North Carolina booklet : great events in North Carolina history

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Vol. VI. OCTOBER, 1906 No. 2
U/?e
NortK Carolina Booklcl:
GREAT EVENTS
IN
NORTH CAROLINA
HISTORY
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
BY
THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY
DAUGHTERS of the REVOLUTION
CONTENTS
The Borough Towns of North Carolina
By Francis Nash
Governor Thomas Burke -----
By J. G. dt Roulhac Hamilton, Ph. D.
Colonial and Revolutionary Relics in the Hall of History
By Col. Fred. A. Olds
The N. C Society D. R. and its Objects
Biographical and Genealogical Sketches
By Mrs. E. E. Moffitt
(ILLUSTRATED)
Page
83
103
123
146
151
SINGLE NUMBERS 35 CENTS $1.00 THE YEAR
*j
M
^^^^^'^•'^-^'•k--^-^'^"^'^-:^-^-^-^-^-^-'^-'^'^^^^
KSTKMKb IN THl': fOST Ol'FI CK AT HAI.ElOil, X, C, AM .-JECONU-t LA..SS .U^TTEU.
The North Carolina Booklet.
Great Events in North Carolina History.
VOLUME VL
Glimpses of History in the Names of our Counties,
Kemp. P. Battle, LL. D.
A Colonial Admiral of the Cape Fear (Admiral Sir Thomas Frank-land),
Mr. James Sprunt.
The Indian Tribes of Eastern North Carolina, Richard Dillard, M. D.
Gov. Thomas Burke, . . . Mr. J. G. de Roulhac Ham.Uton
.
Some North Carolina Histories and their Authors,
Professor Edward P. Moses.
The Borough Towns of North Carolina, . . Mr. Francis Nash.
The John White Pictures, Mr. W.J.Peele.
Gov. Jesse Franklin, .... Professor J. T. Alderman.
Industrial Life in Early North Carolina, . . Mr. T. M. Pittman.
Colonial and Revolutionary Costumes in North Carolina,
Miss Mary Hilliard Hinton.
North Carolina's Attitude to the Revolution, Mr. Robert Cowan Strong.
The Fundamental Constitutions and the Effects on the Colony,
Mr. Junius Davis.
The BOOKI^ET will contain short biographical sketches of the writers
who have contributed to this publication, by Mrs. E. E. Moflfitt.
The Booklet will print abstracts of wills prior to 1760, as sources of
biography, history and gexiealogy.
The Booklet will be issued quarterly by the North Carolina
Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, beginning July,
1906. Each Booklet will contain three articles and will be published
in July, October, January and April. Price, |i.oo per year, 35 cents for
single copy.
Parties who wish to renew their subscription to the Booklet for
Vol. VI, are requested to notify at once.
Address,
MISS MARY HILLIARD HINTON,
"Midway Plantation,"
Editors: Raleigh, North Carolina.
Miss Mary Hilliard Hinton,
Mrs. E. E. Moffitt.
Vol. VI. OCTOBER, 1906. No. 2
IShe
J^ORTH CflROIimfl BoOKIiET
^^Carolma! Carolina! Heaven'' s blessings atteyid her
!
While we live we will cherish, protect and deferid her. '
'
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. Editobs.
ADVISORY BOARD OF THE NORTH CAROLINA
BOOKLET.
Mrs. Spiek Whitakee. Mbb. T, K. Beunee.
Professor D. H. Hill. Me. K D. W. Connoe.
Mr. W. J. Peele. Dr. E. W. Sikes.
Professor E. P, Moses. Dr. Richard Dillaed.
De. Kemp P. Battle. Me. James Speunt.
Mr. IMarshall DeLancey Haywood. Judge Walter Clabk.
EDITORS :
Miss Maey Hilliard 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 CLARK.
honoeaey regent:
Mrs. spier WHITAKER.
{Nee Hooper.)
RECORDING SECRETARY:
Mrs. J. W. THACKSTON.
' CORRESPONDING SECRETARY:
Mrs. W. H. PACE.
TREASURER
:
Mrs. frank SHERWOOD.
REGISTRAR
:
Mrs. ED. CHAMBERS SMITH.
GENEALOGIST
:
Mrs. HELEN De BERNIERE WILLS.
Founder of the North Carolina Society and Regent 1896-1902:
Mrs. spier WHITAKER.
REGENT 1902:
Mrs. D. H. HILL, Sr.*
REGENT 1902-1906:
Mrs. THOMAS K. BRUNER.
* Died December 12, 1904.
THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Vol. VI OCTOBER. 1906 No. 2
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA
BY FRANCIS NASH.
Human progress—human life, indeed—is so much the re-sultant
of the impact of external forces upon peoples or
individuals, that freedom of action, to say nothing of free-dom
of thought, is rather ideal than real, and can he attained
only approximately, never absolutely. We inherit our tem-perament,
our tastes, and our aptitudes; so much so that
quite frequently the habits of our ancestors become instincts
to us. We are also, to some degree, creatures of our training
and environment, and as members of society we are subject
to the will of that society, whether expressed in its legislation
or in its unwritten law—public opinion. But man and
nations struggle to attain this ideal freedom, and the result
of this struggle, on the whole, is progress. In this struggle
are two opposing forces—radicalism and conservatism—and
these are but the outward expression of two instincts that
are common to all humanity—^the desire for the new, and
the love of the old. In the action and interaction of these
forces is found safety; for radicalism unchecked by conserv-atism
is destructive, while conservatism uninspired by radi-calism
is stagnant.
The erection of little hamlets into boroughs, or franchised
towns, in our early colonial history, is an instance of con-servatism
which had become stagnant. As, regardless of
beauty, privacy and utility, the colonists located their resi-dences
on the street lines of these towns, because their ances-tors
had done the same in crowded England or Scotland, so
84 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
these little commimities of twenty or thirty families must
be franchised because the greater towns of England had been.
Thus the influence of inherited tastes, aptitudes and manners
proved stronger than common sense.
It is my purpose in this article to deal with these towns as
political entities. I could by no possibility compress within
the limits of a Booklet article any satisfactory account of
their social, industrial and educational life and progress.
In England, before representative goveiTnnent was estab-lished,
the term "borough" bore the sigTiification of a pledge;
that is, when a number of men congregated in a community,
thus forming a village or a town, that tovm or village became
responsible for the acts of its inhabitants—became, in other
words, a borough or pledge for their good conduct.
Later, as the merchants increased in wealth, and through
that wealth acquired power, the monarch conferred the fran-chise
upon these to\viis, both as a reward for services ren-dered
and that there might be some check upon the over-weening
arrogance of the landed gentry.
It is well kno"\vn that the first successful struggle for liberty
in England was that of the lords and barons against the arbi-trary
power of the King; the second was that of the com-mercial
classes against the tyranny of the aristocracy. In the
latter struggle the King was on the side of commerce ; and
so trade, tlirough these franchised towns, was represented in
Parliament. The system itself thus forms part of the great
scheme of checks and balances upon which the English Con-stitution
is builded. In England it was a necessary safe-guard
against the encroachments of a landed aristocracy, and
90 constitutes one of the landmarks in man's progress towards
civil liberty. In the Province of North Carolina, however,
while in a sense there was a landed aristocracy, in no sense
was there any appreciable commerce.
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 85
The Board of Trade, September 8, 1721 (2 C. R, 419),
writes thus to the Secretary:
''There are great tracts of good land in this province, and
it is a very healthy country, but the situation renders it for-ever
incapable" (it must be remembered that this was before
the day of railroads and river and harbor bills) "of being a
place of considerable trade, by reason of a great sound, near
sixty miles over, that lies between this coast and the sea,
barred by a vast chain of sand-banks so very shallow and
shifting that sloops drawing only five-foot water run great
risk of crossing them. The little commerce, therefore, driven
to this colony is carried on by very small sloops, chiefly from
INTew England, who bring them clothing and ironware in
exchange for their pork and corn, but of late they have made
small quantities of pitch and tar, which are first exported to
Xew England and thence to Great Britain."
Besides, in j!^orth Carolina the few merchants were almost
without exception also land owners. If they resided in these
towns their slaves, under the direction of an overseer, culti-vated
their plantations near by. Indeed, the merchants were
as much a part of the aristocracy of the province as the land
cwners or the lawyers. In addition to this, the representa-tion
of these boroughs was quite frequently in the hands of
lawyers and others whose interest in trade was only secondary.
The right to confer the franchise upon a town was part of
the King's prerogative. At first, however, it was not asserted
;
New Bern, Bath, Edenton, Wilmington and Brunswick being
created boroughs by act of the Assembly (23 S. R., pages 79,
133, 251 and 398). Section 31 of the Act of 1715 reads
thus : '"For the further encouragement of this town of Bath,
and all other towns now or hereafter built within this govern-ment,
it shall and may be lawful for the freeholders of said
town of Bath, and of all other towns now or hereafter built
or to be built within this government, at all times hereafter,
86 THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
when representatives or burgesses are to be chosen for the
precinct wherein the town lies, to elect one burgess to repre-sent
the same in all succeeding Assemblies: Provided, that
this election for members of Assembly to serve for the town
of Bath, or any other town whatsoever, shall not begin nor
commence till such town shall have at least sixty families."
In the next section, however, New Bern is allowed to send
a representative, regardless of the sixty-family provision. In
the time of Governor Dobbs, 1754, the King's prerogative to
confer this privilege was asserted and established. (5 0. E.,
pages 406-7; see also 6 C. R., page 752, and 23 S. R., page
251.)
There were some variations in the qualifications of voters
in these towns. Stated generally, they must have been house-holder
or freeholder residents for some definite period—in
some instances three and others six months. (23 S. R., pages
133 and 140.) To be eligible as a burgess, one must have
been a freeholder, but not necessarily a resident.
It was only at the beginning of their existence that any of
them could have been considered pocket boroughs, in the
sense that a single man or family could dispose of an election
to the Assembly from them. Later, indeed, the elections in
many instances were hotly contested and the majorities were
very small.
Bath.—Though New Bern was the first town to be repre-sented
in the General Asembly,Bath was the oldest to^m in the
province. It was laid off in 1705, but was not represented until
after 1715. Of the borough towns, therefore, Bath shall be
considered first. Rev. William Gordon, an intelligent mis-sionary,
gives us this account of Bath County and town in
1709 (1 0. R., page 715) :
^'Bath County contains most of that laud which lies to the
southward of Albemarle Sound to Pamlico River and thirty
or forty miles more southerly to the Neuse River, which
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 87
(being but lately peopled by a few Frencb who left Virginia)
is not laid down on the draft. They have divided the whole
county into three precincts or parishes, though the inhabitants
of all are but equal in number to any one of the other, most
of which are seated on Pamlico River or its branches. Here
is no church, though they have begun to build a town called
Bath. It consists of about twelve houses and is the only town
in the whole province. They have a small collection of books
for a library, which were carried over by Rev. Dr. Bray, and
some land is laid out for a glebe, but no minister would ever
stay long in the place, though several have come hither from
the West Indies and other plantations in America ; and yet I
must own it is not the unpleasantest part of the country
—
nay, in all probability it will be the center of a trade, as
having the advantage of a better inlet for shipping, and sur-rounded
with the most j)leasant of savannahs, very useful for
stocks of cattle." In 1711 that picturesque misfit of a par-son,
John Urmston, styled it the most obscure, inconsider-able
place in the country. He wanted Dr. Bray's library,
though, and was provoked at its location at Bath, (1 C. R.,
page 772.) During the Indian outbreak of 1711 that town
was in very serious danger, but it was protected by a stock-aded
fort and a small garrison, so its inhabitants were not
massacred, though in much alarm. (1 C R., 826.) In 1714,
Mr. Urmston again writes : "We expect to hear that famous
city of Bath, consisting of nine houses, or rather cottages,
once styled the metropolis and seat of this government, will
be totally deserted ; and yet I cannot find means to secure
that admirable collection of books sent in by the Rev. Dr.
Bray for the use of the ministers of this province, but it will
in all probability ser\'e for a bonfire to the Indians. (2 C. R.,
144.)
Dr. Bray had been a missionary to the province and had
married Martha, daughter of Thomas Pollock, the elder. He
88 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
is said to have been learned and to have originated the first
systematic movement in the Church of England for missions
to the dependencies of Great Britain. When he returned
home in 1699 he sent a few of his own books to the colony,
and the following year, 1700, was instrumental in having
others sent over. (1 C. R., 572.) The Assembly, in 1715,
enacted an elaborate law to secure this library. (23 S. R.,
76 et seq.) It, however, shared the fate of all such enter-prises
in communities where there are few readers and no
book lovers. Commenting on this act in 1731, Grovernor
Burrington said: ''This, though a long act, only concerns a
town where little improvements have been made, and for
securing a small library that was too much embezzled before
the act was made." (3 C. R, 187.)
At its foundation there were some anticipations of a future
greatness which have never been realized. In 1716 the Pro-prietors
made it a seaport town, with the privileges of the
same. It was the county-seat of Bath County, and many of
the prominent officials of the province lived in its neighbor-hood,
including Tobias Knight and Teach, the pirate. It
was badly located, however (on sixty acres of land lying on
Old Town Creek, a short tributary on the north side of Pam-lico
River), and was crowded to the wall first by ISTew Bern
and then by Beaufort and Washington. For these reasons, it,
in its best estate, grew slowly, and never at any time became
an important point. It has long since ceased to be more than
a memory. It was disfranchised by the Constitution of 1776.
The following is a list of its representatives, so far as they
can now be ascertained, to the adoption of the State Consti-tution
:
Roger Kennion, John Lahey, Rog^r Kennion, Robert Tur-ner,
Richard Rigby, Robert Turner, Michael Coutanche,
Wyriot Ormond, Michael Coutanche, Robert Palmer, Wyriot
Ormond, Patrick Gordon, John Maule, Wyriot Ormond and
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 89
William Brown. The latter also represented Bath in each
of the four Provincial Congresses or Conventions.
Xew Bern.—I^ew Bern was, from DeGraffenreid's own
narration, the child of his sorrow. Hunger and starvation,
disease and death preyed upon the Palatines after their arrival
in the province in 1710, and when he came later in the same
year Avith his Bernese he found them in despair. "I cannot,"
said he (1 C. P., 910), "enough insist on the wretched and
sorrowful state in which I found these poor people on my
arrival—nearly all sick and at the last gasp, and the few who
had kept their health despairing entirely." Mrs. Kennedy
thus beautifully describes the tongue of land on wliich they
had been located : "A long point of land, bounded north and
south by a strip of shining river ; and on this land a virgin
forest, draped in long, gray moss; here and there a tangle
of vines, a rainbow blending of parti-colored blossoms, with
brilliant grosbeaks and red-winged blackbirds darting like
living flowers through the golden sunshine, leaving a trail of
song behind, or whip-poor-wills and chuck-will-widows calling
wistfully to each other through the lonesome darkness. And
out beyond the apex of the tongue of land the two rivers,
blended into one wide current, flowing ceaselessly to the dis-tant
waiting sea." Over this beautiful scene hovered the
Angel of Death. Many of these recent comers from the purer
atmosphere of the Upper Rhine and the mountains of Switz-erland
were prostrated by the fever that lurked in the low-grounds
and swamps which surroimded them. The coming
of DeGraffenreid with his Sivitzers, however, inspired the
dejected colonists with new life, and they entered more heart-ily
into the improvement of their surroundings. The town
of ]^ew Bern was founded and many settlements were cleared
about it. They were beginning, as their crops were maturing
the following year, 1711, to look with hope to the future,
when the Indians in overwhelming force burst upon them,
90 THE NOETH CAROLI]?^A BOOKLET.
massacred eighty of them and carried twenty or more off
into captivity. During the rest of that war they were lit-tle
troubled by their savage foes, DeGraffenreid, himself
escaping death and imprisonment, had made a treaty with
them, by which his colonists would be exempt from attack so
long as they remained neutral in the war, which in a desul-tory
way continued four years longer. Financial and other
troubles coming thick upon DeGraffenreid, he, after making
over all his property to Thomas Pollock, left his colonists
and the country, and they (the Palatines and Swiss) being
scattered about the section, lost their distinctive organization.
In 1715 the town was franchised, and in 1723 it was incor-porated
and its limits extended to include 250 acres. A
curious provision of this law was contained in section 7 : ''If
any person or persons shall die possessed of any of said lots
without leaving heir or Avithout making a will of the said lot,
then and in such case the absolute fee to the same shall come
and revert to said Cullen Pollock, his heirs and assigns, for-ever."
The Assembly for the first time met in 'New Bern in 1738.
The seat of government was fixed there in 1746. (23 S. E.,
252.) This, however, did not mean that the Governor was
to reside there, nor that he could not call the Assembly to-gether
at another place. It will appear later that it met at
other places after this period. Indeed, until Tryon came,
New Bern seems not to have been a favorite of any of the
Governors. Johnston was evidently partial to the new town,
Wilmington on the Cape Pear, while Dobbs, living at Bruns-wick,
did all he could to make that an important place. New
Bern, despite of this, continued to grow in population and to
thrive commercially, and when the Tryon Palace was com-pleted
in 1770 it became the political metropolis of the prov-ince.
The following were its burgesses to the adoption of the
Constitution: Walter Lane, Samuel Powell, Walter Lane,
THE BOEOUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 91
George Bould, William Wilson, John Cariithers, Jeremiah
Vail, Solomon E,ew, James Davis, Joseph Leech, Alexander
Emslej, Richard Caswell, Christopher ISTeale, and in the first
Convention Abner ISTash and Isaac Edwards; second idem,
Abner ISTash, James Davis, William Tisdale and Richard
Ellis ; third idem, Abner ISTash ; fourth idem, Abner ITash.
Edenton.—The To^vne on Queen Anne's Creek was estab-lished
by an act of the Assembly in 1712. There a court-house
was to be built and a house to hold the Assembly in.
In 1722 it was incorporated as the town of Edenton. It was
located in what was then the best settled and the most pros-perous
section of the province. And thus it continued for
many years, but, the center of population moving further west
and south, it was found too much out of the way to remain a
political capital. So much culture, wealth and ability were
grouped about it, however, that no community had so great
an influence upon affairs in the province, and later, in the
founding of the State, as Edenton. Men like Samuel John-ston,
Thomas Jones, Joseph Hewes, James Iredell and others
could scarcely be found elsewhere in jSTorth Carolina, or, if
found, had not formed themselves into a compact and efficient
coterie. From 1720 to 1738 the Assembly met in Edenton.
In 1738 and 1739 it met in ISTew Bern. It resumed its sit-tings
in Edenton in 1740, but in 1743 was the last of its meet-ings
in that place. The following were its burg-esses to 1777 :
Thomas Parris, Robert Lloyd, William Williams, Charles
Westbeer, William Badham, James Craven, Samuel Still-well,
Thomas Barker, Joseph Hewes, Samuel Johnston, Jos-eph
Hewes, Samuel Johnston, Joseph Hewes, and Joseph
Hewes, in all of the Provincial Congresses, with Jasper
Charlton with him in the second Congress.
Wilmington.—If there was any section of ISTorth Caro-lina
that vied with Edenton in culture and wealth, it was the
Cape Eear section. Governor Johnston, writing of the in-
92 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
habitants of this section, December 24, 1734, says: "They
are a very sober and industrious set of people and have made
amazing progress in their improvement since their first set-tlement,
which was about eight years ago. As proof of this
I find by the Collector's books forty-two ships went loaded
from this river within these twelve months last past. There
are now several of them planting mulberries for raising of
raw silks, and cultivating vines for producing wine, in
which they seem very expert. Some few are likewise making
attempts for oil from the olive and from divers sorts of nuts
and seeds which grow almost spontaneously here, for all which
both climate and soil seem wonderfully adapted."
The little hamlet of i^e^^^on existed as early as 1732, and
Grovernor Johnston opened a land office there on the 13th of
May, 1735. It was incorporated in March of that year (4
C. R., page 43). Governor Johnston became the patron of
this little town, very much as Governor Dobbs afterwards be-came
the patron of Brunswick and Governor Tryon of Hills-boro.
He o\^^led lands adjoining it on the northeast, and in
1739 had it incorporated as a town under the name of Wil-mington,
and made a borough (23 S. R., page 133). It was
found necessary to include in the borough those who resided
out of the limits of the town "between the bounds of said town
upwards and Smith's Creek, and within 120 poles of the
northeast branch of the Cape Fear River," and who should be
the inhabitant of a brick house of the length of thirty feet
and width of sixteen feet. It was through Governor Johnston's
influence that one session of the Assembly was held at Wil-mington
in 1741 and one session in 1746. During his long
administration, with these exceptions and also a session at Bath
in 1752, the Assembly met at ISTew Bern. Wilmington was
granted a royal charter, March 5, 1763 (23 S. R., 654.) The
following were the Burgesses from Wilmington from 1740 to
1777 : William Farris, Thomas Clark, Lewis DeRosset, Cor-
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 93
nelius Harnett; to the first Convention, Francis Claji;on; to
the second, Cornelius Harnett and A. Maclaine ; to the third,
Cornelius Harnett; to the fourth, William Hooper.
Brunswick.—The Moores, Maurice and Roger, were the
founders of Brunswick. It was begun in 1725, but Governor
Johnston threw his influence in favor of its rival, jSTewton,
and it was not incorporated until 1745, and was franchised by
special act of the Assembly in 1754, though it did not contain
more than twenty families. (5 C. R., 158 and 151.) There
was for years great rivaliy between Brmiswick and Wilming-ton,
but the open roadstead of the former, together with the
better location of the latter, soon settled the fate of both towns.
The site of Brunswick is known now only from the ruins of
St. Philip's Church, while Wilmington is a thriving city of
30,000 inliabitants. The Burgesses of Bnmswick to its dis-franchisement
by the Constitution of 1776, were as follows:
Maurice Moore, William Dry, Maurice Moore, and in the
first Convention unrepresented, in the second, Maurice Moore,
in the third, the same, in the fourth, Parker Quince.
Halifax.—This town was incorporated in 1757. The
Assembly applying the old Bath to^vn 60 family law of 1715,
admitted Stephen Dewey as Burgess from Halifax in April,
1760, and again in 1761, Alexander Emsley, but this was
disapproved in England (6 C. R., 752). In 1764, however,
a charter was granted to the town by Governor Dobbs, and
thence forward until 1835 it continued to send Burgesses to
the General Assembly. It is well known that in and about
Halifax from 1770 until the Civil War, there continued to
be many well-to-do and cultured planters and merchants. Dur-ing
the Revolutionary War it, too, became an important
political point, the third and fourth Provincial Conventions
meeting there. There the first instructions for independence
were adopted, April, 1776, and there, too, was the birth of
the State in December of the same year. A session of the
94 THE NORTH CAKOLINA BOOKLET.
Legislature of 1780 was also held in Halifax in 1781. The
Burgesses of the town from 1764 to the adoption of the Con-stitution
were: Abner Nash, Joseph Montfort; in the first
Convention, John Geddy; in the second, Willie Jones and
Francis Kash ; in the third and fourth, Willie Jones.
Salisbury.—Salisbury was laid off by William Churton,
that founder of towus in the middle section of the Province,
in 1753, although it appears not to have been regularly incor-porated
until 1770. Governor Tryon, no doubt influenced
by the inequality of representation between the East and the
West, created it a borough by charter in 1765 or 1766. The
Burgesses from it to the adoption of the Constitution of 1776
were : Jolin Mitchell, John Dunn and Hugh Montgomery
;
to the first Convention, William Kennon ; to the second, Hugh
Montgomery and Robert Rowan; to the third and fourth,
David JSTesbit.
HiLLSBORO.—In 1754 William Churton laid off a town
on the north bank of the Eno River, where the great Indian
tiail crossed it. This town was in 1759 incorporated under
the name of Childsburg. In 1766 its name was changed to
Hillsboro. Governor Tryon seemed to be much interested in
this fiourishing settlement in the back country, and, July 9,
1770, made it a market to\ATi and borough by charter. He
has been criticised for tliis, it being said that he franchised a
little hamlet that his friend, Edmund Fanning, who had
been defeated by Herman Husband in the county, might have
a pocket borough to represent in the Assembly. I suppose
that the desire to have Fanning in the Assembly did influence
the Governor in thus exercising the royal prerogative, but in
doing so, he at no point strained the law. Bath, Edenton
and ISTew Bern were the only boroughs in the province that
had been franchised by the Assembly. It was attempted in
the case of Wilmington, BrunsAvick and Halifax, but in each
case the act of the Assembly was repealed in England, and
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 95
these boroughs were re-franchised by charter. The old Bath
60-family act, 1715, had been construed as allowing a town
with due proof that it contained 60 families to apply to the
governor for a charter, and thus construed it did not limit the
King's prerogative, but it did not and could not prevent the
King or liis viceroy, the Governor, from chartering a town,
though it might have contained less than 60 families. This
was done in the case of Salisbury in 1766, a smaller town
than Hillsboro, It is very probable, too, that the latter
place, counting free blacks as well as whites, had the full
complement of 60 families in 1770. The following were the
Burgesses from Hillsboro to the adoption of the Constitution
:
Edmund Fanning, Francis ISTash ; unrepresented in the first
Convention ; in the second, William Armstrong and l^athaniel
Eochester; in the third and fourth, William Johnston.
Campbelton.—Campbelton was incorporated as a town in
1762. Being at the head of the navigation of the Cape Fear
River, and having dependent upon it for a market an exten-sive
and fertile back country, then rapidly filling up with
settlers, it was thought that it was one of the most eligible
localities in the Province for a town. It soon had a rival,
hoAvever, in the near-by village of Cross Creek, the latter
seeming to absorb the lion's share of the trade. The Legis-lature
of 1778, first session, included Cross Creek in Camp-belton,
and so that village ceased to have a legal existence
independent of the latter place. Campbelton was made a
borough by charter in 1773, Martin being Governor. In
April, 1783, the Legislature, reciting that the said town from
its convenience to the western settlements and the easy trans-portation
of goods down the Cape Fear River, must necessa-rily
become a great mart for the produce of the interior
country, changed its name to Fayetteville. Campbelton was
disfranchised by the Constitution of 1776, but Fayetteville
was franchised by an ordinance of the Convention of 1789,
96 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
which had met at that place to consider, and, in fact, adopt
the Federal Constitution. The Burgesses from Campbelton
to its disfranchisement were: William Hooper, Robert Eow-an;
in the first Convention it was unrepresented; in the sec-ond,
James Hepburn; in the third, Arthur Council; in the
fourth, Thomas Hadley.
Disfranchisement.—Bath, Brunswick and Carnpbelton
were disfranchised by the Constitution of 1776, leaving Xew
Bern, Wilmington, Edenton, Halifax, Hillsboro and Salis-bury
still boroughs, and as above stated, Fayetteville again
became a borough town in 1789. The Convention of 183-5 did
away entirely with all borough representation. The Act of
January 5, 1835, (the Convention Act,) gave the Convention
a discretion to abolish borough representation in whole or in
part. The act itself, thus committing their fate to the Con-vention,
was enacted by the aid of the borough members. The
debate in the Convention arose on a resolution of Dr. James
S. Smith, a representative from Orange and for forty years
a resident of Hillsboro, in these words : "It is expedient to
abolish borough representation entirely." Judge Gaston op-posed
this, because, first, the towns had certain definite and
distinct interests of their own, which could be adequately pro-tected
only by their o^vn representatives. In them property
was in a more concentrated form, and they paid a large pro-portion
of the taxes of the county in which they were located
second, agriculture was represented through the counties
—
trade and commerce should be represented through the towns
;
third, boroughs were more apt than the counties to send their
best men to the Legislature. Later in the same day, June 10,
1835, he elaborated the second point thus: "It is vain to
deny that commercial communities have peculiar interests of
their own. These they must endeavor to protect and ad-vance
through some agent or other. If we deny them a con-stitutional
agent, they will be driven to get agents of another
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 97
kind. If tliey are to liave no member in the hall of legisla-tion,
thej may be compelled to send you lobby members.
Heard in the Legislature, they can do no harm. So few in
number, their voice can be effectual only when it is the voice
of truth and justice. But when members of the Assembly
shall be approached through the other agents, means of per-suasion
may be used of a different character. The intelli-gent
may indeed be addressed by reason, and the just by fair
statements—but the uninformed may be misled by falsehood,
and those whose consciences are in their pockets, may be
convinced by arguments directed to the seat of their sensi-bility."
These arguments were met by the suggestions, first, repre-sentation
in the House of Commons was to be based upon
Federal population. If these small, though compact and
populous communities, were to be allowed a special repre-sentative
this principle would have to be disregarded, and as
a consequence there would be an unequal representation, the
very evil that the Convention had been called to remedy.
Second, if there had ever been anything in the doctrine that
trade and commerce were entitled to special representation,
the Federal Constitution had removed this by placing inter-state
and foreign commerce under the care of the Federal
Government. On this point Mr. Jesse Wilson, of Perqui-mans,
trenchantly asked: "If it be true that this right of
representation is essential to the protection of their interests,
why has not the fostering care of the Legislature, for more
than fifty years, been able to prevent them from sinking into
ruin ? Halifax, sir, is gone ; Edenton is gone, and N"ew Bern
is not far behind." And again: "But, sir, it is said that
there are mysteries about this trade and commerce that only
mercantile gentlemen can understand. Why then, sir, do
they not send merchants, instead of lawyers or doctors ?"
98 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Third, though it was true that the majority of borough rep-resentatives
were men of intelligence and character, the coun-ties
may still avail themselves of the services of such men, so
the State will in reality lose little in this regard. But what
seemed to have most weight with the members of the Conven-tion
was the debauchery and corruption and violence that
accom23anied nearly all these borough elections. In 1825, in
a contest between that brilliant, but thoroughly unprincipled,
firebrand, Robert Potter, and Jesse A. Bynum in Halifax,
the election became first a free fight and then a riot in which
one man was killed and a number injured. Dr. Smith said
in the Convention : ''Has the moral condition of the borough
towns been improved by the privilege which they possess of
sending members to the Legislature ? On the contrary, the
annual elections, it is notorious, in most of the towns are
productive of feuds, quarrels and bloodshed. Mechanics and
others are excited by the parties interested in such elections,
business is neglected, and the morals of the people are cor-rupted."
This of Hil'lsboro. Mr. Charles Fisher, of Salis-bury,
said : ''Who has not witnessed the excitement caused
by these borough elections ? Who has not seen the worst pas-sions
of our nature brought into active exercise by them ?
Who has not heard that corruption of the basest kind is fre-quently
practised to carry a doubtful contest. He knew
these things and how the whole system worked. Every man
is known, as are his calling and necessities. His weak side is
sought out, that he may be successfully approached. Sir,"
(to the Chair, Judge Daniel, of Halifax), "you know all these
things. Have you not witnessed at the elections in your
borough scenes of the most violent character, which not un-frequently
terminated in bloodshed ? Have you not seen
men pressed for their debts, in order to drive them to pursue
a course in direct opposition to their convictions of right ?
Have you not, sir, like myself, seen the elective franchise
THE BOBOrGH TOWNS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 99
abused in every variety of form ? * * * X have seen in these
contests family arrayed against family—carried to the ex-tremes
of bitterness. I have seen neighbors separated and
estranged, and social intei'course destroyed. Yes, sir, even
has this pestiferous influence penetrated the church, and dis-turbed
its harmony and brotherhood." And then Mr. Hohnes,
of Wilmington: "But, sir, great as are the evils V7hich he
(Mr. Fisher) portrayed, they are infinitely magnified in our
commercial towns. Our population is of a more abandoned
cast. We have more dependent and more pliable materials
to work upon. He alluded to seamen and others who went
to their employers to know how they should vote, l^othing
was more common than a day or two before the election to
house the voters as they housed their cattle. This was no
extravagance ; he had participated in these contests and knew
the fact."
Certainly there could not have been a more forcible arraign-ment
of the whole system than this, and it proved effective,
notwithstanding it was opposed by such able men as Gaston,
Swain, Daniel and Toomer. These sought to save from the
general wreck of the borough towns, Edenton, JSTew Bern,
Wilmington and Fayetteville, but could not. After debating
the question for two days, it was, on June 11, 1835, referred
to a committee of 26, at whose head was Governor Swain.
That committee reported on June 23 in favor of the franchise
for Edenton, ]N^ew Bern, Wilming-ton and Eayetteville. The
report, after discussion on the 25th, was disagreed to by a vote
of 50 yeas to 73 nays, and so, though other votes were taken
with the same result, all these towns were disfranchised.
Mr. Wilson, of Perquimans, said irreverently in the debate
:
"The monkey is not the only imitative animal. Men are
equally so. Our forefathers scarcely touched this soil before
they began to exercise this imitative faculty. You have seen,
sir, little misses dressing their dolls, and boys switching their
100 THE NORTH CAKOLIlSrA BOOKLET.
stick horses. Like them in the exercise of imitative powers,
our fathers, to ape Great Britain with her Manchester, her
Birmingham, and her Liverpool, gave the right of representa-tion
to Halifax, to Edenton, and to Hillsboro." However
defective Mr. Wilson's knowledge of history may have been,
it must be admitted that there is some truth in his assertion.
The fact that neither Bimiingham nor Manchester was a
franchised town until after the Reform Bill became a law in
1832, may impeach his accuracy, but it detracts little from
the force of his remarks.
From the Lords Proprietors' day to the beginning of the
Civil War, those in authority in JSTorth Carolina continued
to deplore the lack of an adequate seaport. Among the
earliest of the Proprietors' instructions was one requiring the
establishment of three to^wns in the Colony. In addition to
what has already been said of the physical difficulties in the
way of such a project, was this, which has been suggested by
Capt. S. A. Ashe: In the early days the small vessels ply-ing
to colonial ports could readily approach the private
wharves of the rich planters, thus rendering the concentra-tion
and regulation of trade difficult. On this account the
attempt to establish central marts was a failure. This of
course applies only to the towns on navigable waters. As
to the interior towns other reasons prevailed. The inhabi-tants
of the country districts had few interests in common
with those of the towns. Says Prof. C. L. Raper: "Town
life never became very attractive to many of the colonists of
N^orth Carolina, and what few towns there were became much
more important as centers of political activity than they did
of commercial, industrial or social life. They were centers
of local government, and often of political conflicts. They
were places where a few products were bought and sold—not
places of their making. The surplus products of the farms
for miles about them were taken there and exchanged for
THE BOROUGH TOWNS OF NOKTH CAROLINA. 101
a few simple articles, salt being a very important one, and
now and then converted into currency. At times they were
the centers of religious devotion and of intellectual life.
There churches were erected, but during the last fifty years
of the province more places for religious worship were to
be found in the country than in the towns. Here, too, were
a few schools and libraries, but there were more in the rural
districts."
Of course the making of certain of these towns boroughs
was, throughout their whole history, intended as a stimulus
to their growth, but it may well be doubted whether the
possession of the franchise added anything to their com-mercial
or industrial development. The Convention of 1776,
still impressed with the view that commerce, being a special
interest, was entitled to special representation in the Legis-lature,
determined to continue the tide-water towns as
boroughs. Selecting these—ISTew Bern, Wilmington and
Edenton—there immediately arose a political necessity, in
order to placate the western interest, to continue an equal
number of the western to^vas as boroughs. The continuing
of the franchise to Salisbury, Hillsboro and Halifax was
probably based wholly on such a compromise as this. By
1835, however, the people had thoroughly tested the system,
and no doubt they were wholly right in doing away with it
forever.
There is a debt of gratitude that the State owes these towns,
to which I must refer before I close. They had been recipi-ents
of special favors from the royal government, and might
perhaps have been excused for some degree of lukewarmness
in the controversy between that government and its colonies.
But they were not lukewarm. Instead, the history of the
times, properly interpreted, shows that the revolutionary
movement had its origin in these towns and spread from
them to the country districts, where, finding excellent food
102 THE NORTH CAEOLINA BOOKLET.
to feed upon, it grew so great as to cover the whole province.
Wilmington, ISTew Bern and Edenton were the head and front
of this "sedition and treason," and following immediately
after them were Halifax, Hillshoro and Salisbury. The
story of the Revolution in North Carolina would be very
tame, very fragmentary, very inconclusive, if the part that
the great men who lived in or about these towns took was
eliminated from it. They were the men whom Providence
raised up for the emergency, and without them ISTorth Caro-lina
would probably have remained a hot-bed of Toryism.
So we who live to-day may well acknowledge our indebtedness
to them.
I
GOVERNOR THOMAS BURKE.
BY
J, G. deRoulhac Hamilton, Ph.D.,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Among those who accompanied William of Xormandy on
his victorious expedition to England in 1066 were two broth-ers,
sons of Eustice de Burgo, Serlo and John de Burgo, or^
as it soon became, Burke. For their services the Conqueror
rewarded them with the grant of several manors in York,
where Serlo built the castle of Knaresborough. Dying with-out
issue, he was succeeded by his brother John, now called
Monoculus, on account of the loss of one of his eyes. The
latter married a i^orman lady of large fortune, Beatrice de
Vessey by name, and from this union were born two sons,
James of Knaresborough and Richard the Red. Richard
had one son, Walter, who in turn was the father of three
distinguished sons, Haburt, Earl of Kent and Chief Justice
of England ; Jeffrey, Bishop of Ely ; and William, sumamed
de Adehnel, who was sent to Ireland by Henry II and was
given a grant comprising the greater part of the Province of
Connaught. The line of descent of the branch of the family
remaining in England must have been lost, as a letter from
Edanus Burke to Thomas Burke, dated December 2, 1769,
states that all trace of the family in England had disappeared.
Of the Irish branches the same -writer states that from the
similarity of arms^ until 1627 he judged that all were re-lated.
One of these branches was known as the Burkes of
^ The arms were as follows :
The field. Or. Cross-Gules, in the dexter canton, a Lion Eampant, Sable.
Crest: A wreath, a cat and mountain. Proper.
Motto: Un Proy, Une foy, Une Loy.
104 THE ISrORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Tvaquin, after the family estate which had descended line-ally
since Henry II, and from this branch was born the sub-ject
of this sketch.
Thomas Burke, the son of Ulick Burke and Letitia Ould,
was born in Galway, Ireland, about 1747. Almost nothing
is kno^^^l of his early life, except that he spent some time at
a university, probably Dublin. Before he reached manhood
he became involved in some family quarrel, the particulars
of which are unkno^vn, and about 1764 he came to Acco-mac
County, Virginia, and commenced the study and practice
of medicine. He tells in a letter to an old acquaintance in
Ireland, a Mrs. Jones, that his proficiency was equal, if not
superior, to that of most physicians in the colonies, and that
his success was very great. But the pecuniary rewards were
small, and he soon found that law would be more profitable
and of far less responsibility. After pursuing his studies
for a few months with great earnestness, he was licensed at
his first examination, and, as he said, ''with great applause."
At some time during this period he removed to ]SrorfoIk,
where, in 1770, he married Mary Freeman.
Soon after this, probably about 1771, he moved to ISTorth
Carolina and settled in Orange County, about two miles north
of Hillsboro, on a place which he named Tyaquin, after the
family place in Ireland. He had already gone to Halifax
wii'-i D view to settling there, but decided in favor of Hills-boro.
There he was licensed to practice before the Superior
Court in March, 1772. In his new home he soon won dis-tinction
in his profession and made many friends.
When the relations between the colonies and the mother
country became strained in consequence of the Stamp Act
and other measures which the colonies thought oppressive,
Burke was a strong advocate of American rights. While
living in Virginia he had written against the Stamp Act.
Concerning his position he Ma-ote his uncle: "I am and ever
GOVERNOR THOMAS BURKE. 105
shall be avowedly a passionate lover of Liberty and Hater of
Tyranny. The essentials of the former I take to, being gov-erned
by Laws made with Constitutional consent of the com-munity,
ultimately Judged by that Community, and enjoying
and disposing of their property only agreeable to Will, and
the latter is undeniably anything Subversive of those Privi-leges.
How far the Stamp Act was so, sufficiently appears
upon the very face of it."
Dr. Burke's first official public service was as a member
from Orange to the Provincial Congress which met in IvTew
Bern in 1775. He was again a member of the Congress which
met in Hillsboro August 20, 1775. In the first day's session he
was placed upon two important committees—the first, to pre-pare
a test to be signed by all the members of the Cong-ress ; the
other, to confer with such of the inhabitants of the province
as might entertain religious or political scruples in regard
to taking part in the American cause, with a view of in-ducing
them to unite in the common defence of the rights of
the province. The test, as prepared and signed, declared
that the Parliament of Great Britain had no right to impose
taxes upon the colonies, and that any attempt to do so ought
to be resisted by the people ; that the people were bound by
the acts of the Continental and Provincial Congresses, be-cause
they were representative of them ; and, finally, the
members bound themselves to support all such acts to the
utmost of their pow^r. A few days later Burke was placed
upon the committee to prepare an address to the inhabitants
of the province. He was also a member of the Ways and
Means Committee, of which Richard Caswell was chairman.
Dr. Burke was also a. member of the Congress which met
in Halifax April 4, 1776. In this body he was on the fol-lowing
committees : Privileges and Elections ; Claims ; to take
into consideration the usurpations and violences attempted
by the King and Parliament of Britain against America, and
106 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
the further measure to be takeu for frustrating the same;
and for the better defence of the province ; Ways and Means
;
to prepare a temporary civil Constitution; to supply the
province with arms and ammunition; a standing committee
to form a temporary form of govermnent; and ways and
means to prevent the desertion of slaves. He was chairman of
the Committee of Secrecy, Intelligence and Observation, and
was also on nine minor special committees. On April 12th
the Committee on Usurpations^ reported a resolution empower-ing
the delegates of the colony to the Constinental Congress
to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaiming
independence, reserving for the colony the sole right of form-ing
a Constitution and laws for the colony, and of appointing
from time to time delegates to meet those from the other
colonies in regard to matters of common welfare. This was
passed unanimously. Before the Congress adjourned Burke
was elected paymaster of militia for the Hillsboro district.
Before he went to Halifax the people of Orange had caused
Burke to sign certain instructions which, it is said, he wrote
himself, in regard to the form of the proposed new govern-ment.
In brief, they were as follows
:
1. Political power of two kinds, principal and supreme, derived and
inferior.
2. Principal possessed only by the people at large. Derived by their
servants.
3. Whatever persons chosen by people can possess only derived power.
4. Whatever constituted by principal power can be altered only by
people.
5. Rules for derived power's exercise made by principal.
6. No power but principal shall exist.
7. Derived power never to subvert principal.
8. Constitution to be submitted to the people.
9. No established religion.
10. Three branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judi-cial,
all distinct.
11. Two houses in Assembly.
12. All elections by ballot.
13. Executive elected every year.
GOVERNOK THOMAS BUKKE. 107
The election of delegates to the Congress held at Halifax
in November of the same year was accompanied by great
tumult, and in consequence a petition was sent up against
those elected, with a request for a new election. The Con-gress
at first refused to unseat the sitting members, but later
rescinded their action and ordered a new election. This was
probably due in large part to Burke's influence, as he was
present at the sessions of the body. It is very likely that the
leaders in the body wished for his presence. When the new
election was held he was among those elected, and took his
seat on December 16th. Here, besides being placed on a
number of minor committees, he was a member of a com-mittee
appointed to consider, prepare and rej)ort on the busi-ness
necessary to be transacted by the Congress. The Bill of
Rights and Constitution adopted at this session is said to
have been largely the work of Thomas Jones, Thomas Burke,
and Richard Caswell.
On December 20th, Burke, with William Hooper and
Joseph Hewes, was elected a delegate to the Congress of the
United States. For their services each was allowed the sum
of $2,000 per annimi. Dr. Burke now resigned his position
as paymaster of militia, but remained at Halifax until the
close of the session^ December 23, 1Y76.
In the Congress Burke seems to have taken quite a promi-nent
part in the debates, particularly when he thought the
rights of tlie individual States were threatened. His letters
express great fear lest an attempt should be made to give
Congress more power than was compatible with the rights
of the States. In fact, he was opposed to any forms of gov-ernment,
not absolutely necessary, being set up until entire
independence should be secured.
During the first part of his attendance upon the sessions
of Congress, Burke wrote regular and full accounts of the
proceedings to Governor Caswell, but this did not continue.
108 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
In April, 1T77, he was re-elected. At the same session of
the General Assembly a new county w^as erected from a part
of Rowan and was named in his honor.^
In the autumn of that year Burke left the sessions of
Congress for a few days and took part as a volunteer in the
battle of Brandywine. This adventure of his was the in-direct
cause of a serious quarrel later. He became convinced
that the American defeat there was largely due to the ineffi-ciency
of Gen. John Sullivan, and preferred charges against
him in Congress. General Sullivan wrote a letter to Con-gress
containing reflections on Burke, though he was not
mentioned by name. A correspondence between the two fol-lowedj
resulting in a challenge from Burke, and seconds were
named. ^SJ'o meeting was ever brought about, probably on
account of the distance separating them.
In October Dr. Burke returned to ISTorth Carolina, and
on December 1st took his seat as a member of the House of
Commons, to fill the unexpired term of E^athaniel Rochester,
who had shortly before resigned to become Clerk of the Court
of Orange. As usual, Burke seems to have served upon most
of the important committees.
It is not known when Burke returned to Philadelphia, but
he was there by the middle of February, 1778. The pre-ceding
summer he had recommended the appointment of
Hand, of Pennsylvania, as an additional brigadier for ITorth
Carolina, and this excited great feeling among the North
Carolina troops and in the State. Probably this was the
reason why he was not re-elected to Congress in April, 1778.
' There has been some discussion as to whether or not Burke county
was named for Governor Burke or Edmund Burke. Wheeler says it was
for the latter, and his statement has usually been accepted. But the
following extract from a letter of Abner Nash seems final authority on
the subject : "Our Assembly have paid a compliment to our worthy
delegate Dr. Burke, which no private man has experienced before. A
new county taken from Surry {sic) is called for him."
GOVERNOR THOMAS BURKE. 109
He was, however, very anxious to get home, and this may
have had something to do with it, though it is scarcely prob-able.
But for an incident which occurred in April^ 1778,
his political career might have closed here.
The report of a committee of Congress appointed to reply
to a letter of General Washington contained certain expres-sions
which seemed to reflect upon Washington. A pro-longed
and bitter debate followed, in which Burke took an
active pai-t in opposition to the reply of the committee. The
opposition was so strong as to secure an amendment to the
reply. The final vote on the amended reply came late at
night. It was then discovered that there was no quorum,
nine votes being necessary, and Dr. Burke, who was worn out
by the long session, having gone to his lodgings and to bed.
A messenger was sent for him, and returned with a most
violent message of refusal to comply with the demand of
Congress. It turned out that the messenger had not made
himself clearly understood to Dr. Burke, who thought that
he was hearing a message from Colonel Duer, of 'New York.
He repeatedly expressed his regret for his language, but
when Congress was not inclined to accept his explanation,
but debated the matter for fifteen days and actually served
a rule upon him as for contempt, Burke, while acknowledging
that he had been wrong in absenting himself without the con-sent
of Congress, which had a right to compel the attendance
of its members, said
:
" An unreasonable exercise of any power is tyranny and to keep a
member at such unreasonable hours, and under such circumstances is,
in my opinion, tyranical, and I will not submit to it but by force upon
my person. I consider every freeman as having a right to judge for
himself when the exercise of any power is unreasonable, and if I err in
my judgment, the power of punishment lies within the State which I
I represent."
He further stated that he would regard any attempt of
Congress to act in the matter as an infringement upon the
110 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
rights of his State, and that to ISTorth Carolina alone would
he be responsible. Congress then appealed to the General
Assembly of JSTorth Carolina, which referred the matter to a
committee headed by William Hooper. Before the commit-tee
could report, the Assembly elected Dr. Burke and Whit-mel
Hill as additional delegates to Congress, thus showing
where the sympathies of the members were. The committee
reported, August 14th, exonerating him from all blame and
agreeing with him that Congress had no power in the matter.
This naturally closed the incident,
Burke was again elected in 1779 and 1780. In October,
1779, he and Whitmel Hill were invit-ed to the State Senate and
formally thanked by the Speaker for their long and faithful
service in Congress. The Speaker of the House of Commons
also expressed the thanks of that body. In May of the same
year Burke had been elected by the Legislature a trustee of
Granville Hall, an institution of learning in Granville
County.
By this time Burke had become heartily tired of Philadel-phia,
and in April, 1780, he wrote Cornelius Harnett that
his health was declining, and, said he : "1 am satisfied that
another year's close application in Congress would make a
perpetual citizen in Philadelphia and give me a right to the
soil from whence nothing short of the final Judgment of the
World could evict me."
In the suimner of 1780 Burke returned to Hillsboro. His
presence at the time was most fortunate, for the conditions
in the section around Hillsboro were most distressing and
alarming. General Gates, with the army, was there on his
way south, and no provision having been made for feeding
the troops, they subsisted for the most part by foraging and
impressment. ISTot only was food taken, but there was wan-ton
destruction of property. Horses and wagons were seized,
horses were turned into fields of standing grain, and numer-ous
other outrages were committed, which excited the anger
GOVEENOR THOMAS BUEKE. Ill
of the most loyal and roused the slumbering disaffection of
those already inclined to Toryism. This was increased by
the insolence and haughtiness of the officials who had charge
of the matter of procuring supplies. Burke declared that he
would resist any such injustice with force, and, his neighbors
appealing to him for advice and assistance, he at once entered
into correspondence with General Gates and the President of
Congress, stating that he would see that supplies were fur-nished
if the people were fairly treated. To him, largely,
belongs the credit of settling what threatened to be a most
serious matter.
On June 25, 1781, the General Asembly which met at
Wake Court House elected Dr. Burke Governor to succeed
Abner IN^ash, and he entered upon the duties of his office the
next day. The Speaker of the Senate, Alexander Martin, in
his announcement speech, said, among other things
:
" It gives me a particular pleasure to have at the head of the Executive,
a Gentleman on whose Integrity, Firmness, and Abilities, we can rely with
confidence at a Time this State is invaded by a cruel Enemy, and threat-ened
with all the Horrors of War, which to oppose and avert caU for the
most spirited Exertions of this Country, that Independence and Peace
be secm-ed to it on a lasting Basis."
Governor Burke, in expressing his thanlcs and appreciation
for the honor conferred upon him, said
:
" At any period less difficult, dangerous and critical than the present,
I should beg leave to decline an office so much above my abilities and
so illy suiting my private Inclinations and Circumstances. But no con-siderations
of private convenience or of difficulty or danger shall deter
me from any duty to which my Country may call me while her aff"airs
labor under unfavorable Appearances. I therefore consent to take upon
me the Office and Dignity to which the Honorable the General Assembly
have been pleased to elect me, and shall entirely devote myself to the
Establishing of Internal Peace, Order, and Economy and Security from
External Enemies."
For the next three months Burke devoted all his energies
to the task of properly arming and equipping the ISTorth Caro-lina
troops. He became involved in a disagreement in regard
112 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
to executive power with the Board of War, but notified them
that he had the alternative of obeying the Constitution or the
laws, and preferred the former, and that if he could not
exercise the powers given him under the Constitution, he
would immediately resign. This ended the discussion.
He spent most of the summer in Halifax, but early in
September came to Hillsboro. When he reached there he
heard that McISreill and Fanning were advancing with a
large force against General Butler, who was on Haw River.
Burke warned Butler, and the Tories were disappointed in
the main object of their expedition. But they at once turned
to Hillsboro, and, before daylight on September 12, 1781, cap-tured
the town. Burke was then residing on Queen street,
at what is now the residence of Mrs. Edwin Heartt. The
house was besieged, and Burke, believing that all would be
massacred if they surrendered, decided to hold out as long
as possible. After some hot firing, a British officer, brought
up by Captain Reid, Burke's aid-de-camp, assured him of
proper treatment and received his surrender. The jail was
then opened and the town sacked. The party then set out
for Wilmington. At Cane Creek they were attacked by the
W^higs, who, if properly led, would have won a decisive vic-tory.
As it was, a drawn battle was the result. Colonel
McN^eill was killed and Fanning was wounded. A bit of
contemporary doggerel on the subject is interesting:
"The Governor and Council in Hillsborough sought
To establish some new laws the Tories to stop.
They thought themselves safe and so went on with their show,
But the face of bold Fanning proved their overthrow.
We took Governor Burke with a sudden surprise,
As he sat on horseback and just ready to ride.
We took all their cannon and colors in town,
And formed our brave boys and marched out of town.
But the rebels waylaid us and gave us a broadside
That caused our brave Colonel to lie dead on his side.
The flower of our company was wounded full sore
' Twas Captain McNeill and two or three more."
GOVERNOR THOMAS BURKE. 113
Governor Burke was taken to Wilmington and kept as a
prisoner of State for some time. From there, in October, he
wrote to Willie Jones, giving a rather humorous account of
his uncomfoi-table surroundings. He described his room as
a grotto in winter and a hot-house in summer, and said it had,
at first, utterly lacked furniture, but that later he had been
given a bed and some other furniture by a Mr. William
Campbell. He stated that, although he was not shut up in a
seraglio, yet he was as difficult of access as his Majesty of
Constantinople. The following extracts from his letter seem
worthy of quotation:
" My pride if I have any, has this consolation that my most trifling
movements are considered as dangerous to a Prince who is lord of so
many brave battalions and so invincible a navy and such inexhaustible
resources as his Majesty of Great Britain. And this perhaps it is, that
has restored my good humor. I knew before that I was upon the axle-tree
of the chariot but never thought that I made much of the surround-ing
dust. You will no doubt perceive I sometimes smile while I am
writing, but I beg you not to conclude from thence that I am upon a bed
of roses and that I may well stay there sometime longer. You know,
Sir, that tho' I have some firmness, I have also much sensibility of spirit,
that tho' the one enables me to bear, the other obliges me to feel my
situation, and with peculiar poignancy, that restraint which prevents
me from employing such talents as nature has given me, be they what
they may, for the bringing to a complete and happy Issue the cause in
which our country is engaged. You know me well enough to believe
that I cannot lose sight of what I was, nor cease to compare it what I
now am and what I have the prospect of being if this absurd and vexa-tious
question ' should be drawn to any length.
" I will not injure you by thinking it necessary to urge you to hasten
my exchange. I will only add that the opinion my enemies entertain
of my power of injuring them ought to have some weight with my coun-try
since I must be capable of serving her in proportion, but do not take
this as a promise. I will be assured always to do my best, but the
Enemy think me capable of more than I ever thought myself, altho' I
am no pretender to humility, but enough in all conscience on such a
subject."
^ Governor Burke was here referring to the difficulties which were
being put in the way of his exchange, and the question as to whether
he was a prisoner of State or merely a prisoner of war.
3
114 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
From Wilmington Governor Bnrke was removed to Sulli-van's
Island, where he was closely confined. Burke at once
wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour, the commandant at
Charleston, demanding an explanation of the difference be-tween
his treatment and that of the other prisoners. Colonel
Balfour answered that he could make no decision, but offered
to parole him to James Island. On Xovember 6th Burke
accepted the parole and went to James Island, where he was
treated with consideration and respect. After he had been
there for some time a number of refugees were sent there.
They were of the lowest type, and outrage and crime at once
became frequent. Many of them were from Xorth Carolina,
and Burke was to them an object of venomous hatred. He
was often threatened, but at first made no complaint, hoping
that he would soon be exchanged.
Finally a group at his quarters was fired on, and a man
standing on one side of him was killed and one on the other
wounded. Further violence was only prevented by a British
officer who interfered. The next morning Burke wrote Gen-eral
Leslie, explaining the danger of his situation and re-questing
a parole within the American lines. Xo answer
was made to the letter, nor was anything done for his safety.
For sixteen days he waited, exposed always to great danger
and finding it necessary to change his sleeping place con-stantly
and secretly. Finally he w^as notified that General
Leslie was prevented from keeping his promise of paroling
him to Xorth Carolina by Major Craig's making it a point
that the governor should be kept as a subject of retaliation
for the Tories in Xorth Carolina, particularly Fanning.
Governor Burke had seen a letter from Major Craig to Abner
ISTash, in which he said he would not hesitate to deliver to
those who were in arms for the King such prisoners as would
most gratify them in tlieir sentiments of revenge. After
thinking over the treatment he had received, and remember-
GOVERNOR THOMAS BURKE. 115
ing how James Island was regarded with horror in Charles-ton,
even by the British, he decided that he had been exposed
intentionally to the dangers of the place. ]!Tor can the im-partial
student of the facts in the case fail to arrive at a simi-lar
conclusion.
After long reflection, he decided that as a parole was given
in exchange for protection, failure to protect a prisoner would
have the effect of releasing him from his parole. He then
decided to make his escape, and wrote a letter to ISTorth Caro-lina,
asking that the laws might be executed against the
Tories, regardless of him. Finally, on January 16, 1782,
he made good his escape and at once went to General Greene's
headquarters. From there, at the advice of General Greene,
he wrote to General Leslie, informing him of his escape. He
said at the close
:
"But though I carried this resolution to escape into effect, I do not
thereby intend to deprive you of the advantages which my capture, by
the rights of war, entitle you to. I purpose returning to my Govern-rnent,
and there to expect an answer from you to the following propo-sition
:
" I will endeavor to procure for you a just and reasonable equivalent
in exchange for me, or if this cannot be effected, I will return within
your lines on parole, provided you will pledge your honor that I shall
not be treated in any manner different from the officers of the Conti-nental
Army when prisoners of War."
jSTo answer was returned, and Governor Burke, who had
gone to Halifax, ISTorth Carolina, where his wife had been
during his captivity, notified General Greene that he would
wait no longer than April 1st before assuming the reins of
government. This was his most fatal mistake, but there were
many reasons to cause him to make it. When he left Greene's
headquarters it was with the avowed intention of having
nothing to do with political affairs. He expected to find the
General Assembly in session at Salem and to resign to them
his office. But it did not meet, and Governor Burke decided
to go to some other State in order not to embarrass the acting
116 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Governor. But Alexander Martin, the Speaker of the Sen-ate,
reminded him that the office of Speaker would expire at
the next general election, and that the State would be left
without an executive head. So Burke, fearing that confusion
and injury to the affairs of the State would result, decided to
undertake again, and at once, the duties of his office, comfort-ing
himself by coming to the conclusion that it was not
unjustifiable unless his escape was equally so, which he
declined to concede.
In the meantime General Leslie had written to General
Greene that the reasons Burke had advanced were so chimeri-cal
that he could not give them the smallest credit, and ex-pressing
the belief that General Greene would at once direct
Burke to deliver himself up to the commissary of prisoners
at Charleston, where he would be assured of every protec-tion.
General Greene replied that while he could not justify
the breaking of a parole, he could not agree with him in
regard to Governor Burke's reason for doing so, stating that
Colonel Washing-ton had said that he would prefer a dungeon
to going on parole to J'ames Island. He desired to know in
what light Governor Burke was regarded—whether as a pris-oner
of war or of state.
As might be expected, criticism was at once aroused by
Burke's action. Col. William R. Davie wrote him in Feb-ruary
from Salisbury that Colonel Williams, who had lately
come from Greene's headquarters, had stated that Greene
and his officers believed that his conduct was reprehensible
and dishonorable to the State, and that the enemy still had
a claim on him. He advised Burke to take some measures
for his justification, at the same time offering his services in
the matter. Governor Burke at once wrote General Greene,
stating what had been said and thanking him for his efforts
to procure an exchange. At the same time he informed him
that he would not feel bound to consent to any arrangement
GOVERJN^OR THOMAS BUKKE. 117
which provided for his return, as he had decided that if
General Leslie did not answer him he was done with him,
and that if he (General Leslie) asked anything unreasonable
he would not feel bound to accede.
On March 18th, on learning that Burke had resumed the
duties of his office, Greene wrote him, expressing his regret
that he had done so, and informing him that all attempts
at exchange had proved futile. On April 8th he again wrote
him, denying that Colonel Williams had any authority to
make the statements concerning Burke. In his letter he shows
that he thought Burke's escape justifiable, though he said on
another occasion that his idea of the sacredness of a parole
was such that he would sooner have abided the consequences
than left the enemy's lines. Burke had already written to
Colonel Williams, accusing him of misrepresentation. His
letter shows traces of the bitterness which was already rising
within him at the general misunderstanding and disapproval
of his course. April 12th he wrote Greene that the enemy
placed a higher value upon him than his own country did,
but that he was fast preparing to take a final leave of all
public business. Greene replied, expressing sympathy for his
hard case, and closing the personal part of his letter with
these words of advice:
"If the people intend to treat you with ingratitude, I am sorry for it.
Much is due to your zeal and ability and as far as I am acquainted with
the people of your State, they think your captivity a very great misfor-tune.
I beg you will not copy the example of many other great men
who have gone before you, refuse yovu- services because the people ap-pear
at the time to be insensible of their importance. We all have our
dark days. No man has been under greater censure and reproach than
myself ; but I was always determined to persevere to the end in the per-suasion
that the public would be just at last."
The General Assembly met on April 16, 1782. Governor
Burke, in his message, gave the members a full account of the
circumstances of his capture and escape. On April 23d,
118 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
when the election of Governor came up, he was placed in
nomination. He at once wrote the Assembly, in part, as fol-lows
:
" This afternoon is appointed for the Election of a Governor, and I am
in nomination. Permit me to say it was my wish that the several Inti-mations
I have given the General Assembly might have prevented any
Gentleman from naming me as a candidate for an office which I sincerely
wish to be filled by a much abler man, or by any man rather than my-self.
When the General Assembly did me the honor to make choice of
me for their Chief magistrate, tho' nothing could be more injurious to
me or repugnant to my inclinations, I accepted the trust because I was
apprehensive that dechning it would be construed into a doubt of our
success, which at a time when our prospects were overcast, might have
had bad Consequences. Happily that reason no longer exists, and I do
not now feel the necessity of sacrificing my time and Industry which are
absolutely necessary to retrieve my private aftairs from the ruin in which
my being constantly employed in public Service for several years has
very nearly involved them. My misfortunes during this year have been
heavy and complicated and have involved me in debts and in [private
distresses which it would be painful to particularize. I hope it may be
sufficient to say that it will require the best exertions of my Industry to
Extricate me from them."
The General Assembly at once passed a resolution of
thanks to Burke for his services as Governor, and elected
Alexander Martin to succeed him.
Burke was notified on October 25th of his exchange. The
following extract from General Greene's letter is interesting,
particularly when Burke's States' Rights views are remem-bered
:
"That you can retire from pubfic life with honor I never had a doubt,
but I am by no means satisfied that you should. Your State, and in-deed
all the Southern States, require many singularities and improve-ments
to render civil government perfect. Few men have the necessary
abilities and still fewer a proper degree of industry to eff'ect it. Many im-provements
are also wanting in the plan of Confederation and national
government. Those characters who have long been in Congress and
have had their views and ideas enlarged and their minds unfettered from
local attachments and directed to National policy are the only men fit
for this undertaking. Unless our governments are rendered more per-
GOVEBlSrOK THOMAS BURKE. 119
feet and our Union more complete I fear we shall feel but in a negative
way the blessings we expected from Independence. Think not there-fore
of retiring too soon. Private interest has its advantages and do
mestic ease its charms ; but the glory of establishing a great empire is a
noble object and worthy of great sacrifices, and that you may think on
the matter with perfect freedom and independence, I have the pleasure
to inform you of your exchange."
Biirke seems to have been approached in regard to remov-ing
to Georgia, but the plan did not suit him and he declined
to consider it. There was much criticism of his conduct in
the State, and, while he still had the confidence and friend-ship
of men like Davie, Johnston, Hooper, Iredell and Mc-
Claine, the reproach of others, which he felt to be undeserved
and ungrateful, rankled. With his capacity for making
warm friends, he had its usual accompaniment—the capacity
for making bitter enemies, and these were very active.
Burke's was a most sensitive nature, and the accusations
which affected his honor were more than he could bear. He
seems to have given himself over to dissipation, and died,
December 2, 1783, at Tyaquin. His body rests in a grave,
unmarked save for a heap of stones, in a grove on his old
plantation.
He had only one child, a daughter, named Mary, who,
after teaching for many years in Hillsboro, moved to Ala-bama,
and died there, unmarried, after the close of the Civil
War. His wife, a few years after his death, married a Major
Dogherty. Of this marriage there are numerous descendants.
Taking into consideration all the kno^vn facts of his his-tory,
Burke is one of the most interesting and certainly the
most pitiful figure in JSTorth Carolina history. That he made
a mistake in violating his parole and then assuming the reins
of government is undeniable, but it cannot be believed that
his conscience was otherwise than free of guilt in the mat-ter.
Further than this, it must be believed that he was actu-ated
by the motives of purest patriotism.
120 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Burke's personality seems to have been particularly attrac-tive.
In person he was of middle stature, well formed, with
his face much marked with smallpox, which had caused the
loss of his left eye. In spite of this, it is said that his face
Avas not without charm. His remaining eye was blue and
very expressive. He was very convivial, a capital i^aconteur,
sang a good song, and, without effort, wrote verses, of which
many are preserved, that, while possibly as good as the gener-ality,
even a partial critic could not adjudge of much merit.
Most of them are addressed by him to some fair Chloe or
Phyllis, for he was inclined to be very gallant. But the fol-lowing
is of a different kind. Two passages—one to Pitt and
the other to the ladies—are quoted:
" Triumph America ! Thy patriot voice
Has made the greatest of mankind rejoice,
Immortal Pitt, an everglorious name
!
Far, far unequalled in the Rolls of Fame,
What Breast (for Virtue is by all approved
And Freedom even by Asia's slaves beloved )
What Breast but glows with Gratitude to Thee,
*Boa*st of M*ankin*d, gre*at Prop*of Li*berty."** " And you, ye fair, on whom our hopes depend
Our future Fame and Empire to Extend,
Whose Fruitful Beds shall dauntless Myriads yield
To Fight for Freedom in some Future Field
Resign each dear.
To-day let gladness beam in every face.
Soften each Smile and Brighten every Grace,
While the glad roof with lofty notes resound,
With Grace Harmonious move the Mazy Round ;
Make our Hearts feel the long forgetted Fire,
Wake into Flame each spark of soft Desire
;
Too long Indignant Tumults and Alarms
Have made us heedless of your lovely Charms;
With Freedom blest, our care will be to please.
Each day the genial pleasure to improve
And add new Sweetness to Connubial Love."
GOVEKNOE THOMAS BUKKE. 121
These qualities, as may be imagined, coupled with a genial
and franlv manner and great cordiality, won for him numer-ous
friends. He was of an ardent temperament and was fra-quently
betrayed into rash acts. Ready to resent any fancied
insult, he wa.s equally ready to atone for any wrong he might
commit. He was probably the most versatile of the men of
his time in North Carolina.
Mention has already been made of his quarrel with General
Sullivan. He also became involved in a difficulty with Rich-ard
Henry Lee, which would probably have resulted in a
duel but for the intervention of General Wayne, who settled
the difficulty, which was one of misunderstanding.
Burke was a Roman Catholic, but there seems to have
been no question of his right to hold office. His case was
quoted in the Convention of 1835 as proof that there was no
intent to bar Roman Catholics from office.
He was a man of good education, as is shown by his letters.
The following catalogue of his library, an unusually good
one for the time, is somewdiat indicative of his tastes
:
Piere Williams' Reports, Atkyns' Reports, Burrows* Re-ports,
Bro'svn's Abridgment, Raymond's Reports, Carthew^s
Reports, Gilbert's Reports, Finch's Reports, ISTay's Reports,
Salmon's Abridgment of State Trials, Shower's Cases in
Parliament, Treatise on Equity, Dalton's Justice, Dawson's
Origin of Law, Abridgment of Cases in Equity, Lillie's En-tries,
Coke's Institutes, Laws of l^orth Carolina (two vol-umes),
Jacobs' Dictionary, Cases in Chancery, Blackstone's
Commentaries, Sidney on Government, Abbe DuBois' Criti-cal
Reflections, Ferguson on Civil Society, Attorneys' Prac-tice
in Civil Pleas, Law of Devises, etc., Moley's Maritime
Law, Law of Evidence, B. G., Gilbert's History and Practice
of Civil Actions, Collection of Statutes, Foster's Law of
Trade, Bacon's Law Tracts, Law of Errors, Lutwyche's Re-ports
(Abridged), Law of Trespass, Foster's Crown Law,
Lord Francis' Principles of Equity, Wilson's Reports, Hub-
122 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
bart's (sic) Reports, Hale's Pleas of the Crown, Shower's
Cases in Parliament, Cases in Chancery, Coke's Reports,
Robertson's Lexicon, Bojer's French and English Dictionary,
Dormat's Civil Law, Lord Littleton's Works, Political Dis-quisitions,
Smellger's Midwifery, Gibson's Surveying; 2d,
.3d and 5th volumes of Pope's Iliad; 1st and 5th of the
Odyssey, Pope's Essays, Euclid's Elements, Locke's Human
LTnderstanding, Orrery's Pliny, Littleton's Henry II, Beat-tie's
Essay on Truth, Robertson's History of Charles V, Ver-gil,
Horace, Terence, Juvenal, Cicero's Orations, and Ceesar's
Commentaries.
As to his ability, it was undoubtedly equal to that of any
of his contemporaries. His whole course as a public man
would indicate that, without the testimony of men well quali-fied
to judge. Samuel Strudwick said he was "''the ablest
advocate and completest orator our country affords." Abner
aSTash, his predecessor as Governor, said he was "a gentleman
of activity, experience and ability and public spirit." Rich-ard
Henderson wrote Judge John Williams in 1778 regard-ing
Dr. Burke's conduct of the case of the Transylvania Com-pany
before the Virginia Assembly: "It is universally given
up on all hands that Mr. Burke did Justice to the Cause, and,
for my own part, think we could not have been better served
on or off the Continent."
Taking him as he was, with all his faults and mistakes,
and they were comparatively few, he deserves honor and
grateful remembrance from jSTorth Carolinians,
Authorities: State Records, X-XYII, Encyclopaedia of American Biog-raphy,
The University Magazine, Carruthers, Old North State in 1776,
McRee, Life and Letters ofJames Iredell, and certain unpublished re-cords
of Orange county.
The writer also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Mar-shall
DeLaucey Haywood's sketch of Governor Burke in the Biographi-cal
History of North Carolina, and to Mr. Francis Nash for much material
relating to Burke, and for numerous suggestions in regard to this paper.
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS IN
THE HALL OF HISTORY.
BY COL. FEED A. OLDS.
The development of literary activity in ISTorth Carolina
during' the past five years has been accompanied by the ripen-ing
of a taste for historical research and for the collection of
matter bearing upon the history of ITorth Carolina—not only
documents, but the more tangible and personal things which
have gone to form the history of the State, and which, more
than aught else, put the people of this day and generation
in touch with those of the olden time. Thus it has come
about that the "Hall of History" has taken its place very
firmly as a feature of historical development—one of those
outward and visible signs which indicate a great movement,
and which is full of hope and promise of yet greater things
to come. When the agricultural building was enlarged it
was decided, at tlie request of this writer, to build a noble
room especially for the proper display of those objects which
bear directly upon the history of the State, and on the 15th
of December, 1902, the work of installation began, the writer
having been engaged since 1885 in collecting, always hoping
that such a place for historical objects would be sooner or
later provided. ISTorth Carolina is yet rich in such objects,
notably of the Colonial and Revolutionary period ; but until
thi's collection began, a little over three years ago, nothing
had been done, except in what may be termed very justly a
local way, to gather together such objects. By such failure the
State has suffered enonnous loss, due to the burning of court-houses,
public buildings, and, most of all, private homes, in
some of which there were extensive groups of objects, the
loss of which is irreparable. But at last the gathering to-
124 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
gether at Raleigh, where by all manner of means the col-lection
ought to be, has been begam, and the fact that the
number of objects now exceeds the 4,000 mark shows not
only zeal in collecting, but also an awakened public interest.
It must be borne in mind that collecting is no easy matter,
since, first, there must be obtained knowledge of the exist-ence
of particular objects ; next, of their location and owner-ship
; then coming the work of getting in touch with the
owners and securing the objects, as loans or gifts—their
acquisition by either of these methods being desirable at the
earliest possible moment, since losses by the failure to acquire
them are occurring all the while. It is felt that the present
Hall of History is what may truly be termed a stepping-stone
to higher things ; in other words, that it is but a forerunner
of a far more noble one, generous as to space, and built on
the most modern lines as regards the elimination of risk by
fire. Given such a building, and the writer can undertake
to secure almost everything in jSTorth Carolina ; only rela-tively
few persons being unwilling to place objects in such
safe-keeping. Of course there are a few who hide their treas-ures
away, "under a bushel," so to speak, instead of letting
them be set broad and fair before all the world to instruct
and to stimulate the people of their State who pour through
the great North Carolina Museum by so many thousands
every year.
The task of telling a stoi*}^ about a collection so gTeat and
with so wide a scope as the one here presents no little diffi-culty,
since if there be too much detail it is very apt to degen-erate
into a sort of catalogue ; and so it will be the effort now
to touch only upon those salient things which stand out and
which ought to be seen, as taking a place in the State's his-tory
from the remotest time of which there are white men's
records.
In another room will be found the relics of the Indians,
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 125
since it is extremely difficult to locate the period of the lat-ter;
the making of weapons of war, and the chase, as well
as various other Indian articles of domestic use, sport, etc.,
having been continued until a comparatively recent period.
The story, therefore, as told by the objects in the Hall of
History, begins with the coming of the white men, those
daring voyagers who, sent out by the great Raleigh, crossed
the sea and landed on the Isle of Roanoke. The story of this
landing of the whites themselves, and the Indians, is set be-fore
the visitor in a wonderful series of pictures, photographic
reproductions of the engravings on copper in tlie 1590 edition
of DeBry's book, the first to contain the pictures, from the
drawings made by John White, the special artist sent over
with the expedition of 1585. A map in this series of twenty-four
pictures shows the English vessels and also one of their
small boats going to the Isle of Roanoke, with an Englishman
holding up a cross in the bow of the boat, which is nearing
the island on which is the Indian town, with its palisade or
stockade of sharpened timbers, this seeming to occupy a spot
very near that on which the Englishmen built their first fort
in what is now the United States, this being "Eort Raleigh,"
which is wonderfully preserved, and of which a map, photo-graphs
and a painting are also shown. Among the objects in
the cases are ballast brought over by the English vessels and
thrown out at a point on Roanoke Island yet known as "Bal-last
Point," and charcoal which was dug up a few years ago
when the excavation was made for the monument to Virginia
Dare, which now stands in the center of the venerable earth-work,
and of which there are also special pictures. When the
writer was at the fort last January, soundings were made with
slender steel rods all over the place. The well which the
colonists used was by this means located. No objects were
found, and it was discovered that for perhaps much more
than a century the ground, both within and without the fort.
126 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
bad been again and again tbe object of curiosity to relic or
treasure seekers. Gone are tbe tiny cannon wbicb tbe colo-nists
left tbere wben tbey abandoned tbe fort, and wbicb were
seen somewbere about 1615, and only a low mound, like a
star, marks tbe boundary of tbis most interesting of Ameri-can
fortifications. It is a neglected spot, tbe rude fence and
ruder gateway baving almost completely decayed. In any
otber State tban tbis it would be marked in a splendid
fasbion, and it would be also a place of pilgrimage.
Tbere is a long skip in wbite life in ISTortb Carolina after
tbe abandonment of Roanoke, an intermission of almost tbree-quarters
of a century. Tbe next document bears upon a
meeting beld in wbat is now Perquimans County in 1684.
Tben tbere is a will of Jobn Trueblood, of tbe Province of
Albemarle, dated 1692, and tbis is interesting as sbowing
tbat tbe style of handwriting bad cbanged bardly at all from
tbe date of tbe great days of Queen Elizabetb and tbe knigbtly
Raleigb, tbat fosterer of adventure and promoter of daring
deeds, to wbom Nortb Carolina owes so mucb. Tbere are
memorials of tbe oldest towns in jSTortb Carolina, tbe cbief
one being Batb, wbicb was really founded about 1694, tbougb
its charter was not granted until eleven years later. Batb,
as tbe picture sbows, is unique in Nortb Carolina, as being
tbe one place at least where time has stood quite still. Tbe
pictures of the oldest church in the State and of tbe oldest
residence, formerly known as "Government House," the
chimney of wbicb, tbe largest in the United States, was built
for use as a fort, a place of refuge and defence, tell tbe story
of the quaint village far better tban any words. Tbere are
relics of the historic Blackbeard, or Teach, tbat bloodiest of
all pirates along this coast, together with his pistol, a button
from bis coat, a brick from bis bouse at Bath, and part of
a wine bottle or flagon from wbicb no doubt that roystering
devil had drank deeply many a time and oft. There is an
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 127
English coin from Bath, taken from a pit near Teach's house,
in which some three thousand or more were found, this being
of the reign of William and Mary and dated 1694, and there
are other strange coins of that time, known as brass farth-ings,
which were taken from the same hoard.
Some of the oldest papers are records of the Quakers, who
got an early footing in eastern North Carolina, particularly
in Perquimans, where there is yet quite a colony of these
worthy people. A document of a singular character tells of
one of the two recorded Spanish invasions of l^orth Carolina,
if these may be termed invasions—one being an attempt at
the capture of Beaufort, and another an attempt upon old
Brunswick, when it was the seat of government, on the Cape
Fear river, below Wilmington. The document in question
is a bill for looking after the wounded Spaniards who were
taken at Beaufort, and part of it is for "physiking and diet-ing'"
them; the charges including quite a variety of food and
drink. One of the most thrilling periods of ISTorth Carolina
history was that of the Tuscarora war, in the days of brave
old Governor Thomas Pollock, who, to be sure, with all his
English courage, was well put to it to save his colony from
what looked like almost sure extermination; and had not
South Carolina come to his aid with whites and friendly
Indians in great nimibers, the Tuscaroras must needs have
gotten the upper hand and have soon killed ten where they
had slain one of the settlers. There is the treaty of peace
between the whites on the one hand and the portion of the
Tuscaroras headed by Tom Blount, who was declared to be
the king of those most bloodthirsty of all red men in IsTorth
Carolina. The treaty itself breathes cruelty in every line,
though cruelty in that day meant safety. The text of the
treaty is as follows
:
128 THE NORTH CAROLIjSTA BOOKLET.
"Preliminary articles in order to a Gen'l. Peace, had, made, concluded
and agreed upon this 25th day of November, Anno Domini, 1712, be-tween
Tom Blunt, Saroona, Heunthanohnoh, Chounthanmtshoe, Ne-woonttootsere,
chief men of several of ye Tuskarora Townes for and on
behalf of themselves and ye Townes of Eukurknornet, Rarookshee,
Tostohant, Rauroota, Tarhunta, Keuta, Toherooka, Juninits, Conso-toba,
on ye one part and the Honble. Thos. Pollock, Esq., Presdt., of
and ye rest of ye Cbuncill for and on behalf of themselves and this
Government of North Carolina on ye other part, Witnesseth:—
"Imprimis. The afs'd Great Men doe hereby covenant and agree to
& with ye said Presdt. and Council that they shall and will with ye
utmost Expedition and Dilligence make warr ag't. all ye Indyans be-longing
to ye Townes or Nations of Catachny, Cores, Nuse, Bare River
and Pamlico and that they shall not nor will not give any Quarter to
any male Indyan of those Townes or Nations above ye age of fourteen
yeares and also that they shall and will sell off and dispose of all ye
males under that age, and that further after they shall have destroyed
those Townes or soe soon as this Government shall think proper to re-quire
it, the said Great Men doe hereby promise to join ye English
with soe many Men as may be thought proper to distroy and cutt off
all Matchapungo Indyans.
"2dly'. The afs'd. Great Men doe hereby covenant and agree that if
in this Warr they shall take any amies which shall be proved to have
been owned by ye English and taken away in ye late horrid massacre
such arms shall be delivered to ye right owners thereof.
"3dly. It is hereby further agreed by said Great Men that they shall
and will well and truly deliver up to ye English all ye white captives
and horses that they shall find among ye Indyans.
"4thly. It is hereby further agreed by ye Great Men afs'd. that these
Severall Townes of Tostochant, Rauroota, Tarhunta, Keutah, Tohe-rooka,
Junitis, Caunookehoe, nor any of ye Indyans belonging to them
or either of them shall not nor will not hunt nor range among ye Eng-lish
plantations or stocks without leave or then above the number of
three at one tyme, neither shall they clame any proprty in ye land on
ye southside of Nuse caled Chatooka River nor below Catachny Creek
on Neuse nor below Bare Creek at Not- Sha -Hun-Han-Rough on ye
south side of Pamptico River.
"5thly. It is mutually agreed by and between all ye said parties to
these presents that if any injurey shall hereafter be done on either side,
upon complaints made to such persons as shall hereafter be appointed
for that purpose, full satisfaction shall be made.
"6thly. The afs'd. Great Men doe hereby agree that from & after ye
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 129
Eatification of a Gen'l. Peace they shall and will pay into this Govern-ment
such a yearly Tribute as hereafter shall be agieed upon.
"Tthly. The afs'd. Great Men doe hereby further agree that for ye
full & true perfomiance of all and everj^ ye above articles on their part
to be performed, ye several Townes of Tostehant, Rauroota, Tarhunta,
Keuta, Toherooka, Juninits & Caurookehee shall bring in and deliver
up to this Government at ye Honble. Col. Thos. Pollock's six of ye
chiefest women and children from each Towne, for Hostages, by ye
nexte full moons, provided that they doe not disti'oy ye Enemy afs'd.
by tliat tyme.
"Sthly. The said President & Councill doe hereby covenant and agree
with ye Great Men afs'd. that upon the just and true performance of
these articles the severall hostages afs'd. shall be well and truly deliv-ered
up againe and a free and open trade shal be had with said Indyans
as existed formerly.
"Lastly, the afs'd. Great Men doe hereby agree that they will en-deavor
to bring in to some of their ToA\Ties alsoe Chauaneckquoekene-rook,
Enuquner-called Johetaoin shrdluap uapapup called John Pagett,
Ekehorquest called Lawson, Cbrreuiena, called Barbar, Colsera, called
Henry, Lyahe Oumskinneree, called Suarehooks, Touhquinanch, Erun-vanhyne
and Young Yyler, and send two Runners to Mr. Redding's Gar-rison,
give there three Hoops, then show a white cloth for a signale in
order to pilott such prsons as we shall think proper to send to see the
operation done upon ye afs'd. murderers.
"In ^^^tness hereof the several parties to these presents have inter-changeably
sett their hands and seals the day and yeare first above
written.
"TOM T. B. BLUNT,
"L P. SAHOONTA,
"H. HEUNSHAKOHNAH,
"I. OHAUNTHARUNTSHOE,
"I. NEWOONTTOOTSERY,
"SAROONTHA HORUNTTOCKEN, absent.
There is also a map of the lands which the whites gave to
Tom Blount in return for his co-operation with them, these
lying in Bertie County, and to this day being known as the
"Indian Woods." Surveyors in those days were generous,
and when in later years it was found necessary to re-survey
this tract, it was discovered that the area was more than
thrice as great as originally stated. There are tomahawks,
4
130 THE NORTH CxiEOLINA BOOKLET.
made of iron and evidently obtained from the Indian traders
;
that is, white men who sold guns, ammunition, tomahawks
and, worst of all, "fire-water"—that is, whiskey—to the red
men, and who aided more in debauching them than did the
very worst Indians. The tomahawks show by their shape
that they were for no peaceful purpose, far unlike the Eng-lish
hatchets, and their very lines seem to tell a story of those
days of horror.
While DeBry's pictures were the first ever printed about
ISTorth Carolina (then "Virginia"), it was a great many
years before the colony printed its o^\ti first book, and this
did not appear until 1752, being a comj)ilation of the laws
of the colony, printed by James Davis, the official printer, at
'New Bern. It was bound in yellow leather, and hence became
known in common language as the "Yellow Jacket." The
example of it shown is perfect. New Bern had then become
a place of importance. It was the east which in those days
was the real seat of life, progress, culture and development,
since the colonial to^^ms were necessarily along the streams
or sounds or broad estuaries—places which could be easily
reached by vessels from the other side of the ocean. The
early settlers showed much judgment in their selection of
sites for their towns, and to this day the site of old Bath will
strike any person with a practical eye, by reason of its situa-tion.
Old Bnmswick, Edenton, Hertford, Plymouth, New
Bern and other points were all well chosen. The collection
is rich in objects illustrating the colonial life in all of these.
Edenton remains the most interesting of all the towns in
the State, from a colonial point of view, and the illustrations
of it show that it ought to be a place of pilgrimage for the
Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the Revolution as well,
since there is a remarkable blending of life of the two periods
in North Carolina.
The stately court-house, with a "spring floor" on the upper
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 131
story, built for the special purpose of daucing, was modeled
after assembly rooms in England, at sucb places as Bath and
Tunbridge Wells. On this second floor is the Masonic Hall,
with the chair in which Washington sat when master of the
lodge of Masons at Alexandria, Va. Very beautiful pictures
of "Hays," the great estate of the rich and powerful Samuel
Johnston at Edenton, show this building to be one of the
most beautiful of all existing country houses in America, and
photographs which are wonderfully fine reproductions show
some of the treasures of the library at this house, which has
come down through a century and a half in such perfect con-dition.
Of these treasures is the only known copy of the ISTew
Bern Gazette of June 16, 1YY5, containing the Mecklenburg
Resolves of May 31, 1775, this paper having been sent to
Richard Caswell, then a member of the Congress at Phila-delphia,
by Richard Cogdell, the chairman of the ISTew Bern
Committee of Safety, this letter saying, in part: "You will
observe the Mecklenburg Resolves exceed all other commit-tees
or the Congress itself. I send you the paper in which
tliey are inserted, and I hope this will soon come to hand.'*
This letter is dated June 18th. These resolves did not ap-pear
in the Wilmington Mercury until a week after they had
appeared in the ISTew Bern Gazette. There are water-colors
of the House with a Cupola, once the residence of Erancis
Corbin, Lord G-ranville's agent, and of the house where the
patriotic women held the "tea party," and there are photo-graphs
of the former building and of the bronze tea-pot which
Mr. Julian Wood has placed on the site of the tea-party
house.
A pair of pistols of unique and striking form were the
property of Capt. Hugh Waddell, and were carried by him
in the expedition against the Erench and Indians in 1758, at
which time the British troops and militia captured Fort
DuQuesne, in Pennsylvania, and by the capture really broke
132 THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
tlie French power in the colonies. These weapons are per-fectly
preserved and have what are known as cannon barrels,
because of their shape, tapering from breech to muzzle.
Kecent acquisitions to the collection are portraits of the
first Lords Proprietors, these being photographs, the gift of
Mr. James Sprunt, of Wilmington, of the portraits^ in his
private collection, which are copies made to his order of the
originals, which are in libraries and private homes in Eng-land.
They include King Charles and all of the first Pro-prietors
except Sir John Colleton, whose portrait has never
been found. There is the Earl of Craven, who gave his
name to the county of that name; Hyde, who is yet paid a
similar honor; that Berkeley who was the only one of the
Lords Proprietors wTio came over to this side and whose stay
here was marked by death and destruction, mainly the exe-cution
of Governor Drummond of Virginia and the burning
of Jamestown, the next place settled after ill-fated Roanoke.
There is Anthony Ashley Cooper, Sari of Shaftesbury, who
wrote the Habeas Corpus Act, and for whom Locke wrote
his "Fundamental Constitutions," which was intended as a
chart of laws for the government of the colony of Xorth
Carolina, and who himself made additions to that interesting
document, which to be sure provided a most impracticable
mode of government, hard to be even imagined in these latter
days. There is a deed by the Lords Proprietors to George
Burrington for the fisheries in l^orth Carolina for the term
of seven years, this being a striking document, of great size,
on parchment, and bearing the autographs and seals of the
gentlemen who then owned ]N"orth Carolina. Later it came
about that all of the Lords Proprietors except Granville sur-rendered
their proprietorships. There are interesting docu-ments
signed by him and by liis agents, one of whom was
Francis Corbin of Edenton, whose house is yet perfectly pre-served
and who was visited by the "Regulators" and made to
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 133
give bond that he would be just and true in his financial
dealings with the people. There are also deeds signed by
Nisbet, Granville's agent in the up-country, for lands granted
to the United Brethren, otherwise the Moravians, whose
headquarters were then and now are at Salem, There are
royal seals, some weighing a quarter of a pound and of wax;
bullet-moulds, button-moulds, candle-sticks, snuifers, pewter
platters and plates, tuning forks and scores of other relics of
the Colonial times. There are deeds and newspapers bear-ing
the stamps used in collecting the stamp tax, which pres-ently
became so odious as to form one of the key-notes of the
Revolutionary uprising. There are relics of the earliest
Scotch settlement along the Cape Fear, with its center at
Fayetteville, including wonderfully fine pictures of "Bonnie
Prince Charlie" and his savior, the brave though unlucky
Flora McDonald.
Very interesting indeed is the collection of maps of the
State, dating from 1585, the most accurate of the early ones
being that by Lawson, the Surveyor-General of this colony,
which was made about 1708. An original edition of Law-son's
history of the State is on view. This particular copy
is a gift from President James Madison, to replace a much-prized
one lost in the fire which destroyed the State capitol
here in June, 1831.
Photographs of Edenton include the burial-place of a num-ber
of notables, among these governors Pollock and Eden, and
the wife of Governor Edward Moseley, who is truly a lost
governor, since no amount of search has so far availed to find
his remains. Capt. Samuel A. Ashe, so well informed about
all things l*^orth Carolinian, thinks that his grave is at Rocky
Point, Pender County, and search will probably be made
there. These remains of notables were gathered at various
points and interred in this cemeteiy of old St. Paul's Church,
Edenton.
134 THE Is^ORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
There are many extremely fine examples of penmanship in
the collection of colonials, and notable among these are maps
or plots of lands, some of these going back to the time when
tlie Roanoke River was known as the Morotoke or Morotuck.
These maps show the origin of many of the present names.
One of them shows the location of an Indian town, Taiihunta,
which was on the Tan river, now known as the Tar.
Of the Regulators there are a number of relics, chief
among these, perhaps, being the bell which they used for the
double purpose of calling themselves together, having no
drum, and also giving notice of the approach of the British.
The bell has a very thin and peculiar tone, like a cow-bell.
There is a pay-roll of the company commanded by
Captain David Hart, of the Orange Comity Regiment, which
sensed 70 days in what was then termed the "Insurrection."
There is also a plan of the battlefield of Alamance, made on
the spot by an engineer the day after the battle, and showing
the positions of the militia under Governor Tryon and the
Regulators.
But few old taverns yet remain in N^orth Carolina, yet
fortunately^ there is a very striking example at Hertford, the
building being of wood, long and rambling, two-storied, with
double portico its entire length, and this is excellently illus-trated
by photographs.
The most noted collection of letters in all ISTorth Carolina
is unquestionably that of the Iredells, now in the possession
of Col. Charles Earl Johnson, of Raleigh, this being very
extensive and containing letters from practically every man
in high public life in this colony and the others during the
late colonial period and throughout tlie Revolution. Two
cases of these documents are shown and there are some strik-ing
relics among these, one a proclamation by Governor Josiah
Martin, who used on public documents his private seal in-stead
of the State seal. There are other special cases, contain-
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 135
ing the documents of tlie Devereux family, which go back to
the time of Governor Pollock ; documents, rare books, etc.,
collected by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire, and the very
important collection of autograph letters made by Governor
Swain while in office, this being of documents from the execu-tive
office, and covering not only the Colonial period but the
Revolutionary, and coming down to a later date.
The period during the Revolution, when Xorth Carolina
was what may be termed an independent commonwealth, is
illustrated by various articles, but certainly by none more
striking than the currency issued by authority of congress at
Halifax, April 2, 17Y6. This money is excellently well
printed, the plates ha\dng been made on copper, and the
designs are striking, being in sharp contrast with money
issued a little later. Very perfect copies of the journals of
two of the most notable State conventions are on view ; one,
that held at Hillsboro in 1788, which declined to ratify the
Federal Constitution; the other, that at Fayetteville the fol-lowing
year, which ratified that great document. The "Re-solves"
of the Committee of Safety of Surry County and of
Tryon County are unique as showing on their face that there
was gTeat loyalty to the King, while there was the sternest
opposition to the policy of oppression practiced upon the colo-nies
by England. The Surry County resolves, exquisitely
written, bear in graceful design upon the cover the inscrip-tion,
"Liberty or death. ,God save the King."
Mention has been made of the Johnson collection, covering
a number of Iredell documents. A special case in this col-lection
is devoted to the portraits of Colonial and Revolu-tionary
celebrities, including Willie (or Wiley) and Allen
Jones, the former of whom was to exercise a remarkable in-fluence
upon John Paul Jones, the first admiral of the United
States ISTavy, the patronage and aft'ection shown by Willie
Jones having led John Paul to add Jones to his name and to
136 THE NORTH CAKOLINA BOOKLET.
show in nianj other ways his regard for the great and warm-hearted
North Carolinian who had done so much for him.
There is in the Swain collection a characteristic note written
by tlie Chevalier Paul Jones, while in Paris, to a friend, de-siring
a copy of the Constitution of North Carolina to be
shown to a gentleman in high favor at the French court. The
collection of portraits is mostly composed of etchings, and
upon the borders of some of these Mrs. Robertson, a daughter
of the late Col. Cadwallader Jones, has painted in colors the
family arms, she being the official painter to both the Colonial
Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution in the
United States. The collection embraces portraits of the three
signers of the Federal Declaration of Independence at Phila-delphia.—
Hooper, Hewes and Penn—and there are various
other memorials of these worthies.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, claimed
by some to have been made on the 20th day of May, 1775,
and by others to have been made (in the shape of what have
been known as the Resolves) May 31, 1775, is a disputed
point in JSTorth Carolina. The evidence as to the 31st is be-yond
any human question. There is a special collection of
autographs of Hezekiah Alexander and others, whom it is
asserted signed the Declaration of May 20th. As has already
been stated, the Resolves of May 31st appear in the New
Bern Gazette of date sixteen days later, and also in the
Charleston Gazette, the latter paper having been sent to Eng-land,
and the most obnoxious of the Resolves having been
marked by the royal governor, the original of this particular
paper being in the British archives, but the photographic copy
being of the precise size and very clear.
Of the Revolutionary period proper there are over four
hundred relics, among these some of Richard Caswell, the
first governor under American rule, being naturally promi-nent,
including a cup and saucer made in France for him,
COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RELICS. 137
while there are particularly valuable documents bearing his
autograph and the State seal of the time.
As has been stated, it is dijQficult to draw the line between
the Colonial and the Revolutionary periods, so much do these
blend in certain respects. Thus there are shown superb
copies of the Bible and Prayer Book of the Church of Eng-land,
both royal gifts from King George III. to the vestry
of Christ Church in the good town of New Bern, when it was
the capital of the State. These books were in continuous use
in the church until a comparatively recent period. The
''Palace" of Governor Tryon, at JSTew Bern, built at what was
considered a vast expense in those days, is illustrated by a
very old wood-cut. This building did not a little part to
fan the flame of unrest of the '^ 'Regulators." They harped
upon it, and not a few of the colonists objected to paying
taxes because of the fact that their money was going towards
paying for this edifice, which provoked both their contempt
and their hatred. It was the boast of Tryon that the build-ing
was to be tlie handsomest in the southern colonies if not
in the whole country. Of it but a wing remains, long used
as a stable, but now as a private residence.
There is a ''letter of orders" from the Bishop of London
(Compton), authorizing the holding of services in the Colony
by a clergj-man. There is money issued at a number of points
in the State prior to the Revolution and during that period.
Some of the colonial currency is what was known as "Procla-mation
Money," and the enormous depreciation of the revolu-tionary
currency is shown by the fact that in a bill rendered
in 1786 iron is quoted at four pounds, English money, the
pound; sugar 12 pounds, pepper 90 pounds, rum 165 pounds
a gallon, a glass tumbler 75 pounds. This bill, by the way,
is for a total of over 1,500 pounds, and two of its entries are
in these strange words : "By spirits rum drank at my fa-ther's
funeral, 45 pounds." "A difference of seven pounds;
16b THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
SO near a balance that a drink of grogg settles it." Of the
money issued during the Revolution some was emitted at
Hillsboro, some at New Bern, and some at Smithfield and
Fayetteville. There is a journal of the Provincial Congress
at Halifax, April, 1776. Some of the bills issued by the
Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, August 21, 1775, are signed
by Richard Caswell and Samuel Johnston. There is a printed
order, dated at Johnston Court-House, December 24, 1775,
signed by Cornelius Harnett, the president of the council.
Another document which shows how stirring were the times is
a letter from the Wilmington Committee of Safety, or Com-mittee
of Intelligence, as it was termed, to the New Bern com-mittee,
signed by Cornelius Harnett and others, dated July 2,
1775.
In striking contrast to the bell used by the Regulators, so
thin in material and in tone as well, is a great hand-bell
which was used by Governor Tryon at the "Palace" and later
by the provincial assembly and by Governor Caswell. It is
deep in tone, rotund and heavy.
The wearing apparel of the blended periods is shown, and
from it, certainly as to the shoes, we learn that our grand-mothers
were addicted to high heels and the most papery of
slippers, with toes so pointed as to put to blush any modern
creations. There are buckles of paste and other gewgaws of
the time, and from these relics of the gay days of old there
floats out like incense the subtle yet pervasive odor of sandal-wood,
since my lady of those far-away days must needs have
a case of this wood in her boudoir, to contain some at least of
her fripperies. What tales of dancing days, of the stately old
assemblies, the graceful if slow minuet, of hoops so great as
to render the curled darlings of the time unapproachable to
caresses unless they bent over like a tree in a storm ; with
towering headdresses, tier upon tier, hair and feathers, with
powder galore, and the faces, fair enough, disfigmred by
COLONIAL AND EEVOLUTIONAEY KELICS. . 139
rouge and beauty-spots most cunningly placed. There are
combs of tortoise-shell most daintily carved, which were a
fad in those days, and one of these was worn by a lady, her-self
a member of a great family, who it is said was for a
nmnber of years engaged to one of the signers of the E^ational
Declaration of Independence and who yet never became his
bride. Soon after her death he died, brokenhearted.
There are more humble articles of domestic use, including
a foot-warmer, in those days thought to be a necessity for
those who went abroad in vehicles ; lamps, made in some cases
by a native blacksmith, to contain lard and twisted wicks of
cotton; some being in rude imitation of ancient Greek and
Roman lamps ; flax-hackles, linen cloth, spun and Avoven by
the good house-keepers of that time, cotton not being in much
favor then, some of this cloth having been made by Mary
Slocumb, a revolutionary heroine ; pins made in rudest fash-ion,
the head being twisted around the shank and rudely
soldered.
There are Revolutionary warrants which were issued by
the State to soldiers as pay, and there are also warrants which
the State issued for considerable sums, one being for $7,500
;
this particular one being endorsed as having been "Rejected
by the United States in 1791, upon presentation on loan."
There is the roster of the ISTorth Carolina troops who served
in the Continental line, some of whom had such hard fortune
in falling into the hands of the British at the capture of
Charleston.
Written school-books are another evidence of the hardships
of those early days, one being an arithmetic written with
great skill and at infinite labor and showing large numbers of
examples under all the various heads.
The early Moravian life, from the first settlement by the
United Brethren of the region round about Salem, is illus-trated
in various ways, and a catechism printed in Germany
for use by the Brethren in !N^orth Carolina is quite unique.
140 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
The illustrations of Colonial and Revolutionary architec-ture
are both numerous and varied. Happily a number of
the older buildings, which have escaped the usual fate of de-struction
by fire, have not been tampered with. Some have
been destroyed by fire and some torn do^vn. There are some
iconoclasts in !North Carolina, and these do not spare upon
occasion. Some of the handsome structures on the great
estates in the eastern counties have been destroyed or so
changed as to be unrecognizable, while the noble groves around
others have been cut down and sold. In other ways icono-clasts
have shown what they can do. The church at Bath is
a pitiful example. The old windows were recently taken
out, the antique high pews removed and the tiled floor except
the aisle ; the lofty pulpit with its shell-shaped sounding-board
was carted off as rubbish, and now unsightly modern
benches fill the church, the pulpit is something of the com-monest,
while the windows are those vari-colored abomina-tions
which one can see in any cheap new church here and
there in the little towns and sometimes in the country. Over
the front of this striking old building is a brown-stone slab
containing date of erection, etc. This, too, was removed,
and some relic-hunter took it up to Washington, N. C, where
luckilv it was found on a hotel counter and ffiven to a ladv
of the place, who took it to Batli and had it replaced where
it belonged. This is only one story out of many. The en-larged
and very striking picture of the church at Bath shows
it as it is to-day.
Among the Revolutionary autographs will be found those
of generals Wayne, Lincoln, Davidson, Greene, ISTash and
Davie. The fact developed upon inspection of these that
General Davidson sometimes signed his name simply William
Davidson and sometimes William L. Davidson. Of Davie,
who was so eminent in civil life, there are very interesting
memorials, one of these being his appointment as an envoy
COLONIAL AND EEVOLUTIONAEY RELICS. 141
extraordinary to France, his letter of credit issued by that
countiy, and also a note from Citizen Joseph Bonaparte, ex-pressing
his appreciation of a call by Davie during the
Frenchman's illness.
The Revolutionary battlegrounds are being illustrated. The
picture-stoi-y of that at Guilford Court-House is very com-plete
and impressive. It has the honor of being the best
marked of all the Revolutionary battlegrounds, and this has
been done to a large extent privately, though the State has
aided somewhat by an annual appropriation. Pictures are
to be made of the battlefield at Alamance and the monument
there, and also of that at Moore's Creek, the latter being a
battle which had a notable effect in cheering the patriots,
having been the first success of the American arms in the
struggle. "^lention has been made of the Regulators and of
the battle of Alamance. Of them and of this engagement
there are two views in JSTorth Carolina, one being that the
affair bore directly upon the Revolution and tended as much
as anything else to precipitate the latter ; the other view being
that there was no connection between the two and that the
Regulator movement was merely what some writer has
termed "An uprising of peasants." The juster view seems
to be that the affair did bear upon the Revolution, though in
a somewhat indirect way, having perhaps as much connection
with it as did John Brown's raid upon the Civil War—dis-connected
yet connected. Of King's Mountain, so important
an engagement of the Revolution, there is not a single relic,
strange to say, though there are several of these in the State
and a number in other States, one or two being in the posses-sion
of the United States government. Of Revolutionary
uniforms there is not an example, only the gloves of Benjamin
Cleveland being shown. Of the weapons of the Revolutionary
period there are a number of examples, including swords,
pistols, and muskets. The most interesting of these is a
14:2 THE NOETH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
musket of extremely fine workm.aiiship, for that date, which
was carried bj a soldier in one of the Scotch regiments which
was in the army of Lord Comwallis, who fought at Guilford
Court-house and then marched, or as we may say, retreated,
to Wilmington. There this particular soldier was on duty
when Comwallis surrendered at Yorktown, and then he and
his musket went together into what is now Robeson county
and settled. The Revolutionary swords of home manufac-ture
show what the native blacksmiths could do at that day,
as their construction was not upon lines at all graceful, but
solely for lethal purposes. The bullet-moulds are of the time
when the women used to lend their hands and make the bul-lets,
and when, upon occasion, they could shoot them, too.
One of the most interesting places in the State during the
Revolution was Hillsboro, a small town but containing noted
men and being much visited by those from the low-country,
being considered much in the west at that time, before the
mountains became civilized enough for resort. Hillsboro has,
until recently, preserved a nmnber of its old examples of
architecture, and its streets, paved with cobblestones, were
reminders of the days when Cornwallis sojourned there and
of that yet earlier period when Tryon paid the place visits.
It is most unfortunate that illustrations were not made years
ago of such places as Hillsboro, as now but few striking fea-tures
remain. One of these is the court-house, in the belfry
of which are a clock and bell, the gifts of King George III.,
who seems to have had much regard for the town, which was
named in honor of tlie Earl of Hillsboro, while the county
bears what may be termed a royal name, in honor of that
Dutch King who came over and saved England at so critical
a time. There is a picture of the court-house and some other
views of places of note. There is luckily a picture, the only
one kno^vn, of the building at Fayetteville, long destroyed,
Avhere the convention met which ratified the constitution..
COLONIAL AND BEVOLUTIONAKY RELICS. 143
These pictures are found to tell the stories as well as direct
objects and this process of illustration is to continue until
every part of the State which is historical is covered. The
writer last January made the first tour for the express pur-pose
of gathering historical objects of any and all periods.
This was in what may be termed in the footsteps of the
pioneers, embracing Fayetteville, Wilmington, Southport,
Kew Bern, Washington, Bath, Pljinouth, Hertford, Elizabeth
City, Edenton and Roanoke Island. It was a resultful tour,
as no fewer than four hundred objects were collected, in
addition to more than one hundred photographs, most of the
latter being originals made by special order. The result is
that there is to-day more knowledge by the mass of the people
as to the fine old towns in the early settled parts of the State
than ever before. There pass through the State Museum
and the Hall of History each year more than 100,000 visitors,
representing nearly every county in ISTorth Carolina and a
large number of other States. The interest in the historical
collection is not local, not confined to Raleigh or ISTorth Caro-lina,
but is widespread and some acquisitions to the collection
come from persons from other States, who thus show their ap-preciation
of the work of preservation which is being so earn-estly
pressed. One of the facts which is very plain is the
influence which !Nrorth Carolina has had upon other parts of
the country in settlement and othei'^vise, notably in the great
middle-west. Visitors from that part of the country mani-fest
the keenest interest in the Colonial and Revolutionary
objects in view, and there are students of those periods who
are availing themselves of the Hall of History as a medium
of information. To show the scope of the collection already,
it may be stated that books are being illustrated by pictures
made of the objects therein, notably readers and histories by
such writers as Capt. Ashe, Prof. D. H. Hill and Prof. R, D.
W. Connor. The photographs taken are not only of pictures,
144 THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
but of objects in every department. The Colonial Dames
and t