School History of North Carolina Part 11

CHAPTER XVII.

GOVERNOR GABRIEL JOHNSTON.

A. D. 1722 TO 1748.

Upon the death of Governor Eden in 1722, Colonel Thomas Pollock, as President of His Majesty's Council for North Carolina, a.s.sumed the place of Governor, but he died in a short while and was succeeded by William Reed. That year Bertie precinct was erected west of Chowan River, and court houses were, for the first time, ordered to be built. Not only the General a.s.sembly, but courts and all public affairs, up to this time, had been held in private houses.

2. North Carolina then comprised three counties. These were Albemarle, Bath and Clarendon. Albemarle contained Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan and Bertie precincts. Bath and Clarendon, though counties, were not subdivided at this time.

1724.

3. The Lords Proprietors, as the last evidence of their lack of wisdom and interest in the province they had so long cursed with their misrule, sent over George Burrington. After the creation of the counties of Bath and Clarendon the representative of the Lords Proprietors was called "Governor of North Carolina."

4. Governor Burrington's character was very bad; he had been indicted and punished in the Old Bailey, in London, for beating an old woman, and was, all his life, drunken and quarrelsome.

Yet such a man came over to be the guardian of a people who knew not when they were to be tomahawked by the savages or driven into further exile by the zealots who were disturbed at the nature of their religious belief.

1725.

5. This weak and wicked ruler only remained one year in charge, when Sir Richard Everhard came to replace him. They were brothers in iniquity, and before Burrington left Edenton these two men disgraced themselves by fighting in the streets of that village. The General a.s.sembly met at Edenton, and by enactment of law the dividing line between North Carolina and Virginia was run in November of this year.

1729.

6. Such rulers as have just been mentioned so utterly disgusted every one in the colony that the King and Parliament were pet.i.tioned to buy the province and abolish the rule of those who had only hindered its growth. So, in 1729, for the sum of forty- five thousand dollars, all of the proprietors except Lord Carteret, sold to the crown their interest in Carolina . Thus, after sixty-six years of unbounded misrule, these men in London who had so greatly cursed North Carolina by their ignorance and mistakes, surrendered their t.i.tle to property which had never paid them more than about one hundred dollars a piece in any one year.

7. They had never really cared for the people whom they were so anxious to disturb with their crude notions of religion. The schemes of London merchants were of far more moment thanthe welfare of Albemarle, and the folly of the Fundamental Const.i.tutions was to be upheld even at the ruin of the province.

8. As an earnest of the want of care King George I. was to exhibit towards the colony, Governor Burrington was sent back to the people who were already so well acquainted with his faults of temper and character. He soon got into trouble with the leading men of the province, and pretending to go to South Carolina, returned to England, where he was soon after killed in a night- brawl in the city of London.

1734.

9. Nathaniel Rice was Governor until the arrival and qualification of Gabriel Johnston, who took the oaths of office at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River. Governor Johnston was a Scotchman, who had lived for several years in London, and was to prove the wisest and best of all the men sent over to rule the people in Carolina. He married Penelope Eden, daughter of the late Governor, and dwelt at her home on the Chowan River.

10. There were no troubles between the Governor and people in the time of Governor Johnston's administration. Sometimes Edward Moseley, always a stickler for the rights of the colonists, would carry some dispute into the General a.s.sembly, but the measures of Governor Johnston, as a general thing, were pleasing to all cla.s.ses of the people and received their support.

11. At this period, Dr. John Brickell, with a party of white men and Indians, was sent by the General a.s.sembly to explore the mountain region of Western North Carolina. He went into East Tennessee in his travels among the Cherokees. He brought back wondrous accounts of the beauty of the region and of the simplicity and kindness of the natives. Dr. Brickell practiced medicine in Edenton and wrote an interesting book about the North Carolina of that day.

1740.

12. During the Spanish war Governor Johnston enlisted four hundred North Carolina troops for the expedition that was led by Governor Oglethorpe against the Spaniards at St. Augustine, in Florida. They formed a battalion of the regiment commanded by Colonel Vanderclussen. They were carried under Admiral Vernon to the siege of Carthagena and partic.i.p.ated in the dangers and horrors of that expedition. But few returned to tell the story of their disasters.

1746.

13. In consequence of the great defeat of the Scotch by the English at the battle of Culloden, many Scotch emigrants began to settle in North America. The captives in the struggle mentioned had been offered choice between death and exile to America. The emigrants landed at Wilmington in large numbers and formed settlements along the Cape Fear River. One of their princ.i.p.al towns was at Cross Creek, now known as Fayetteville. These Scotch people were brave, industrious, and frugal, and North Carolina has always esteemed them as a part of her best population.

1748.

14. The province had never grown so rapidly, or been so prosperous, as in the rule of this wise and excellent man who now conducted public affairs. The provinces of North and South Carolina were formally separated in Governor Burrington's time, and upon the death of Governor Johnston, in 1752, it was found that the population had been multiplied several times over what it had been twenty years before, and it now numbered nearly fifty thousand people. Great quant.i.ties of tar, pitch and turpentine, also staves, corn, tobacco and other products of the farm, besides pork, beef, bacon and lard were exported.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who became Governor on the death of Governor Eden? What changes were noticed in the colony?

2. Into what precincts and counties was North Carolina divided?

3. Who was sent over by the Lords Proprietors in 1724 as Governor?

4. Can you tell something of Governor Burrington's past life?

5. How long was Governor Burrington in office, and who succeeded him? How did these officers conduct themselves in Edenton?

6. What large purchase was made in 1729? Which of the Lords Proprietors reserved his right? What had been the annual profit to the Proprietors from the colony?

7. How had these men always felt toward their province?

8. What was the first act of George I. in the government of North Carolina? How did Burrington's administration terminate?

9. Who was Burrington's successor? Who followed Governor Rice?

Tell something of Governor Johnston.

10. How did Governor Johnston conduct affairs?

11. What expedition was sent out at this time? What account of the western country was given by Dr, Brickell on his return?

12. What occurred in 1740?

13. How and by whom was the Cape Fear region now being settled?

14. Give an account of the prosperity of the province during period.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PIRATES AND OTHER ENEMIES.

A. D. 1748 TO 1754.

During the government of North Carolina by Gabriel Johnston, there was still much trouble from the buccaneers. These were pirates who chiefly infested the West Indies, where they were sometimes congregated by thousands at a single place. They were daring enough to invade cities and countries, and caused great terror and danger to all honest people within their reach.

2. In 1748 a fleet of the pirates, under the pretext of a war between England and Spain, sailed into the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Instead of the plunder they expected to obtain from firms and towns, they were bravely met by the people, as the fleet lay off the village of Brunswick, and after a b.l.o.o.d.y fight, were driven back to sea with the loss of one of their ships. From this demolished craft were taken a number of negroes and valuables. These spoils which rewarded the gallant defence of the men of Cape Fear were, by act of a.s.sembly, given to the churches in Wilmington and Brunswick.

[NOTE--The pirate chief left his vessel and crew off at Brunswick, and in a small boat, with a few men, ascended the Cape Fear River to ravage the farm of Maurice Moore. Col. Moore learned of the coming of the robbers and boldly met them on the sh.o.r.e with gun in hand, and compelled them to return without even landing.

While the chief was up the river the fight occurred off Brunswick, his vessel was captured, and forty men, comprising the crew were sold by the victors at public auction. ]