confidence of his fellow-citizens in all his
business transactions. He was not only an honest man, but
a good man and a Christian. He delighted in doing good to
the bodies and souls of men." Mr. Peck had two sons, Wil-lis
and Lewis W. Peck. The latter lived until recent years,
doing business in the same little shop formerly occupied by
his father, just east of the southeast corner of the Capitol
Square.
RiCHAED Fennee, M.D., who was Vice-President of the
Peace Society at the time of its organization (but who was
later succeeded in that office by Mr. Shaw), knew what war
was by personal experience, having fought for America's
cause in the Revolution and languished for more than a year
in the military prison at Charleston, South Carolina. Dr.
Fenner lived in early life at ISTew Bern, later in Franklin
County, for a while in Raleigh, and eventually went to Jack-son,
Madison County, Tennessee, where he died at an ad-vanced
age in May, 1828. Both personally and in his chosen
profession—the practice of medicine—he was highly es-teemed,
being described as "a. kind-hearted friend and neigh-bor,
and an active and useful member of society." In re-ligion
he was an Episcopalian, having originally been con-nected
with the old colonial parish under the Church of Eng-land
at JsTew Bern. In the Revolution his career began as
Paymaster of the Second North Carolina Continental Regi-ment,
on June 1, 1778 ; he was commissioned Ensign, Jan-uary
10, 1780 ; was captured when General Benjamin Lin-coln
surrendered the city of Charleston to Sir Henry Clinton
on May 12, 1780, and remained in prison till exchanged, on
June 14, 1781; was made a Lieutenant on May 12, 1781,
(just before his exchange), and served till the end of the war.
In 1783 he was one of the Continental officers who founded
the ISTorth Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, at Llillsbor-ouffh.
298 THE NORTH CAEOLINA BOOKLET.
KiMBROUGH Jones, Kecording Secretary, was born on the
26tli of April, 1783, and died on the 30th of March, 1866.
He was a planter of large interests, and came of a family
which had long been prominently identified with the affairs
of Wake County. He was a son of Nathaniel Jones, of Crab-tree,
whose father (also named Nathaniel) was a brother of
Attorney-General Robert Jones, Jr., better known as ''Robin"
Jones, an eminent lawyer in the days of royal rule. Kim-brough
Jones represented Wake County at five sessions of the
North Carolina House of Commons, and in the Constitutional
Convention of 1835, his colleague in the latter body being
Judge Henry Seawell. In religion Mr. Jones was a Metho-dist.
The plantation where he lived—about three miles north
of Raleigh on the Louisburg road, just beyond Crabtree Creek
—is now owned by his son and namesake. All of the sons
of Mr. Jones, who were living at the time of the war, went
into the Confederate Army, the eldest, William Hogan Jones,
being a Major in the Forty-eighth North Carolina Regiment,
and Henry W. and Kimbrough, Jr., serving in the Third
Cavalry or Forty-first Regiment, Company I. Ex-Hnited
States Senator James Kimbrough Jones, of Arkansas, is of
this family, his father having been born on the upper waters
of Crabtree Creek.
Daniel DuPre, who succeeded Mr. Jones as Recording
Secretary, was a bank officer and planter. As an expert ac-countant
he had few equals in the State. For more than
forty years he resided in or near Raleigh, and was a con-sistent
member of the Baptist Church. Not long before his
death, he went to Wilmington, but did not remain there per-manently.
He died in Raleigh on April 9, 1858, at the age
of eighty. "From childhood he had led a pure, unsullied and
upright life," says an account written at the time of his death.
Jeeeml^h Battle, M.D., Corresponding Secretary, was a
physician by profession, whose latter years were spent in Ra-
AN EARLY PEACE SOCIETY. 299
leigh, where he died on the 28th of February, 1825. He be-longed
to a noted family, at that time chiefly residing in
Edgecombe County, of which he was a native. His father,
Elisha Battle, Jr., was the son of Elisha Battle, a Revolu-tionary
statesman. Dr. Battle was a capable physician, "uni-versally
respected for his liberality and kind and benevolent
deportment." He died unmarried, and was a Baptist in
religion. He was author of a treatise of a statistical and
historical nature relating to Edgecombe County in 1810. This
was originally delivered as an address before an agricultural
society. It was first published in a newspaper, afterwards
in The North Carolina University Magaz'uie, April, 1861,
and later still in Our Living and Our Dead, October, 1874.
Sterling Wiieaton, M.D., Treasurer, was another l)hysi-cian
who practiced in Raleigh at that time. As early as
1802 he aided in organizing the ISTorth Carolina Medical
Society. That society passed out of existence in a few years,
and the present ISrorth Carolina Medical Society was not or-ganized
until 1849, some years after the death of Dr.
Wheaton, which occurred in the summer of 1832. What his
church aliiliations were I am unable to say, yet his last will
and testament (now filed in the records of Wake County)
breathes a deeply religious spirit. In it he says: "I die in
the full faith of that religion I have professed, and in the
humble hope that I shall, by the mercy of my God, through
the merits of my Redeemer, be raised up and accepted at the
last day, when all shall be called to render an account of the
deeds done in the flesh."
Thus I have given some account of the short-lived Peace
Society of Raleigh, with a few remarks concerning its offi-cers.
Who its thirty-eight members were I am unable to say
;
for, so far as can be learned, its membership list has not been
preserved. The religious affiliations of the above officers are
300 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
given, to show that the movement was inter-denominational in
its character.
It must be acknowledged that the Society in Raleigh appa-rently
accomplished nothing in its day. It may be, however,
that during the brief period of its existence, it encouraged
other local societies, of like nature, to keep alive until greater
and more effective measures could take shape. If this be
true, the influence of these early jSTorth Carolina peace-workers
is still felt, even though they may have accomplished
no noticeable results in their day. And the same influence
may be felt more strongly in the years to come, for the move-ment
is steadily gaining favor with civilized nations through-out
the world. So the old worthies, who labored and lost
in the earlier stages of the efforts for peace on earth, well
might say
:
" 'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius—we'll deserve it."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEOLOGICAL
MEMORANDA.*
COMPILED AND EDITED BY MRS. E. E. MOFFITT.
MRS, LULA CLARK MARKHAM.
Mrs. Lula Clark Markham was born in Christian County,
Kentucky. She is descended from distinguished ISTorth Caro-lina
families, her ancestors belonging to the Phillips family
of Rowan County.
She is classed among the most promising of the younger
writers of her native State, and has long been a contributor
to the poetry columns of the leading magazines.
Her home at present is at historic Wilmington, where she
is engaged in literary work along the line of JSTorth Carolina
history.
JAMES CAMERON MacRAE.
Judge James C. MacRae, the author of the article on "The
Fayetteville Light Infantry," comes from ancestors numbered
among the old and distinguished families of the State. He
was born in Fayetteville, ISTorth Carolina, October 6, 1838;
son of John MacRae and Mary (Shackelford) MacRae, the lat-ter
a native of Marion, South Carolina. Judge MacRae grad-
*The writer desires to say that this method has been adopted in order
to give to our present readers and to posterity some account of those
useful citizens who have the history of North Carolina at heart, and
who from true and accepted historical records, original manuscripts,
wills and other authentic sources have made valuable contributions to
this publication.
To these writers The Booklet owes its prosperity and continuance in
the work projected by it of developing and preserving North Carolina
history. All profits from this publication will be devoted to securing
tablets and other memorials to commemorate important events in the
history of our commonwealth. Mrs. E. E. Moffitt.
302 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
uated from Donaldson Academy at Fayetteville. At the age
of fifteen taught school for a short time, then secured a posi-tion
as clerk and continued in that occupation for several
years, when he again turned his attention to teaching. Ambi-tious
to become a lawyer, he studied with this aim while teach-ing
in Brunswick, jSTorth Carolina, and Horry District, South
Carolina.
In August, 1859, he was licensed to practice law, and in
June, 1860, he located in Fayetteville to practice his chosen
profession. During the Civil War he enlisted as a private in
Company H, First jSTorth Carolina Volunteers, and was sub-sequently
promoted to iVdjutant of the Fifth JSTorth Carolina
State Troops. He commanded a battalion in Western IN'orth
Carolina as ]\Iajor, and was Assistant Adjutant-General for
General Baker in the Eastern District of the State until the
end of the struggle. After the war he resumed his practice
and succeeded in securing a large clientele. In 1874 was
elected a member of the Legislature. July, 1882, he was
appointed Judge of the Superior Court to fill an unexpired
term, and during same year was elected Judge of the Fourth,
afterwards the Seventh Judicial District.
Subsequently he w^as appointed a Justice of the Supreme
Bench of ISTorth Carolina, by Governor Holt, to fill the unex-pired
term of Justice Davis, and w^as subsequently elected to
the position. After leaving the bench he returned to the
practice of law and became a member of the legal firm of
MacEae & Day, with offices in Raleigh.
Judge MacRae, as attorney for the Seaboard Air Line Sys-tem,
executed his duty mth commendable ability. While
practicing in the Federal and State courts he was considered
an able lawyer and steadily and closely applied himself to the
performance of every duty devolving upon him, and to-day
holds a position in the front ranks of ISTorth Carolina's emi-nent
lawyers. At the bar he has ever disdained the small
BIOGRAPHICAL SIvETCHES. 303
arts of the pettifogger, and upon the bench he ever held the
scales of justice with an even hand, treating with impartiality
the poor and the rich, the innocent and the guilty. The de-gree
of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of
North Carolina. He has also served as Chancellor of the
Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Carolina.
On October 31, 1S67, he married Miss Fanny Hinsdale,
of Fayetteville, and the union has been blessed with nine
children.
Judge MacRae was, on August 19, 1899, elected Dean of the
Law School of the State University, one of the highest honors
that can come to a laAvyer. He is editor of North Carolina
Journal of Law, and has published several addresses. His
sketch of the '^Highland Scotch Settlements," which he con-tributed
to the columns of Tpie ISTokth Carolina Booklet,
February, 1905, was a concise and interesting account of this
strong and exuberant race, principally from which the Ameri-can
Colonies were peopled. In this sketch may be found
information heretofore wanting in historical libraries, in-teresting
not only to the present generation but to those who
shall come after them.
During the last month, in the presence of a distinguished
array of counsel from the Seventh District and of a number
of friends from the Raleigh Bar, ex-Chief Justice James E.
Shepherd presented to the Supreme Court a handsome oil
portrait of ex-Justice MacRae, a former Associate Justice of
this high tribunal.
The remarks of Judge Shepherd consisted of a brief out-line
of the life and service of Justice MacRae more potent
than any eulog-y that, as he said, the modesty of his subject
forbade. Fie spoke, however, at the request of the court
—
in part as follows
:
"It is meet, therefore, that a few words be said of one,
who, though still living, began his career in that crucial
304 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
period in the historj^ of his State which reflects his greatest
civic and military glories—a time, indeed, when 'None was
for the party and all were for the State'—when men bared
their breasts to the iron hail of battle, not for conquest or
glory, but in defense of their homes and firesides."
Accepting the portrait for the Court, Chief Justice Clark
said, '^'The Court is gratified to receive this portrait and to
add it to those of the other learned and able men who look
down upon us from these walls, and w^hose lives and labors
reflect credit upon this court and the State.
"It can not be said that Judge MacRae has ceased to be a
member of this court. The sitting members are only a part
of that greater court which takes part, and whose views are
potent in the decision of controversies. The opinions of our
predecessors are daily^ quoted to us at the bar as controlling.
The long rows of volumes before us are the repository of their
views. In our deliberations and decisions, they descend as
it were from their frames, sit at our counsels, throw light
upon the path we should go and point the way. They are
^the dead but acepted sovereigns, whose spirits rule us from
their urns.'
"In the illustrious company of our predecessors, the re-corded
opinions of Mr. Justice MacRae, who is yet spared
to us, make him still a part of the court. His services were
long enough to establish his fame, but too short for the full
measure of the service he might have rendered the profession.
Yet it may be doubted if in his present position he is not
rendering greater service still and more enduring, through
his influence upon the future Bar and Judges of ISTorth
Carolina.
"To those who sat with him here the memory of his uni-form
courtesy, his great learning and indefatigable labors is
a benediction."
Judge MacRae continues as Teacher of Law at the Univer-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 305
sity, beloved bj Faculty and students. He is a genial and
courteous gentleman, possessing that quiet dignity and
strength of character worthy of emulation.
REV. ROBERT BRENT DRANE.
Rev. Robert Brent Drane, D.D., was born in Wilmington,
jST. C, December 5, 1851. His father, the Rev. Robert Brent
Drane, D.D., came from Maryland and was Rector of St.
James's Parish, Wilmington, jST. C, for twenty-five years.
His mother's maiden name was Catherine Caroline Parker.
Her early home was Tarboro, JST. C.
He was ordained to the Priesthood in 1876, and, through
Bishop Atkinson's advice, accej)ted the Rectorship of St.
Paul's Parish, Edenton, of which he is yet in charge.
Dr. Drane's article, in this number of The Booklet, on
"Historic Edenton," will be of value to students of ISTorth
Carolina historj^ Since becoming a resident of this historic
place. Dr. Drane's interest in its past has been unabated. He
found here a town "rich with the spoils of time" and a most
inviting field for one fond of legendary and historical lore.
One of the many important movements made by him was
having the Records of St. Paul's Church copied by the young
Note—The Booklet takes this method of calling the attention of the
patriotic citizens of North Carolina to a matter that if more widely known
many names no doubt, would be added to its list of stockholders. Dr.
Drane is desirous of getting more subscribers and thereby increase per-sonal
and popular interest and money resources.
This Association held its annual meeting in Edenton on April 27th
in commemoration of the sailing of Amadas and Barlowe from the west
of England April 2'7th, 1584, O. S. which resulted in the discovery and
occupation of Roanoke Island in July 1584.
A review and memoranda of what the Association has accomplished
will be given in a future number of the North Carolina Booklet.
It remains for a generous and patrotic public to uphold the hands of
Dr. Drane and the other officers of this Association who are going their
time and zeal for the love of their section and their State.
306 THE NORTH CAKOLHSTA BOOKLET.
men of the town, in order that the originals might be filed
away and saved from destruction bj frequent handling. These
precious records, dating back to 1701, are carefully preserved
in the archives of the church and are greatly valued by the
vestry and citizens of the Parish.
Another notable movement projected by him was the re-moval
from abandoned graveyards to St. Paul's church-yard
the remains of people distinguished in Colonial and Revolu-tionary
times—a work that his parishioners entered into with
zest and interest.
Dr. Drane, through maternal connection with Col. William
Haywood, of Revolutionary fame, became a member of the
North Carolina Society Sons of the Revolution, and is Chap-lain
of this Society. His wife, Maria Louisa Warren, is a
daughter of a brave Confederate soldier, Maj. Tristram Low-ther
Skinner, wdio fell in the Battle of Mechanicsville.
She traces her lineage back to some of the best of old Eden-ton's
good people, the Edens, Lowthers, Blounts, Johnstons
and Harveys.
Dr. Drane is the President and a most active member of
the ^'Roanoke Colony Memorial Association," with headquar-ters
at Edenton, jST. C. This corporation was organized for
the benevolent and patriotic purpose of reclaiming, preserv-ing
and adorning Old Fort Raleigh, built in 1585, by the
first English settlers on Roanoke Island, the birthplace of
Virginia Dare, the first white child born in America; and
also to erect monuments and suitable memorials to commem-orate
these and other historic events in ISTorth Carolina.
Dr. Drane's long rectorship in the Parish of St. Paul's
argues well for the popularity and usefulness of this golden-hearted
Christian gentleman. To him and others of his class
for services in the cause of Christianity and unfaltering in-terest
in the material things around, both church and state
owe a debt of gratitude.
BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 307
MISS JULIA SCOTT WHITE.
Miss White's article, in this nuinbev of The Booklet, on
the Quakers of Perquimans County, will enlighten many
who are not familiar with the tenets of this sect of Christians
whose distinguishing doctrine is that of the "light of Christ
within."
Miss White was born in Perquimans County, X. C, in
the year 1866. She is the daughter of Jephtha and Anna
M. White, and granddaughter of Joseph and Charlotte (Mc-
Adanis) White, natives of Scotland. She is a descendant of
the Whites, Jordans, and McAdams, of Eastern Virginia,
also connected w^ith the Scotts, for whom she is named. Her
maternal ancestors have been "Friends" for many generations,
but her paternal ancestors for only two. Her father adopted
the faith of his father, and was a prominent and useful mem-ber
of the Friends' organization, and died in the faith, leav-ing
an honored name to his posterity.
5^. Miss W^hite's parents dying in her infancy, she made her
home with a sister, Mrs. Josiah Nicholson, at Belvidere,
^N". C, which she yet retains as her home. It was here that
she received her early education, afterw^ards graduating at
Westtown, Pennsylvania.
Adopting teaching as a profession, she was elected Prin-cipal
of the Graded School in Southampton, Virginia, in
1884-1887; Teacher and Governess at Guilford College, N.
C, 1887-1892 ; was awarded the B. S. degree at this college
in 1891 ; was graduate student of Bryn Mawr College, Pa.,
1892-1894; Teacher in Mathematics in Nolb Female College,
Louisville, Ky., 1894-1896 ; Teacher of Mathematics at Pa-cific
College, Oregon, 1896-1900.
Miss Wliite's talents for painstaking accuracy well fitted
her for the position to which she was called as Librarian of
Guilford College, one of the best and most complete in the
5
308 THE NOETH CAEOLIXA BOOKLET.
State until the recent disaster, which occurred in January,
1908, when about 8,000 volumes were burned. This was a
great loss to the college and one most keenly felt by its care-ful
custodian, whose familiarity with these books and records
kindled a love like of that unto a brother. Her task, though
arduous, in collecting and arranging for another library, will
be one of love and interest, and she will heartily welcome the
gift of suitable books from a generous public.
Miss White has done considerable editorial work for news-papers
and magazines. Among her most recent articles in
The American Friend (the national organ of the Friends of
America) are the following:
(1) "Dolly Payne Madison," giving the records pre-served
at Guilford College, showing that she was a "birth-right"
member of l^ew Garden Monthly Meeting of Friends
in ISTorth Carolina.
Dolly Madison came of pious stock. While presiding
genius of the White House, during the administration of her
husband, James Madison, she commanded the respect of the
nation, and for thirteen years succeeding his death, she main-tained
a conspicuous and respected position in society at
Washington, never forsaking the early and careful teachings
received in her youth.
(2) "Friends in South Carolina," particularly the Bush
River settlements.
II. In The Guilford Collegian, the College Magazine:
(1) "Matthew W. Ransom," the distinguished soldier,
statesman, scholar, and orator. This article was well received
and highly commended by his relatives as a true and just
eulogy of the merits and public services of this great IsTorth
Carolinian.
(2) "Guilford—^What's in a JSTame," was a carefully com-piled
study of the origin of the name and how and why it was
transplanted to America.
BIOGRAPHICAL, SKETCHES. 309
Miss White, though not a native of Guilford County, loves
its people and its traditions.
It was in this county that the ''Battle of Guilford Court
House" was fought, March 15, 1781—the battle that led to
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The site of this
noted battle was secured through the services of that dutiful
and distinguished son of IvTorth Carolina, the late Judge
David Schenck, and the formation of the "Guilford Battle
Ground Company," which has cleared up, adorned, and
placed there many monuments to distinguished men of the
Colonial and Revolutionary period. Since the death of
Judge Schenck, Maj. Joseph M. Morehead has been the un-tiring,
zealous and devoted President, under whose guiding
hand the work goes on, making this the historic rallying
ground of the Piedmont section of JSTorth Carolina.
A biographical sketch of Mr. Marshall DeLancey Haywood will appear
in the next Booklet. In future issues will be given sketches of those
who contributed articles previous to Vol. VI.
ABSTRACTS OF WILLS PREVIOUS TO 1760.
By Mrs. H. DeB. Wills, Genealogist and Historian, N. C D. R.
Will of George Deane, Sr., of Chowan; 1700; Son George,
daughter Christian, Wife Elizabeth.
Will of William Benbury ; July 1709 ; Wife Jane Son-in-law
James Watch ; sons William and John ; daughters Mar-tha
and Hannah. Test. Henry Bonner, Ann Moseley and
Edward Moseley.
Will of James Fewox, Tyrrell; May 5th, 1711; son Eob-ert,
John Lawson, Mary Lawson, Jr., grandson Samuel
Hardy, son of William Hardy, (brother of John and Jacob
Hardy of Bertie), wife Anne, Mary Lawson, wife of ]^a-thaniel
Lawson.
Will of Farnifold Green of Bath, 1711 ; sons Thomas,
John, Farnifold, and James Green ; wife Hannah, daughters
Elizabeth and Jane Green; daughter-in-law Ann Smithwick;
wife Hannah Exx.
William Duckenfield, of Cheshire, Eng., Feb. 1721
;
brother John, Cousin Charles Barbour, Cousin Nathaniel
Duckenfield, son of my brother Sir Robert Duckenfield,
Mary, Anne, Susanna, Jane, Katherine, and Judith, sisters
of I^athaniel.
William Barry, 1722 ; Marian, brother David Barry, Theo'
Morris, Mary Meads, daughter of John Meads of Little
River.
Will of Gov. Charles Eden; prob. 1722; dear niece Mrs.
Margaret Rough, youngest daughter of Robert Rough, de-ceased;
dear friends John Holloway, Daniel Richardson,
James Henderson, John Lovick; John Lovick, Ex.
Will of Thomas Hoskins, 1733-'34; daughter Sarah Charl-ton,
son William, daughter Mary, William Hoskins and John
Benbury, executors. (He had other children, among them
ABSTKACTS OF WILLS. 311
son Thomas ; who can furnish the full list.
—
N. C. Hist, and
Geril Register.
Will of Christopher Gale, Chief Justice of the Colony
1734; b. at York, G. B., 54 years old; wife Sarah Catherine,
brother Edmund, debts due from the estate of my wife's for-mer
husband, John Ismay, son Miles Gale, daughter Pene-lope
Little, Mary, daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Clayton, gr.
daughter Sarah Clayton, JSTephew and godson Edmund Gale,
Granddaughter Penelope Little. Note, Wife Sarah was
Widow of Gov. Thomas Harvey, nee Laker (dau. of Benj.
Laker). William Little married his daughter Penelope.
Will of John Baptista Ashe ; * * * prob. 1740 ; son Lemuel,
son John, daughter Mary, brother Samuel Swann.
Will of Richard Hill of Bath, Granddaughter Elizabeth
Hill, brother Francis Hill, son-in-law Evan Jones, daughter
Ann Jones, Craven Precinct 1723-4.
Will of Samuel Johnston of Onslow Co., Prob. Jan. 3
—
1759; daughters Jean, Penelope, Isabel, Ann and Hannah;
sons Samuel and John. Test Cary Godbie, Wm. Williams,
John Milton,
Will of Gov. Gabriel Johnston of Eden House, Bertie Co.,
prob. April 10th, 1753 ; Wife Frances, daughter Penelope,
* * * brother Samuel's children my books to Wm. Cathcart,
sister Elizabeth Sinclair of Fife K. B.