State

The ixtrds Proprietors Excellent Pirate George Carteret was the son of Hol¬ ier dc Carteret of St. Oucn. Isle of Jersey, whose home, dating from the thirteenth century, is still standing. The exact date of his birth is unknown but his parents — his mother was Elizabeth Dumaresq — were married in 1608. In 1642 the inhabitants of Jersey com¬ plained that George, acting as gover¬ nor in the absence of his uncle. Sir Philip dc Carteret, was too young for such a post. Carteret's formal education seems to have been scanty and. as might have been expected of a young man living on one of the Channel Islands, he went to sea quite early. In 1632 he is listed as lieutenant of the ship Con- venive. Ten years later he was a captain of a ship and successively com¬ manded a number of vessels in the navy. When the civil war began in Eng¬ land he attempted to raise troops in Cornwall, but was persuaded instead to supply arms and ammunition for the royalists in the west of England. Using his own credit and influence he supplied not only them, but those holding the fortresses of the Channel Islands as well. In 1643 Carteret inherited the po¬ sition of baliff of the Island of Jersey and shortly afterwards was appointed lieutenant-governor by the King. From Jersey he conducted a vigorous priva¬ teering war against ships supplying the forces of Parliament. He was, of course, declared a pirate and a law was passed to void all commissions granted by him. Jersey became the refuge of royalist fugitives in 1646. Prince Charles landed in the spring of that year and rewarded Carteret by creating hint knight and baronet. At one time Car¬ teret even went so far as to turn his own family out to make room for Charles and his retainers. Carteret's genuine unselfishness won the grati¬ tude of both Charles and the Duke of York. Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, spent two years in Jersey as Carteret's guest. "He was truly a 6 Sir George Carteret — By — WILLIAM S. POWELL worthy and most excellent person," Hyde recorded, "of extraordinary mer¬ it towards the crown and nation of England; the most generous man in kindness, and the most dexterous man in business ever known; and a most prudent and skilful lieutenant-gover¬ nor. who reduced Jersey not with great¬ er skill and discretion than he kept it. And besides his other parts of honesty and discretion, undoubtedly as good, if not the best seaman of England." A parliamentary army landed in Jer¬ sey in 1651. Carteret, determined to make his the last royal stronghold to surrender, shut up himself and a garri¬ son of 340 men in Elizabeth Castle, They held fast for three months in the face of enemy attacks. Finally power¬ ful artillery was brought up and from a neighboring height poured forth on Carteret’s castle. In December he was forced to surrender, but he and his men were allowed to make an honor¬ able departure. Carteret joined his roy¬ al family in France. In 1660. at the restoration. Carteret became a member of the Privy Coun- eil and treasurer of the navy. He also occupied the post of vice chamberlain of the household, a position to which he had been appointed by Prince Charles in 1647. In 1661 Carteret was elected a member of the House of Commons for Portsmouth. As treasurer of the navy, however, he was most active. His per- Sir George Carteret was a man of many parts; a worthy name for a seafaring county. sonal credit enabled him to borrow £280,000 in 1665, during the plague, to keep the fleet abroad. Two years later difficulties of the Dutch caused him to step down and accept the post of deputy treasurer of Ireland. Commissioners appointed for the pur¬ pose of investigating accounts of the navy revealed gross mismanagement there during the war, but as far as their report went it was favorable to Carteret. The House of Commons, however, by a vote of 100 to 97 found him guilty of a misdemeanor and sus¬ pended him. A few years later, in spite of this, Carteret became one of the commis¬ sioners of the admiralty, a member of the Tangicrs committee, and of the committee of trade and plantations. In addition to these, he was one of the early supporters of the Hudson's Bay Company. Carteret's death, two days after the warrant for raising him to the peerage had passed, was announced in the Lon¬ don Gazelle of January 14, 1680. He was said to have been "near eighty years old." Shortly afterwards Charles granted to his widow the same prece¬ dence as if the promised baronetcy had actually been granted. Carteret's eldest son had been drowned in fight¬ ing the Dutch in 1672 but he left a son, George, who became Baron Car¬ teret of Hawncs on October 14, 1681. This Sir George Carteret married Lady Grace Granville, of the family of Sir Richard Granville who many times in the sixteenth century visited Roanoke Island and the coast of Carolina. Sir George had inherited his grandfather's share in Carolina and left it to his son John (1690-1763) who, at the death of his mother in 1744 became the Earl of Granville. When the other shares of Carolina were purchased by the crown in 1729, Carteret demanded and was allotted a large body of land which has come to be known as "Granville’s Grant." North Carolina's Carteret County, formed in 1722 from Craven, was named in honor of Sir John Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville. Gran¬ ville County, formed in 1746 from Edgecombe, was also named for him. THE STATE. AUGUST 29. 1953