Роде
Six
THE STATE
July 13, 1935
GOVERNORS OF NORTH CAROLINA
- No. 21-Gabriel Johnston -
- By W. J. Sadler -
★
C\«Kli;LJOII\STO\,*n Scot «'Inn
ли
★
of good birth and education.** served
for eighteen years as twenty-first
Governor of the Albemarle and
(bird Chief Executive of 1%'ortli Caro¬
lina under the British Crown. His
task, like that of many of bis prc-
deeessors. was not an easy one.
Described a. "a
Scotchman of good
birth a n d educa¬
tion," Gabriel Johnston,
twenty-first Governor of the
Albemarle and third Chief
Executive of North Caro¬
lina tinder the direct
supervision of the British
Crown, served a total of
eighteen year* in that office,
considerably longer than the tenures of
office of any of his predecessors.
Johnston assumed the governorship
in November 1734, succeeding George
Burrington. who twice luiil served in
that capacity, and who a number of
years Inter was to meet a tragic death
by drowning in a London canal. John¬
ston's vrvicc extended through July.
1752. and one of the features of his
administration was the growth in
population of the colony of more than
one hundred per cent. At the time he
a **urnod office, the population was
around 40.000. and when he finally sur-
renderod the gubernatorial chair, it had
increased to more than 90.000.
I
Angers the Assembly
Almost immediately after reaching
North Carolina a* the arbiter of its
destinies Johnston angered the Albe¬
marle Assembly with his determined
attitude on rents for lands and the
manner in which they should be paid.
When the English Crown authorities
had purchased the colony from the
Lords Proprietors, it had been agreed
that the rents might be paid in farm
produce. Johnston was agreeable to a
continuance of this custom, although
he stall'd n preference for having the
rents paid in silver, but insisted that
'll* colonist* should deliver their pay¬
ments at specified place.. Prior to hi*
administration, collector* had been sent
into the various sections of the colony
for the purpose of taking up the pro¬
duce and reiuruing it to a centralized
location.
Johnston Gives In
This situation continued for five
years, with the re«idonts of the Albe¬
marle adamant in their attitude on the
questions of rents and the method* of
collection. Johnston, finding that his
determined position in the matter was
creating an ever-increasing amount of
dissension and friction, finally
capitulated in 1739, agreeing that
•'rents were to
1ю
paid at a number of
convenient places, at prices fixed by a
committee from the Council ami from
the Lower House.”
Then Johnston ran into another ob¬
stacle. The new method of collecting
rents did not meet the approval of the
British King, and the situation again
evolved into a dispute which was not
definitely settled for many years.
It was during Johnston's adminis¬
tration that England became involved
in one of its many wars with Spain,
and the British monarch was quick to
ask the support of the Albemarle
colonists. With Johnston's aid. the As¬
sembly voted to send four companies
of militia to th> aid "f th*>ir sovereign,
but the procedure was not popular with
the rank and file of the colonists. They
were forced to pay additional taxes to
defray the expenses of the troops, and
this extra burden did not set at nil well
with them.
When the Lords Proprietor? sold to
the British King their lands in the
Albemarle, there was one of that band
who did not surrender his holdings.
He was Lord Carteret, for whom
Carteret County is named. Ten years
after Johnston assumed the gorernor-
*hip. «he English nuthoritie- had a final
settlement with Carteret, conferring
upon him title to
я
tract
of land said to have been
more than half the area of
the colony, in return for his
agreement to allow the Eng¬
lish sovereign the right to
govern the entire colony.
Historians record that
Carteret was unscrupulous,
dishonest and merciless in
forcing hi* agents to collect
rents, either in money or products of
the farms, and his attitude served
further to infuriate the settlers.
Johnston's administration w a
«
notable for the settling in what i* now
known as the Piedmont section of the
•late of large numbers of the hardy,
•turdy Scotch- Irish Mock, and the
subsequent development of such
counties a« Alamance. Orange. Guil¬
ford. Iredell. Rowan. Cabarrus. Lin¬
coln. Gaston and Mecklenburg. Thou¬
sands of member» of that race flocked
into the state during the eighteen year*
that Johnston occupied the guberna
forinl chair.
A “Second Scotland”
“Almost a second Scotland,” is the
term applied to the sections of the state
now known as Cumberland. Harnett.
Bladen, Moore. Montgomery. Anson,
Richmond and Robeson, because of the
large numbers of Scotchmen who
settled in those areas while Johnston
was governor. And. today, the name*
of prominent citizens of those areas nre
typically Scotch.
Practically everybody in North
Carolina knows of the annual Easter
Sunri-e Service, held each year in Old
Salem, mid it was whil- Johnston ruled
over the state that Moravians from
Germany settled in Forsyth County on
"a corner which the Lord had reserved
for Tlis brethren.”
This site, first known as Wachovia,
later was known ns Salem, and today
its principal settlement in the progre?-
>ive city of Winston-Salem. Wachovia
was the German word for "meadow-
stream." and the first settlement was
organized there with a full complement
of various type* of arti»ans.
Given Half of Colony
