Watch Yoar Language! . .W.P.S.
N. C. Governors IV
SAMUEL STEPHENS
Captain Samuel Stephens, our first
American born governor, succeeded
William Drummond in October. 1667.
Little is known about Stephens but re¬
cent research has established that he
was the son of Richard Stephens of
London, who came to Jamestown in
1623. His mother. Elizabeth Piersey.
was the daughter of a cape-merchant.
Abraham Piersey. After the death of
her first husband. Elizabeth married
Governor John Harvey. Samuel, born
about 1629. lived at "Bolthrope”
plantation on the Warwick River in
Virginia. The Virginia Council, as carls
as 1661, commissioned him com¬
mander of the "southern plantation,"
and in 1667 the Lords Proprietors ap¬
pointed him governor.
Stephens was given a copy of the
Concessions of 1665 to aid him in
governing the colony. These conces¬
sions were based on the practice of
the colonists choosing twelve of their
members annually to act as their rep¬
resentatives in a General Assembly.
This Assembly and the governor and
The Appropriate Gift
Down Home In
North Carolina
One Year . . . J5
NORTH CAROLINA TREE CO.
Wm. H. BrickhouM, Mgr.
LANDSCAPE ENGINEERS
SPECIALISTS IN TREE CARE
Trl. T* 3-5221 201 PARK AVE.
RALEIGH. N. C.
his Council, which he appointed him¬
self. sat as a body to pass laws, appoint
Courts and decide on their jurisdiction.
Governor Stephens apparently suc¬
ceeded in satisfying both the people
and the Proprietors. During his ad¬
ministration the colonists were success¬
ful in securing the benefits of the Great
Deed of Grant of 1668 whereby they
were entitled to hold land on the same
basis as the residents of Virginia held
theirs. This rent was a farthing an acre
payable in commodities carrying a
fixed price, rather than in specie, and
was an easier and more sensible method
of payment. Several acts were passed
by the General Assembly while Ste¬
phens was governor. In 1669 the As¬
sembly declared that every person
bringing suit in court should pay thirty
pounds of tobacco, and the money thus
collected served as a tax to help pay
the expenses of the governor and his
Council. Other acts passed included
one prohibiting the institution of a suit
against an individual for debt until he
had lived in the colony for five years.
This was to encourage emigration to
the colony. Another act, legalizing mar¬
riage as a civil ceremony, resulted from
the scarcity of ministers in the colony
to perform the rites. These acts were
sent to England for the approval of
the Lords Proprietors before they be¬
came law.
Governor Stephens died in 1669,
"full of years and wealth." His widow
married Sir William Berkeley. Gover¬
nor of Virginia, one year later.
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material U reprinted from Bctb Crabtree.
"North Carolina Gorernon. I5S5-1958. Briet
Sketch**”
«137
pare*). For a cop» «rile the pab-
U*h*r. Stale Department
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Arehtee* and HUtory.
Bo* IMI. Ralelrh. N. C-. and cn«lo*e $1.50.
You all can take encouragement
from an article appearing in the spring
issue of the University of Georgia Re¬
view. It is the most thorough and
scholarly refutation we have seen of
the interminable wisecracks, tiresome
gibes and borcsome wheezes concern¬
ing the Southern use of the phrase “you
all."
Written by George P. Wilson, a na¬
tive of Mecklenburg County. Va., who
retired in 1956 from the faculty of the
Woman's College at Greensboro. N. C..
it shows that the Southern usage of
"you all" is found in the writings of
Chaucer. Shakespeare. Swift. Byron.
Jane Austen. Winston Churchill, and
dozens of other eminent Britons. Dr.
Wilson also quotes similar "you alls"
from the writings of such Northern
Americans as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emily Dickinson. William Dean How¬
ells and Thornton Wilder.
In these passages arc examples of
the use of the phrase in addressing one
person, but where more than a single
individual is clearly connoted. Profes¬
sor Wilson has also discovered passages
in Shakespeare where the Bard em¬
ploys "you all" in addressing two
persons, but without any apparent im¬
plication that more than two arc re¬
ferred to.
He even shows that equivalents of
"you all" arc to be found in Latin.
Greek, German. French. Spanish and
other languages.
He also says, correctly:
"Perhaps the question which churns
up more foam and wrath than any
other is: Do Southerners use ‘you all’
as a singular?
"In ’The Gumps' comic strip of Jan.
2. 1943, a Negro maid says to a white
woman: ‘Has you-all got a cinder in
you-all's eye. Miss Tilda’?"
Dr. Wilson is aware that the fore¬
going is a perfect example of the dole¬
ful distortions that occur in the North.
No Southerner, white or colored, in the
history of the world, ever uttered any
such preposterous sentence as this.
It is good to have so authoritative
and conclusive an analysis of the
South's use of ‘‘you all." We arc filing
Dr. Wilson’s conclusions on this
epochal matter for the benefit of future
generations. It’s the last word on the
subject. — Richmond T imes-Dispatch.
THE STATE. August 6. i960
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