- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1925 : April]
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-
- Date
- April 1925
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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North Carolina historical review [1925 : April]
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SOME NORTH CAROLINA TRACTS OF THE
18TH CENTURY
By William K. Boyd, Duke University
II
William Boeder's “Address to the Inhabitants of
North Carolina”
(1746)
Introduction
William Borden, the author of this pamphlet, was born in Ports¬
mouth, Rhode Island, August 15, 1689. He was the son of John
Borden, one of the two progenitors of the Borden family in America.
By profession he was a shipbuilder. Seeing the scarcity of duck
cloth, necessary for the manufacture of sails, he became interested
in its production, for which the growing of hemp was also essential.
The Rhode Island Assembly was invoked for assistance and in 1721
that body enacted the first of a series of statutes designed to stimulate
the growing of hemp and flax. In August of the following year
(1722) Borden was granted a bounty for five years, to the exclusion
of all other persons, of 20s. per bolt for every bolt of duck he should
manufacture equal in quality to Holland duck; in October the period
of the bounty was lengthened to ten years. Nor was this all; in
1724 he applied for and received a loan of £100 for one year to aid
in financing his enterprise. In 1725 another loan of £500 for three
years was granted, and in 1728 a much larger sum, £3,000, to run
ten years, was also granted on condition that 150 bolts of duck be
produced annually. In 1731 the exclusive bounty was renewed and
the requirement to produce 150 bolts per annum was waived, and
in 1736 the ten-year loan was extended to 1746.
Between the lines of this legislation one may readily infer that
there were difficulties in the manufacture of duck, and such was
the case. Skilled labor was scarce and raw materials were not pro-
t 188 ]
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