GOVERNOR 

WILLIAM TRYON, 



AND HIS 



ADMINISTRATION 

IN THB 

PROVINCE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

1765-1771. 

SERVICES IN A CIVIL CAPACITY AND MILITARY CAREER AS 

COBIMANDER-IN-CHIEP OF COLONIAL FORCES WHICH 

SUPPRESSED THE INSURRECTION OF THE 

REGULATORS. 



BY 



MARSHALL DeLANCEY HAYWOOD. 



" I can see no generosity, far less justice, in the conduct of those who are 
obstinately deaf to all evidence in favor of one whom they have been pre- 
viously taught to condemn, and who seem to think that the stren^rth of their 
own cause depends on the amount of obloquy which they can contrive to heap 
upon its opponents." Aytoun. 



Ralbigh: 

E. M. UZZKLL, Pbintbr, 

1908. 



CJOPYBIOHT, 1902, 
BT 

Marshall DeLancet Hatwood. 



V 

s 






TO THE MEMORY 

OF THOSB 

REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOTS OF NORTH CAROLINA 

WHO LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON IN THE ART OF 
WAR WHILE FIGHTING UNDER TRYON AT ALA- 
MANCE IN 1771, AND AFTERWARDS MADE 
USE OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE IN A 
WAY NOT TO HIS LIKING, 
THIS VOLUME IS 

DEDICATED. 



To the present let us bid adieu 

And with the past commune; 
As Holy Writ enjoins, we'll view 

The rock whence we are hewn. 

Tales of a brave and warlike race 

My pages will unfold — 
Of peace and strife, of death and life. 

Of word and action bold. 

I'll seek to tell of men long gone, 

Of long forgotten ways; 
And how our fathers wrought and fought 

In old colonial days. 






PREFACE. 



Ever since I have learned to rely more upon documentary 
evidence than upon the individual opinions of writers, I have 
been convinced that history has dealt too harshly with the 
memory of Gtovernor Tbyon. The story of his life in North 
Carolina, and my own opinion of him, will be found in this 
book. 

I know that my views are very much at variance with those 
generally accepted; but I hold as true a declaration by the 
old Puritan divine, Richard Baxter, who says: "As long as 
men have liberty to examine and contradict one another, one 
may partly conjecture, by comparing their words, on which 
side the truth is like to be." 

Thus holding, I now submit my views to the public — or to 
that small portion of the public which shall do me the honor 
to read what I have written. 

Marshall DeLancby Haywood. 

127 East Edsnton Strbbt. 

Ralkiob, North Caboun a. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PAGE. 



Close of the administration of Governor Dobbs in North Caro- 
lina — ^Tryon appointed Lieutenant-Governor — His family and 
ancestry — He arrives in the Colony — Improves postal sys- 
tem — Death of Governor Dobbs — Lord Adam Gordon in North 
Carolina — ^Tryon qualifies as Governor pro tempore 9-16 

CHAPTER IL 

Governor Tryon recommends New Bern for the capital of the 
Colony — Is taken ill — Appointed permanent Governor — 
Friendly to Dissenters — Reverend George Whitefield — Re- 
ligious and educational advancement — ^North Carolina moun- 
tains and the mountaineers — ^The Stamp Act passed 17-31 

CHAPTER III. 

Attempts to enforce the Stamp Act — Resistance by the Colo- 
nists — Armed demonstration against the sloop of war Dili- 
gence — Crew of the sloop Viper captured and imprisoned — 
Meeting of the Governor's Council — Public Printer suspended 
from office — ^Repeal of the Stamp Act — Personnel of the Gov- 
ernor's Council 32-62 

CHAPTER IV. 

Land-grant riots in Mecklenburg County — Henry Eustace Mc- 
Culloh and George Augustus Selwyn — Their property confis- 
cated during the Revolution — James Iredell befriends McCul- 
loh — Cherokee boundary — Personnel of party running same — 
Tryon accompanies party — ^Honored with Indian names — 
South Carolina boundary — George Mercer, of Virginia, com- 
missioned Lieutenant-Governor of North Carolina 63-01 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE. 

Tryon*s house at Brunswick — Governor's Palace built at New 
Bern — Description of same — Had no equal in America — Wash- 
ington entertained there after the Revolution — Building de- 
stroyed by fire — Whilom counties of Tryon, Dobbs, Bute, and 
Glasgow — Town of Tryon and Tryon Mountain — Some coun- 
ties and towns named for Whigs in England and America — 
Wake County named for Mrs. Tryon, nde Wake — Esther 
Wake a myth 62-70 

CHAPTER VI. 

First insurrection of the Regulators — Tryon*s campaign against 
them in 1768 — Official abuses — Scarcity of currency — Colonel 
Edmund Fanning — First attack on Hillsborough by Regula- 
tors — Hermon Husband and William Butler arrested — High 
titles in small army under Tryon — Colonel Alexander Os- 
borne — fJudges Moore and Henderson 77-103 

CHAPTER VII. 

Further violence of the Regulators — Outrages continue at Hills- 
])orough — House-burning in Granville County — Husband ex- 
pelled from Assembly and imprisoned — Legislative measures 
against the insurgents — Tryon's second military campaign — 
Patriotic North Carolinians in his army — Partial list of 
officers — General W^addell's force intercepted — Insurgents 
routed at Battle of Alamance — Some of the killed and 
wounded — Flight of Husband before the battle begins 104-130 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Tryon completes work of subjugation — Six insurgents hanged 
and six pardoned — Captain Merrill executed — Tryon made 
Governor of New York, but temporarily remains in North 
Carolina — "Atticus" letter — Character of Robert Thompson — 
Death of General W^addell — ^The Gillespies patriots in the 
Revolution — ^Nearly all other Regulators Tories — ^Tryon's old 
soldiers conquer Tory Regulators in the Revolution — ^AU re- 
ligious denominations disclaim Regulators — James Hascll, 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 
Acting Governor — Governor Josiah Martin arrives — ^Martin 

snubbed by Assembly, which compliments Tryon — Concluding 

remarks about Tryon's administration in North Carolina — 

Entrance upon his duties in New York 140-104 

CHAPTER TX. 

Observations on Tryon's career in Revolution — Major-General of 
Loyalists, and Lieutenant-General after return to England — 
Tribute to his character by Judge Jones, of New York — 
Death — Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine — Buried in family 
vault at Twickenham — His will and that of his wife — Con- 
clusion 106-208 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

Tryon Palace Frontispiece. 

SiGNATUBE AND AbMORAL SeAL OF GOVEBNOB TbYON 12 

Ruins of St. Philip's Chubch 24 

Map of the Battlefieij) of Alamance 124 

Tomb of Govebnob Tbyon 200 



GOVERNOR WILLIAM TRYON. 



CHAPTER I. 

CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR DOBBS IN 
NORTH CAROLINA— TRYON APPOINTED LIEUTENANT-GOV- 
ERNOR—IIIS FAMILY AND ANCESTRY— HE ARRIVES IN THE 
COLONY— LVIPROVES POSTAL SYSTEM— DEATH OF GOV- 
ERNOR DOBBS— LORD ADAM GORDON IN NORTH CAROLINA 
—TRYON QUALIFIES AS GOVERNOR PRO TEMPORE. 

From a colony owned and controlled by a company of Eng- 
lish noblemen — ^tlie *^Lords Proprietors" — North Carolina be- 
came a royal province in 1729. Thereafter Gk)vemors were 
appointed by the King. The third person so commissioned 
was Arthur Dobbs^ a native of Ireland, whose seat was Castle 
Dobbs, in Carrickfergns, wliich is still owned by his descend- 
ants. Governor Dobbs was not to fame unknown before com- 
ing to America. Besides being an author on scientific and 
other subjects, he had occupied the posts of High Sheriff of 
County Antrim and Surveyor-General of Ireland. He had 
also been a member of the Irish Parliament for Carrickfer- 
gus. When the Chief Magistracy of North Carolina was as- 
sumed by him, however, in 1754, he was nearing his three- 
score and ten; and, as his age further advanced, it became 
necessary that a deputy, or Lieutenant-Governor, should be ap- 
pointed to discharge the more active duties of state. This 
was accordingly done in 1764. The one tlius chosen as Lieu- 



10 GOVERNOR TRYON 

tenant-Governor of the province was William Tryon, who 
then held a commission in the regular army of Great Britain. 
The eventful career, in North Carolina, of this noted per- 
son, who soon became full Governor (and was later Governor 
of New York), will constitute the theme of this work. 

Grovemor Tryon was bom in Surrey, at Norbury Park, a 
handsome seat then owned by his family but which has since 
passed into other hands. His entrance into the world took 
place in 1729 — ^the same year in which North Carolina, one 
of the chief scenes of his future achievements, was trans- 
formed from a proprietary into a royal provinca He be- 
longed to an English family of high standing, which is said 
to have oome originally from the Netherlands. In records 
of the baronetage, knightage, and landed gentry of Great 
Britain we often meet the nama "The first of this family 
that came into England was Peter Tryon, who quitted the 
Netherlands on account of the troubles raised in that country 
by the Duke of Alva, His ancestors had flourished there a 
long time in wealth and honour ; so that he did not come over 
in an indigent manner to seek his fortime, but brought witli 
him, as it is reported, above 60,000Z."* 

While the Tryon family may be of Netherlandish origin, 
as stated by the old historian just quoted, there are records 
to show that the name, or one of the closest similarity, was 
borne in England as early as the Norman Conquest ; for, dur- 
ing the reign of Henry the Third, a writ of inquisition as to 
the title of an estate called Tryenestone, in Kent, was issued, 
^vith tlie result reported that it had been "given to a certain 

*Morant'8 matory of Essex (A. D. 17GS). Vol. n. p. 251. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 11 

knight named Tryan, who held it so long as he lived ; and, 
after his decease, Hugh Tryan, his son and heir, retained it ; 
and, after the said Hugh, Robert Tryan, son and heir of the 
said Hugh, retained it. So that the said Trian, Hugh, and 
Robert held the said land without challenge from the lord 
William the King, the Bastard, to the time of King John, who 
took the said land, together with other lands of the Normans, 
into his own hands, as his escheats, and expelled the said 
Robert, the last holder, from the Kingdom of England, and 
held it in his own hand for two years, and afterwards gave it 
to Alberic de Marinis, to hold at his pleasure, who held it to 
tlie time of our lord the King Henry that now is.'' * It may 
be that the Robert Tryan, whom King John "expelled from 
the Kingdom of England," was the founder of the family 
that resided in the Netherlands, and which we are told "had 
flourished there a long time in wealth and honour." 

Branches of the Try on family have been settled in various 
parts of England — in Essex, Northampton, and ekewhere. 
Governor Tryon was the son of Charles Tryon, of Bulwick, 
Northamptonshire. The latter's wife (mother of the Gov- 
ernor) w^as the Honorable Lady Mary Tryon, nee Shirley, 
daughter, by his second marriage, of Robert Shirley, first 
Earl Ferrers. The first wife of Lord Ferrers was a daugh- 
ter of Laurence Washington, of Garsden, Wiltshire, a member 
of the family from which sprang General George Washing- 
ton. 

Through the House of Ferrers Governor Tryon was line- 
ally descended from the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's 



*County Records of the mmames of Francus, Franceis, French, in England, A. D. 
1100-1360. by A. D. Weld French, p. 206. 



12 GOVERNOE TBYON 

sometime favorite, and from the Royal House of Plantag- 
enet* 

The arms and crest of the Tryon family, as given by 
Burke, are as follows: Arms — Azure, a fesse embattled be- 
tween six estoiles or. Crest — A bear's head sable, poivdered 
with estoiles or. The accompanying illustration of the ar- 
morial seal of Governor Tryon is copied from a fac-simile in 
Lossvng's Field Book of the Revolution, and was made by 
Lossing from an original in the possession of the eminent 
American divine and historian, Reverend Francis Lister 
Hawks, grandson of John Hawks who superintended the erec- 
tion of the Palace at New Bern. The inescutcheon, shown 
on the Gk)vemor's shield in the illustration here given, may 
have been adopted by him in right of his descent from the 
Devereuxs, Earls of Essex, as it exhibits a similarity to the 
arms borne by that family. 

In the year 1757, at which time he held a commission as 
captain in the First Regiment of Foot-Guards, Mr. Tryon 
was united in marriage with Margaret Wake, then of Han- 
over street, London, a lady possessing a dower of thirty 
thousand pounds. 

The brave and unfortunate Admiral Sir George Tryon, 
who was drowned wlien his flag-ship, the Victoi'ia, collided 
with the Camperdown, on the 22d of June, 1893, was of the 
same stock as Governor Tryon. He was not, however, his 
lineal descendant. 

The commission of William Tryon as Lieutenant-Governor 
of North Carolina was issued from the CJourt of St. James, by 



*Comi>az« monumental inscriptions in ninth chapter of this work with 1868 edition 
of Burke's Peerase (earUom of Ferrers); see also^ 1900 edition of Burke's Landed 
Gentry. P. 1506. 



I 



• \ 



: 1 I ' ' 




7ianATURB Ai^o AWAORifn. se/w» op co\'ei^oR tryo«= 



p m, 



• •• 



•'• 






• -• 






• • 



OF NOETII CAROLINA. 13 

order of King Greorge the Third, on April 26, 1764. As Gov- 
ernor Dobbs was fast succiunbing to the infirmities of age, he 
had Avritten to friends at Court, requesting that the King's 
leave be obtained for his temporary return to Great Britain. 
This was granted in the month following Tryon's appoint- 
ment, but it was some time before the necessary papers 
reached North Carolina. Tryon arrived in the province, at 
Cape Fear, on Wednesday, the 10th of October, 1764; and 
next day waited on Governor Dobbs, who had already been 
apprised of his coming.* 

It was the wish of Colonel Trvon to assume the reins of 
government immediately upon his arrival. But Governor 
Dobbs determined to remain until the following Spring, at 
whidi time he had requested that a sloop of war should be sent 
to convey him home. This delay proved a bitter disappoint- 
ment to Tryon, who was making plans for immediate action 
upon policies which he intended to pursue. Being accom- 
panied by his family, great inconvenience was likewise ox- 
j)erienced by him in securing suitable lodgings, as the Gov- 
ernor's Villa was still in possession of its official occupant. 
Furthermore, Tryon wtas under the necessity of drawiiig 
largely on his personal revenues during the time intervening, 
as the Governor's full salary could not be paid him until 
Dobbs had vacated the Executive chair. Remonstrating 
about this in a letter to the Earl of Halifax, Tryon declared 
that mercenary gain had not been the motive which brought 
him to America ; but, at the same time, he had not come with 
an idea of squandering his private fortune in unreasonable ex- 



• Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VI. pp. 1048. 1045, 1063. 



14 GOVERNOR TRYOX 

penditures. Concerning Governor Dobbs, however, it was 
added that he had been very polite in his attentions to the 
Trj'^on household, and should receive all the respect due his 
character, age, and infirmities.* 

Before coming to America, Tryon had consulted Lord 
Hyde, the Postmaster-General of England, with a view of es- 
tablishing more convenient mail routes in the colonies; and 
the prosecution of this design was one of the first mattors 
which engrossed his attention. Shortly after being sworn 
in as Lieutenant-Governor — which ceremonial occurred at 
Wilmington on the 27th of October, 1764 — ^he sought to 
impress his views upon Governor Dobbs, and the latter issued 
an address to the Assembly, in which were detailed the many 
advantages which would pi*obably accrue from the execution 
of Tryon's suggestions. The recommendations met with a 
favorable reception, and several api)ropriations towards car- 
rying them into effect were made before the session adjourned. 
Desiring the co-operation of the home government, Trj'on 
sent to Lord Hyde, in the month following, a dispatch of some 
length in which were given the conditions which required 
tlie system in question. Aside from injuiy to conmierce, 
caused by the irregularity with which letters were delivered, 
the writer declared that needs of war ought to be considered. 
Should the southern provinces be invaded, there were no re- 
liable means through which aid could be summoned from the 
north. By water, the attempt to give an alarm would be a 
precarious undertaking; while equally dangerous, and even 
more uncertain, would be such an effort by land. In the lat- 
ter event, Tryon went on to state, a messenger might ride 



•Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VI. pp. 1058-1066. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 15 

two hundred miles or more before being able to provide him- 
self with a fresh horse; and if by chanoo a hut should be 
reached, no shelter could be obtained for the animal, which 
must therefore be turned out to graze or stray, as the case 
might be. One line, from New York to Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, w^as already in operation; but, from the latter place 
to South Carolina, communication was well-nigh impossible. 
It was recommended that the route should be extended via 
the North Carolina towns of Edcnton, Bath, New Bern, Wil- 
mington, and Bnmsw'ick, to Charleston, in South Carolina. 
It was also urged that packet-boats should be ordered to call 
with greater regularity at Cape Fear, as a means of more fre- 
quent intercourse with England.* 

The venerable Governor Dobbs was destined never to leave 
North Carolina. In the Spring of 17G5 preparations weiT 
made by him to embark; and the Assembly drew up an ad- 
dress, in which were expressed regret at parting and best 
wislies for the speedy restoration of his health. After return- 
ing grateful acknowledgments for these kind professions, the 
Governor began placing his eflFects in readiness to ship, when 
the attendant physician gave w^arning that "he had better pre- 
pare himself for a much longer voyage." None too soon 
came the admonition, thus bluntly worded; for two days 
thereafter, on Thursday, the 28th of March, death brought re- 
lief to the aged ruler and wafted his spirit to that — 

"Silent shore, 
Where billows never break, nor tempests roar." 

And when his remains were laid to rest there w-as not a 
clergyman within a hundred miles of Bnmswick, so the 



•Cokmial Records of N. C, Vol. VI. pp. 1057-1060, 1291. 1299-1300. 1904. 1819. 



16 OOVEBNOB TKYON 

biirial sonice had to be conducted l>j 8 Justice of the Peace. 

Lieutenant-Governor Tryoii was escorting the distinguislieil 
British soldier, Lord Adain Gordon (second sou of the Duke 
of Gordon), through North Carolina whcfl the news came 
that Governor Dobbs Iiad passed away. Having been au- 
thorized to assume temporary control of the govenuiient upon 
the absence or death of his sui>erior, Tryou returned to Bruns- 
wick ; and, on the Slst of ilarcli, took possession of the great 
seal of tlic province, together with the Governor's oonuuis- 
sion and otlier documents of a public nature.* 

At a session of the Provincial Council, held in Wilmington 
on the 3d of April, 1765, the oath of office as Governor pro 
tempore was administered to Tryon, who thereupon issued a 
proclamation which continued, for the time being, all official 
commissions then in force. He had written to the Earl of 
Halifax, when the vacancy first occurred, to secure that noble- 
man's influence in obtaining a permanent appointment as Gov- 
ernor, and it will be seen hereafter that this effort was suc- 
cessful. 

•ColoniaJRecoflBof N.C.. Vol VI, pp. 1320-1821; Ibid., VoL VU, pp. 2-E, 103. 



I 



OF NOETII CAROLINA. 17 



CHAPTER IL 

GOVERNOR TRYON RECOMMENDS NEW BERN FOR THE CAPI- 
TAL OF THE COLONY— IS TAKEN ILLr-APPOINTED PER- 
MANENT GOVERNOR— FRIENDLY TO DISSENTERS— REVER- 
END GEORGE WHITEFIELD— RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL 
ADVANCEMENT— NORTH CAROLINA MOL'NTAINS AND THE 
MOUNTAINEERS— THE STAMP ACT PASSED. 

Oil becoming temporary Chief Executive of the province, 
Governor Tryon summoned the legislature to meet on May 
2, 1765, at New Bern. As is well kno^vn, this town was set- 
tled by Swiss and Grerman palatines brought to America by 
Baron Christopher De Graffenried. To Tryon, however, is 
due the credit of pointing out its advantages and establishing 
there the seat of government. In a letter to the Board of 
Trade he said that he had spent two months in a tour through 
the province, and was determined in the opinion that public 
business could be carried on nowhere else with so much con- 
venience and advantage to far the greater part of the inhab- 
itants.* 

During the Summer and Fall of 1765, Tryon suffered a pro- 
tracted illness which he said was the compound of every sort 
of fever, called by the inhabitants "the seasoning of the cli- 
mate." While his sickness continued he received the King's 
commission which permanently vested him with the governor- 
ship. This document was issued from Westminster on the 
19th of July, 1765, and opened before the Council in Wil- 
mington on the 20th of December following. In line with 



"Colonial Recoids of N. a. VoL Vn. pp. 2, 5. 



18 OOVKBN'OB THYON 

the usual custom, a proclamation was next in order announc- 
ing tlie appointment.* 

lu compliflnce witlv tlie call therefor, the Legislature met 
at New Bern on Slay 3, 1765, the day after the date 9))ecified 
in the summons. The delay was caused by the lack of u 
quoruni.f Immediately after hia commission was formally 
made known, Governor Tryon dissolved this Assembly and 
issued writs of election for another session, to be held at New 
Bern in April, 1766. 

The town of New Bern soon began to feel good effects 
from the new Governor's intention to make it the capital of 
the province, Thomas Tomlinsou anived from England in 
1761 ; and, during the following year, was enabled to establisii 
a school wliich accommodated more than thirty pupils. Hia 
academy was legally incoriwrated by Chapter XIX of the 
Private Laws of 17(!6. By Chapter XXVIII of the Private 
Laws of 1786, wlien the Church of England had been dis- 
established, the Glebe in New Bom was given to this school. 
A few years afffr the New Bcni Academy l)egan o]>eratioiis 
a school in Edenton was iiicorporateerform the niairiage ceremony. By Chajiter IX 
of the I^wa of 1766 Presbyterian ministers were vested with 
that right It is generally believed that Trj'on was instru- 
mental in securing the passage of the act just mentioned. 



OF NOKTH CAROLINA. It) 

The liistorian Williamson — ^liimself a Presbyterian — seems 
inclined to this opinion.* Other denominations were not in- 
cluded, as none but Presbyterians claimed or exercised the 
l)ower.f 

Like most gentlemen who held office under the Crown, 
Tryon was an adherent of the Church of England, and he used 
his best efforts to strengthen its establishment. Taxes, as in 
England, to maintain it, were collected from churchman and 
dissenter alike; but beyond an approval of this injustice the 
Governor never went. Doctor Williamson, in his History of 
North Carolina,^ remarks: '*It was fortunate for the dis- 
senters that Governor Trvon was not a biuret. He did not con- 
ceive that a vicious life could be expiated by persecutions in 
favor of an established church; nor did he believe that any 
worship, in form or substance, could be acceptable to the Su- 
preme Being that was not offered up with an approving 
heart." 

In an address on tlio Church of England in the Province of 
North Carol inay^ which he delivered in Calvary Church, 
Tarborough, 1890, at the celebration of the centennial of the 
Diocese, the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, who has since 
become Bishop of North Carolina, refers to Tryon in these 
words: ''With the administration of Governor Tr^^on a new 
era of activity in ecclesiastical affairs begins. Gabriel John- 
ston and Arthur Dobbs w^ere both zealous churchmen, but 
Tryon's activity in seeking to advance the cause of the 
Church and of religion in the province was quite beyond any- 



• Williamaon'B History of N. C, Vol. n, pp. 11»-U9. 
t Church History of N. C, p. 80. note. 
I Williamaon's History of N. C, VoL H, p. 118. 
S Church History of N. a, p. 75. 



20 GOVERNOR TRYON 

thing which had been seen before. Yet it was not the zeal 
of a mere sectarian bigotry. All our historians have ad- 
mitted that he met the dissenting interests of the country with 
a generous appreciation and tolerance which to a verj^ great 
extent won their good-will. Upon the outbreak of the first 
Regulation troubles in 1768 the Presbyterian ministers 
imited in an address to him, in which they declared tliat they 
had the highest sense of the justice and benevolence of his 
administrajtion, under w^hich they say that they enjoyed all the 
blessings of civil and religious liberty, or words to that effect. 
They also put forth a pastoral letter to their people, quite as 
ardent in its expressions of loyalty to King George as was 
Parson Mickle John's sermon before the troops at Hillsboro' 
upon the text, 'The powers that be are ordained of Grod.' 
Governor Tryon, on his part, always speaks of the Presby- 
terians, and also of the Quakers, with the highest respect. 
As a civil administrator, bred in the school of military disci- 
pline, he had less respect for the ruder and more extravagant 
forms of religious enthusiasm, the 'New Lights' and the 
'Separatists,' who were becoming so numerous in some quar- 
ters. But no complaint has come down to us from any reli- 
gious body against his ecclesiastical administration." 

Tryon's friendship for the Lutherans is shown by the fact 
that he and "the Honorable Miss Tryon" (probably his sister) 
joined in a subscription to aid them in securing a minister and 
a school-master for their congregation in the county of 
Rowan.* 

The Moravians, too, came in for a full share of Tryon's 
respect and admiration. From a work, by the Reverend 



^Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. VUI. pp. 6S0-683. 



' ??'¦¦_ ' _ ¦ I ¦ I wp»^aMN^i^W»<^*M»^l^>^^^^^ 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 21 

John II. Clewell, entitled the History of ^Yachov^a* we have 
a delightful picture, written in the comniimity diary of the 
^Moravian settlement (in what is now Forsyth county, North 
Carolina), when that place was visited by Governor and Mrs. 
Try on in Septemter, 1767. The entries given by Doctor 
Clewell were made originally in German at the time of 
Tryon's sojourn, and, as the testimony of eye-witnesses, are of 
great value historically. On September 18th it is said of 
the visiting party's entry into the town: "As the company 
approached, our band of musicians with French horns and 
trumpets greeted them. Half an hour later they dined in the 
hall of the single brethren's house, the musicians furnishing 
music while they sat at table. At the conclusion of the 
repast the governor, accompanied by some of the gentlemen 
of the party, took a walk through the village, inspecting the 
property, the stables and the farm. As it began to rain, 
they returned to their rooms. In the meantime, Mrs. Tryon 
was entertained by the ladies of the congregation, she con- 
versing with them in a charming and lovely manner. When 
comfortably seated in the room, the governor had a long and 
familiar conversation with Gratf. He was greatly interested 
in our constitution and government." On the following day 
we have the chronicle: "After having breakfasted, the gov- 
ernor and his party went across the great meadow to Salem. 
He examined everything with interest. He was pleased with 
the regularity of the streets, and the care with which every- 
thing is laid out. Wlien we returned to Bethabara, dinner 



•Clewell's History of Wachovia, pp. 99-102. 



22 GOVERNOR TRYON 

was served, as yesterday, in the large hall, and later His Ex- 
cellency examined the potter shop. The party then went to 
Bethania, spending some time at the mill. In the evening 
we were again in Bethabara, the governor having expressed 
himself as greatly pleased with what he saw. As he passed 
and greeted the young people, and saw them in front of the 
houses, he said the country would be blessed in these happy 
children." Of Mrs. Try^on we also have an attractive view 
(Sunday, September 20th) from the same source: ^We had 
arranged for a quiet afternoon for our visitors, but Mrs. 
Tryon expressed a desire to play upon the organ ; and as she 
played, a number of the girls sang. This pleased her. She 
later requested Graff to perform on the organ, and he did 
so. By this time the governor became interested in the mu- 
sic, and came to the meeting hall from his room. An hour 
was pleasantly passed in this way." Before leaving the 
Moravians, Grovenior Tryon advised them to secure repre- 
sentation in the Legislature, as the importance of their com- 
munity fully justified such a privilege. In reply he was 
told that such a step might arouse the jealousy of other sec- 
tions, but his answer was tliat their prosperity would probably 
arouse envy and jealousy whether they were represented or not. 
On the 21st of September, Tryon returned to Salisbury from 
this visit, after a hearty interchange of good wishes with his 
hospitable entertainers. 

One missionary of the Church of England, writing from 
North Carolina in 1767, referred to Governor Tryon as "by in- 
clination, as well as by his office, the defender and friend, the 
patron and nursing father of the church established amongst 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 23 

US ; a religious frequenter of its worship and a steady adherent 
to its interest, prepared in times of the greatest danger and 
distress to suffer with and for it."* This extravagant praise 
does not bear out the statement made by one historian that the 
only reason for Tryon's tolerance was his utter indifference to 
religion in general. 

Under date of July 31, 1765, Governor Tryon wrote to the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gosi)el, wnth reference to 
religious and educational matters, a letter in which he said 
that if the Society would send for his distribution as many 
well-bound Bibles and Prayer Books for the ministers' desks 
as there were parishes, it would have a better effect than a 
ship-load of small books recommending the duty of a Chris- 
tian ; for the ignorant would hear their duty delivered out of 
the fonner, when they could not instruct themselves in the lat- 
ter. This incapacity was due, he thought, to a want of 
schools in the province, which consideration impelled him to 
solicit the Society's bounty and encouragement to Mr. Tom- 
linson, the teacher then seated at New Bern. The Governor 
said he had recently held a long conversation with Mr. Tom- 
linson, and was much impressed by the sense and decency 
of his behavior, and the general good character he maintained. 
In conclusion, Tryon remarked that he could not close his let- 
ter without acquainting the Society that the Reverend George 
Whitefield had preached a sermon at Wilmington in the pre- 
ceding March which would have done him honor had he deliv- 
ered it at St. James's, allowing some little alteration of cir- 



*Cokmial Records of N. C, VoL VII. p. 620 



24 GOVERNOR TRYON 

cumstanc^s between a discourse adapted to the Royal Chaj^el 
and one prepared for the oourt-hoiise at Wilmington.* 

In the above-mentioned letter Governor Tryon stated that 
considerable sums of money had been subscribed for finish- 
ing the churches at Wilmington and Brunswick, and he 
thought both would be completed in less than twelve months. 
He does not mention that he himself had made a personal 
contribution of forty guineas toward building the one at 
Brunswick, yet such was the case.f Tlie walls of the historic 
edifice last alluded to, St. Philip's Church, are still standing 
at old Brunswick. 

In his work entitled Tales and Traditions of the Lower 
Cape Fear.X Mr. James Spnmt, of Wilmington, says : 

"St. Philip's Church was built of large brick brought from 
England. Its walls are nearly three feet thick and are solid 
and almost intact still, the roof and the fioor only having dis- 
appeared. Its dimensions are nearly as large as those of our 
modern churches, being seventy-six feet six inches long, fifty- 
three feet three inches wide, standing walls twenty-four feet 
four inches high. There are eleven windows, measuring fif- 
teen by seven feet, and three large doors. It must have pos- 
sessed much arcliitectural l)eauty and massive grandeur with 
its high-pitched roof, its lofty doors, and beautiful chancel 
windows. 

**Upon tlie fall of Fort Fisher, which is a few miles to 
the south-east of Orton, in 1865, the Federal troops visited 
the ruins of St. Philip's, and with pick-axes dug out the cor- 



•Ck)lonial Records of N. C. VoL VH. pp. 103—104. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. VII, p. 164. 

t Sprunt's Tales and Traditions of the Lower Cape Fear, pp. 73-74. 



', 



li 

I 
1 1 



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!!¦• 



« 



• ..¦ 



•¦¦ ¦ I ' 



) : 



I I 
I : 
' i 

i i 

\ ¦ 

! -i 



. .*! ¦ I 



: ¦ ¦'•¦ 



i I 



^ 




RUmS OP ST. PHILIP'S CHURSH, 



:« •: 

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• • 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 25 

ner-stone, which had remained undisturbed for one hundred 
and twenty-five years, and which doubtless contained papers of 
great interest and value to our people. It is a singular fact 
that during the terrific bombardment of Fort Anderson, 
which was erected on Orton, and which enclosed with earth- 
works the ruins of St. Philip's, while many of the tombs in the 
church-yard were shattered and broken to pieces by the storm 
of shot and shell, the walls escaped destruction; as if the 
Power Above had shielded from annihilation the building 
which had been dedicated to His service. 

"This sanctuary has long been a neglected ruin, trees of 
larger growth than the surrounding forest have grown up 
w-ithin its roofless walls, and where long years ago the earnest 
prayer and song of praise ascended up on high, a solemn still- 
ness reigns, unbroken save by the distant murmur of the sea, 
which ever sings a requiem to the buried past." 

The parish in Wilmington (organized in 17291 has been 
more fortunate than the one at Brunswick, and is still in 
active operation, though its house of worship, St. James's 
Church, is not the same which was used in the days of Grov- 
ernor Tryon. The present building was erected many years 
after the Revolution. 

To w^hat we have said concerning Tryon's efforts to ad- 
vance the cause of education, it should be added that his 
exertions were not designed to benefit the eastern part of the 
province alone. In a message to the Colonial Legislature, on 
December 5, 1770, he recommended to that body that, as soon 
as fimds could be raised, a seminary should be established in 
the back-country settlements.* In reply, the Assembly prom- 



* Colonial Recotds of N. C, VoL Vm. pp. 285. 289. 812. 



26 GOVEllXOR TRYON 

ised favorable action as soon as the state of the public finance 
justified such an expenditure, saying that an institution of 
this character was verv much to be desired, as morals and 
good govennnent largely depended upon the early training 
given citizens of a country. At the same session, by Qiapter 
III of tlie Laws of 1770,* Queen's College (sometimes called 
Queen's Museum) in Charlotte was incorporated ; and, for its 
support, the trustees were authorized to le\'j' and collect a 
duty on all rum and otlier spirituous liquors brought into and 
disposed of in Mecklenburg coiuity. The trustees of this 
college were nearly altogether men of the Presbyterian faith, 
though Edmund Fanning and Abner Nash, two members of 
the Church of England, were also on the board. Upon be- 
ing submitted for the approval of the authorities in England, 
according to the usual procedure, the act incorporating this 
institution was annulled ; and another act. Chapter IX of the 
Laws of 1771 (later passcil as an amendment), became of no 
effect in consequence thereof. It was not until the Rovolu- 
tion upset British authority that the desired legislation could 
be made effective. Tlien, by Chapter XX of the Private Laws 
of 1777 (April session), a charter was obtained vesting the 
government of the college in a board of trustees, on which 
were Thomas Polk, Adlai Osborne, Waightstill Avery, 
Ephraim Brevard, several of the Alexanders, and many other 
prominent Presbyterians. At this time the North Caro- 
linians were not so anxious to honor royalty, arid Queen's 
College became Libei-ty Hall. By Chapter XXIII of the 
Private Laws of 1778 (April session) all moneys coming 

* In Uie publication of Laws only the caption of this act is sriven. For full text see 
Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. VUI. p. 486. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 27 

from the sale of town lots in Charlotte were given to the 
college. Though it had done much good in the cause of edu- 
cation (for it ran some j-ears without a charter), this in- 
stitution did not long survive the Revolution. Chapter 
XXIX of the Private Laws of 1784 (October session) 
changed its name to Salisbury Academy, and it was then re- 
moved to Rowan county. We find the Osbomes, Brevards, 
Polks, and others who had been interested in Liberty Hall, 
among the earliest trustees and patrons of the University of 
Xorth Carolina at Chapel Hill, which began its existence 
shortly after the w^ar. 

In Liberty Hall, as if by way of retribution for the King's 
past injuries to it, were held the meetings, in 1775, which 
brought forth the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. 
Neither the remnants of this college nor the place of its loca- 
tion seem to have made a very profound impression on Gren- 
eral Washington in 1791, when he visited that part of North 
Carolina. In his Dia)'y,^ on May 28th, of the year men- 
tioned, he says: ^^Charlotte is a trifling place, though the 
Court of Mecklenburg is held in it. There is a school 
(called a college) in which, at times, there has been fifty or 
sixty boys." As Washington, according to a well-known ac- 
count handed down to us by the Reverend Mason L. Weems, 
"could not tell a lie," perhaps his description of the Char- 
lotte of that day should not be questioned; yet, could the 
General repeat his visit, he would now find a town no longer 
* trifling," but enlightened educationally and progressive com- 
mercially. And it may be here mentioned that one of the 



Washinffton'8 Diary (edited by B. J. Loesinff, New York, 18G0). p. 197. 



28 OOVEENOR TBYON 

principal streets of Charlotte is called for Governor Tryon. 

It has been said that the royal approval was denied the 
act incorporating Queen's College l>ecaiise the institution was 
not in unison with the Church of England. This is probably 
true; but the fact that Great Britain was then afflicted with a 
monarch who sometimes overworked himself in performing 
the arduous duties devolving upon him as ^'Defender of the 
Faith" was not the fault either of Tryon or the North Caro- 
lina Assembly. 

In February, 1766, Governor Tryon became a member of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gt^spel in Foreign 
Partes, making a handsome donation in money to that organ- 
ization at the same time.* 

One of the most laughable pictures we have of the religious 
transactions in the colony about the year 1766 is found in a 
letter from the Reverend Charles Woodmason, of the Estab- 
lished Church, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel, f Among other things, tliis worthy divine says that when 
the Presbyterians saw they were not strong enough to cope 
with the Church of England along the sea-coast, they cramped 
its usefulness by building a chain of meeting-houses which 
hedged it off from the back-country. Then, says the par- 
son, the Almighty allowed the Presbyterians to be caught in 
the nets they set for others, as the Baptists came down from 
Pennsylvania and wormed them out of their strong-holds; 
wherefore the rancor between the two sects was so great that 
a Presbyterian would prefer having ten children married to 
members of the Church of England than one to a Baptist, and 



• Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VH. p. 162. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VII, p. 287. 



OF NORTH CABOI.IXA. 29 

the same was true of the antipathy borne by the Baptists to- 
wards the Prcsbjiieriaus. As a consequence of these jeal- 
ousies, said he, the Church of England was reaping great 
good ; but, with some misgiving, he adds : "The Baptists have 
gi'eat prevalence and footing in Xorth (.^arolina, and have 
taken such deep root that it will require long time and pains 
to grub up their layers." In considering this statement, we 
are impressed with the belief that the reverend gentleman 
did not overestimate the difficulties his church had to en- 
counter; for, even at the prcsent writing, the foundations or 
"layers" of the Baptist denomination in Xorth Carolina 
have not been entirely grubbed up, and what further amount 
of "time and pains" will be required to eifect that end is diffi- 
cult to estimate. 

We shall now leave the churchmen and dissenters to their 
three-cornered fight and take a look at the mountainous sec- 
tion of the province. Though somewhat devoid of that re- 
finement which first reached the sea-coast counties, the in- 
habitants of the west were even then noted for their self- 
reliance, and for the fearless love of lil>ertv which was des- 
tined to make King's Mountain the turning point in Ameri- 
ca's great struggle for freedom, fifteen years thereafter. 
Vivid, indeed, is the portrayal both of locality and })eople 
given in 1765 by Attorney-General Rol)ert Jones, junior 
(sometimes known as Tlobin Jones), who had recently visited 
that section for his health. To Ednmnd Fanning he wrote: 
"The coimtry, I suppose, is as healthy as any under the sun : 
for although the cold is very intense in Winter, occasioned by 
the north side of the mountains being continually covered 



30 CJOVKRNOli TinON 

with snow from Deceinl)er till the middle of March, the 
weather, I am told, is not liable to those sudden changes from 
hot to cold that we exi^erience here, and, in the Smnmer, the 
air is the most agi'eeable mediiun between tJiose extremes that 
can be conceived, accompanied by pleasajit breezes. The in- 
habitants are hospitable in their way, live in plenty and dirt, 
are stout, of gi*eat prowess in manual athletics; and, in pri- 
vate conversation, l)old, imix^rtinent, and vain. In the art of 
war (after tlie Indian manner), they are well-skilled, are en- 
tei-]»rising and fruitful of strategies; and, when in action, arc 
as bold and intrepid as the ancient Romans. The Shawnese 
acknowledge them their superiors even in their o^^^l way of 
fighting. The land, such as is capable of cultivation, is fer- 
tile beyond conception, being much better than any I ever 
saw before; but of that there is a very small proportion, much 
the greater part being too stony and barren. It may be truly 
called the land of mountains, for they are so ninnerous that 
when you have reached the siumnit of one of them, you may 
see thousands, of everj- shape that the imagination can sug- 
gest, seeming to vie with each other which should raise his 
lofty head to touch the clouds. The mountains and valleys 
abound with medicinal herbs of almost every kind, and there 
are some curious flowers and other curiosities well worth 
seeing. There are warm, hot, emetic, and sweet springs, 
most of which I saw, but their virtues time must discover. 
However, it seems to me that nature has been wanton in be- 
stowing her blessings on that country, and that these waters 
are the choicest of them."* 



•Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VH, pp. 100-101. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 31 

Keluctantly departing from the beautiful scenes so graphi- 
cally depicted by the above writer, we shall now carry our nar- 
rative to the town of Brunswick, on the Cape Fear river, 
where Governor Tryon tarries before proceeding to New 
Bern, at which place he purposes to meet the newly-elected As- 
sembly. The Parliament of Great Britain has passed the 
Stamp Act ; and news thereof is brought to North Carolina, 
where officers of the Crown hear it without misgiving. Little 
know they that a great storm is brewing — the prelude to a 
storm still greater, which will sweep every vestige of royal 
rule from the thirteen colonies. 



82 (lOVKKNOK TKYON 



CIIAPTEll III. 

ATTEMPTS TO ENFORCE THE STAMP ACT— RESISTANCE RY 
THE COLONISTS— ARMED DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE 
SIX)OP OF WAR DILUiKXCE—CWEW OF THE SLOOP VIPER 
CAPTURED AND IMPRISONEI>— MEETING OF THE GOV- 
ERNOR'S COUNCIL— Pl'BLIC PRINTER SUSPP^NDED FROM 
OFFICP:— REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT—PERSON N EL OF THE 
GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL. 

The moDth of October, in 17G5, was marked by the first re- 
sistance offered to the Stamp Act. Doctor William Hous- 
ton, a resident of North Carolina, was appointed to dis- 
tribute such stamps as should be sent into the province. The 
sloop of war Diligeiue, w-hich brought the first — and last — 
cargo, under that hated enactment, arrived at Cape Fear on 
the 28th of November, 1765.* Previous to this time, on 
October 19th, about five hundred j^eople had assembled in the 
streets of Wilmington and hanged in effigy "a certain hon- 
ourable g-entleman," whose name d(X?s not appear in the 
North Carolina Gazette,'f from which we get the account 
ITie reason of this demonstration was that the gentleman 
in question had expressed himself in favor of the stamp duty. 
After the figure was cut down and consigned to the flames, 
all male inhabitants of the town were brought to the bonfire. 
Here they were compelled to drink the toast: "Liberty, 
property, no stamp duty, and confusion to Lord Bute and all 
liis adherents." On the 31st of the same month, savs the above 
paper, a gi-eat numlx?r of people again assembled "and pro- 

• A Colonial OfRcer and His Times, by Alfred Moore Waddell, p. 84. 
t Reprinted in the Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. VTI, p. 123, et seq. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 33 

duced an effigy of Liberty, which they put into a coffin and 
marched with it in solemn procession to the church-yard, a 
drum, in mourning, beating before them, and the town bell, 
muffled, ringing a doleful knell at the same time. But be- 
fore they committed the body to the ground they thought it 
advisable to feel its pulse ; and, when finding some remains of 
life, they returned back to the bonfire, ready prepared, placed 
the effigy before it in a large two-armed chair and concluded 
the evening with great rejoicings on finding that Liberty 
had still an existence in the colonies." 

On November 16th it was the fortune of Stamp-Master 
Houston to be an unwilling participant in some impressive 
ceremonies in connection with the above matters. Imme- 
diately upon his coming to Wilmington, three or four hun- 
dred citizens, with drums beating and colors flying, gathered 
at the house where he lodged, and demanded whether he would 
attempt to execute his office. He replied that he would be 
sorry to perform any duties distasteful to the people of the 
province. Not content with this evasive answer, the multi- 
tude carried him to the court-house, where he was compelled 
to sign a paper in which he declared that he would never at- 
tempt to perform the duties devolving upon him as Stamp- 
Master, and which he closed with the not overtruthful state- 
ment that this resignation was made of his own free-will and 
accord. "As soon as the Stamp Officer had complied with 
their desires," says the newspaper already quoted, "they 
placed him in an arm-chair, carried him first round the court- 
house, giving him three huzzas at every comer, and then pro- 
ceeded with him round one of the squares of the town and sat 



34 OOVERXOK TRYON 

liim down at the door of his lodp^ngs, formed themoslves in a 
large circle around him and gave him three cheers. They then 
escorted him into the house, where was prepared the best 
liquors to be had, and treated liim very genteely. In the 
evening a large bonfire was made, and no person appeared on 
the streets without having ^Liberty' in large letters on his hat. 
They had a large table near the bonfire, well furnished with 
several sorts of liquors, where they drank in great form all the 
favorite American toasts, giving three cheers at the conclusion 
of each. The wdiole was conducted with great deconim, and 
not the least insult was offered to any person." 

Verily, these bibulous champions of liberty were a decorous 
set; and the above circumstances go to show that on one 
occasion, at least, in tlie history of North Carolina, matters 
were so arranged as to avoid the complaint (said to have been 
made at a conference of Governors in after years) that it 
was "a long time between drinks." 

In addition to the above accoimt in the Gazette, its editor, 
Andrew Stuart, gives a tale of woe in relating his personal 
experiences. He was visited by a committee which de- 
manded whether or not he would continue his business as 
heretofore and publish a newspaper. He replied that ho 
could not lawfully do so without stamped paper, and he had 
none. Then followed threats of violence, when he said that, 
rather than run the hazard of his life, of being maimed, or 
having his printing-office destroyed, he would issue his paper 
as usual. 

In his Field Book of the RevohUion* Lossing gives a de- 

*Lo88iiur'a Field Book of the Reroltttion (edition 1851-'52), Vol n. p. 877 (ffivinff illuB- 
tntions). 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 35 

scription of the stamps sent to America. He says the impres- 
sion was made upon dark blue paper (similar in appearance 
to that now commonly known as tobacco paper) ^ to which was 
fastened a narrow strip of tin-foil. The ends of the foil were 
passed through the parchment or paper to which the stamp 
was to be attached, then flattened on the opposite side; and a 
piece of paper, with the rough device and nimiber of the 
stamp, pasted on to secure it. The device was a double Tu- 
dor rose, enclosed by the Royal Garter. Above this was a 
crown, and below was named the money value of the stamp. 

Seeing the serious turn aflFairs had taken, Governor Tryon 
sent out a circular-letter to the principal gentry of the Cape 
Fear section, inviting them to a conference at his house near 
Brunswick on the 18th of Ifovember, 1765.* When they 
came in response to his sunmaons, he addressed them at some 
length on the events of recent occurrence and exhorted obe- 
dience to the decrees of Parliament. The right of Great Bri- 
tain to tax the colonies, he said, would not constitute his 
theme of discussion, but that he hoped no one desired to 
destroy dependence on the mother country. He then dwelt 
on the advantages that would result from North Carolina's 
acceptance of the law, saying that her commerce would there- 
upon extend, while the rural colonies were obstructing their 
own trade by a refusal to take the stamps. As a further in- 
ducement, he offered to pay, at his own expense, the duty 
on all stamped paper on whiqh he was entitled to fees. Nor 
was this amount inconsiderable, for it included fees on land- 
patents, testimonials, injunctions in chancery, marriage li- 
censes, and letters of administration; on four wine licenses 

*Cokmial Records of N. C. VoL VH. pp. 127-131. 



36 GOVERNOR TRYON 

each for the towns of Edenton, Xew Bern, Wilmington, Salis- 
bury, and Halifax; two each for Brunswck and Cross Creek 
(now Fayettcville) ; and one each for Bath and Tarborough. 
Though recognizing the generosity of his offer, it soon became 
evident that the men whom Trs'on consulted were contending 
more for principle than for money. After due consultation 
they returned acknowledgments for the priWlege of a con- 
ference with the Governor, and declared that Tryon's known 
sincerity left no room to doubt his professions. They also re- 
cognized, so the reply stated, that his family influence, for- 
tune, and other interests in England would always give 
weight to remonstrances which he might make in behalf of 
the province. Then referring to the Stamp Act, the convic- 
tion was expressed that every view of it confinned them in 
the opinion that it w^as most dangerous to their liberties as 
British subjects. To the King they promised every act of 
loyalty and obedience consistont wdth the rights of a free 
people. As to the Governor's oflFer to pay the fees, they said 
that, with an approval of part, they could not deny the act's 
validity as a whole. Assuri^nces were also given that every 
effort should be used to prevent insult and violence to ofiicers 
of the Crown, except distributors of stami>s, who, they said, 
were too much detested to be secure from the resentment of 
the colonists. In conclusion they expressed a desire to pro- 
mote the mutual interests of Great Britain and the colonies, 
and to render Trj'on's administration happy, easy, and hon- 
orable. 

As noted in the beginning of this chapter, the sloop of war 
Diligence brought a cargo of stamped paper to the Cape Fear 



OF NORTH CAEOLINA. 37 

on November 28, 1765. General Hugh Waddell's descend- 
ant and biographer, the Honorable Alfred Moore Waddell, 
in his work entitled A Colonial Officer and His Times* has 
given a graphic account of her reception, as follows : 

"Twelve days afterward the Diligence arrived in the Cape 
Fear river with the stamps, and the welcome which awaited 
her captain must have astonished him. His name was 
Phipps, and his vessel was a twenty-gim sloop of war, which 
was cruising oflF the coast of Virginia and the Oarolinas. He 
brought the stamps from Virginia, whither they had been sent 
from England, and, doubtless, anticipated no trouble what- 
ever in delivering them to the Collector of the Port of Bruns- 
wick. The idea of resistance of any kind probably never 
occurred to him, and the suggestion of armed defiance on the 
part of the people on shore would have seemed the wildest 
absurdity to a commander of one of His Majesty's war ships. 

"Comfortably pacing his deck, as the gallant sloop, with 
colors flying and all her canvas set, glided courtesying across 
the bar like a fine lady entering a drawing-i*oom, the captain 
was doubtless already enjoying in anticipation the sideboard 
and table refreshments that awaited him in the hospitable 
mansions of the Cape Fear planters, and eager to stand, gun 
in hand, by one of the tall pines of Brunswick and watch the 
coming of the antlered monarch of the forest before the inspir- 
ing music of the hounds. 

"As the Diligence bowls along 'with a bone in her mouth' 
across the ruffled bosom of the beautiful bay into which the 
river expands opposite Fort Johnston, a puff of white smoke 



* A Colonial Officer and His Times» p. 86, et mq. 



38 GOVERNOR TRYON 

leaps from her \x)Tt quarter, followed by a roar of salutation 
from one of her guns; an answering thunder of welcome 
comes from the fort, and the proud ship walks the waters 
towards the town of Bnniswick, eight miles farther up the 
river towards Wilmington. An hour later she sights the 
town, and a little while afterwards, with a graceful sweep 
and a rushing keel, she gradually jmts her nose in the wind as 
if scenting trouble ; and then, at the shrill sound of the boat- 
sw^ain's whistle, the growling chains release the anchor from 
its long suspense, and the Diligence rests opposite to the Cus- 
tom House of Brunswick, with her grinning port-holes open 
and all her guns exposed. Then her rigging-blocks chuckle 
as she lowers and clews her sails, and she rides at her moor- 
ings beneath the flag of the Mistress of the Seas. 

"The captain at once obser\'es that the little town seems to 
be unusually lively and expectant. lie soon discovers the 
cause. A considerable body of armed men occupy the streets 
and line the shore. Presently he is informed tliat Colonel 
Hugh Waddell, an exix?rienced soldier, w^ho had been on the 
lookout for the Diligence with the militia of Bnmswick 
county, had notified Colonel Ashe of Xew Hanover of his 
movements ; and these tw^o gentlemen, with the armed militia 
of both counties, confronted him and informed him that they 
would resist the landing of the stamps and would fire on any 
one attempting it. 

"Here was one of His Majesty's twenty-gim sloops of war 
openly defied and tlireatened by British subjects armed and 
drawn up in battle array. Here was treason, open, flagrant 
and in the broad light of day — ^treason, anned and led by 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 39 

the most distinguished soldier of the province and the Speaker 
of the Assembly. 

*^The captain of the Diligence prudently concluded that it 
would be folly to attempt to land the stamps in the face of 
such a threat, backed by such force, and promised a compli- 
ance with the demands of the people. The 'Sons of Liberty,' 
as they were afterwards called, then seized one of the boats of 
the Diligence, and, leaving a guard at Brunswick, marched 
with it mounted on a cart to Wilmington, where there was a 
triumphal procession through the streets, and at night a gen- 
eral illumination of the town." 

In addition to his own account of the above transaction, 
Mr. Waddell quotes another writer, the Honorable Greorge 
Davis, who says: "This was more than ten years before the 
Declaration of Independence, and more than nine before the 
battle of Lexington, and nearly eight years before the Boston 
'Tea Party.' The destruction of the tea was done in the 
night by men in disguise. And history blazons it, and New 
England boasts of it, and the fame of it is world-wide. But 
this other act, more gallant and daring, done in open day by 
well-known men, with arms in their hands, and under the 
King's flag — who remembers, or who tells of it ?" 

The full name of the commander of the Diligence was 
Constantine John Phipps.* He was a distinguished naval 
oflScer and Arctic explorer, the son of an Irish nobleman. 
Baron Mulgrave, of New Boss, County Wexford. Upon 
the death of his father. Captain Phipps succeeded to the title 



*Cknnpare Burke'a Peeragre (1896 edition), pp. 1063-1064. with signature to Phipps's 
letter in A Colonial Officer and His Timea» by Waddell, p. 118; for portrait and sketch of 
Captain Phippa (Lord Mnlsrrave) see Quebec periodical entitled North American Notes 
and Queriea, July. 1900, VoL I. pp. 56, 6L 



40 GOVERNOB TRYON 

and was bimsolf later raisod to the peerage of the United 
Kingdom as Baron ^hilgravo, of Alulgravc, County York. 
In one of his exploring expeditions the future Admiral Nel- 
son was a eoxswain. lA»rd !Mulgrave was in active service 
against America during tlie Revolution, as was also his 
brother and suoec^ssor, llenry, afterwards created Earl of 
Mulgrave and ^larquis of Xormauby. These titles are at 
present vested in the Manpiis of Xomianby, a descendant of 
the last named. 

One of the shrewdest acts of Tryon's administration in 
Xorth Carolina was the prevention of all meetings of the 
Assembly during tlie Stamp Act disputes. More than a year 
and a half— from May 18, 17G5, till November 3, 176G— 
elapsed between tw^o sessions. Having the right either to 
prorogue or dissolve that body whenever he saw fit, this power 
was freely exercised. Hence, when the Stamp Act Con- 
gress (cx>mposed of delegates from nearly all the provinces) 
convened in New York on October 7, 1765, North Carolina 
was not a party thereto, as the Assembly, not being in ses- 
sion, could not provide for the colony's representation — "an 
explanation of the absence of such delegates," says the biogra- 
pher of General Waddell, "which does not seem to have been 
known to writers who have ignorantly criticised the State for 
a want of spirit at that time."f 

Though at times powerless to cope with the resistance 
offered the mea^sures of the home government, Tryon w^as a 
man of strong detennination and bent everj^ energy to carry 



* For full i«cord of prorofirationa and dissolutions, aeo Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. 
Vn, pp. 87-88, 118, 135, 188, 342. 
tA Colonial OfBcer and His Times, by Alfred Moore Waddell, p. 82. 



OF NORTH C-tUJOLINA. 41 

out the dccjrees of Parliament. At that time Oape Fear was 
said to l>e the only spot on the continent where vessels were 
actually seized by the British authorities for non-compliance 
with the laws concerning stamjis, and it was soon learned that 
the inhabitants of Cape Fear would be about the last people 
on the continent to tamely submit to such a state of affairs. 
On the 18th of Febniary, 176G, the colonists drew up and 
signed an agreement which avowed the utmost loyalty to the 
King, yet declared the Stamp Act an infringement on the 
constitutional rights transmitted to the people of America by 
their brave forefathers, and pledged the united action of 
the signers to prevent entirely the ojx^ration of that law.* 
The parties to this compact were inhabitants of the vicinity 
of Cape Fear. On Febniary 19th they marched to Bruns- 
wick, w^liere tlieir force — according to one estimate — was aug- 
mented by upwards of a thousand men. At Bnmswick new-s 
was received that several hundred more would soon arrive. f 
In order to remove any misapprehension in the mind of Gov- 
ernor Try on, two of the party (George Moore and Cornelius 
Harnett) were deputed to wait on him and deliver a letter 
which said that no disrespect or insult should be offered his 
person ; but that, being dissatisfied with the restrictions which 
were laid on their river commerce, the force assembled was 
going for a conference with the commanding officers of His 
Majesty's war ships with the hojx? of obtaining a peaceable 
redress of their grievances.:}: This letter was signed by John 
Ashe, Thomas Lloyd, and Alexander Lillington. An offer 



* Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VII, p. 1686. 
t Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VII, p. 168tain Dalrj-mple, mentioned alx)ve, was an officer in the 
British army, stationed in North Carolina for some years. 
He died in the province, at Fort Jolmston, on the 13th of 
July, 1766.:}: His will was made in 1743, twenty-six years 
before his death, and is now on file in North Carolina. In 
it he designates himself "second lawful son to Sir John Dal- 
rj'^mplc of Cowsland, Baronet, of the Kingdom of Scotland." 
The latter was a grandson of John Dalrymple, first Viscount 
Stair, and nephew of the second Viscount (later created Earl 
of Stair), both of whom were conspicuous figures in the royal 
councils of their day. 

Before the Stamp Act dispute was settled the people of Wil- 
mington had not l)een altogether inactive. Provisions on 
board the Viper began to nm low, and a boat was sent to 
bring an additional supply. The citizens refused to furnish 
this, and complacently dumped the boat's crew into jail. In 

• Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vn, p. 180, et aeq. 

t A Colonial Officer and His Times, by A. M. WaddelU PP. 112-118; Alfred Moore Waddell 
in North Carolina Booklet for July, 1901, p. 2L 

t Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. VII, pp. 40. 91, 244, 246, 446; State Records of N. C. 
VoL XI. pp. 154-155; North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Reffister, Vol. I. p. 20L 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 45 

rosix>nse to Tryon's inquiry concerning tliis action, Moses 
John DeRosset, the patriotic Mayor of Wihnington, replied 
that gentlemen of the (^ape Fear section of the province liad 
assembled to redness their grievances ; and, hearing that Ca]> 
tain Lobb was seizing merchant vessels which were without 
stamped papers, had determined to cut off supplies from the 
men of war until these oppressiv^e measures cejised. Seizures 
by the government were made, said Mayor DeRosset, not- 
withstanding the fact that masters of vessels produced certifi- 
cates that no stamped papers could be obtained at the ports 
from which they sailed. In conclusion, he added that, since 
the local officers had come to terms, sufficient provisions would 
now be forwarded, and the Governor might rest assured that 
all efforts would be made to sustain His Majesty's service.* 

The Governor's Council met at Brunswick on tlie 26th of 
Februarj'^, 17G6. By advice of that body, Tryon issued a 
proclamation denouncing the late assemblages of the people. f 
He also suspended the Public Printer, Andrew Stuart, for 
having published a communication whicli was considered 

inflammatorv. 

t' 

Thwarted at every turn, Governor Tryon at one time had 
contemplated calling on the Crown for a military and naval 
force to uphold his authority. But soon, by a communica- 
tion dated March 31, 17G6 (though not received until some 
weeks later), notification came tliat tbe Stamp Act had been 
rcj>ealed.:j: Furtliermore, persons who had suffered by its 
operations were indemnified for their losses. Then followed 



• Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VU. pp. 186-186. 

t Colonial Records of N. C„ VoL VII, p. 187. 

X Colonial Recoida of N. C, VoL VU, pp. 189. 198. 202. 217. 



46 GOVEJt^OR TRY ON 

congratulations fix)m the corporation officers of Wilmington, 
to which Tryon returned a polite but rather stilted acknowl- 
edgment. Another address, by way of a remonstrance, soon 
followed, in which it was said that moderation had ceased to 
be a virtue when tlieir rights as British subjects were ignored ; 
but that tlie pnident action of Parliament, in repealing the 
law, had relieved them from tlie unpleasant dilemma,* As- 
surances were also given that they knew His Excellency's 
conduct had always been regulated by no motive other than 
a generous concern for the public good. With this the Gov- 
ernor was more appeased, and graciously declared that he 
stood ready to forget all improprieties of which the town and 
its people had been guilty. In conclusion, he thanked the 
gentlemen for characterizing as false an attack recently made 
upon him by a Barbadoes newspaper. 

The Council of the Province, appointed by the King when 
Trj^on was made Grovemor, consisted of James Hasell, John 
Rutherford, Lewis Henry DeRosset, Edward Brice Dobbs, 
Richard Spaight, John Sampson, Henry Eustace McCulloh, 
Alexander McCulloh, Charles Berry, William Dry, Robert 
Palmer, and Benjamin Heron.f Of these, Dobbs was an 
officer in the British army, the son of Governor Dobbs, and 
liad seen service in the French and Indian War. He left the 
province about the time of his father's death, and his prop- 
erty in North Carolina was confiscated during the Revolu- 
tion. 

Spaight died in North Carolina before. Trj-on arrived. He 
was a son of George Spaight, who married a niece of Gov- 



* Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VII. pp. 222-223, 242-243. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. VII, p. 137. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 47 

emor Dobbs: henoe Richard Spaight was a great-nephew of 
the last named, and not his nephew, as has always been 
stated in North Carolina histories. From him sprang Gov- 
ernor Richard Dobbs Spaight, senior, and Governor Richard 
Dobbs Spaight, jimior, each of whom became Chief Magis- 
trate bf North Carolina after independence was achieved. 
The elder Governor Spaight was also a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress, and fell in a duel with the Honorable John 
Stanly of New Bern on September 5, 1802. 

Of the other councilors mentioned above, Hasell was also 
Chief Justice and became Governor ex officio, as President 
of the Council, in 1771. Rutherford (who married the 
widow of Governor Gabriel Johnston) was brought to North 
Carolina by his cousin, James Murray, in 1739. He served 
in the French and Indian War ; and was a loyalist during the 
Revolution, as were also Hasell, DeRosset, and Henry Eus- 
tace McCulloh, though the last named was not in America 
when the war was in progress. Alexander McCulloh lived 
in Halifax county. Of Henry Eustace McCulloh later 
mention will be made in this work. DeRosset belonged to 
an old Huguenot family, still extant in the Cape Fear sec- 
tion, and his loyalty to the House of Hanover was largely 
due to gratitude for the protection rendered his ancestors 
when they were exiled from France. He was a brother of 
Moses John DeRosset, to whom we have already had occasion 
to refer. It is from the latter that the present DeRosset 
family is descended. 

Berry, another member of the Council, died by his own 
hand in a fit of insanity.* He had been made Chief Justice 

* For correct aoooant. Bee A Colonial Officer and HIb Times, pp. 127-129. twU, 



48 ouvKKXOK ti:yox 

(vice Peter llrnlov, deceased) by the King's eoimriission, 
lx>aring date XovemlKT 27, 1758, but did not arrive in the 
colony till the Fall of the year following. He took the oath 
of office as Chief Justice Ix^fore Grovenior Dobbs on the Gth of 
December, 1759. His seiTice as a member of the (\)nncil also 
began during the administration of Governor Dobbs. After 
the death of IFenh^v, and l)efore Berrv's arrival in America, 
James Hasell was Chief Justice pro tempore. Descendants 
of Chief Justice Berry are still living in North Carolina. 

Sainj>son's name is j>reserved by a Xorth Carolina county 
chilled in his honor. Heron died before the Revolution, about 
1770. When the war came on, Dry l)ecame a sui)i)orter of 
tlie American cau.^^e and occu])ied a seat at the ornmcil-board 
of tlie whig Governor. Palmer was ])rohably born in North 
Carolina.* He liveil at Bath and w-as Surveyor-General of 
the j)rovince. He was a loyalist in the Revolution, and his 
property in North Carolina was c/nifiscated. He went to 
England and there was pensioned by the goveniment. 

To iill vacancies in the al>ove board, new councilors were 
sworn as follows: James JMurray, July 16, 1707; Samuel 
Strudwick, December 14, 17t)7; Samuel Cornell, October 
1(), 1770; JMartin Howard, November IJ), 1770.f Mun'ay, 
like some of the other ef)uncilors mentioned above, had also 
occupied a similar ]K>st under Governors Johnston and Dobbs, 
and the failure at first to insert his name in the a>imnission 
sent to Trj'on was due to an oversight. He was bom in Scot- 
land and came to America in 1735. From North Carolina he 



* See will of Rol>ert Palmer, Sr., in North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Re^ris- 
ter. VoL I, pp. 65, 369. 

tCk)lonial Records of N. C, Vol. VII, pp. 160, 425-428, 437, 501, 532; Ibid., VoL VHI, pp. 
149. 167. 249. 258; Ibid, Vol. IX, p. 1002; State Records of N. C, Vol. XI. pase 210. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 49 

made protracted visits to Boston (later settling in Xew Eng- 
land), and finally his continued absence caused Governor 
Tryon to vacate his seat, together with that of Edward Brice 
Dobbs (then with his regiment in Great Britain), for the 
same reason. Murray was a loyalist during the Revolution, 
and died in exile about the close of the war, in 1781. His 
correspondence has recently been collected in book form, and 
is a most valuable addition to the literature which treats of 
colonial life in North Carolina, though it also relates largely 
to New England, where the volume was published.* Stnid- 
wick, who accompanied Trj'on to North Carolina, was an 
Englishman, the son of Edmund Strudwick of St. Ann's 
Parish, Westminster, and came to take charge of the Stag 
Park and Hawfields estates which he and his father had 
bought from Governor Burrington and the latter's son. Lieu- 
tenant George Burrington, junior. Cornell resided at New 
Bern; and in January, 1770, was described by Tryon as "a 
merchant of the first credit in the province, a native of New 
York, about forty years of age, and of a very genteel and 
public spirit." Cornell's granddaughter, Caroline LeRoy, 
was the second wife of Daniel Webster. The last councilor 
to qualify, as above, Martin Howard, came to North Carolina 
from Rhode Island, where his advocacy of the Stamp Act 
had caused his property to be destroyed during an uprising 
of the }K)pulace. In addition to occupying a seat at the coun- 
cil-board, he filled the oSice of Chief Justice of North Cai-o- 
lina, and had no superior — if an equal — in the colonial 
judiciary. Most historians have dealt very imjustly A^dth 



* Letters of James Mamy, Loyalist, edited by Nina Moore Tiffany and Susan L Lesley 
(Boston. 1901). 



50 GOVERNOR TRYOJT 

• 

liis memory; for, though a loyalist (like nearly all of the 
others mentioned above), he seems to have acted from con- 
scientious motives, and was highly respected by members of 
the legal profession, including those of the opposite political 
faith. 

Upon the face of a commission constituting a board of 
magistrates on the 29th of April, 1768, it would appear that 
Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, Baronet, and Marmaduke Jones, 
Esquire, were then members of the Council ; and, in fact, both 
of them were members at a later period, after Josiah Martin 
became Governor.* But the commission of the peace, above 
mentioned, evidently meant only to refer to these gentlemen 
as magistrates; for, on two later occasions, Tryon recom- 
mends that they be appointed to the Council. This was ac- 
cordingly done on May 1, 1771, though neither of them 
qualified until after Gk)vemor Martin's arrivaL 

Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield lived in North Carolina for some 
years, but finally went back to Great Britain. His great- 
imcle, William Dukinfield, Esquire, had been a land owner 
in Chowan Precinct, Nofth Carolina, prior to 1700, and died 
about 1720. Sir Nathaniel was the son of Nathaniel Dukin- 
field, Esquire, and a grandson of Sir Robert, first baronet 
of the name. The title finally came to the North Carolina 
baronet through the death, without male issue, of several of 
his uncles.f Before being elevated to the Council, Sir Na- 
thaniel put in a claim for precedence, in which it was con- 

* Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. VII, p. 790; Ibid., VoL VIII. pp. 167. 498. 601. G24; Ibid.. 
Vol. IX, pp. 19. 52, 291. 

tSee Betliam's Baronetafire. VoL n, pp. 376-881; Collection of .the Private Laws of 
North Carolina, by F. X. Ifartin. p. 8; North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Regis- 
ter, Vol. I. p. 41 (January, 1900); Colonial Records of N. C, VoL I. pp. 399, 668. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 51 

tended that, next to the Gk)vemor, he should be considered 
the first person of rank in the colony. This claim, however, 
was disallowed both by the Provincial Council and the Earl 
Marshal's office in England, so he had to content himself with 
the eighth place in the line of precedence until his appoint- 
ment to the Council raised him five grades. He was a friend 
of James Iredell, and is often referred to in the latter's biog- 
raphy by McRee. 

Marmaduke Jones, above referred to, was at first Attorney- 
General of the colony, appointed to a vacancj- caused by the 
death of Robin Jones, who belonged to a different family. 
Marmaduke Jones was, as Tryon states, a cousin of Sir Mar- 
maduke Wyvill, Baronet. He was also the grandson of an- 
other Sir Marmaduke Wyvill — living at an earlier period — 
through one of the latter's daughters, Ursula, who married a 
Mr. Jones of Fumival's Court, London. Of the Attorney- 
General, Tryon says: "He is not inferior in abilities to any 
of his profession in this country." 

Though not within the proper scope of this work, it may be 
of interest to genealogists to call attention to a statement con- 
cerning the Wyvill baronetcy (now dormant), which is made 
by Burke in the 1838 edition of his work on Extinct and 
Dormant Baronetages. He says that one William Wyvill, 
of this family, removed to Maryland, and died there about 
1750, leaving a son, Marmaduke, whose primogenitive rep- 
resentative is now entitled to the baronetcy unless disbarred 
as an alien by the laws of Great Britain. 

In the establishment of an admiralty system for America, 
the Earl of Xorthumberland was created Vice-Admiral of 



52 GOVERNOR TRYON 

all the colonies; and, by the same commission, Tryon was 
constituted Vice-Admiral for North Carolina.* Gk)vemor8 
of the colony before Tryon's time had also held the rank of 
Vice-Admiral. 

During his incimibency in office, Gk)vemor Tryon prepared 
a work entitled A View of the Polity of the Province of North 
Carolina in the Year 1767. f This was an able discourse on 
the details of colonial government, and was highly com- 
mended by the King himself. 



'Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. Vn, p. 469; State Records of N. C, VoL XI, pp 
218-219. 
t Colonial Records of N. a, VoL VU. pp. 472. 498, 787-738. 



OF NOETH CAROLINA. 53 



CHAPTER IV. 

LAND-GRANT RIOTS IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY— HENRY EUS- 
TACE McCULLOH AND GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN— THEIR 
PROPERTY CONFISCATED DURING THE REVOLUTION- 
JAMES IREDELL BEFRIENDS McCULLOH— CHEROKEE BOUS- 
T>ARY — PERSONNEL OF PARTY RUNNING SAME^TRYON 
ACCOMPANIES PARTY— HONORED WITH INDIAN NAMES- 
SOUTH CAROLINA BOUNDARY— GEORGE MERCER, OF VIR- 
GINIA, COMMISSIONED LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF NORTH 
CAROLINA. 

It is doubtful if anything in the whole history of North 
Carolina, during the colonial era, was so prolific of prolonged 
controversies as was the subject of titles to land; and the 
period covered by the administration of Governor Tryon was 
in no way exempt from this unpleasantness. 

Among the largest land owners in the province were George 
Augustus SelwjTi and Henry Eustace McCulloh, whose re- 
spective fathers had, "by some legerdemain," as early as 
1737, obtained grants from King George the Second for 
many hundred tliousands of acres, mostly located in what 
later became the counties of Mecklenburg and Duplin.* 

McCulloh came in person to North Carolina to manage 
the interests he had inherited, but did not remain perma- 
nently in the colony. He also acted as the attorney of Sel- 
wyn. When he went to Mecklenburg to have a reckoning 
with the settlers on Mr. Selwyn's grant he was unable to come 



• Cokmial Records of N. C, VoL V, Pnfatory Notes, pp. xxxii-xxxv; Ibid., VoL VII, pp. 
10-86. 87-88, 27S-278. 461-455. 1004; as to Henry McCulloh (the father of Henry Eustace 
McCulloh). see State Records of N. C. VoL XI. pp. 8W1. 46-78. 102-108. 118-121. 127. 



64 GOVERNOR TEYON 

to an agreement, owing to some contentions about the tenns 
of sale on which deeds had been promised to those occupying 
the property. Thereupon the quarrel grew fiercer; and, 
when surveyors were sent to lay out the lands, their instru- 
ments and chains were broken and they themselves badly 
beaten by the Mecklenburgers. Though a pardon was offered 
to any two of the rioters who would disclose the names of the 
others engaged in the affair, no arrests were ever made, and 
the land controversy went into the courts, where it probably 
remained until the Revolution, at which time the estates of 
both Selwyn and McOulloh fell under the confiscation acts, 
along with other lands, including the vast domain of Lord 
Granville, for whom McOulloh was also agent at one time. 

Among the relatives of McOulloh was the eminent Ameri- 
can jurist, James Iredell. The latter's biographer, in refer- 
ring to McOulloh, says: ^^He was a man of more than ordi- 
nary ability and culture; cimning, rather than wise. Of 
loose morals, with a decent regard for appearances, he veiled 
his vices from the public eye. He had no instrumentality 
in the appointment of young Iredell to office in America ; but 
knowing him to be a youth of great promise, he employed all 
his arts to win his confidence and secure his subservience to 
his interests. He not only devolved on him all the duties of 
his oollectorship, but employed him as agent to transact his 
private business. Through the agency of Mr. Iredell, he was 
enabled to enjoy, uninterrupted for long periods, the pleas- 
ures of a London life. He made Mr. Iredell no pompensa- 
tion for his services. Time after time he would hint to him 
that he intended making him his heir. Often he would 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 55 

amiise him with the hope that he would resign his office in 
his favor ; but always found a ready excuse to evade the per- 
formance of his promise. His sagacity early detected the 
small cloud, surcharged with the thunders of the revolution, 
that was destined to spread over the continent. It was not 
imtil tlnis warned that he resigned his ofRoe. His property 
was confiscated by the State. After this loss his letters to 
Mr. Iredell became abject and piteous. The latter, true to 
the generous instincts of liis nature, foi^ving McCuUoh's 
errors, made, without success, strenuous efforts to procure 
his pardon and the restoration of his estates. The services 
ho rendered him were manifold and valuable. At the close 
of the war, and after he had abandoned all hope of recover- 
ing his American lands, with shattered fortunes, but still with 
an income of twelve hundred guineas \yeT annum, McCulloli 
retired to a country-seat near London, where he died — as 
false to his kinsman in death as he had been in life."* 

Greorge Augustus Selwyn (who probably never saw North 
(Carolina) was a famous wit and jx)litician in England, the 
son of Colonel John Selwyn of Matson, near Gloucester, and 
a grandson of Major-Gcneral William Selwyn, who was Grov- 
emor of the Island of Jamaica about the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. The great English churchman. Right 
Reverend George Augustus Selwyn, Primate of New Zealand 
and afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, was of this family, 
though not lineally descended from any of the persons above 
mentioned. 

For some time prior to 1766 many disputes had occurred 



Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, by G, J. McRee, VoL I, p. 9. 



56 GOVERNOR TRYON 

between the people of North Carolina and the Cherokee 
Indians over a boundary line about which there was mucli 
uncertainty. To put an end to this trouble (which had been 
more than once the cause of bloodshed), Tryon determined 
to go into the Indian country and settle the differences by 
definitely fixing the line; and, in the Summer of the above 
year, the Council of the province passed a resolution approv- 
ing his purpose and authorizing him to direct the Surveyor- 
General to proceed with the running of the boundary.* It 
was also resolved that the Governor should have authority to 
draw on the Receiver-General for all expenses requisite in 
fitting up an expedition with this purpose in view. Tryon 
agreed to meet the chiefs or head-warriors of the Cherokees 
in September, 1766 ; but, owing to a great prevalence of sick- 
ness among the Indians, and the near approach of the hunt- 
ing season, the conference was postponed until the following 
Spring. 

On May 1, 1767, Governor Tryon notified Messrs. John 
Rutherford, Robert Palmer, and John Frohock, the commis- 
sioners who were to nm the boundary, that he had ordered 
a rendezvous of the party at Salisbury on the 18th of that 
month. Rutherford and Palmer were members of the Pro- 
vincial Council, and the latter was also Surveyor-General. 

As it would have been fool-hardy to venture among the 
Indians, even on a friendly mission, without an armed escort, 
Tryon ordered out a detachment of the provincial troops to 



* For fuller particulars relative to Indians and expedition to settle Cherokee boundary. 
see Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VII. pp. 108-112, 116-117, 164-166. 196-197. 207-221. 282- 
240. 244-246. 24&-249. 264-267. 268-271. 279-288. 860-861. 404. 416. 446, 448. 466. 46(M71. 60(h 
610, 861-866. 991-1009. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 57 

act in that capacity. Of this Ixxly Colonel Hugh Waddell 
was Commandant; next under him were Lieutenant-Colonels 
John Frohock and Moses Alexander. The staff officers were : 
Colonel Edmund Fanning, Adjutant; Captain Isaac Ed- 
wards, Aid-de-c^mp; Captain William Frohock, Coimnis- 
sary; and the Reverend John Wills, Chaplain. This party 
was later joined by Alexander Cameron, Deputy Superintend- 
ent of Indian Affairs for the southern colonies, and the 
march from Salisbury was begim on May 21st. On the 31st 
of the same month the Indians came to meet the Governor 
and his party and were given a '*talk" by Trj^on. After re- 
ceiving their reply the Governor sent some of the band back 
to Salisbury with an order for presents, to the value of one 
hundred and seventy-five pounds, which had Wn votc^ by the 
Assembly as a token of good-will. On June 4th (King 
(Jeorge's birthday) the real work of the expedition began, 
when Messrs. Rutherford, Palmer, Frohock, Cameron and the 
Cherokee representatives began the sur\'ey. A company of 
twenty picked men, commanded in person by one of the com- 
missioners, Lieutenant-Colonel Frohock, acted as a guard for 
the party. Among the officers in this little military detach- 
ment were Captain George Davidson and Lieutenant William 
Davidson. The latter afterwards became a brigadier-gen- 
eral in the War of the Uevolution, and was slain, while resist- 
ing the passage of Lord Comwallis over the Catawba river in 
Xorth Carolina, at the Battle of Cowan's Ford, February 1, 
1781. 

Governor Tryon did not remain with the commissioners 
and corps of engineers until the completion of the Cherokee 



68 GOVERNOR TRYON 

boundary, but rotiimed to Brunswick shortly after concluding 
his intemew and negotiations with the Indians. 

AMien Commissioner Rutherford returned to make his re- 
port to the Governor he stated that the head-waters of some 
of the tributaries of the Mississippi river began only tlirce 
or four miles distant from a peak which had been named 
Tryon Mountain, where the line terminated. Tryon Moun- 
tain lies in what is now Polk county, North Carolina, and it 
is probable that Mr. Rutherford erred in his calculations 
about the Mississippi, though some of tlie waters which finally 
flow into that great stream do have their source not many 
miles westward of the peak mentioned. 

In a letter to the Earl of Shelbum, dated July 14, 1767, 
Tryon states that while on his tour among the Cherokees he 
had been honored with the Indian name of Ohaiah Equah, 
or Great Wolf. This sobriquet (which the savages gave as 
a mark of high admiration) some historians have attempted 
to tA\ast into a term of reproach. Wheeler, with that plen- 
titude of inaccuracy for which so much of his work is noted, 
says that Tryon "knew when to use such force and cruelty as 
achieved for him, from the Cherokee Indians, the bloody title 
of the 'Great Wolf of North CSarolina.' " As loading them 
down w4th presents was the only "force and cruelty" of which 
the Governor was guilty on the above expedition, the Chero- 
kees probably gave him his bloody title for some other reason. 
And Tryon, we may note, seems to have had a fondness for 
Indian nomenclature. On another occasion, when visited by 
a sachem of the Tuscaroras, he requested a name by which 
he and all future Governors should be known. Thereupon 
the chief bestowed upon him his own name, Diagawekee. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 59 

Prior to die riinning of the Cherokee lx)unclary there had 
also been some disputed points on the subject of tlie dividing 
line between North and South Carolina.* When Tryon first 
arrived in America, commissioners, representing the two 
provinc-es, were at work on the survey of the same ; and, when 
he went to New York, the controversv was left as a Ici^acv to 
his successor. Governor Josiah Martin. While this boundary 
disput<^ with South Carolina was in progress Tryon paid a 
friendly visit of eight days' duration to Governor Bull at 
Charleston, in April, 1770. At Charleston he found his old 
friend. Sir William Draper, who returned with him to the 
Palace at New Bern, where he remained as a guest for three 
weeks, sailing for Virginia on the 24th of May. Prior to 
this, in the Siunmer of 1769, Tryon had also visited Lord 
Botetourt, the Governor of Virginia, at Williamsburg. 

Wlien in Williamsburg, Governor Tryon wTote to the Earl 
of Hillsborough, saying that he first came to America because 
he believed his usefulness would be greater than it was in the 
rank he had then held in the army, but he would now be glad 
to return if given command of a regiment or made an aid-de- 
camp to the King. He added that if a regiment should be 
his fortune, he would strive to make it as eificieut and well 
disciplined as he had made the company of Grenadiers onoe 
commanded by him in England. To this, Lord Hillsbor- 
ough rei)lied in a very complimentaiy letter, wherein he said 
he had made Tryon's wishes known to His Majesty. Fur^ 
ther, he observed that the Governorship of New York had 
recently been vacant, and Tr^^on was then thought of for the 

•Ck>lonial Records of N. C, VoL VH. pp. 154-167; Ibid.. Vol. Vm, pp. 210-211. 654, et aeq. 



GO GOVERNOR TRYON 

position ; but, as his office in North Carolina paid a better sal- 
ary than the one in New York, it was not thought proper to 
sacrifice his interests. Now, however, said Ilillsborough, 
that he had learned Tryon desired this change regardless of 
the pecuniary disadvantage, it was too late to remedy the mat- 
ter.* So the prospect of getting to New York did not seem 
very bright at that time, though no doubt Tryon's wish was 
kept in mind, for it was destined to be finally gratified. 

On the 7th of September, 1769, a terrible storm devastated 
the coast of North Carolina, nearly entirely destroying New 
Bern, Brunswick, and other towns, f Houses, ships, growing 
crops, trees, stores, live stock, and some human lives, fell a 
sacrifice to its fury. Among the buildings destroyed was the 
court-house at Brunswick, though the half-finished Palace at 
New Bern sustained little injury. In one of his letters 
Tryon wrote that this hurricane was attributed to the effect 
of a blazing planet or star which had been seen both from 
New Bern and Brunswick, rising in the east for several nights 
between the 26th and the 31st of August Its tail was 
very long, he said, and stretched upwards towards the south- 
west. 

On the 14th of December, 1768, the King issued a com- 
mission from his Court at St. James, appointing George Mer- 
cer to the office of Lieutenant-Gk)vemor of North Carolina, f 
But it is probable that Mr. Mercer never came to the colony. 



* Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm, pp. 64, 191. 

t Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VUI, pp. 71-75. 89, 115. 

t Colonial Records of N. C, VoL IX, pp. 60, 277; State Records of N. C, VoL XI, p. 219 ; 
Martin's History of N. C. VoL II. pp. 203, 250 ; Charles CampbeU's History of Virsrinia. 
pp. 487, 648-544 ; Bishop Meade's Old Churches and Families in Vuvinia, VoL II, p. 205. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 61 

There seems to be no record of his presence ; and furthermore, 
as he was vested with authority to temporarily act as Gov- 
ernor on the death or absence of the chief executive, he would 
(if in North Carolina) have taJcen the reins of power in 
1771, for the jjeriod between Tryon's departure and the 
arrival of Gk)vemor Josiah Martin. At the time last men- 
tioned James Ilasell, President of the Comicil, became Gov- 
ernor 2>ro tempore. Colonel Mercer was a Virginian, and 
had served under Washington in the French and Indian War. 
Later he was made distributor of stamps for Virginia; and, 
in the discharge of tliis office, seems to have met with pretty 

w 

much tJie same treatment as that accorded William Houston 
in North Carolina — being first threatened by the colonists, 
and then handsomely banqueted after complying with their 
demands. But whether the Virginia entertainment, like that 
given Houston, included "the best liquors to be had" does not 
appear. 



62 GOVERNOR TRYON 



CHAPTER V. 

TRYON'S HOUSE AT BRUNSWICK— GOVERNOR'S PALACE BUILT 
AT NEW BERN— DESCRIPTION OF SAME— HAD NO EQUAL IN 
AMERICA— WASHINGTON ENTERTAINED THERE AFTER THE 
REVOLUTION— BUILDING DESTROYED BY FIRE— W^HILOM 
COUNTIES OF TRYON, DOBBS, BUTE, AND GLASGOW— TOWN 
OF TRYON AND TRYON MOUNTAIN— SOME COUNTIES AND 
TOWNS NAMED FOR WHIGS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA- 
WAKE COUNTY NAMED FOR MRS. TRYON, N:&E WAKE- 
ESTHER WAKE A MYTH. 

Before the Assembly had the "Palace" built as an oflBcial 
residence for the Governor at New Bern, Tryon lived near 
Brunswick, his house there being knoAvn as Castle Tryon.* 
In his Tales and Traditions of the Lower Cape Fear,\ Mr. 
James Sprunt gives some interesting facts relative to the 
mansion at Brunswick. It was originally owned by the 
Moore family and later sold to Captain John Russell of His 
Majesty's sloop Scorpion, who named the place Russellbor- 
ough. From RusselFs widow it passed back to the Moore 
family as a part of the famous Orton plantation, from which 
it had been originally severed. In 1758 it was sold to Gov- 
ernor Dobbs, who called it Castle Dobbs, after his manor- 
house in Ireland. It was subsequently occupied by Governor 
Tryon, who finally purchased it, in February, 1767, from 
Major Edward Brice Dobbs, a son of the late Governor. 
Mr. Sprunt, who is something of an antiquary as well as a 
gifted writer, has succeeded in locating the ruins of this 



'Colonial Records of N. C, Vol VH, p. 161. 

t Tales and Traditions of the Lower Cape Fear. pp. 67-71. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 63 

house. lie did so by consulting land titles, and also had the 
assistance of an aged negro who had been reared in the vicin- 
ity. This old negro said he never heard of Governor Dobbs 
or Grovemor Trs^on; but, when a boy, had heard of a man 
named Governor Palace who lived in a great house between 
Orton and Bninswdck. Acting on tliis chie, Mr. Sprunt and 
the friends who accompanied liim followed their venerable 
guide to the former abode of Governors Dobbs and Trj-on, 
situated in a dense undergrowth beyond an opening still 
known as the Old Palace Field. The site of the 'Talace" 
commands a fine \^ew of the river. Approaching it are tlie 
marks of a well-worn c^irriage road, and there are also traces 
of a path leading down to the river landing known as Gov- 
ernor's Cove. Only the foundations of the house are now 
visible. 

When Xew Bern was made the ca])ital of the colony there 
was no suitable place for the transaction of public business, 
and tlie erection of a government building became necessa^)^ 
By Chapter II of the Laws of 1700 it was provided that 
such a structure should l)e built. This act- passed its third 
rcading in the Assembly, or lower house, on November 17, 
1766, and received its final ratification in the Council, or 
upper house, on the 27th of the same month.* The title of 
the bill was "An Act for erecting a convenient building 
within the town of Xew Bern for the residence of the Gov- 
ernor, or commander-in-chief, for the time being." Though 
Governor Tryon highly approved tliis measure, it seems to 
have originated upon a recommendation from the Crown, the 

* Colonial Reeords of N. a, VoL VII, pp. 820, 876. 



64 GOVEBNOB TBYON 

reason being given that such an establishment had been made 
in almost all the colonies on the continent for their respect- 
ive Governors.* But Try on never did things by halves ; and, 
when the work was completed, no Governor or other ruler on 
either of the American continents had an establishment to 
equal it. It was not, howeverj simply a residence for the 
Governor, but also served as a capitol or state-house — contain- 
ing a hall where the Assembly met, a council-chamber, and 
public oflBces. The work on this mansion was begun on the 
26th of August, 1767. It was built of brick and trimmed 
with marble. The latter material was also freely used on the 
interior decorations. John Hawks, who came to America 
with Tryon, superintended its construction. He estimated 
that the cost would aggregate about 14,710 pounds. Includ- 
ing furniture, etc., it finally amounted to one or two thousand 
pounds more. Skilled artisans were brought from Philadel- 
phia for the work. The first legislative appropriation (Chap- 
ter II of the Laws of 1766) was only for five thousand pounds, 
but this amount was afterwards increased by Chapter V of 
the Laws of 1767. The sum of 10,000 pounds (proclama- 
tion money) additional was appropriated by the latter act, 
and 1,500 pounds was granted to supply a deficiency in the 
former fund. In December, 1767, Tryon was able to report 
that the work was being steadily pushed to completion. In 
1770 the house was ready for occupancy, and the public 
records were moved into it in January and February of the 
following year.f 



'Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vn, p. 278. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VH, pp. 481. 542-548, and Prefatory Notea of same vol- 
ume, p. xii; n>id.. VoL Vm, pp. 408, 480. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 65 

The main building was three stories high, had a frontage 
of eighty-seven feet, and was fifty-nine feet deep; while on 
each side was a two-storied building — connected with the cen- 
tral edifice by gracefully curving galleries. Between the gal- 
leries, in front of the Palace, was a handsome court-yard. 
The rear of the building was fashioned in the style of the 
Mansion House, or Lord Mayor's residence, in London.* 
The plumbing was done by an expert who came over from 
England for the express purpose. Eight tons of lead were 
used in this work alone. All of the sashes and four of tlie 
principal mantels were imported. In the council-chamber 
there was a handsomely designed chimney-piece containing 
decorations of Ionic statuary, with columns of sienna, the 
fret-work on the frieze being also inlaid with the latter mate- 
rial. In addition to this, and above the whole, were richly 
ornamented marble tablets, on which were medallions of 
King George and his Queen.f 

Over the principal door of the vestibule was another tablet, 
containing a Latin verse, \vritten by Sir William Draper, 
which ran thus : 

"Rege pio, felix, diris inimica tyrannia, 
Virtuti has cedes libera terra dcdit; 
Sint domus et dominus sceclis exempla futuris, 
Hie artcSy mores, jura, legesque colant" 

Frangois Xavier Martin, in his History of North Caro- 
lina,X by a free translation, renders this into English verse 
as follows : 



* Loeainflr's Field Book of the Revolation. Lossins says the contract called for a build- 
ing two stories hisrh. His illustration, however, shows three stories. 
^ t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 7-8. 

t Martin's History of N. a. VoL U, pp. 266-206. 



66 GOVERNOR TRYON 

''In the reign of a monarch, who goodness disclosed, 
A free, happy people, to dread tyrants opposed. 
Have to virtue and merit erected this dome; 
May the owner and household make this the loved home. 
Where religion, the arts, and the laws may invite 
Future ages to live in sweet peace and delight." 

Draper seems to have been the Admiral Dewey of his day, 
as Martin refers to him as "the conqueror of Manila." Mar- 
tin himself once visited the Palace in company with the great 
Venezuelan patriot, Don Francisco de Miranda, and tells us 
he heard Miranda say that the building had no equal in South 
America. 

In December, 1770, the first meeting of the Assembly was 
held in its new quarters at New Bern.* The Governor, in 
his official message, said he gladly embraced the opportunity 
to render acknowledgments for the Palace which had been 
built for himself and his official successors ; adding^ that it 
was a public ornament, a credit to the province, and an honor 
to British America. He also said he wajs confident that the 
strength of materials, the ability, integrity, and diligence of 
the architect, and the skill of the artisans who had been em- 
ployed would all contribute to render it a lasting monument 
to the liberality of the colony. Little oould he foresee that in 
less than two decades nothing but charred ruins would mark 
the site of this noble edifice ! 

For his instnmientality in having the Palace built, Tryon 
has received as much hostile criticism as for any other act of 
his administration, and it is true that the colony could ill 
afford the outlay of money employed in that work But the 

*C:k>k>nial Reoords of N. C. VoL Vm, pp. 282, 285. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 67 

Governor looked to the future, and — of course, not foreseeing 
the Revolution and the removal of the seat of government — 
no doubt thought that he was doing the province a good ser- 
vice by the erection of a mansion and state-house which 
would be useful to North Carolina for many years to come. 
To the gratification of personal vanity also, it must be said, 
his action was largely due; for, with all his strong points, 
he was vain to a marked degree, and it probably never en- 
tered his head that any house could be too good for a digni- 
tary holding tlie high and mighty office of Governor^ Cap- 
tain-General^ AND Commander-in-Chief in and over 
His Majesty^s Province of North Carolina and Vice- 
Admiral OF THE SAME. And the Assembly also seems to 
have held sentiments somewhat similar; for, in a dispatch to 
the Earl of Shelbum, dated January 31, 1767, Tryon says 
that the act of appropriation for the building was carried 
through that body by a very large majority. 

In connection with the above, it may not be out of place to 
observe that no public building, in any way a credit to the 
State, has ever been erected in North Carolina without bring- 
ing down demmciations upon those responsible for it. AVhen 
the old Capitol in Raleigh was burned (June 21, 1831) the 
economical legislators of that day appropriated fifty thousand 
dollars, which they regarded as a princely sum, for the pur- 
pose of building a new one, and appointed commissioners to 
superintend its erection. These commissioners (all honor to 
their memory!) thought they knew more about building 
capitals than the Legislature did, and invested the fifty thou- 
sand dollars in a foundation. Then succeeding Legislatures 



68 GOVEENOR TRYON 

had to spend considerably over half a million dollars in put- 
ting a superstructure on top of that foundation, and these 
appropriations caused the political death of many of the 
State's best citizens ; but now the chief fault found with the 
Oapitol is that it is too small. It may be that the building 
committee which bought the foundation for the Capitol took 
the idea from the plan which Tryon was charged with pur- 
suing — only Tryon got considerably more than his founda- 
tion completed before he asked for further appropriations. 

And another "Governor's Palace" also caused a tempest 
in a tea-pot about ninety-five years after Tryon's death, when 
a far-seeing Chief Magistrate, Governor Jarvis, recommended 
to the General Assembly that an Executive Mansion be built 
in Burke Square, at Raleigh, to supply the place of an old 
one, at the foot of Fayetteville Street^ which had become 
unfit for use and had been sold. When the new building 
was being put up people called it "Jarvis's Folly," and news- 
papers deplored the fact that no poor man could thereafter 
afford to be Governor, as such an establishment would require 
an independent fortune to keep it up. Yet the house is now 
considered an honor to the State, and quite often some poor 
man shows » willingness to offer himself a living sacrifice by 
becoming its oflBcial occupant. 

But to return to the Palace at New Bern : during the short 
time in which it was occupied by Governor Tryon — ^he lived 
there but little over a year — it was the seat of extensive hos- 
pitality, both to prominent Americans and men of rank from 
abroad. When the building was first opened a grand ball 
was given by way of a house-warming. Of this entertain- 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 69 

ment we can catch a faint glimpse in the correspondence 
between James Iredell and Sir Nathaniel Diikinfield, wherein 
the baronet recalls how the dignified councillor, Samuel 
Cornell, "hopped a reel" at the close of the evening.* 
Whether or not the erection of Tryon's vice-regal edifice was 
regarded with favor by other sections of the colony probably 
caused little concern in New Bern. The fortunes of that 
town were fixed, for a time at least, and tlie dull routine of 
governmental administration was relieved by gay social gath- 
erings of Carolina's elite when the Assembly met. 

"A goodly place, a goodly time, 
For it was in the golden prime 
Of good Haroun Alraschid." 

One thing — ^the style of royalty assumed by the Governor 
at his Palace balls — does not seem to have made a very pleas- 
ant impression on the colonial gentry of North Carolina; 
for, when Judge Maurice Moore, under the pseudonym of 
"Atticus," attacked Tryon, it was said of the latter: "Your 
solicitude about the title of Her Excellency for Mrs. Tryon, 
and the arrogant reception you gave to a respectable company 
at an entertainment of your own making, seated with your 
lady by your side on elbow-chairs in the middle of the ball- 
room, bespeak a littleness of mind, which, believe me, sir, 
when blended with the dignity and importance of your office, 
renders you truly ridiculous." 

In the early stages of the Revolution, Abner Nash, Richard 
Cogdell, Alexander Gaston, and other patriots seized the 
artillery (six pieces) with which the Palace was fortified, 

*Life and Correspondenee of Jamea Iredell. Vol I, p. 178. 



70 GOVERNOR TRYON 

and Josiah Martin (Tryon's successor, and the last of the 
Royal Governors) had to flee from his home and seek refuge 
on shipboard.* After the war the Palace was allowed to 
go to ruin. In its last years it was put to all kinds of uses : 
public entertainments were held therein ; sometimes the Leg- 
islature met there; and usually it served the purposes of a 
school-house. The basement was used as a store-room for 
rubbish. The last mentioned circumstance explains why the 
building is not there now ; for, among other matter kept in the 
cellar, there was a large amount of combustibles, including 
hay. Sometime after night-fall, on February 27, 1798, an 
old negro woman was sent into the basement to hunt among 
the straw for hens' eggs. It being very dark, she carried with 
her a blazing pine-knot, which she laid down in order to 
gather the eggs — and it is not necessary to trouble the reader 
with an account of what followed. 

When the main edifice was burned one of the wings shared 
its destruction, but the other is still standing. After the 
Revolution the State Legislature appointed commissioners to 
sell the land and buildings. One of the lots was purchased 
by Major John Daves, a distinguished veteran of the War 
for Independence ; and his son, John Pugh Daves, built upon 
it the house occupied by himself as a residence during the 
remainder of his life. James McKinlay (who married the 
latter's half-sister) bought the lot on which now stands the 
original wing. This house has had many vicissitudes. The 
first floor was used at one time as a stable and carriage-house, 
and there were kept the horses of Greneral Washington at the 

*Life and CorreBpondence of Jamea Iredell, VoL I. p. 240: Colonial Reeorda of N. C, 
VoL X, pp. 41, et mq., 66, 145. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 71 

time of his visit to IsTew Bern. After the death of its first pur- 
chaser it was inherited by the children of John Pugh Daves, 
and they conveyed it to the parish of Christ Church, by which 
it was used as a chapel and parochial school. At the time of 
its conversion into the chapel much of the wood-work, when 
removed, was found to be of red cedar, in a remarkable state 
of preservation, notwitlistanding the lapse of so many years. 
It is now used as a private dwelling. In dimensions it is 
fifty by forty feet. 

The commissioners, mentioned above, did not sell the site 
of the main building, as that was needed for an extension of 
George Street southward to the Trent river. 

In his History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern* 
the Reverend Lachlan C. Vass says that the United States 
troops during the War Between the States attempted to pull 
down what remained of the walls of the old buildings, in 
order to get the brick ; but that, so strong was the cement, no 
whole bricks could be gotten, and hence the attempt was given 
up. He also states that sundry relics of the Palace and 
Tryon were then (1886) in New Bern, including a fine 
clock, a silver tea-kettle, a child's chair, a marble and rose- 
wood table, a writing-desk once used by the Governor, dresses 
worn by ladies of New Bern to the Palace balls, etc. 

When General Washington visited New Bern in April, 
1791, the Palace was used for the fetes which were given in 
his honor. On the 21st of the above month he was enter- 
tained at a public dinner there; and afterwards attended a 
dance, where the company included upwards of seventy 



* History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern, p. 94. 



72 GOVEBNOB TBYOK 

ladies.* Little did Tryon think, when taking his ease in this 
fine mansion, that, in so few years, its occupant would be 
driven from. America and the house itself used in doing honor 
to a man whom, above all others, King George held in abhor- 
rence as an arch rebel and traitor ! 

The picture of the Palace shown in this work is based upon 
a plan preserved by John Hawks, the architect. 

At its session of 1768 the colonial Assembly, by Chapter 
Xf of its enactments, erected a county in the Piedmont sec- 
tion of the province (out of a part of Mecklenburg) and 
called it in honor of the Gk)vemor. But Tryon county, North 
Carolina (like Tryon county, New York), is now a thing of 
the past ; for, by Chapter XXIII of the Laws of 1779, the 
name was wiped from the map by the erection out of it of two 
new counties — ^named for Revolutionary patriots — Lincoln 
and Rutherford. By Chapter XIX,:|: passed at the same 
session, a similar thrust was made at Lord Bute; for Bute 
county was likewise divided into two new counties — Warren 
and Franklin. Even an honor paid to old Governor Dobbs 
(who died before the Revolution was ever thought of) was 
afterwards revoked by the passage of Chapter XLVII of the 
Laws of 1791, whereby Dobbs county was also divided into 
two new coimties, which were given the names of Lenoir and 
Glasgow; but the "patriot" from whom the latter took its 
name was afterwards convicted of forging land grants, so 

*Waahmffton's Diary published in PennsyWaxiia Hasrazine of History, 1896^ VoL II. 
Na 2, p. 186. 

t See IrodeU's collection of statutes, also Martin's; Chapter X in Davis's collection is 
different. 
tSee Iredell's collection of statutes. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 73 

Greene was substituted for Glasgow by Chapter XXXIX of 
the Laws of 1709. 

Though Tryon county has been abolished, there is a town 
(in the county of Polk) which takes its name from the Gov- 
ernor, as does also Tryon Mountain, several miles distant 
therefrom, to which reference has already been made. 

It has been suggested that the counties called in honor of 
Johnston and Martin, who were royal Governors, escaped a 
change because there were two whig Governors who bore the 
same names. And, as illustrative of the gratitude of our 
ancestors to friends in Great Britain, it is well to observe 
that while the war was in full blast, in 1777, John Wilkes 
and the Earl of Camden had counties named for them. 
Burke county probably took its name from Governor Thomas 
Burke; for, at the same session, one was named for Gov- 
ernor (^aswell, a contemporary statesman in North Caro- 
lina. It has been often stated that the county men- 
tioned wiis named for Edmund Burke. Possibly it was a 
liking for both of these Burkes which caused the name to 
be selected. In 1779 one was named for the Duke of Rich- 
mond; and, as late as 1785, after independence had been 
won, Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Kodcingham, 
received a similar honor. For him, also, tlie county-seat of 
Rockingham is called Wentworth. Tliere is likewise a town 
of Rockingham in the above mentioned county of Richmond. 
Before the Revolution, in 1760, a county was given the name 
of Pitt for William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham; 
furthermore, in 1770, by way of an additional honor, Chat- 
ham county was erected, and the county-seat of the latter is 



74 GOVERNOR TRYON 

called Pittsboroiigh, as a oompliment to the same statesman. 
And names of the royal family — despite its hostility to the 
colonies — are still preserved by the counties of Brunswick, 
Orange, New Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Cimiberland. 

Nor should we omit to mention the county of Wake, about 
the origin of whose name has centered so much discussion. 
Wake county, in which Raleigh, the State capital, is situated, 
was erected by Chapter XII of the Laws of 1770, the act 
being passed by the Assembly on December 23d, and by the 
Council on the 27th of that month, with a proviso that it 
should not take effect until March 12, 1771. The charter 
of the new county was formally signed by Governor Tryon 
on May 22, 1771.* From this it would appear that his ap- 
proval was given while encamped with his army at Sandy 
Creek after the battle of Alamance ; for, on that day he was 
at Sandy Creek, as shown by his military Order Book. Por- 
tions of the counties of Johnston, Cumberland, and Orange 
were severed for the erection of Wake, which, under the En- 
glish church-establishment, was known as the Parish of St. 
Margaret. That the name of Wake was given in honor of 
a member of the family to which Tryon was allied by mar- 
riage has never been questioned; but the perplexing point 
has been whether it was named for Mrs. Tryon, nee Wake, 
or for her sister. The historian Martin states that it was 
called in honor of the Governor's wife ; Jo. Seawell Jones of 
Shocco, in his Defence of North Carolina, ascribes the name's 
origin to Miss Esther Wake, a beautiful young lady who was 

• Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. Vm, pp. 299. 883-384 ; eopy of charter in archives of 
Wake county. 



OF NORXn CAROLINA. 75 

the sister of Mrs. Tryon; Judge Gaston (a Xew Bern man, 
whose mother was once a member of Tryon's household) eon- 
tended that Miss Esther was a creation of Jones's imagina- 
tion; Wheeler and Governor Swain were inclined to the 
opinion of Gaston; Doctor Battle wavers between historical 
doubts and his early reverence for the memory of the lovely 
Esther; Mrs. Spencer supports the statement of "Shooco'^ 
Jones, and here the matter stands, so far as past writings are 
concerned.* 

But, after all said and done, no one has been able to find 
any trace in the old records of this "rare and radiant maiden" 
whom the Tar-heels call Esther. None of tlie letters of the 
colonial period mention her. Xo known documents of any 
sort in either North Carolina or New York have a word to 
say of her. When the Governor's House in Fort George, 
New York, was burned, her name is not given among those 
of its inmates, though the members of Tryon's household are 
enumerated. Nor is she mentioned in the will of Mrs. 
Tryon, who left no children on whom to settle her fortune, 
and therefore divided it among her friends. 

So all this about settles the fact that Esther Wake — that 
vision of loveliness which for so many years has been the idol 
of North Carolina romancers — was none other than a crea- 
ture of fancy, brought forth from the realms of Fairyland 
by the pen of a sentimental writer. Many historians, other- 



* Martin's History of N. C, VoL II. p. 271; Jones's Defence, pp. 18. 44-45; Gaston, Swain, 
and Bryan, mentioned and quoted by Hon. K. P. Battle in N. C. University Magazine, 
November. 1894. p. 91. et aeg.; Wheeler's History of N. C, Part U. p. 414; Mrs. C. P. 
Spencer in Raleigh (N. C.) News and ObBerver (supplement), Sunday, November 25, 1894. 




76 GOVERNOR TRYON 

Wise accurate, have been fimi believers in her existence, and 
no one can regret more than the author of this biography 
that our beautiful and fascinating heroine has failed to ma- 
terialize. Queen of Love and Beauty, farewell ! — and peace 
to your ashes, if you left any. 



»^'»- 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 77 



CHAPTER VI. 

FIRST INSURRECTION OF THE REGULATORS— TRYONS CAM- 
PAIGN AGAINST THEM IN 1768 — OFFICIAL ABUSES — 
SCARCITY OF CURRENCY— COIX)NEL EDMUND FANNING— 
FIRST ATTACK ON HILLSBOROUGH BY REGULATORS— HER- 
MON HUSBAND AND WILLIAM BUTI.ER ARRESTED— HIGH 
TITLES IN SMALL ARMY UNDER TRYON— C^OLONEL ALEX- 
ANDER OSBORNE— JUDGES MOORE AND HENDRESON. 

The subject to which we now come is that insurrection in 
Xorth Carolina whoso supporters, as the historian Williamson 
puts it, called themselves Regulators, lest others should call 
them a mob. In fact, "the mob" was really the only name 
by which they were at first known, even among themselves. 

The War of the Regulation lias been the theme of so many 
books, magazine articles, oratorical flights on Xorth Caro- 
lina's greatness, and attempts at poetry, that to separate the 
wheat from the chaif is well-nigh impossiWe. 

Scarcely has there ever been a reference to the battle of 
Alamance that it is not characterized as the scene where the 
first blood of the Revolution was shed, yet no writer has at- 
tempted to prove by contemporaiy evidence that the Regula- 
tors even so much as dreamed of indeijendcnce. On the other 
hand, when an opportunity to fight for liberty presented itself 
a few vears later, thev nearly all l)ecame Tories, as will be 
shown later on. And the Xorth Carolina militia soldiei-s 
who inarched from their homes to the scene of the disturl)- 
ances in Orange county are spoken of in the average history 
as the Royal Troops of England ! 



78 CK)VERNOR TRYON 

In an article by Doctor Jolm Spencer Bassett, published 
in the Annual Report of the American Historical Associa- 
tion for 1894, that writer reaches the very sensible conclu- 
sions: 

First That the Regulation was not attempted as a revolu- 
tion. It was rather a peasants' uprising, a popular upheaval. 

Second. That the Regulation was not a religious move- 
ment. It was rather of an economic or political nature. 

It was not only not religious, continues Doctor Bassett, but 
it had the opposition of at least four of the five leading denom- 
inations in the disaffected district 

To get at the true source of trouble with the Regulators 
is rather difficult, though there is no uncertainty about the 
cause which provoked the movement This was the extor- 
tionate conduct of county officials in North Carolina, made 
more burdensome by tlie scarcity of a circulating medium or 
legal tender money. 

The British had nothing to do with it. It was a North 
Carolina insurrection and suppressed by North Carolina sol- 
diers serving under North Carolina officers — all except Tryon 
himself were North Carolinians, and even he was one for 
the time being. But of course any treason against North 
Carolina was hidirectly treason against the King, as its 
supreme ruler; and, in the formal bills of indictment, etc., 
the King's name is used, as is always the case in British 
dominions. 

The man whose name, above all otliers, has been associated 
with the official abuses complained of, was Colonel Edmund 
Fanning. This person graduated from Yale in the class of 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 79 

1757.* Though certainly not so black as painted, history 
charges him with being guilty of many extortionate and 
irregular practices ; and we are told that he conducted himself 
with an insufferable hauteur in his dealings with the people. 
The idea (to quote his own words) of being "arraigned at 
the bar of their shallow understanding" did not have a very 
soothing effect on him. And it must be said that his blind 
adherence to each and every move of either the King or Gov- 
ernor, in both the colonial and revolutionary periods, would 
not (even were he above reproach in all other respects) give 
an impression that such adherence was altogether disinter- 
ested in a native American, for he was bom in New York. 
During the Kevolution (at which time he had returned to 
New York) he remained loyal to Great Britain and was 
Colonel of the "King's American Regiment." 

That some of Tanning's illegal charges were made in pur- 
suance of rules laid down for his guidance by the Superior 
Court, of which he was an oflRcer, must be admitted. When 
he was found guilty at the September Term, 1768, of charg- 
ing six shillings for registering a deed, while the law was sup- 
posed to allow only two shillings and eight pence, his case was 
referred to John Morgan, Esquire, of the Inner Temple, Lon- 
don, upon the following statement : 

"On an indictment in Hillsborough Superior Court of 
Justice, for said province, in September last, Edmund Fan- 
ning, Register of Orange county, duly appointed and quali- 
fied, was found guilty of extortion in his oflBce as Register 
for taking 6s on Deed No. 13. 

* For sketch of his life, see pp. 458-462. VoL H of Biographical Sketches of the Gradu- 
ates of Yale ColleiEeb by Franklin Bowditch Dexter; see also, sketch by Edward Jenner 
Wood in North Carolina University Magazine for February. 1899, p. 185. 



80 GOVEBNOR TBYON 

"On the trial it was given in evidence and declared from 
the Bench that the taiing did not by any means appear to be 
a tortious taking, as the said Register had, previous to his 
entering on the said office, requested the Justices of the 
County Court (the supreme jurisdiction of the county) to 
consider on the fee-bill, who after so doing in open Court, 
instructed the said Register that he was legally entitled to 
6s and odd pence, at least, for every deed whatever, with pro- 
bate, order for registering, and Register's certificate of the 
due registering; and, in case of other instriunents, more — as 
by bill drawn up by the Court- and delivered to the said Reg- 
ister. The opinion of the late Attorney-General of North 
Carolina was likewise taken on this matter, who declared 
that the Register was entitled to demand fees to the amount 
of 8s 7d on any deed. 

"On application, several other Registers furnished him 
with Bills under their hands, for fees taken for the same ser- 
vices, for considerably more than 6s. 

"The said Register, however, to be within the law as he 
conceived, demanded and took upon all deeds 6s only." 

Upon these facts and the deed itself submitted to him, Mr. 
Morgan gave it as his opinion : 

"On the Deed 13 and endorsements, I am of opinion that 
the Register is entitled to four fees, viz. : (1.) For the deed ; 
(2.) For the certificate of the examination of the feme covert; 
(3.) Certificate of persons examining, being justices; (4.) 
The oath of execution and order to register." Morgan fur- 
ther observes: "I think in the present case the Register was 
not liable to be indicted, for two reasons: (1.) I a^ clearly 
of opinion he was legally entitled to more than he took as to 



'^— ^^'^^'-' - ^ .^ 



OF NOKTH CABOLINA. 81 

No. 13; (2.) Suppose he was not, we should then inquire 
quo anvmo he took the 6s. The answer is: not with intent 
to extort, but through an involuntary mistake — under a sup- 
position of right, consequently he is not criminal. In this 
case, Mr. Fanning did actually intend to take less than he 
conceived himself entitled to. And on entering into his 
office, acted in the most prudent manner, by requesting the 
Justices of the County Court to ascertain his fees. I should 
think that the very allowance of a court of justice would be 
sufficient to exculpate Mr. Fanning at common law had he 
taken more than he was entitled to by the Act of Assembly; 
and that, in such a case, there would not have been any mode 
of proceeding but by action of debt He may be said to have 
acted with the approbation of the Justices; and therefore, 
for their honour, it is incimabent on the Judges, before whom 
this matter is pending, to give all the relief they can to Mr. 
Fanning."* 

If none of Fanning's oifenses were worse than the one just 
cited, surely he has been abused beyond his deserts. And it 
may be added that some charges against him are untrue on 
their face. Take, for example, the statement of Reverend 
E. W. Caruthers that Frohock (the Clerk of Rowan county) 
and Fanning made it a practice to charge fifteen dollars for 
a marriage license, when the law allowed a much smaller 
amount; and that Faiming, in particular, would charge five 
dollars for recording a deed when the law allowed only one 
dollar, f Now, if, instead of relying on hearsay, Doctor 



*CokmiaI Records of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 88-86. 
t Life of CaklweU. by Carathen, pp. 114-llS. 



82 GOVEBNOE TEYON 

Oaruthers had consulted the laws of the period of which he 
professes to treat, he would see that the word "dollar" is 
nowhere to be found. All fees were prescribed and paid ac- 
cording to the English system — pounds, shillings, and pence. 
Nor is it merely quibbling over monetary terms to make this 
contradiction of Oaruthers ; for, when Fanning was indicted 
as above, the record shows that his charge for recording a 
deed was six shillings, and that lacks a good deal of being 
five dollars. 

In his History of North Carolina, Williamson makes the 
charge that Fanning, being unused to action and deficient in 
courage, fied precipitately from the field of Alamance with 
all of his command except Captain Francis Nash's company ; 
yet one of the chief reasons assigned by Tryon for afterwards 
appointing Fanning to office in New York was the fact that 
he had behaved so well under fire in this battle, the Gk)vemor 
saying to the Privy Council at the time of making the aj)- 
pointment: "He is a gentleman, my Lords, that on the auspi- 
cious 16th of May, Her Majesty's birthday, headed two hun- 
dred men at the battle of Alamance and, by his brave example 
contributed to the success of that day."* 

The estimation in which Colonel Fanning was held by the 
colonial Assembly of North Carolina is shown by the pas- 
sage of a resolution through that body on January 25, 1771, 
finding the .charges against him "false, wretched, and mali- 
cious''; and declaring that (so far as anything had been 
made to appear to the House) his conduct had been "fair, 
just, and honourable, both as a member of the House in par- 



*Doeain«nta relating to the CokmialReooidB of the State of New York. VoL Vm. p. 827. 



OF NORTH CABOLINA. 83 

ticular and of the community in general." This resolution 
was not only passed, but passed unanimously by an Assem- 
bly in which were such men as Griffith Rutherford of Kowan, 
Thomas Polk of Mecklenburg, Richard Caswell of the bor- 
ough of New Bern, Robert Howe of Brunswick, Howell 
Lewis of Granville, Needham Bryan of Johnston, John 
Campbell of Bertie, Cornelius Harnett of the borough of 
Wilmington, and others of like character.* 

When the War of the Revolution was ended Fanning re- 
moved to Nova Scotia, There he became a member of the 
Council, and was later made Governor of St. John's Island, 
now known as Prince Edward Island. At the time of his 
death, which occurred in 1818, he was a resident of London 
and held a general's coumiission in the British service. 
From an English stand-point, in the Oentlemans Magazine, 
it was then said : "The world did not contain a better man in 
all the various relations of life: a husband, a parent, and a 
friend. As a landlord and master he was kind and indul- 
gent. He was much distinguished in the American war, 
and raised a regiment there, by which he lost a very large 
property." 

The nimiber of literary degrees conferred upon Edmund 
Fanning was somewhat remarkable, and not only attests his 
scholastic excellence, but also the high esteem in which he 
was held in America, as well as in England, both before and 
after the Revolution. He was graduated Bachelor of Arts 
from Yale in 1757, and later was made Master of Arts by 
the same institution, which also conferred upon him the de- 



* Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VHI, pp. 308-804. 461. 



84 GOVERNOR TRYON 

gree of Doctor of Laws in 1803. He was given the degree 
of Master of Arts by Harvard in 1764, and by King's Ool- 
ite (now Columbia) in 1772. In 1803 Dartmouth con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, in England, gave him the degree of Doctor 
of Civil Law in 1774. It may be questioned whether any 
American-bom citizen up to the time of Fanning was ever 
the recipient of so many honors of a like kind. And it should 
be remembered that Yale and Dartmouth conferred their 
highest degrees after the Revolution, when the bitter feeling 
engendered by that war, in which Fanning sided against the 
colonies, had not been wiped away. 

One of Colonel Fanning's nephews was the great Virginia 
lawyer, John Wickham, who was of counsel for the defense in 
Aaron Burr's trial for treason. 

Edmund Fanning should not be confused with the Tory 
marauder and outlaw, Colonel David Fanning of North 
Carolina. They were in no way related. And it should also 
be noted that the statement, often made, that Edmund Fan- 
ning was a son-in-law of Governor Tryon is entirely without 
foundation in fact 

Something also should be said of the Frohocks of Rowan, 
against whom Caruthers makes so many sweeping charges. 
Another writer, Reverend Jethro Rumple, in his History of 
Rowan County* gives the impression that they were not such 
a corrupt set after all. Of Colonel John Frohock (who died in 
1772), Rimiple says his great fortune was amassed by enter- 
ing unoccupied public lands; and that he owned real prop- 



History of Rowan County, pp. CT-6L 



OP NORTH CABOLINA. 85 

erty on the Yadkin, Saxapahaw, and Tar rivers, and in Vir- 
ginia. This account adds: "He mentions neither wife nor 
child in his will, and it is presumed that he was not married. 
Besides the kindness shown in the liberation and education 
of his body servant, Absalom, he expressly enjoins that his 
debtors should not be oppressed or sued, but ample time given 
to them to pay their debts to his executors." The same 
writer continues: "Dr. Caruthers designates Thomas Fro- 
hock as a 'bachelor,' but the evidence of his will is to the con- 
trary. His will, in 1794, leaves his property to his son, 
Alexander Frohod^, and to his daughter, Elizabeth, who was 
married to Charles Hunt, a merchant of Salisbury. * * * * 
He gave to the town the lot now known as the 'English Grave- 
yard' or 'Oak Grove Cemetery,' and the School House lot im- 
mediately in front" Besides these brothers there was a 
third, William Frohock, at one time an officer of militia and 
Deputy Sheriff of Rowan. John Frohock was Clerk of 
the District Court, and Thomas was Clerk of the Superior 
Ck)urt. They at one time lived in Halifax county. When 
the touTi of Charlotte was first given a charter (Chapter 
XI, Private Laws of 1768), John Frohock was one of the 
three commissioners vested with the government of that now 
famous borough, his associates being Abraham Alexander 
and Thomas Polk. The last nameid.. 
VoL Vni. pp. 9, 661. 
t The Old North State in 1776, pp. 21-22. 



OF NORTH OABOLINA. 87 

of respectability in that region ; and he gave it merely as illus- 
trative of the course pursued by the *tax gatherers' in that 
quarter." While this is given by the writer just quoted as 
illustrative of the course pursued by the tax gatherers, it is 
still more illustrative of the fact that the ^'old gentleman of 
respectability" who told this tale to Doctor Oaruthers had a 
very gullible listener. That household furniture (even in- 
cluding beds) was levied on then, as now, for the non-pay- 
ment of taxes, is true. But asking sensible persons to believe 
that the sheriffs of that day went around collecting taxes in 
the peculiar, not to say indelicate, manner above described, 
is too great a strain on human credulity. 

This same Doctor Oaruthers, in his Life of the Reverend 
David Caldwell* favors us with a touching little romance 
concerning the death of James Few, which runs as follows: 
"He was engaged to be married to a yoimg lady whom Fan- 
ning seduced. He then joined tlie Regulators ; was taken on 
the field of battle, and, at the instigation of Fanning, was 
executed on the spot." The above italics are in the original. 
Of the death of Few — ^who, by the bye, was a married man, 
and not a blighted young bachelor — mention will later be 
made. Tryon's official report says that it occurred on the 
day after the battle, and omits to state that he was hanged as 
a delicate little attention to Oolonel Fanning. 

As early as August, 1766, there had been some movement 
at Haddock's Mill, on the Eno river, a few miles from Hills- 
borough, to consult for the redress of grievances.! It was 
provided that no liquor should be accessible at this meeting, 



* Life of the Reverend David Caldwell, p. 158. 
f Colonial BecordB of N. a. VoL VU. pp. 24^-262. 



88 GOVEBNOB TBYON 

which was a very wise precaution ; for, if the perf ormanoes of 
the Emulators a few years later were indulged in when sober, 
there is no telling to what extreme they would have gone if 
drunk. The term "Regulator" was borrowed from an organ- 
ization which had previously existed in South Carolina,* 

Sometime in the year 1768 a second meeting was held and 
a set of resolutions passed, setting forth the grievances of 
which the people complained. The parties to this compact 
boimd themselves to pay no greater taxes than the law pro- 
vided and to see that the taxes were properly applied ; to exer- 
cise the legal right of petitioning the Gk)vemor and legisla- 
tive body of North Carolina, or the King and Parliament, if 
necessary ; and to join in defraying the expenses of presenting 
their case in the manner proposed. This was moderate 
enough, as was also a memorial dated March 22, 1768, which 
demanded that the public oflScers should give an aocoimt of 
their stewardship to the people.f But less than a month later 
began to appear that mob violence which was regarded by all 
of the respectable citizens of the colony as a blot on the good 
name of North Carolina. On the 8th of April rioters, to the 
number of about one hundred, came into Hillsborough to take 
from the Sheriff a horse which had been levied on for the 
non-payment of taxes; not content with this, they bound 
the Sheriff with ropes, maltreated other inhabitants, and 
amused themselves by firing shots through the house of Ed- 
mund Fanning, who was then absent from town.:j: Immedi- 
ately after this disorder, Lieutenant-Colonel 36tm Gray, of 

* Article on Reflrolatioii, by Dr. J. S. Basaett, in Beport of the American EQstarical 
Aaeociation for 1894, p. 164. note (quoting authorities), 
t Colonial Beoords of N. C, Vol VH. pp. 671-672, 6W-700. 
^Colonial Becords of N. C VoL VH, pp. 706-707. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 89 

the Orange county militia, prepared to raise troops to protect 
the town against future attacks. For this purpose he called 
a council of the officers under him. These were Major 
Thomas Lloyd, Adjutant Francis Nash, and Captains Holt, 
Hart, Thompson, King, Mebane, Lytle, and Thackston. In 
a letter dated April 17th, two of these gentlemen, Captains 
Xash and Hart, reported that when the militia was ordered 
to assemble only about one hundred and twenty effective men 
could be gotten together, as so many of the inhabitants were 
in sympathy with the mob. All of the oflScers, however, said 
this letter, behaved \\dth the utmost loyalty, firmness and reso- 
lution, and to a man could be relied upon to venture their 
lives and fortunes in support of any measures for the suppres- 
sion of such a lawless and rebellious crew.* 

As already mentioned, Edmimd Fanning was absent from 
Hillsborough when these occurrences took place. But he 
returned post-haste, immediately upon hearing of the dis- 
turbances, to assiune oonamand of the Orange county militia, 
of which he was colonel. He also dispatched a special mes- 
senger to Governor Tryon, then at Wilmington, giving an 
account of the troubles existing. In his letter Fanning stated 
that the agitation among the people had first arisen in Anson 
coimty and then spread into the territory adjoining; and 
that, at tho time of his writing, the Regulators in Orange 
had a plan on foot to raise a force of about fifteen himdred 
men and march them into Hillsborough on the 3d of May, 
when they would lay the town in ashes if their demands were 
not complied with. In order to frustrate their plan, he also 



* Colonial B«cord8 of N. C, Vol. Vn. px». 710-712. 



90 OOVERNOB TETON 

said it was his intention to have the ring-leaders arrested 
under cover of night, though he feared this might precipitate 
matters. 

That the capture of Hillsborough, on May 3d, was proposed, 
does not rest upon Fanning's testimony alone; for, in the 
records of proceedings by a council of the Regulators on April 
25th, we find that a clergyman visited them and 'T>y the power 
of persuasions and argument" induced them to promise they 
would not go into town before the 11th of that month unless 
some of their property was in the meantime levied on for 
taxes, in which event twelve of their number were to go in 
for a parley upon the matter.* Though Fanning had said 
he would consider it a disgrace to have to call on an outside 
force to aid in suppressing a disturbance in his own county, 
the Provincial Council took a different view; and, by its 
advice, the Gk)vemor ordered the militia colonels of Bute, 
Halifax, Granville, Rowan, Mecklenburg, Anson, Cumber- 
land, and Johnston counties to be ready to furnish assistance 
if required. Being willing to share personally any danger 
which might arise, Tryon wrote Colonel Fanning : "The best 
testimony I can give of my approbation of such steady be- 
haviour in so righteous a cause is the offer, which I with sin- 
cerity make, to come up and join you against all your op- 
posers ; and this I will do as soon as you inform me my pres- 
ence is necessary."! 

It was doubtless Tryon's intention from the first to com- 
mand personally the provincial forces if a resort to arms be- 
came necessary. Concerning his militaiy tastes, Saimders 

'CokmialReooidsof N. C, VoL Vn. pp. 718^8. 
tCoknial Records of N. C, VoL Vn» p. 717. 



OF NOBTH OABOLINA. 91 

observes: "That he possessed personal courage, is doubtless 
true ; and that he was well versed in the learning of his profes- 
sion and possessed of a practical knowledge of its details, no 
one can deny who has studied his record. Undoubtedly he 
was fond of the pomps and vanities of life generally; but, 
possibly, he was never quite so happy as when riding at the 
head of a column of gallant men, and doubtless the feather in 
his hat was just a trifle, at least, more showy than the feathers 
worn by men of equal rank, though, perhaps, not of equal mili- 
tary ability. But Tryon, when in North Carolina, at least, is 
considered to have been something more than a mere soldier 
seeking the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth; but, 
for all that, he was always a soldier, and while an adept in 
the arts of diplomacy whenever it pleased him to employ them, 
he always had in view the use of armed troops as the last 
resort."* 

Upon being called together (April 27, 1768) for consul- 
tation on the alarming state of affairs in Orange county, the 
Council of the province, besides advising the Governor to get 
the militia in readiness for an emergency, also recommended 
that a proclamation be issued against the unlawful assem- 
blages.f This proclamation was carried to the Regulators' 
country by Captain Isaac Edwards, Secretary and Aid-de- 
camp to the Governor. 

As soon as the plans had been completed to arrest the ring- 
leaders of the Regulators and thus thwart their design of a 
second armed descent on Hillsborough in May, 1768, Major 
Thomas Lloyd, one of the magistrates in Orange coimty, 

* Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vm. Pr^atory NoteM, by W. L. Saunders, p. zxxv. 
t Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VU. pp. 120-122. 



92 GOVEENOE TBYON 

issued a warrant for Hermon Husband, the chief agitator in 
the movement. With a small force of armed men, Captain 
Thomas Hart rode out of Hillsborough on the night of May 
1st, and, a little after simrise on the day follo^^dng, served the 
warrant on Husband, whom he took back to town before an 
alarm could be given. William Butler was arrested about 
the same time. Knowing that Husband could not be se- 
curely kept where his faction was in the afioendant, Justice 
Lloyd made out papers committing him to the jail in New 
Bern; but, by many good promises, before he was taken 
there, he prevailed on the authorities to admit him to baiL* 
Butler was also released. It had been ordered that all per- 
sons arrested on charges of riot should be carried, for safe- 
keeping, either to New Bern or Wilmington. 

Next to Orange, it is probable that Anson county was the 
scene of more trouble than any other place. In April, 1768, 
while the County Court was being held there, a mob as- 
sembled and broke up proceedings. In a letter to the Gov- 
ernor, Colonel Samuel Spencer gave an aocoimt of the trou- 
bles; and, for further particulars, referred His Excellency 
to William Hooper, who was one of the lawyers driven out of 
the court-house, and by whom the letter was carried.f Upon 
receiving the news from Anson, Tryon issued a proclama- 
tion (May 17, 1768) conmianding the rioters to desist from 
their lawlessness. In response to a petition from the people 
of that county, he also promised that any officer who had been 



* Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vn. pp. 742-748; Huaband's narrative in Wheeler's 
History. Part U. pp. 816-317. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VH. pp. 722-728, 761. 806. et •mi.: North Caxolina Uni- 
versity Magazine, Ausrust, 1866, p. 262. 



OF NOKTH CABOLINA. 93 

guilty of dishonest practices should be held to account for 
the same. 

Each person who joined the Association of Regulators in 
Anson waa required to subscribe an oath declaring that if 
the goods of any fellow-member were seized for the non-pay- 
ment of taxes, the same should Ix) forcibly recovered; that 
if any Regulator was imprisoned, he should be rescued ; and 
that if any one of their number was fined or otherwise put to 
expense by the government, his loss should be shared by the 
entire association. 

In July, 1768, Governor Try on went in person to Hills- 
borough with a view of pacifying the discontented element, 
but his endeavors were not successful. In the early part of 
August he received notice that a large body of insurgents 
had assembled and made threats that tliey would come in 
and bum the town if their demands were not acceded to. 
Immediately the militia was ordered out; and, by the 12th 
of August, a force of between two and three hundred had been 
raised from Orange county, but the Regulators did not attack. 

Marching tlirough Rowan and Mecklenburg counties to 
gather up recruits, Tryon was quite successful in his efforts. 
Colonel Alexander Osborne commanded the Rowan r^ment 
and the regiment from Mecklenburg was under Colonel 
Robert Harris. Another Colonel Robert Harris, in the same 
expedition, conmianded the regiment from Granville.* As 
both these gentlemen had names and ranks exactly similar, 
care should be taken not to confuse them. 

On August 26th a grand review was held at Salisbury, when 

* For ref e rences to these officers, see Colonial Records of N. C.» VoL Vn, pp. 828, 882, 
888; IbicL, VoL Vm. p. 698. 



94 GOVEKNOB TBYON 

both Tryon and Colonel Osborne addressed the troops.* The 
former stated that a Superior Court, to try those concerned 
in the recent disturbances, had been ordered to convene 
at Hillsborough, and an armed force was necessary for 
its protection. He also explained that no troops would be 
forced into this service by draft, but only volunteers accepted. 
Then he dismoimted; and, with the King's colors in his 
hands, called for those companies which were ready to serve. 
The first to volunteer was a company under Captain Dob- 
bins, to the custody of which Tryon then committed the colors 
as a compliment to its zeal. All of the other companies then 
followed in succession except one commanded by Captain 
Knox, and this officer was so disgusted at the action of his 
men that he immediately left them and joined the volunteers 
alone. The company here mentioned, however, afterwards 
sent an apology to the Grovemor, saying that a misunderstand- 
ing, and not disaffection, had caused its action; and many 
came back as volunteers. "The general battalion was then 
dismissed, and the Field Officers, Captains, and other gentle- 
men waited on the Gk)vemor to dinner, where the health of 
His Majesty and the Royal family, prosperity to the prov- 
ince, and success to the Rowan and Mecklenburg Volunteers 
were drank. Before the company broke up the Governor 
acquainted Colonel Osborne, in the presence of Captain Dob- 
bins and the rest of the officers, that he presented His Maj- 
esty's colours to the Rowan regiment of militia as an honour- 
able testimony of the loyalty of that regiment and of the 
spirit they testified in turning out as volunteers in the service 

* For journal from which this account of expedition is drawn, aee Colonial Reootda of 
N. C. VoL VII. p. 819, et mq. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 95 

of their King and country. And that, in consideration of 
Captain Dobbins and his company first joining the union 
colours, His Excellency desired and requested that Captain 
Dobbins' com])any might always carry into and bring out of 
the field the King's colours and that the Ensign of the said 
company should always carry those colours whenever brought 
into the field." So states die Governor's military journal. 
The Captain Dobbins here mentioned appears to have been 
that Alexander Dobbins who afterwards served with Colonel 
Osborne and others on the Committee of Safety and in the 
State militia forces of Rowan county during the Revolution, 
when most of the inhabitants of that section were pretty 
effectually weaned from the "King's colours." 

Leaving the Rowan regiment at Salisbur^"^, Governor Tryon 
moved forw^ard to the home of Major Martin Phifer, where 
he held a consultation with Colonel Harris and other officers 
of the Mecklenburg regiment. He then arranged with them 
for a meeting to be held later at the house of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Moses Alexander. 

It is not necessary to weary the reader with a detailed 
account of the march of the Mecklenburg and Rowan regi- 
ments back to Hillsborough. They arrived there on the 19th 
of September. Two days later they were joined by the 
Orange and Granville regiments, the former commanded by 
Colonel Edmund Fanning, and the latter by one of the Colo- 
nel Robert Harrises heretofore mentioned. 

In the matter of commissioned officers, it is doubtful if so 
remarkable a military make-up as Tryon's army ever existed. 
In numbers the whole body of troops would not exceed a 
colonel's command in the present regular army of the United 
States^ and yet John Rutherford, Lewis Henry DeRosset, 



J 



96 GOVEENOB TEYON 

John Sampson, Benjamin Heron, Samuel Strudwick, and 
Robert Palmer were all made Lieutenant-Generals, while 
Thomas Lloyd and John Ashe became Major-Generals. 

Among the Colonels were: James Moore (artillery), Alex- 
ander Osborne, Edmund Fanning, Robert Harris of Meck- 
lenburg, Robert Harris of Granville, James Sampson, Samuel 
Spencer, and Maurice Moore. 

Lieutenant-Colonels: Robert Schaw (artillery), John Fro- 
hock, Alexander Lillington, John Gray, and Samuel Benton. 

Majors: Abner Nash, Robert Howe, William Bullock, 
Martin Phifer, John Hinton* and Walter Lindsay. 

Aids-de-camp: Isaac Edwards and Jolrn Abraham Collet. 

Quartermasters: Lewis Coffer for Rowan regiment and 
William Bedford for Mecklenburg regiment. 

Commissaries: Thomas Hart for Orange and Granville 
regiments, Hugh Montgomery for Rowan regiment, and 
Moses Alexander for Mecklenburg regiment. 

Captain of Artillery: Samuel Swann, junior. 

Surgeon-General: Anthony Newman. 

Surgeon for Mecklenburg regiment: Dominicus Hawk. 

Besides these there were many other oflScers, the records of 
whose services are unfortimately lost 

Seeing the Superior Court hedged about by the pro- 
vincial troops, the Regulators made no attempt to interrupt 
its proceedings when it convened in September, first at Salis- 
bury and then at Hillsborough. Of the tribunal just men- 
tioned Martin Howard was Chief Justice, while Maurice 
Moore and Richard Henderson were Associate Justices. 

* Major (afterwards Colonel) Hinton then ccnnmanded Johnston county troops. When 
Wake was cut off frcun Johnstcm he lived in Wake. For an interestinflr account of his 
life, by Miss Mary Hilliard mnton. see South Atlantic Quarterly (Durham, N. C), Vol 
I. p. 182. April 1902. 




OF NORTH CAROLINA. 97 

During the i)rogress of the court at Hillsborough, William 
Butler, Samuel Devinney, and John Philip Hartzo were con- 
victed of rioting and attempts to rescue distrained property 
from the Sheriff. Upon Uie first named defendant was im- 
posed a fine of fifty pounds and a sentence to six months' im- 
prisonment, and the otiier two were each fined twcjity-five 
pounds and given a three months' sentence. But, as at that 
time the trouble seemed to be ended, the Governor by a pardon 
caused their release from prison and suspended the payment 
of the fines for six months. A full general pardon was after- 
wards proclaimed, and thus the fines were remitted. Con- 
cerning these prosecutions, Governor Tryon, in one of his 
letters, obser\^es: "To say tliat these insurgents had not a 
colour for their shewing a dissatisfaction at the conduct of 
tlieir public officers would be doing them an injustice; for, 
on a pi-osecution at the Superior Court, carried on by the 
Attorney-General in the virtue of my directions, both the 
Register and Clerk of tlie county were foimd guilty of taking 
too high fees. It manifestly appearing that Colonel Fan- 
ning, the Register, had acted with the utmost candour to the 
people, and that his conduct proceeded from a misconstruction 
of the fee-bill, he was in court honorably acquitted of the 
least intentional abuse in oflice. Colonel Fanning, however, 
immediately after the above verdict, resigned up to me his 
commission as Register."* 

Quite a nimiber of R^ulators were indicted at the above 
court, though only Butler, Devinney and Hartzo were tried. 
The otlier cases were continued. 

The insurgents having all submitted or dispersed, Tryon 

•Colonial Recorda of N. C, Vol. VH, ppu 8S4-S85. 



98 GOVERNOR TRYON 

naturally thought that i-esistance was at an end and disbanded 
his troops on the 2d of October ; but, as will be seen in the 
next chapter, the real trouble was just beginning. 

In his farewell order the Governor said : "His Excellency 
returns botli the officers and men of the army his grateful 
and unfeigned thanks for the patient and persevering con- 
duct with which they have supported the government, their 
own honour, and the credit of the administration, as by their 
spirited behaviour they have greatly contributed to the dis- 
persing of the rioters and in bringing them to a submission 
to government and a sense of their error. These measures 
being happily effected, it is His Excellency's pleasure that 
Colonel Osborne carry a proclamation of pardon, with a few 
exceptions, for the insurgents, which Colonel Osborne will 
read at the head of the brigade at Salisbury, and afterwards 
affix it up at the court-house door." 

Colonel Alexander Osborne, whose military services have 
been frequently referred to in this chapter, came to North 
Carolina about 1755 from New Jersey, where he was bom 
in 1709. He died July 11, 1776, at the beginning of the 
War for Independence ; and, in him, the cause of the colonies 
lost an able supporter, whose services to the Whig govern- 
ment had already been of value.* The family to which he 
belonged is said to be descended from the Dukes of Leeds, 
whose surname is Osborne, f Colonel Alexander Osborne was 
the father of Colonel Adlai Osborne, a useful Revolutionary 
patriot, and from him also springs the Osborne family (now 
chiefly resident in Mecklenburg county) which has so promi- 

* Sketches of Western North Carolina, by C. L. Hunter, p. 186. 
t See Memoir of General Joseph Gardner Swift, p. 98. 



OF NOETII CAEOLINA. 99 

neiitly figured in the legal, political and military annals of 
Xortli Carolina. 

As much will be said of the colonial judiciary later on in 
this work, a few words concerning the pcrsonnd of the Court 
may not be out of place. Of the Chief Justice, Martin How- 
ard, mention has already been made, which renders it unneces- 
sarj' to speak of him further. The Associate Justices were 
Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, who received tlieir 
appointments at the same time, March 1, 17G8.* 

Judge Moore had also filled the above position once before, 
but was turned out of oflSce on account of his resistance to the 
Stamp Act, Of him, at the time of his second appointment, 
Tryon says: "This gentleman I suspended during the late 
distractions in the colonies. His proper conduct and be- 
haviour since that period, and the British Act of Grace sub- 
sequent to thoirc troubles, induced me, with the approbation 
of the Council, to reinstate Mr. Moore in office." Some his- 
torians declare that Moore sympathized with the Regulation 
movement; but, when this rumor was afloat during his life- 
time, he said: "I have been calumniated before now, but 
never so capitally as in this case." And, in a military capac- 
ity, he marched against them. The Moore family, of which 
he was a memlxjr, had been prominent in the Cape Fear 
country since the days of Governor Burrington ; and, prior to 
that time, was of great power in South Carolina, w^here sev- 
eral of the name had filled the oflSce of Governor. As at the 
time of tlie Stamp Act, so in the days of the Revolution, Mau- 
rice Moore's great influence went wHith the colonies, and there 



« Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. VII. pp. 691. 697. 



100 OOVEENOK TEYON 

is further abundant reason for believing that he ever had the 
good of North Carolina at heart But that strong prejudices 
were among other strong points in his make-up we are also 
convinced, for the famous "Atticus" letter, in view of his 
own connection with a few of the matters treated therein, 
speaks more for his ability as a writer than for his consist- 
ency. He was a member of the North Carolina Provincial 
Congress at Halifax, in November, 1776, and died on the 
15th of January, 1777.* One of his sons was Associate 
Justice Alfred Moore of the United States Supreme Court. 
Judge Richard Henderson was one of those striking figures 
in our colonial history, in whose character the attributes of 
pioneer and statesman were jointly predominant. He is 
now chiefly remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to set up 
a new commonwealth in the present beautiful region whicli 
was then, in fact, a "dark and bloody ground." He was born 
in Hanover coimty, Virginia, on the 20th of April, 1735 ; and, 
when a boy, not over ten years old, was brought by his father 
to Granville county. North Carolina. His first legal service, 
of a public nature, was as King's Deputy Attorney. When 
later appointed Judge, in 1768, he is referred to by Governor 
Tryon as "a gentleman of candour and ability, bom in Vir- 
ginia, and about thirty-three years of age." In addition to 
his civil positions, he also held, prior to the Revolution, a 
commission as colonel of militia under the Crown. When the 
War for Independence came on he cast his lot with the Ameri- 
can cause. On September 25, 1775, he was elected President 
of the whilom "Colony of Transylvania" — (a part of the pres- 

* Colonial RecordB of N. C.» Vol. X, p. 918: see alao, address by Junius Davis in N. C. 
Supreme Court Reports, VoL 124. p. 884. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 101 

out States of Kentucky and Tennessee) — ^whicli .colony aided 
in sustaining the measures of the Continental Congress; in 
1778 and again in 1782 ho was a member of the North Caro- 
lina Council of State ; on August 14, 1778, he was elected a 
Judge of the Superior Courts of Xorth Carolina, but declined 
the office ; was one of the commissioners appointed to settle the 
boundary between Virginia and North Carolina in 1779 ; rep- 
resented Granville county in the House of Commons at the ses- 
sion of 1781, and perhaps serv^ed the State in other capacities.* 
He died January 30, 1785. Among his children were Chief 
Justice Leonard Henderson and the eminent attorney, Archi- 
bald Henderson, whom Judge Murphey describes as "the 
most perfect model of a la^v}'er that the bar of North Caro- 
lina has produced." Many talented representatives of this 
family now living have also added honors to the name. Of 
Judge Richard Henderson's experiences with the Regulators 
later mention will be made. 

During the encampment of the colonial troops at Hills- 
borough (September 25, 1768) they were addressed in a ser- 
mon by the Reverend Oeorge Micklejohn, S. T. D., who dis- 
coursed on the duty of submission to tlie established powers.f 
A few years later the parson still held to these principles, and 
retained his loyalty during the war with Great Britain — "a 
High Churchman in religion and a High Tory in politics," 



* Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. X, pp. 266. et 9§q., 878. et Mq„ 882, ot aeq.; State Records 
of N. C. VoL Xn, pp. 786, 861; ftid.. VoL XFV. p. 858. et aeq.; n)id.. Vol. XVI. p. 95; Ram- 
sey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 117-119: Ch. XVI of the Public Laws of N. C for 1779; 
article on Henderson family in Wake Forest Student for 1899. p. 1. by Dr. T. B. Kinsrs- 
bury. For account of the government of Tranaylyania colony, see Kentucky publication 
by Georse W. Ranck, entiUed "Boonesboro^" issued by Filson Club. 

tThis sermon was afterwards printed by order of the Assembly. For title, etc.. see 
North Carolina University Hagazine. Auffust. 1865, pp. 250-261. noU. 



102 GOVEENOR TKYON 

one writer has called him. After the war he removed to 
Virginia. When he died he was more than a hundred years 
old. Bishop Meade, in his work on Old Churches and Fami- 
lies of Virginisij* states that Parson Micklejohn had taught 
school prior to the Revolution ; and, after the close of hostili- 
ties, was solicited hy some gentlemen to resume his occupa- 
tion, hut he refused, saying that he would have nothing to do 
with their little American democrats, for it was hard enough 
to manage them before the Revolution, and now it would be 
impossible. 

On Sunday, the 12th of May, 1771, during Tryon's second 
campaign against the Regulators, his troops were favored 
with a sermon which even exceeded that of Parson Micklejohn 
in war-like spirit. f This was delivered by the Reverend 
James Macartney, who chose as his text a selection from the 
thirty-sixth verse of the twenty-second chapter of St. Luke, 
^^He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy 



one.'* 



Besides other information contained in the biography by 
Caruthers we are also indebted to that author for some poeti- 
cal effusions of tlie period embracing the War of the Regula- 
tion. These are from the pen of Rednap Howell, who is 
called the Poet Laureate of the Regulators, and are mostly 
directed at Edmund Fanning, who — though a college-bred 
man and the son of wealthy parents — is represented as a weary 
pauper when first wending his way into North Carolina : 



* Old Chnrches and Families of Vixsinia, VoL I. p. 488. 
tStata Records of N. a, VoL XIX. p. 840. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 103 



"When Fanning first to Orange came, 
lie looked both pale and wan; 
An old patched coat was on his back, 
An old mare he rode on. 



"Both man and marc wan't worth five pounds, 
As I've been often told; 
But, by his civil robberies. 

He's laced his coat with gold." 

Two more verses represent a dialogue between the partnei*s 
in iniquity, and run as follows : 



ttc; 



Says Frohock to Fanning: To tell the plain truth, 
When I came to this countrj' I was but a youth ; 
My father sent for me: I wan't worth a cross, 
And then my first study was stealing a horse; 
1 quickly got credit, and then ran away. 
And haven't paid for him to this very day.' 

"Says Fanning to Frohock: *'Tis folly to lie, 
I rode an old mare that was blind of an eye; 
Five shillings in money I had in my purse, 
My coat it was patched, but not much the worse; 
But now we've got rich, and it's very well known 
That we'll do very well if they'll let us alone.' " 

Howell was a school-teacher by profession and a brother 
of Governor Richard Howell of New Jersey. A grand- 
daughter of Governor Howell married Jefferson Davis. Eed- 
nap Howell was never pardoned for his participation in the 
Insurrection of tlie Regulators — his name being 8i:)ecifically 
excepted from all "acts of grace" — and what Ix^came of him 
is not known. When last heard of he was in Virginia. 



104 GOVERNOR TRYON 



CHAPTER VII. 

FURTHER VIOLENCE OF THE REGULATORS— OUTRAGES CON- 
TINUE AT HILLSBOROUGH— HOUSE-BURNING IN GRANVILLE 
COUNTY— HUSBAND EXPELLED FROM ASSEMBLY AND IM- 
PRISONED—LEGISLATIVE MEASURES AGAINST THE INSUR- 
GENTS— TRYON'S SECOND MILITARY CAMPAIGN— PATRI- 
OTIC NORTH CAROLINIANS IN HIS ARMY— PARTIAL LIST OF 
OFFICERS— GENERAL WADDELL'S FORCE INTERCEPTED— 
INSURGENTS ROUTED AT BATTLE OF ALAMANCE— SOME OF 
THE KILLED AND WOUNDED— FLIGHT OF HUSBAND BE- 
FORE THE BATTLE BEGINS. 

As heretofore observed, Tryon issued a pardon to all con- 
cerned in the disturbances of 1768 and times previous thereto, 
with a few exceptions, and ordered his proclamation to be 
made public by Colonel Osborne. At a later period, Sep- 
tember 9, 1769, another proclamation of pardon was issued, 
which included each and every offender, with no exceptions 
whatever.* This rendered things more quiet for some 
months, but the real trouble was yet to begin. 

On September 24, 1770, while Judge Eichard Henderson 
was holding court at Hillsborough, the Kegulators (including 
Hermon Husband, Robinson York, William Butler, Rednap 
Howell, Jeremiah Field, James Hunter, Samuel Devinney, 
and others) broke into the court-room, attempted to strike 
him while on the bench, and beat John Williams, afterwards 
a highly respected Judga William Hooper, one of the 
greatest and best men of whom the annals of North Caro- 
lina can boast, they "dragged and paraded through the streets, 

* Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vm, p. 67. 



OF NOKTH CAROLINA. 105 

and treat>ed with every mark of contempt and insult" James 
Iredell (afterwards a Justice of the United States Supreme 
Court) was another lawyer attending this session of Orange 
Court, but the "parcel of banditti," as he called the RegrJa- 
tors, failed to get their clutches on him, as he had gone to 
visit a friend in the country. Edmund Fanning, whom the 
Regulators considered tlie chief autlior of their troubles, 
was dragged by his heels out of the court-room over rough 
cobblestones, suffered a severe injury to one of his eyes, and 
would probably have been murdered had he not broken loose 
from the mob and taken refuge in a near-by house. The 
Regulators next turned their attention to Tanning's residence, 
which was torn to pieces by them, after which they whipped 
Alexander Martin (at a later time Gk)vemor), Captain Mi- 
chael Holt, Captain Thomas Hart, and other prominent citi- 
zens — ^while Francis Nash (afterwards a Brigadier-General in 
the Continental Army and mortally wounded at Germantown), 
Tyree Harris, High Sheriff of Orange, and many others had 
to take to the w^oods in order to escape like treatment. Later 
the rioters swarmed through the streets of Hillsborough and 
amused themselves by breaking the windows of residences. 
Finding himself powerless to enforce authority. Judge Hen- 
derson ordered an adjournment of court and fled by night 
from the town. Next day the Regulators again came into 
tlie court-house; and, after setting up a mock judge, got posr 
session of the docket, in which they made many entries, teem- 
ing w^th billingsgate and profanity. One contemporaneous 
newspaper account says they even took do^vn the decomposed 
corpse of a negro who had been hanged in chains and placed 
it in the seat \vhich Henderson had vacated. A few months 



106 GOVERNOR TRYON 

later the dwelling and out-houses of Judge Henderson, in 
Granville county, were destroyed by the torch of incendiaries 
who belonged to the Regulating element.* 

As Chief Justice Howard was not in the colony when the 
outrages at Hillsborough occurred (September, 1770), f he 
could not have been "driven from the bench," as stated in 
the Defence of North Carolina, by Jo. Seawell Jones. The 
same work says: "The rioters respected the character of 
Judge Moore." If calling this distinguished personage a 
rascal, rogue, villain, and a scoundrel, and threatening to 
flog or kill him if he came to hold court at Salisbury,:|: was 
the way in which these worthies showed their "respect," then 
Judge Moore did hold their respect to a most remarkable de- 
gree I But, seriously speaking, it would seem that the Regu- 
lators were really far less bitter against Chief Justice Howard 
than they were against Associate Justices Moore and Hen- 
derson ; for, when informed that, owing to the riots, no court 
would be held at Salisbury, "they said there would have been 
no danger for the Chief Justice to have held a court ; but, as 
to the Associate Justices, they were silent."§ 

The old Assembly having been dissolved by Governor 
Tryon, a new one met in accordance with his summons at 
New Bern on the 23d of October, 1770.f In this body, as 



*Coloiual Records of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 28&-260, 262; see alao. quotation from New 
York GaseUe in Annual R0guUr (London) for 1770, p. 281; Life and CorreBpondcnoe of 
James IxedeU. VoL I, pp. 89. 879. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm. p. 248. 

IColonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm, pp. 619-S20. 

fiColonial Records of N. C, VoL Vm, p. 534. 

f In the beginning of House Journal 1769 is erroneously girea as year of meeting ; but 
in the general proceedinsrs the date is ffiyen 1770. as it should be. See Colonial Records 
of N. C. VoL vm. p. 808. et mq. 



OF NORTH CABOLINA. 107 

one of the representatives from Orange county, appeared 
Hermon Husband, a chief of tlie Regulators. During the 
progress of the session, on the 20th of December,* Mr. Hus- 
band was brought before the House (sitting as a CJommittee 
of the Wliole, with Colonel John Campbell of Bertie as chair- 
man), charged with simdry misdemeanors, and expelled in 
accordance with the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That it appears to this committee that Herman Husband, a 
member of the committee, is one of the people who denominate them- 
selves Regulators, and that he hath been a principal mover and promoter 
of the late riots and seditions in the county of Orange, and other parts 
of the province. 

Resolved, That it appears to this committee that a letter published in 
the North Carolina Oazetie of the 14th of December, directed to the 
Honorable Maurice Moore, Esquire, at New Bern, and signed by James 
Hunter, is a false, seditious, and malicious libel. 

Resolved, That it appears to this committee that the above named Her- 
man Husband was the publisher of the said libel. 

Resolved, That it appears to this committee that the said Herman 
Husband was guilty of gross prevarication and falsehood in his examina- 
tion before the committee of propositions and grievances relative to the 
said libel. 

Resolved, That it appears to this committee that the said Herman Hus- 
band hath insinuated in conversation that in case he should be confined, 
by order of the House, he expected down a number of people to release 
him. 

Resolved, That it is opinion of this committee that such an insinua- 
tion is a daring insult offered to this House, and tending to intimidate 
the members from a due discharge of their duty. 

After passing the above, further proceedings were had, as 
follows : 



'Colonial Records of N. C. Vol Vm. pp. 880-831. 



108 GOVERNOR TRYON 

Resolved, That the conduct of the said Herman Husband, both as a 
member of this House in particular, and of the community in general, 
has justly incurred the contempt of this House and rendered him un- 
worthy of a seat in the Assembly. 

Resolved, That the said Herman Husband be immediately expelled 
from this House. 

Ordered, That the said Herman Husband appear at the Bar of the 
House, and that Mr. Speaker pronounce the said sentence — 

Whereupon, the said Herman Husband appeared at the Bar of the 
House, and Mr. Speaker pronounced the said sentence accordingly. 

After his expulsion from the Assembly, Mr. Husband pre- 
pared to return to his followers, when the Council advised 
Tryon that if this were allowed it might further endanger 
the peace of the province. Thereupon a bench-warrant was 
issued by Chief Justice Howard for the apprehension of Hus- 
band, and he was accordingly committed to the jail in New 
Bern.* As no evidence was tlien accessible to establish the 
charge of rioting, the prisoner was charged in the warrant 
with the libel on Maurice Moore. 

As may be supposed, the Regulators were highly incensed 
at the arrest of their representative, and at once gave open 
threats that they would go down in a body and forcibly effect 
his release. This caused some concern for the safety of New 
Bern, and troops were ordered to be in readiness to repel the 
anticipated attack. That a movement on New Bern was 
meditated, there is little doubt. Emissaries were dispatched 
by the Kegulators to different parts of the province to stir 
up further discontent and raise re-inforoements. Nor was 
the government idle; for there was a chain of well affected 
counties through which the insurgents must pass. In these 



*Cokmial Records of N. C. VoL VHI. pp. 494. 646, et mq. 



OF NOBTH CAROLINA. 109 

Colonel John Hinton of Wake, Colonel Needham Bryan of 
Jolinston, Colonel Richard Caswell of Dobbs, and possibly 
other officers, were all prepared with their regiments to inter- 
cept the march of the Regulators.* But, on February 8, 
1771, while preparations on both sides were progressing. 
Husband was released from jail, the grand jury having 
failed to find a true bilL The proposed movement on New 
Bern was thereupon abandoned. But the discontented ele- 
ment in Orange county grew no more orderly. Proclamation 
after proclamation was issued by the Grovemor — having about 
as much effect as sermons would have on mud-turtles, and 
matters went from bad to worse each day. First had come 
a letter from Judge Moore, saying that the designs of the 
insurgents went further than to promote inquiry into the con- 
duct of civil oflScers, and that no legal process of any kind 
could be served among them.f Then the complaint from 
Judge Henderson was received, telling of the indignities 
offered him at Hillsborough, and soon followed the news that 
he had been burned out of house and home. In February, 
1771, a court having been ordered to sit at Hillsborough,:|: 
the foUoAving remonstrance from the Chief Justice and his 
associates was laid before the Governor : 

Sir, 

Your Excellency having signified to us your opinion that it is expe- 
dient that the Chief Justice, Associate Justices, and Attorney-General 
should attend the ensuing Superior Court at Hillsborough, we do ac- 
quaint Your Excellency that we have conferred together upon the subject, 
and, considering the violences committed there at the last Court, and be- 
ing well informed that the disturbances and the distractions in that dis- 



'Colonial Records of N. C VoL VHI. pp. 600-501. 
tColonial Records of N. C VoL Vm. p. 192. 
IColonial Records of N. a. VoL Vm. p. 688. 



110 GOVEEXOR TRYON 

trict are rather increasing than declining, we submit it to Your Ex- 
cellency as our opinion that we cannot attend that Court with any hopes 
of transacting the business of it; or, indeed, with any prospect of per- 
sonal safety to ourselves. 

M. HOWARD, C. J., 

M. MOORE, 

R. HENDERSON. 
March 18th, 1771, New Bern. 

Of the continued excesses indulged in by the Eegulators, 
Williamson, in his History of North Carolina* says : "Their 
demands and their violence increased at every meeting. 
Their success produced no reformation. They broke and 
trampled under foot all the bonds of civilized society, and 
gave reins to every disordered passion; for vice itself, by 
repeated acts of violence, had changed its name and color. 
They prevented the Superior Court from sitting in Hills- 
borough, insulted the Judges, and maltreated the inhabitants. 
Not satisfied with abusing Judge Henderson at court, they 
burnt his stables and com on the twelfth of November, and 
they burnt his dwelling-house on the fourteenth. It was no 
longer a question whether clerks, registers or lawyers should 
be permitted to receive more than legal fees, and sheriffs be 
compelled to account for all the taxes they had collected. It 
was now to be determined whether civil government should 
prevail, or every man's property be exposed, without redress, 
to the avarice or resentment of a lawless mob." 

Affairs had finally reached that point where it would have 
been not only unjustifiable, but criminal, in Qx>vemor Tryon 
longer to submit to the prevailing anarchy, and this he now 
realized. Under similar circumstances at the present time 

* History of North Carolinm, VoL U, p. 188. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. Ill 

no mob would be allowed to indulge in such excesses for half 
so long a period. In a message to the Council and Assembly, 
on the 5th of December, 1770, Tryon set forth at some length 
the distracted state of affairs and asked that provision be 
made for raising and arming a sufficient body of troops with 
which to march into the country of the insurgents and 
put an end to their lawlessness. The Council pledged its 
co-operation; and the lower house, if anything, seemed 
even more anxious to adopt measures for the suppression 
of the disturbances.* The latter (sitting as a Committee 
of the Whole, with Colonel William Haywood of Edge- 
combe as chairman) took the Governor's speech into con- 
sideration and reported its conclusions; thereupon, another 
conmnittee was appointed to draw up a reply. The latter 
committee (composed of Maurice Moore, chairman, Joseph 
Hewes, Eobert Howe, Edmund Fanning, Samuel Johnston, 
Abner Nash, and Cornelius Harnett), on December 10th, sub- 
mitted its report, which was duly adopted. Therein it was 
said : "The late daring and insolent attack made on the Supe- 
rior Court at Hillsborough, by the people who call themselves 
Regulators, we hold in the utmost detestation and abhorrence. 
The deliberate and preconceived malice with which it was 
contrived, and the brutal fury with which it was executed, 
equally bespeak them unawed by the laws of tlieir country, 
insensible to every moral duty, and wickedly disaffected to 
government itself. The dissolute principles and licentious 
spirit by which these people are actuated and stand united, 
render them too formidable for the ordinary process of law. 
Sensible of this, sir, we owe it to our sovereign, our constitu- 

• Colonial RecoidB of N. C. Vol Vm. pp. 284. 289. 806. 812. 




112 GOVEKNOR TRYON 

ents, and ourselves, to adopt measures at once spirited and 
decisive." And such measures (contained in a bill introduced 
by Samuel Johnston of Chowan, afterwards Governor) were 
adopted about a month later, on Janury 16, 1771.* It is 
doubtful if so drastic a measure as this ever passed an Ameri- 
can Assembly. Among other things, it provided that if any 
persons, to the number of ten or more, should unlawfully, riot- 
ously, and tumultuously assemble together after the first day 
of the succeeding February, and should refuse to disperse on 
the command of one or more magistrates or of the Sheriff, the 
offenders should, on due conviction by a jury, be adjudged 
felons and suffer death without benefit of the clergy ; that it 
should be the duty of any sheriff to summon a posse to seize 
the persons of rioters so assembled, and, if any rioter should 
be killed in resisting arrest, the person killing him should 
not be held answerable to the law for such act ; that if, when 
the courts should convene after the first day of the following 
March, any person or persons should assault^ beat, wound, 
or openly threaten the Judge or other officers of the Court, 
hinder sheriffs in the discharge of their duties, bum or other- 
wise destroy any church, chapel, court-house, prison, dwell- 
ing, or out-house, such person or persons, and their aiders 
and abettors, if duly convicted before a jury, should be ad- 
judged felons and suffer death without benefit of the clergy ; 
that if any person should be presented by a grand jury for 
the crimes above specified and should evade arrest, procla- 
mation of outlawry should issue against him, and any party 
thereafter slaying him should not be held accountable for the 



*Co]onSal Records of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 819. 481. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 113 

deed; that the Governor and Commander-in-Chief should 
have power to make drafts on the militia if a military expe- 
dition should be found necessary, and that the cost of such 
expedition should be paid out of the public treasury ; that if 
a body of men should gather together in arms for the purpose 
of resisting the military forces thus ordered out, and should 
fail to lay down their arms and surrender when so com- 
manded, such men should be deemed traitors and dealt with 
under the law against treason ; that any judge in the province 
should have power to issue warrants against any of the classes 
of offenders mentioned above, although such offenders might 
reside in districts other than the one wherein he was holding 
court ; that the Justices of every Inferior Court and the min- 
ister of each parish in the province should cause this act to 
be publicly read before the people on the second day of each 
court, or at least once every three months, during the continu- 
ance of this act; and that the act should continue in force 
for the space of one year, and no longer. 

The above act (Chapter I of the Laws of 1770) is some- 
times known as the Johnston Act, after its author, and some- 
times as the Riot Act. When it was sent to England to be 
passed upon by the authorities there, even in that country — a 
land where the remains of quartered Jacobites had recently 
been exhibited like so much meat on a spit-rack — even there, 
parts of this law were declared "irreconcilable with the prin- 
ciples of the constitution, full of danger in its operation, and 
unfit for any part of the British Empire."* Permission, 
however, was given the Carolina Assembly to continue in 
force such sections of the act as were not considered too severe. 



• Colonial Records of N. a. Vol Vm, p. 616: n»id., VoL IZ. i». 2». 



114: GOVERNOR TRYON 

The Regulators, no doubt believing themselves secure by 
reason of their numbers, were not at all frightened by the 
Johnston Act, though its passage, as might be supposed, did 
not put them in a very amiable frame of mind. Of their 
sentiments on the subject we have some knowledge from a 
deposition made in 1771 by Waightstill Avery.* It seems 
that, in the year mentioned, this gentleman was captured at 
a ferry by the insurgents; and, when an inn was reached, 
one of their number advised him to "call for a bowl of toddy 
and treat the captains, for they were going to ride on to the 
Regulating Camp.'' The toddy being forthcoming at Mr. 
Avery's expense, he was simply detained, not being mal- 
treated ; but, while in the camp, he had an opportunity to get 
the sentiments of the insurgents. One of their number, 
Thomas Hamilton, stood in the midst of the crowd and deliv- 
ered himself as follows : "What business has Maurice Moore 
to be a Judge? He is no Judge; he was not appointed by 
the King — he nor Henderson neither. They'll neither of 
them hold court The Assembly have gone and made a Riot- 
ous Act, and the people are more enraged than ever. It was 
the best thing which could be done for the country, for now 
we shall be forced to kill all the clerks and lawyers, and we 
will kill them; and I'll be damned if they are not put to 
death. If they had not made that act we might have suf- 
fered some of them to live. A Riotous Act! There never 
was any such act in the laws of England, or any other coun- 
try but France; they brought it from France, and they'll 
bring the Inquisition next." 

On March 11, 1771, the grand jury for the district of New 

'Colonial Records of N. C, VoL Vm. p. 618, et a«Q. 



OF NOETH CAROLINA. 115 

Bern returned sixty-two bills against different Regulators.* 
Among those indicted were Hennon Husband, James Hunter, 
James Few, Jeremiah Field, Robinson York, John Pugh, 
William Butler, Samuel Devinney, Rednap Howell, Ninian 
Hamilton, Ninian Beall Hamilton, and John Fruit. 

On the 18 th of March, Governor Try on began active prep- 
arations for the forcible reduction of the Regulators. First 
he submitted his proposition to the Council ;f and, in the 
record of this matter, the Journal says: "The board taking 
the same into their serious consideration, it is their unani- 
mous opinion that the most effectual measures to reduce the 
people calling themselves Regulators be pursued by raising 
a body of sufficient forces from the militia, and marching 
against them with all expedition." 

Both the Cbuncil and Grand Jury, upon Tryon's offer to 
command the colonial forces in person, were favorable to the 
plan, and he sent out a circular letter on the day following 
(March 19th), calling upon the colonels of militia for detach- 
ments from their regiments. He also forwarded a request 
to General Gage, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces 
in America, for two field-pieces with which to cover any fords 
which the Regulators might fortify. Some artillery (swivel- 
guns) the Governor already had. Going in person to Wil- 
mington, Tryon there made plans for raising the troops of 
that section, and promoted Colonel Hugh Waddell to the rank 
of general. Expresses to President Nelson, acting Governor 
of Virginia, and Governor Bull of South Carolina, were 
also sent, requesting that they take precautions to the end that 

* Colonial Recoids of N. C, VoL Vm. pp. 581-682. 
tCokmUU Records of N. C. VoL Vm, p. 688. 



116 GOVERNOR TRYON 

none of the insurgents should be suffered to seek shelter by 
crossing the borders into those colonies.* 

The plan agreed upon was that General Waddell should 
proceed to raise the forces of the western counties, and form 
a rendezvous at Salisbury; while Tryon, with the eastern 
troops, should close in from the opposite direction. Salis- 
bury had recently been occupied by a force of Eegulators; 
but the officer there in command of the colonial forces, Major 
Dobbins (who had been promoted from captain since Tryon's 
first expedition), succeeded in preserving the peace, with the 
aid of a detachment from Mecklenburg, marched down in 
great haste under Colonel Moses Alexander and Captain 
Thomas Polk.f Acting under Major Dobbins on this occa- 
sion was Captain Griffith Rutherford, who afterwards served 
the colonies as a brigadier-general during the Eevolution. 
Another captain in this force was Gteorge Henry Berger, who 
also became a useful Eevolutionary patriot in later years. 

On the 23d of April, Tryon began his march from New 
Bern; and, nine days later, arrived at Hunter's Lodge, in 
Wake coimty, which was appointed as the place of rendezvous 
for the eastern troops. Here the forces of the vicinity, under 
Colonel John Hinton, awaited him, together with some addi- 
tional detachments from other counties. 

If it is allowable for history to draw on fiction, in the 
course of a narrative, it will be a pleasure for us here to pause 
and recall the account of a North Carolina novelist, who tells 
of the progress of his hero who marched from New Bern 
under the Governor's banner : 



•Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 640-642, 647-648. 
t Colonial Records of N. a. VoL Vm. pp. 686. 648. 



OF NOETH CAROLINA. 117 

^Tor days and nights, and nights and days, did they march 
and encamp, decamp and march again, over roads and through 
forests, by river and by brook ; and, as they marched, others 
came to swell their ranks. Sometimes the army, emerging 
from a dense wood, came face to face with a motley com- 
pany of volunteers cheering and waving their caps. Again, 
some quick-eyed woodsman would see afar the glimmer of 
arms and the cloud of dust that overhung some detachment 
approaching in the distance. Thus came the re-inforcements 
from the counties Craven and Carteret, from Dobbs and from 
New Hanover, from Johnston and from Onslow and from 
Wake; and the cheers were loud and long when Bullock 
dashed among them with his company of light-horse, when 
Neale swung into line with his band of sturdy riflemen, and 
when Moore toiled into the column with his little battery of 
artillery."* 

Though the list cannot be fully given, it will doubtless be 1 ^-« 
of interest to record the names and ranks, so far as can be 
learned, of the officers serving immediately under Tryon in 
his Alamance campaign, f Of the force under General Wad- 
dell mention will presently be made. The officers, so far as 
known, in the Governor's little army were: Lewis Henry 
DeRosset, Adjutant-General ; Robert Campbell, Assistant 
Adjutant-GenerAl ; Robert Howe, Quartermaster-General ; 
Alexander Lillington, Assistant Quartermaster-General ; 
John Rutherford, Judge-Advocate-General; Thomas Clark, 
Provost-Marshal-General ; Reverend James Macartney, Chap- 



* From " Wallannah: A Cokmial Romanoe/' by Will Loftin Harsrrave. 
t Compiled chiedy from Tryon's JoumaK Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VmL PP. 674- 
600, eSMTI; State Reoorda of N. C. VoL XIX. pp. SSer^U, 



118 GOVERNOR TRYON 

lain; and James Moore of New Hanover, CJolonel of Artil- 
lery. The colonels commanding county detachments were: 
John Ashe of Brunswick, Richard Oaswell of Dobbe, 
Joseph Leech of Craven, William Cray of Onslow, William 
Thompson of Carteret, Edmund Fanning of Orange, Need- 
ham Bryan of Johnston, and John Hinton of Wake. Among 
officers of lesser rank were: Lieutenant-Colonels Richard 
Cogdell and Abner Nash; Majors Francis Mackilwean and 
Richard Clinton; C-aptains Christopher Neale (Craven Ran- 
gers), Philemon Hawkins (Bute Light-Horse), John Patten 
(Beaufort), William Bullock (Governor's Body-guard of 
"Grentlemen Volunteer Light-Horse"), Robert Salter (of 
Pitt), John Walker (New Hanover Artillery), James Moore 
(of Wake), Simon Bright (of Dobbs), Francis Nash (of 
Orange), Nathaniel Hart (of Orange), Farquard Campbell 
(of Cumberland); Adjutant William Burke; Lieutenant 
John Baptista Ashe ; Ensign Robert Fenner, Ensign William 
Bryan, and Ensign William Peyton. Captain James Moore 
of Wake county should not be confused with Colonel James 
Moore of New Hanover. As Aids-de-Camp to the Governor 
were Captains Philemon Hawkins of the Bute Light-Horse, 
Isaac Edwards, William Palmer, Willie Jones, Thomas Clark 
(also Provost-Marshal-G^neral), and John Malcom. The 
last two were appointed to succeed Edwards a^d Palmer, who 
had resigned. The Surgeons were: Thomas Cobham and 
Thomas Haslin. Doctors Matthewson and Powers were 
Surgeons' Mates. Captains Richard Blackledge and Thomas 
Hart were Commissaries, and Ensign Alexander Gillespie 
commanded the Corps of Pioneers. 

The troops under General Waddell did not join Tryon in 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 119 

time to take part in the battle of Alamance. They were use- 
ful, however, in completing the work of subjugation already 
begun. The forces commanded by Waddell were a detach- 
ment of artillery under Colonel Robert Schaw and county 
detachments, officered as follows: Colonel Robert Harris (of 
Mecklenburg), Colonel Samuel Spencer (of Anson), Colonel 
William Lindsay (of Rowan), and Colonel Thomas Neel 
(of Tryon). Among other officers were Majors Francis 
Ross, Samuel Snead, and William Luckie; and Captains 
Griffith Rutherford and Adam Alexander. Colonel Moses 
Alexander and Captain Thomas Polk acted as Commissaries ; 
the Reverend Mr. Terry was Chaplain, and Doctor Richards 
(transferred from Tryon's command) served as Surgeon.* 

The above lists by no means include all the officers; 
for, as in the 1768 expedition, the number of officers was 
far in excess of the forces they commanded. According 
to Governor Tryon's statement, there were about eleven 
hundred men immediately under him, officers included, 
while the Regulators numbered about two thousand. The 
forces under General Waddell (which were not, however, in 
the battle) did not exceed three hundred. f In one entry in 
his Journal it is said by Tryon that the Wake detachment 
and the Light Infantry did not join the anny before the 20th 
of May. This means that they did not re-join the army till 
May 20tli, after being detailed on a special service. The 
records show that the Wake county troops were in service 
at the time of the battle ;:{: and, in after years, when Richard 



*Thi8 list of officers is compiled chiefly from Waddell's Journal Colonial Records of 
N. C. Vol Vm. pp. 601-608. 
t Colonial Reocmls of N. C, VoL VHI. pp. 607. 610. 677. 
t Colonial Recoids of N. C VoL Vm. p. 684. 



120 GOVERNOR TRYON 

Cafiwell was Governor during the Revolution, he sent a mes- 
sage to the Legislature which contained a complimentary 
reference to CJolonel Hinton of the Wake detachment (a 
noted patriot), whose "bravery and resolution," both at Ala- 
mance and Moore's Creek Bridge, Caswell said he had per- 
sonally witnessed.* The position of the Wake troops in the 
line of battle is also set forth in Martin's History of North 
Carolina. 

During the trouble with the Regulators, Bute county was 
apparently seriously disaffected to the government. When 
Colonel William Johnston ordered a muster of his regi- 
ment, from which to draw the small quota of fifty men, it 
was said that the troops broke ranks and declared for the 
insurgents. Shortly after this, however, a board of oflScers 
(which was appointed to investigate the matter) found that 
Colonel Johnston had not made proper efforts to raise the 
quota. Thereupon he was removed from command and suc- 
ceeded by Colonel Thomas Eaton.f Not desiring that Bute 
should be backward in rendering the service required, one 
of its leading citizens, Philemon. Hawkins, soon raised an 
effective and well armed troop of light-horse, which he 
tendered to the Governor. This offer was accepted, an.d 
the men of Bute rendered valiant service at Alamance, 
their conmiander at one time acting as an aid-de-camp 
to His Excellency. Captain Hawkins and his son, Phile- 
mon Hawkins, junior (the latter a courier on Tryon's staff), 
were later colonels in the Revolution. Colonel Benja- 
min Hawkins, United States Senator from North Carolina, 



* state Records of N. C. Vol XH. p. 707. 

tColonial ReoordB of N. C, VoL Vm. pp. 662, 688. 072. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 121 

and Indian Agent for the Southern States, was another son 
of Tryon's Aid-de-Camp; while William Hawkins, "War 
Governor" of North Carolina during the second conflict with 
Gfreat Britain in 1812, was a son of the younger Philemon. 
When Colonel Philemon Hawkins, junior, died (February 
28, 1833), his obituary stated: "He belonged to a troop of 
cavalry at the battle of Alamance, which was fought on the 
16th of May, 1771, and for the distinction he merited on 
that occasion was presented by the Commander-in-Chief, Gov- 
ernor Try on, with a beautiful rifle." 

We shall now give an account of the battle of Alamance, 
with its accompanying circumstances. When Tryon en- 
camped at Hunter's Lodge,* the seat of Colonel Theophilus 
Hunter, about four miles south of where the city of Raleigh 
now stands, he remained there four days, from the 4th till 
the 8th of May. There was a good deal of difficulty in secur- 
ing the services of the troops from Wake county, many of 
them having to be forcibly drafted into the army, though 
their commander. Colonel Hinton, was untiring in his efforts 
to aid the government f Finding that he could not carry his 
artillery over the Granville Tobacco Path, which went in 
the direction of Hillsborough, Tryon had a way cleared 
through the woods and called it Ramsgate Road. This 
road — with its name corrupted into "Ramcat" — is still in 
use near Raleigh. 

Marching westward from Hunter's Lodge on May 8th, 
Tryon and his army camped in the vicinity of Hillsborough 



* As I onoe stated in my pamphlet biosiaphy of Cokmel Joel Lane, Hunter's Lodge was 
a different plantation from Spring Hill, the seat of Theophilus Hunter, Jr. 
t State Records of N. C, VoL XIX, pp. 888-889. 



122 GOVEBNOR TBYON 

• 

on the next day; and, after some delay, pitched their tents, 
on the 14th, at Great Alamance Camp.* At Hillsborough 
the Governor received an express from General Waddell, 
stating that a supply of ammunition coming to him from 
Charleston, South Carolina, had been intercepted and blown 
up by the Regulators, after which they had assembled in such 
numbers as to cut off his march, and he had been compelled 
to retreat to Salisbury.f The destruction of Waddell's am- 
munition train was effected by some young men styling them- 
selves "Black Boys," their faces being blacked as a disguise. 
They lived in that part of Mecklenburg which is now Cabar- 
rus county. The success of this "gunpowder plot," as it 
was afterwards called, having deprived Tryon of the aid of 
his most trusted ally, he was left in a very critical position 
to face a force which outnumbered him twofold. "Citizen 
against citizen," says Williamson, "the difference was great 
in favor of the Regulators ; but they were called together in 
haste, to risk their lives for a nameless something, that was 
hardly described or understood. The object was painted in 
different shapes and colors, according to the craft or imagina- 
tion of different leaders. The militia, well appointed, were 
commanded by an experienced officer. They resented the 
turbulence of men who had compelled them to leave their 
homes at a critical season of the year and they were contend- 
ing for the security of their possessions." J 

When the opposing forces drew near each other the Regu- 
lators presented another petition to Tryon, requesting a re- 

* Colonial Reoorda of N. C, VoL Vm. pp. 679-582. 

t Williamaon'a Histonr of N. C, VoL H. p. 146; Colonial Reooxda of N. C, VoL Vm. pp. 
fiOa. 610. 622. 
t WOliamaon'a History of N. a. VoL H p. 147. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 123 

dress of grievances. Thereupon one of His Excellency's 
Aids-de-Camp, Captain Malcom, was sent forward with the 
answer that both personally and officially the Governor had 
already used every possible measure to quiet the disturbances 
and now had nothing further to ofter; that he demanded 
immediate submission to the government, a promise to pay 
the taxes they had so long withheld, a peaceful return to 
their homes, and a solemn assurance that they would no 
longer protect persons under indictment from a trial by the 
courts. One hour, he said in conclusion, would be given 
them in which to consider the terms offered ; and, if rejected, 
the consequences which followed would be attributable to 
them alone.* To this proposition came the dignified reply 
that the messenger might go back and tell Billy Tryon they 
defied him, and a fight was all they wanted. Even then the 
Grovemor did not resort to force, but sent a magistrate to 
formally command them to disperse; and, later still, for- 
warded his vltimatum by Captain Hawkins. 

When the above courtesies were being interchanged, both 
armies had been drawn up for action. After treating of the 
day preceding the battle, the historian Martin says, referring 
to Tryon's force: "The army moved the next morning, at 
break of day, without beat of drum, leaving their tents stand- 
ing, and their baggage wagons in the camp; one company, 
from the detachment of Johnston county, with such men as 
were not able to march briskly, remained behind, as a guard 
to the camp, under the orders of Colonel Bryan; the wagon 
horses were kept in their gears, and the whole army was 

*]iartin'8 History of N. C, VoL U, p. 280; Gokmial R«cord8 of N. a. VoL Vm. pp. 640- 
642; State R«oord8 of N. C. VoL XIY, p. 848. 



124 GOVEKNOR TRYON 

dra\vii into a hollow square. At a distance of five miles 
from the camp, the armies being within half a mile from 
each other, three guns were fired, as a signal to form the line 
of battle, which was immediately done. Tlie Governor's men 
were dra^\^l into two hollow lines, at the distance of one hun- 
dred yards from each other ; the detachment of the counties of 
Craven and Beaufort formed the right wing of the front 
line, and those of the counties of Carteret and Orange the 
left, with the artillery in the centre; the detachment of the 
county of New Hanover, and three companies of the county 
of Dobbs, formed the right wing of the second line, and those 
of the counties of Onslow and Johnston, with the rest of that 
of Dobbs, the left; the detachment of the county of Wake, 
with a troop of light-horsemen from that of Duplin, re-in- 
forced the rear-guard ; the rangers covered the flanks on both 
sides, facing to the right; the troop of light-horse, from the 
county of Orange, escorted the Governor; the detachment of 
the counties of Carteret and Onslow were directed, in case 
of an attack on the left wing, to fonn an angle for their re- 
spective lines to cover the left flank."* 

Wliile encamped near Hillsborough, two officers of Tryon's 
anny. Captain John Walker and Lieutenant John Baptista 
Ashe (not Colonel John Ashe, as so many historians state), 
had been captured by tlie Regulators, tied to trees and bru- 
tally beaten.f Word was later brought to Tryon's camp that 
these gentlemen would be exposed to the fire of their own 
friends by b^ing placed in front of the Regulators' line of 
battle. The Governor thereupon sent forward one of his 

• Martin's ffiatory of N. C. VoL U, p. 179. 

t State Records of N. C. VoL XIX. pp. 844-846. 



I . 
• ¦ . II. • 



I ¦: ¦ » j .\ «':¦ . 



¦ r . 



' ¦ • . J. .11* ;i 1 1«'.!« I ' 
M • {•:' ?'.. ij'^i ;¦.¦. en'. :'' 

'i I '•• * I: .\ ¦ ¦¦ • : 

' ¦': : ;t*.i ! < !•: . 



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OF NORTH CAROLINA. 125 

aids to say that several Regulators, who had Wn captured, 
were placed in a position of safety, and he hoped — in view 
of this fact — the same consideration woidd he shown to the 
shove officers. In answer, the proposition was made that 
the seven Regulators should be exchanged for Ashe and 
Walker. These unequal terms Tryon at first refused, but 
some of his officers finally persuaded him to agree, and Haw- 
kins rode over to receive the prisoners. The insurgents, who 
seem to have grown more unreasonable and fool-hardy each 
moment, then sent word that they would comply within an 
hour. ITiis was more tlian Tryon could stand, and the mar- 
vel is that he restrained himself so long. As an ultimatum, 
Captain Hawkins was directed to inform the Regulators that 
the Governor would delay no longer; and, unless they dis- 
persed, they would be fired upon at once. "Fire and be 

d dl" was the reply. Then, says Martin (from whose 

historv' this account is largely dra\vn), the Governor gave the 
word. At first he was not obeyed ; and, rising in his stirrups, 
he called out : "Fire ! Fire on them or on me !" This sent 
forth an opening volley, and the action became general. 

In his official report of the battle, to tlie Earl of Hillsbor- 
ough, King George's Secretary of State, Tryon wrote: "I 
have the happiness to infonn Your Lordship that it has pleased 
God to bless His Majesty's arms in this province with a signal 
victory over the Regulators. The action began before twelve 
o'clock on Thursday, the ICth instant, five miles to the west- 
ward of Great Alamance river, on the road leading from 
Hillsborough to Salisbury. The loss of our army in killed, 
wounded, and missing amounts to about sixty men. We had 
but one officer killed and one dangerously wounded. The 



126 GOVERNOR TKYON 

action lasted two hours; but, after about half an hour, the 
enemy took to tree-fighting and much annoyed the men who 
stood at their guns, which obliged me to cease the artillery 
for a short time and advance the first lines to force the rebels 
from the covering. This succeeded, and we pursued them 
half a mile beyond their camp, and took many of their horses 
and the little provision and ammunition they left behind 
them. This success I hope will lead soon to a perfect restora- 
tion of peace in this country; though, had they succeeded, 
nothing but desolation and ravage would have spread itself 
over the country."* 

Of the killed, wounded, and missing, reported above, only 
nine were killed. The best estimate of the numbers of the 
Regulators arrayed at Alamance is probably that which says 
two thousand, though several contemporary accounts state 
that there were twice that number, including unarmed. 
About two months after the battle, one writer (and he very 
much prejudiced in favor of the Regulators) says a field- 
piece, which was fired into the insurgents, killed one man and 
frightened three thousand seven hundred from off the ground, 
leaving only three hundred to settle the matter.f If this be 
true, it may be questioned whether, since the invention of gun- 
powder, a single shot ever caused such demoralization. 

The most pitiable feature of the battle we find in a report 
by Gideon Wright (of the then newly created county of Sur- 
ry), who fought under Tryon. Wright's aocoimt, as pre- 
served in the Moravian records, while speaking of the killed 
and wounded and of the battle in general, says "many had 



* Colonial Records of N. a, VoL Vin. p. 609. 
t Colonial Records of N. C, VoL VUI. p. 647. 



OF NORTH CAEOLINA. 127 

taken refuge in the woods," whereupon the Governor ordered 
the woods to be set on fire, and in consequence some of the 
wounded were roasted alive.* Doctor Glewell, in his excel- 
lent work, whidi reprints Wright's account, seems to infer 
that the killed and wounded alone were in the woods, and 
that the Governor's order was aimed at the wounded. As a 
matter of fact, these woods were swarming with riflemen, who, 
as Tryon's report mentions, had taken to "tree-fighting," i. e,, 
fighting from behind trees — and were doing some execution 
among the provincial militia, when it became necessary to 
drive out the Regulators so engaged. After the battle, at 
least, it must be acknowledged that Tryon showed no dispo- 
sition to torture the wounded, for he had their injuries dressed 
by the same surgeons who were in attendance on his own 
men.f 

Though a terrible fate awaited some of the captured Regu- 
lators, one of Tryon's first acts after the battle was to offer 
a general pardon to all parties concerned (except outlaws and 
prisoners) who, before the 2l8t of May, should surrender 
themselves, give up their arms, take the oath of allegiance, 
and promise future obedience to the laws. It was later rep- 
resented to the Grovemor that, owing to bad roads and swollen 
streams, many Regulators would be unable to comply in time, 
so four successive extensions of the time were afterwards 
made.:}: Among those excepted from the benefit of these 
proclamations were the young men who destroyed General 
Waddell's ammunition, and several other persons, including 
Captain Merrill, who was later executed, 

*CleweU'8 Histoiy of Wachovia, p. 110. 

t Colonial Reoorda of N. C. VoL X. p. 1028; State Reoorda of N. C. VoL XIX. p. 846. 

$ Colonial RMOida of N. C. VoL Vm. pp. 606. 611. 618. 617. 



128 GOVERNOR TRYON 

In making acknowledgments to his army on the day after 
the battle, Try on said : 

"The Governor, impressed with tlie most affectionate sense 
of gratitude, gives thanks to both officers and soldiers for the 
vigorous and generous support they afforded him yesterday 
in the battle near Alamance. It is to their valour and steady 
conduct that he owes, under the providence of God, the signal 
victory obtained over the obstinate and infatuated rebels. 
His Excellency sympathizes with the loyalists for the brave 
men that fell and suffered in the action ; but, when he reflects 
that the fate of the constitution depended upon the success 
of the day, and the important service thereby rendered to 
their King and country, he considers the loss — though at 
present the cause of affliction to their relations and friends — 
as a monument of lasting glory and honour to themselves 
and families. 

"The dead to be interred at 5 o'clock this evening in front 
of the park of artillery. 

"Fimeral service to be performed with military honours 
to the deceased. 

"After the ceremony of prayers and thanksgiving for the 
signal victory it has pleased Divine Providence yesterday to 
grant the army over the insurgents."* 

In a second and more exact list of his casualties, Tryon re- 
ports that, of the force under his command, nine were killed 
and sixty-one wounded. Of these there is something in the 
records to show names, though not quite fifty per cent, is 
given.f The only officer killed was the bearer of the Royal 

* Colonial Recoids of N. a, VoL VHI, pp. 684-^85. 

t For list of names, etc, here ffiyen, see Colonial RooordB of N. C. Vol. DC, pp. W, 62-64, 
9^-98, 129-181. 897, 694, 801-«02; State RecordB of N. C. VoL XVI, p. 18S. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 129 

standard, Ensign William Bryan of Craven. This gentle- 
man was a near kinsman of Brigadier-General William 
Bryan of the Eevolution, and belonged to the well-known 
Bryan family still resident in New Bern. The King's 
colors dropped over his body as he fell, and he was interred 
with military honors along with the other soldiers slain in 
the action. It will be remembered that Governor Tryon in 
1768 had promised that the honor of carrying the standard 
should always be assigned to the Rowan regiment; but, at 
Alamance, this could not be done, as the detachment from 
Rowan was then marching in General Waddell's division, 
which did not reach the scene of action in time to participate. 
So the custody of the colors remained with Craven, the Gov- 
ernor's home county, and Ensign Bryan gave his life in their 
defense. 

Among the wounded in Tryon's army were Ensign William 
Peyton (of Beaufort county), and the following non-com- 
missioned officers and privates: Thomas Caressy, William 
Fullerton, Charles Yeats, Isaac Reed, Henry Costin, Moses 
Griffin, Benjamin Clash, Andrew Treasure, Thomas Clark, 
John Strange, William Gilbert, Thomas Bryant, Thomas 
Garnish, Daniel Pegram, James Hall, Thomas Kilpatrick, 
Charles Harrington, Christopher Acklin, Sweeting Bond, 
Thomas Tortle, James Nelson, William Lunsdale, John 
Neville, Thomas Kersley, and William Hiscock. Some of 
these were wounded more than once. Freasure, of the artil- 
lery, was wounded in the ankle, and then blown up by the 
powder he was serving — "hoist with his own petard." John 
Strange, one of the injured, was drowned a few months after 
the battle. Though not woimded, Alexander Curtis was 



130 GOVEKNOB TRYON 

seriously disabled by sickness contracted in this campaign. 
The worst hurt man seems to have been Thomas Bryant, who 
was stnick five times. In the proceedings of the Colonial 
Assembly we find a petition from Fearnaught Beasley, set- 
ting forth that her son was killed in the battle, but not men- 
tioning his given name. Similar petitions are on record 
from Ann Ferguson, Elizabeth Harper, and Faithy Smith, 
whose husbands lost their lives in the action. The given 
name of Mrs. Smith's husband (as might be supposed) was 
John, but only the surnames of the others are stated. 

After the fight at Alamance, not only the provincial sol- 
diery but also the wounded Regulators were cared for by 
surgeons from the Grovemor's army.* For the accommoda- 
tion of those who were too badly injured to proceed on the 
march, a hospital was improvised by fitting up for such use 
the residence of Captain Michael Holt, a wealthy land owner 
of that section, on whose plantation the battle was fought. 
Captain Holt, it will be remembered, was one of the military 
oflBcers mobbed by the Regulators in 1768 ; but, by the begin- 
ning of the Revolution (February, 1776), he had so far 
become reconciled to his old enemies as to go with them 
into the Moore's Creek campaign — ^being at first himself a 
loyalist, unlike most of Tryon's old officers. Before reach- 
ing McDonald's rendezvous, however, he turned back, yet 
was later made a prisoner of war, and taken to Philadelphia. 
He was finally released by order of the Continental Congress, 
upon a recommendation from the North Carolina Committee 
of Safety, which found upon investigation that "when he was 
fully acquainted with the intentions of the Tories, he did act- 
ually return home, and was the means of inducing a number 

* Colonial Recoxda of N. a. VoL X. p. 1023; Stote Records of N. C, VoL XIX. p. 84S. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 131 

of Others to follow his example without a junction with the 
Scotch army."* 

As illustrative of the fact that the services of the men under 
Tryon at Alamance were always held in grateful remem- 
brance, it is noteworthy that, while the Revolution was at 
its height, appropriations were made by the Whig Legisla- 
ture of North Carolina for the relief of soldiers who were 
suffering from injuries received while fighting against the 
Regulators on that occasion. f 

The statement has been made by the historian Martin that, 
out of a company of thirty men from Beaufort county, fifteen 
were either killed or wounded by the Regulators.:]: This, if 
correct, was a far greater percentage than might be expected 
from the general result; for, in the matter of killed, the 
whole army lost only nine. But, including both killed and 
wounded, the statement may be true. The commander of 
this company of Beaufort men was Captain John Patten 
(not Potter, as misprinted in Martin), and his force formed 
a part of the regiment of Colonel William Thompson. Cap- 
tain Patten afterwards won fame as a colonel of Continentals 
in the Revolution, as we shall hereafter take occasion to note. 

The loss sustained by the insurgents, in killed and wounded, 
is placed by Williamson at about two hundred ; Martin says 
upwards of twenty were killed, and many more wounded. § 

In view of the fact that most of the men engaged were 
experienced backwoodsmen and hunters, the bad marksman- 

* Tour in America, by J. F. D. Smyth. VoL I, pp. 229-282; CokmiAl Records of N. C 
VoLX,pp.e01.828. 
t State Records of N. C, VoL XVI. p. ISS. 
^Martin's History of N. C. VoL n. p. 276. 
§ Williamaon's Histocy of N. a. VoL II. p. 149; Martin's History of N. a. VoL II. p. 276. 



/ 

r 



132 OOVEBNOK TRYON 

ship displayed at Alamance, particularly by the Eegulators, 
is almost incredible. As has been seen, only nine of the pro- 
vincial troops were killed, though the wounded nimibered 
many more. In an accoimt written from New Bern to the 
Boston Gazette* at the time of the battle, it was said that the 
bullets fired by the Regulators flew over the heads of Tryon's 
men by the tens of thousands ; and this may not be an exag- 
geration, as the insurgents were upwards of two thousand in 
number. The Reverend Morgan Edwards, a Baptist clergy- 
man, who visited Alamance and its vicinity in 1773, says the 
Regulators "lodged in the trees an incredible number of balls, 
which the hunters have since picked out and therewith killed 
more deer and turkeys than they killed of their antago- 
nist8.^'f 

Though only nine of Tryon's men were slain at Alamance, 
the slaughter of his troops by hostile writers since that time 
has been something fearful. In an account quoted by Oa- 
ruthers, James Pugh alone is credited with killing and 
wounding fifteen militiamen — six more than were killed by 
all the Regulators together! Verily, the pen is mightier 
than the sword. 

Nor, in recording the work of extermination, should the 
claims of Gteorge Parsons be forgotten. Parsons, on the 
night before the battle, moulded twelve bullets for his rifle. 
In after years, however, he modestly admitted that he had 
killed and wounded only eleven of Tryon's men, because 
once his gun had "choked in loading.'^ 

As the insurgents were not systematically enrolled, we 

'Colonial Recoids of N. C. VoL Vm. p. 616. 

t Morgan Eklwaxda, quoted in David Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination in 
America Mition of 1813), VoL U. p. 96» note. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 133 

have no definite return of their losses, and only one or two 
names of the killed have come down to ns. Robert Thomp- 
son is said to have been killed by Tryon personally. Of 
Thompson's character we shall have something to say in the 
next chapter. 

On May I7th, just after the interment of the soldiers 
slain at Alamance, James Few was hanged at the head of the 
army. He had been engaged in the Hjllsborough riots and 
was under ban of outlawry therefor. Though far from the 
lunatic that historians have represented him to be, Few 
was of a fanatical turn religiously and believed himself 
raised up by the hand of God to liberate his country — a belief 
which greater men, as Oliver Cromwell, for example, have 
entertained with reference to themselves, and still not been 
considered maniacs. Several days after the above execution. 
Captain WiUie Jones, with a company of horse, raided the 
plantation of Hermon Husband and there found a letter 
from Few, in which the writer said that he had been sent by 
heaven to relieve the world from oppression and was to 
begin in North Carolina,* This paper, which gave an in- 
sight into the mental condition of its author, was discovered 
too late to influence the Governor to spare his life. As a rea- 
son for the immediate execution, instead of having Few tried 
with the other prisoners, Tryon claimed that there was great 
murmuring among his troops because none of the insurgents 
were summarily dealt with, notwithstanding the great sac- 
rifice of blood and life their armed resistance and general 
lawlessness had caused. Without the example of such an 
execution, it was said, some of his men refused to go farther, 

'WiUiamaon'sHiBtory of N. C, VoL U. p. 149. noU, 



134 GOVERNOR TRYON 

while others declared that they would give no quarter in the 
future, should another fight occur.* As it was, the proba- 
bility is that Few \vas offered a conditional pardon and re- 
fused it; for, in Clewell's History of Wachovia,\ an extract 
is given from the community diary of the Moravians, bearing 
date May 24, 1771, which (on the testimony of a messenger 
from Alamance) says: "A certain young man, a fine young 
fellow, had been captured, and, when given the alternative 
of taking the oath or being hanged, he chose the latter. The 
Governor washed to spare his life, and twice urged him to 
submit. But the young man refused. The messenger de- 
scribed how, with the rope around his neck, he was urged to 
yield, but refused, and the Governor turned aside with tears 
in his eyes as the yoimg man was swung into eternity." The 
old Moravian who made this entry observes: "This severity 
we call inhuman obstinacy !" The point connecting Few with 
this incident is the fact that he was the only Regulator hanged 
before June. Tlie devastation of the plantation of William 
Few (father of James) was not on account of his son's con- 
duct, but because the father himself was charged with being 
"very active in promoting the disturbances of the country.":j: 
The North Carolina Assembly, however, probably did not 
consider this charge against the father as true, for a bill was 
later passed paying him for the projxjrty destroyed. As to 
James Few, mention has been made in a previous chapter of 
the sweet and sad romance which has floated down to us of 
how he was a young man engaged to be married, when the 



* State Records of N. C. VoL XIX, p. 846. 
tClewell'8 History of Wachovia, p. 109. 
t State Records of N. C. VoL XIX, p. 8S2. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 135 

wicked Fanning came upon the scene and forever blasted his 
life by seducing his prospective bride; and how this great 
sorrow made a maniac of the youthful lover, who thereupon 
arrayed himself with the Regulators in order to have a chance 
at the life of the man who had done him so great an injury. 
This tale was first printed by Caruthers and aftersvards em- 
bellished by the matchless eloquence of Francis L. Hawks. 
Now, as a matter of fact, James Few w^as a man*ied man ; 
and, at his death, left a son and a daughter (twins) born 
February 9, 1771. During the Revolution, or just after the 
close of the war, his widow became the wife of a Tory, where- 
upon members of the Few family in Georgia (who had emi- 
grated from North Carolina and were all good Wliigs) took 
his children from their mother and carried them to Georgia, 
where they wei*e raised in the family of their uncle. Colonel 
Benjamin Few, a distinguished Revolutionary officer. In 
her new home, Sallie Few, a daughter of the Regulator, mar- 
ried the Reverend John Garvin, originally an Englislunan, 
who was a clergyman of the Methmlist Church in Georgia. 
One member of the family of Few in Georgia was the Hon- 
orable William Few, at one time a colonel of the Revolu- 
tionary forces of that State and later a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress.* The Regulator had a son also, named 
William, who was one of the two children carried South for 
the reason above mentioned, ^^^lat became of the last named 
is not known. He may have died young. The Few family 
came to North Carolina from Maryland, but their original 



* For memoir of Colonel William Few. by Charles C. Jcmes. Jr.. and Few's autobiog- 
raphy, see Magarine of American History. November. 1881, VoL VII. pp. 840-358; portrait 
of Few in same, facins p. 82L 



136 OOVERNOE TBYON 

place of residence in America was Pennsylvania, to which 
province they came with Penn's colonists. 

Whatever may be thought of the cause he espoused, the man- 
ner in which James Few, the Regulator, went to his death, 
scorning a recantation of his principles while others begged 
for mercy, furnishes an example with but one parallel in 
American history. The story of his execution recalls the 
fate of a Confederate martyr in later years, Sam Davis of 
Tennessee, with the lines to his memory by a Northern writer : 

"They offered life and freedom 

If he would speak the word ; 
In silent pride he gazed aside 

As one who had not heard. 
They argued, pleaded, threatened — 

It was but wasted breath. 
'Let come what must, I keep my trust,' 

He said, and laughed at death. 

'*He would not sell his manhood 

To purchase priceless hope ; 
Where kings drag down a name and crown, 

He dignified a rope. 
Ah, grave! where was your triumph? 

Ah, death! where was your sting? 
He showed you how a man could bow 

To doom, and stay a king!" 

But we must now turn from this long digression and 
resume our narrative of the events which followed Tryon's 
victory. As already stated, Few was the only person who 
was executed at once. But many prisoners were taken, and 
twelve of these were afterwards capitally convicted, though 
only half of this number actually suffered death. Some of 



OP NOETH CABOLINA. 137 

the particulars of their trial and conviction before the Court 
at Hillsborough will be later given. 

After perusing an account of the battle of Alamance, a 
faint, sorrowful voice in the heart of some anxious reader 
may ask : ^ What of Ilermon Husband, the chief Regulator ? 
In a list of killed and wounded, infinitesimally meagre though 
it l)e, surely something may be found to tell of his fate. 
That he was a man of might, full well we know ; for did he 
not join with several hundred other patriots and drive Judge 
Henderson away from Hillsborough ? And did not these self- 
same partiots, with no outside assistance, punish John Wil- 
liams upon discovering that he was guilty of practising law ? 
And was not William Hooper subjected to treatment scarcely 
less severe for a similar offense ? And furthermore, did they 
not administer a well-merited chastisement to the rapacious 
Fanning and demolish his house, leaving not one stone above 
another? Oh, Alamance! Alamance! — 'where tyrants con- 
quered and where heroes bled' — may thy mute rocks find 
utterance in all succeeding ages to tell how this great leader 
fell!" And tlien the lamentation of the faint, sorrowful 
voice dies away, and out gurgles a sigh of relief, when it is 
learned that the name of Mr. Husband fails to appear among 
the victims of the fight. The truth is, he was not there. 
Like the war-steed that paweth in the valley and rejoiceth 
in his strength, he went forth to meet the armed men, mock- 
ing at fear, and was not affrighted ; but, when he smelt the 
battle afar off, the odor thereof reminded him of what up to 
that time he seems to have forgotten — that he was a Quaker, 
with conscientious scruples against carnal warfare. So, leav- 
ing his less pious followers to try conclusions with the hated 



138 GOVERNOR TRYON 

Tryon, he scampered away to Pennsylvania — there to breed 
fresh discord after the Revolution as a participant in the 
Whiskey Insurrection, for which he was sentenced to be 
hanged, though afterwards pardoned. 

The name ^^Alamance'^ is supposed by some to be of Indian 
origin, while others contend (more correctly, perhaps) 
that it is derived from the Gothic word Alamans — "all 
men" — a term anciently applied to the federated tribes of 
Germany. This word, in a slightly changed form, still sur- 
vives in the French and German languages to signify the 
country whose inhabitants it originally designated. The 
locality in North Carolina where the name occurs was settled 
largely by German immigrants. The creek known as the 
Great Alamance was the first object so called in the old ooimty 
of Orange. Many years later, in 1848, the county of AJa- 
mance was erected by act of the Legislature, the bill for its 
creation being introduced by the Honorable Giles Mebane. 
Though some contended at the time that the name should 
be given a different orthography, Mr. Mebane was correct, 
according to old records and maps. Tryon himself spelled it 
as it is now written, and it is the same on the map "surveyed 
and drawn by G. J. Sauthier*' in 1771, as shown by illustra- 
tion in the present volimie. Even at an earlier date "Great 
Alamance Creek" appears on a map of North Carolina drawn 
by Captain John Collet and published by an act of the Brit- 
ish Parliament in 1770. In the dedication of his collection 
of North Carolina statutes, published in 1773, James Davis 
also spells it "Alamance." A different spelling, it is true — 
"AUemance" — is given by Maurice Moore in his "Atticus" 
letter. Great Alamance Creek flows into Haw river, and one 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 139 

of the tributaries of Great Alamance is another creek called 
the Little Alamance. 

The location of the battlefield of Alamance is in Alamance 
county, about nine miles from the ])resent town of Burlington 
(formerly Company's Shops), in a south-westerly direction. 
The spot where the action took place is marked by a granite 
monument which was dedicated on the 20th of May, 1880, 
when Judge Daniel G. Fowle, Colonel Thomas M. Holt (each 
of whom later successively became Grovemor of the State), 
Reverend Daniel Albright Long, and others delivered ad- 
dresses. The movement toward erecting the above memorial 
was inaugurated at the suggestion of Doctor Long, in an 
address near the battle ground on the 4th of July, 1879. On 
the monument is this inscription : 

HERE 

WAS FOUGHT THE 

BATTLE OF 

ALAMANCE, 

MAY 16, 1771, 

BETWEEN THE 

BRITISH AND THE 

REGULATORS. 

Another side bears the date of the erection of the shaft, 
1880, and there is also some emblematical ornamentation cut 
on the granite. 



140 GOVERNOB TBYON 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TRYON COMPLETES WORK OF SUBJUGATION — SIX INSUR- 
GENTS HANGED AND SIX PARDONED— CAPTAIN MERRILL 
EXECUTED— TRYON MADE GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, BUT 
TEMPORARILY REMAINS IN NORTH CAROLINA— "ATTIC US" 
LETTER— CHARACTER OF ROBERT THOMPSON— DEATH OF 
GENERAL WADDELL— THE GILLESPIES PARTRIOTS IN THE 
REVOLUTION— NEARLY ALL OTHER REGULATORS TORIES— 
TRYON'S OLD SOLDIERS CONQUER TORY REGULATORS IN 
THE REVOLUTION— ALL RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS DIS- 
CLAIM REGULATORS— JAMES HASELL, ACTING GOVERNOR- 
GOVERNOR JOSIAH MARTIN ARRIVES— MARTIN SNUBBED 
BY ASSEMBLY, WHICH COMPLIMENTS TRYON— CONCLUD- 
ING REMARKS ABOUT TRYON'S ADMINISTRATION IN NORTH 
CAROLINA— ENTRANCE UPON HIS DUTIES IN NEW YORK. 

Though, in carrying on war against the insurgents, Tryon 
spread desolation among their plantations, he issued tlie 
strictest orders for protecting the proi)erty of friendly and 
neutral inhabitants, l)oth before and after the battle. On 
May 13th the following appears in his military Journal: 
*^His Excellency having been infonned that the army has com- 
mitted outrages on the properties of the inliabitants seated 
on the road, contrary to his express commands, and scandalous 
and dishonourable to the service — ^he does once more strictly 
forbid every person belonging to the army from taking or dis- 
turbing the property of any person whatsoever ; as they will, 
on complaint made, receive the severest punishment the 
nature of the offence deserves, besides making restitution to 
the person they injure.'' On June 1st we find the order: 
"The soldiers not to bum any fence rails on any account, 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 141 

on pain of being severely punished." And again, on June 
4th: '"Any person that is detected taking anything out of 
the gardens or houses of any of the inhabitants of this settle- 
ment or doing any injury to their persons and pro])ertie8, 
shall be most stn-erely punished." 

It was not until the 4th of »Tune that General Waddell 
succeeded in effecting a junction with Tryon's army ; and 
two days later their forces celebrated King George's birth- 
day and the victory of the 16th of May. The King's birth- 
day fell on the 4th of June, but the celebration was post- 
poned until the Moravian settlement was reached.* The 
Moravians had sent IVyon word that they held ready for his 
reception the same room he had occu])ied during his visit in 
17(>7, and this message greatly ])leased him.f After his 
arrival (June 3d), Tryon and his troops lay encamped in 
the town for several days. With them were many prisoners 
chained together. These w^ere taken with the army for the 

double reason that the sight might overawe the inhabitants of 
the districts through which they passed and because there was 
no place of safe-keeping where they could be left till Tryon's 
return to Hillsborugh. At the Moravian settlement the cele- 
bration of the King's birthday was carried out in due form 
\nth a grand military review. ^^The army was drilled for sev- 
eral hours, and the manoeuvres of the Battle of Alamance were 
repeated. Volley after volley was fired, both from the mus- 
ketry and artillery, until the houses in the village trembled 
and shook. This display of an army of three thousand men, 



'Colonial Records of N. C, Vol VTO, pp. 692-598: State Records of N. C, VoL XIX, 
p. 861. 
t Clewell's History of Wachovia, p. UO. 



142 GOVERNOR TBYON 

under the command of select officers, was a grand and impos- 
ing sight. At two o'clock the manoeuvres were finished and 
the army marched back to its quarters." So says the town 
record heretofore quoted.* After this display the Governor 
was waited on by a committee composed of Frederick William 
Marshall, John Michael Graff, Richard Utley and Traugott 
Bagge, all leading men of the conmiunity, who delivered an 
address, filled with expressions of loyalty and good-will, to 
which His Excellency made an appreciative reply. It was 
on the 7th of June that Tryon's forces again directed their 
march towards Hillsborough. The Governor himself tarried 
a short while before following them. 

While the Moravian records are of the greatest value his- 
torically, they also throw some light on the humorous side 
of the Regulation movement. Thus, on May l7th, before 
news of the battle had been received, we find the entry : "Old 
man Jarvis is loud in his threats against the Moravians for 
their unwillingness to take up arms against the Grovemor, and 
he declares that if the battle is decided in their favor, severe 
punishment will follow for Bethabara." On May 22d, Mr. 
Jarvis again passed through, and "pleaded with Meyer to 
use his good influence with the Governor when he came to 
Wachovia. Jarvis said the Regulators would never forget 
the kindness if the Moravians interceded for them." Another 
venerable patriot seems also to have ground out words, not 
wisely, but too well, as the following will show: "Old man 
Borg, a Regulator, was in town to-day, making wild and 
excited speeches, filled with lies, and trying to stir up our peo- 
ple to take part in the troubles." Later old man Borg again 

*See Clewell's History of Wachovia, pp. 114-115. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 143 

passed through, in search of wounded comrades; then ^Tie 
said that the people in Bethabara had given him good advice, 
and that he intended to follow it." When some Moravians 
wished to see the wounded men, Mr. Borg upbraided them 
for their curiosity ; thereupon "three Regulators became very 
angry, and replied to the old man, telling him he had no 
right to find fault, since he had not been near the fighting." 
The record also states that, according to reports, "the lead- 
ers were the first to run from the battlefield, and the common 
people, after resisting for a time, also fled into the forest."* 
On the 8th of June, Greneral Waddell was detached with 
a considerable force of infantry, and some artillery (the lat- 
ter being composed chiefly of seamen), to enforce the sub- 
mission of such insurgents and suspects as had not surren- 
dered, f This step was taken upon receipt of a report that 
inhabitants of the counties of Mecklenburg, Tryon and a part 
of Rowan meditated further resistance. But neither Tryon 
nor Waddell met with any opposition after the fight at Ala- 
mance. That action brought the Regulators to a realization 
of the fact that, while His Excellency was very fond of issu- 
ing proclamations, he could sometimes resort to stronger 
measures, when the occasion required. After his victory at 
Alamance, Tryon advanced into the plantations of the prin- 
cipal persons implicated in the insurrection, and burned 
such buildings as lay in his route.:}: Among the farms thus 
devastated was one, in a high state of cultivation, belonging 
to Hermon Husband. Upon his wheat fields and clover 

* Clewell's History of Wachovia, pp. 106-108. 
t Colonial Recorfs of N. C, Vol. Vm. pp. 649. 674. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. VIO. pp. 616. 661; State Records of N. C. Vol. XIX» 
p. 846. 



144 GOVERNOR TRYON 

meadows the soldiers grazed their horses (amounting to sev- 
eral hundreds), and a contemporaneous account says the army 
left the place without a spear of com, grass or herbage grow- 
ing, and without a house or fence standing. The plantation 
buildings — "though mean" — of James Hunter, who Tryon's 
Journal says was the general of the rebels and an outlaw, 
were also burned. The phrase "though mean" is probably 
intended to convey tlie idea that these houses were too insig- 
nificant to be worth burning, but Hunter no doubt thought 
that the act of destroying them was even more mean. 

Six thousand four hundred and nine persons came into 
camp and took the oath of allegiance before the militia was 
disbanded ; and seven or eight hundred stands of arms were 
surrendered.* 

Under the law against treason, as laid down by the act of 
Assembly heretofore quoted, the property of all convicted 
Kegulators was forfeited; but, in the case of at least two 
(Merrill and Matear), the lands were restored to their fami- 
lies, f 

When the forces of Tryon and Waddell parted early in 
June the former returned to Hillsborough; and, almost im- 
mediately after his arrival, a special Court of Oyer and 
Terminer was convened for the trial of prisoners taken in 
the battle. :j: Over this court Chief Justioe Howard pre- 
sided, together with Associate Justices Moore and Henderson. 
Twelve of the Regulators were found guilty of treason, imder 
the act of the North Carolina Assembly defining that crime. 



* Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. IX. p. 78. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm, p. 660; n>id.. VoL IX. pp. 86. 65, 811. 

t Colonial Reconds of N. C. VoL Vm, p. 660. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 145 

and were condemned to death. Those hanged were six in 
number: Benjamin Merrill, Robert Matear, James Pugh, 
and three whose names are not kno^vn. The remaining six 
were reprieved by Tryon, who forwarded a petition to the 
King, begging that a pardon be extended to them, which 
was accordingly done.* Those who thus escaped the gal- 
lows were: Forester Mercer (Messer?), James Stewart, 
James Emerson, Herman CJox, William Brown, and James 
Copeland. The authorities in North Carolina evidently 
thought that a reprieve from the Gk)vemor was equal to the 
King's pardon; for, "by some strange irregularity," the pris- 
oners were set at liberty during Tryon's absence, and went on 
their way rejoicing before the royal instructions concerning 
them were received by Governor Martin. 

It has been the custom of some writers to inveigh bitterly 
against Governor Tryon for the execution of the Regulators, 
as if they were hanged merely to gratify a thirst for blood 
on his part. As a matter of fact, he had no more to do with 
these executions than the present Governor of North Carolina 
has with the punishment which the law imposes upon capital 
oflFenders. The Hillsborough trials were not courts-martial ; 
they were presided over by three judges, all natives of America, 
and two of whom afterwards supported the colonies during the 
Revolution. The verdicts were rendered by a jury composed 
of North Carolinians, acting under a law passed by the North 
Carolina Assembly. When several thousand men had been 
in open and armed insurrection against the colony, and had 
been guilty of all manner of excesses, only twelve were con- 
victed ; and the Governor pardoned half of that small num- 

* Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm, p. 685; n>id.. VoL Ui, pp. 86-87. 274. 811. 



146 GOVERNOR TRYON 

ber. Now, all this being true, it seems rather hard that 
Tryon should be blamed because he did not entirely nullify 
the findings of law and fact by fifteen North Carolinians — 
three judges and twelve jurymen. 

The place where the six Regulators suflFered death is just 
beyond the limits of the town of Hillsborough, a few hun- 
dred yards in front of the residence of the late Paul C. Came- 
ron, and about a quarter of a mile from the historic Eno 
river. In a grove of many acres, filled with massive white- 
oaks and other survivors of the original forest, is a large slab 
which was placed by Mr. Cameron on the spot where the 
gallows stood. All around is an extensive and well-kept 
lawn, crossed by a slight depression, overgrown with grass, 
which was once the Indian Trading Path. Everything is 
beautiful, serene, peaceful, with nothing but the music of 
song-birds to break the stillness, and one finds diflBculty in 
realizing that this lovely place was once the scene of so dis- 
tressing an incident as the one there presented in tlie "old 
colony days." Were the power of speech given those oaks 
and the stream hard by, how strange a tale would come forth ! 

''Old trees at night are like men in thought, 
By poetry to silence wrought; 
They stand so still and they look so wise 
With folded arms and half -shut eyes, 
More shadowy than the shade they cast 
When the wan moonlight on the river past; 
The river is green and runneth slow — 

We cannot tell what it saith; 
It keepeth its secrets down below, 

And so doth Death!" 

The person whose* fate probably excited more compassion 
than that of any other Regulator put to death, was Captain 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 147 

Benjamin Merrill, who was an officer of militia in Rowan 
county and raised a company to join the insurgents. He was 
largely instrumental in turning back the brigade of General 
Waddell. Afterwards he was captured by a force imder 
Colonel Fanning, and his life paid the penalty. It is said 
that when he was brought out for execution, one of Tryon's 
soldiers was heard to declare that, if all men went to the gal- 
lows with a character such as Captain MerrilFs, hanging 
would be an honorable death. On being permitted to speak, 
Merrill said he had been deceived concerning the objects of 
the revolt, for the leaders had at first assured him that the 
disputes were to be adjusted without bloodshed ; that after- 
wards he was pressed to further action by the report (which 
he too late found to be false and propagated to shield old 
oflFenders) that Tryon had raised the militia to lay waste the 
countrj' and destroy the inhabitants; but that now all was 
over, and he hoped that the multitude would profit by his 
miserable end when he was hung up as a spectacle before 
them. Concerning his private life, he declared that he knew 
of no charge which could be justly laid against him; that 
fifteen years previously he had been converted, but had since 
been a backslider, yet now felt that he was forgiven, and — 
though the halter was around his neck — ^he would not ex- 
change places with any man on the ground. In conclusion, 
he referred feelingly to his wife and children, saying: "I 
entreat that no reflection may be cast upon them on my ac- 
count ; and, if possible, shall deem it as a bounty should you, 
gentlemen, petition the Gk)vemor and Council that some part 
of my estate may be spared for the widow and fatherless. It 
will be an act of charity ; for I have forfeited the whole by 
the laws of Otod and man.'' 



148 GOVERNOR TRYON 

Merrill was a Baptist ; and the old Baptist chronicler, from 
whose narrative we take the above, says: "All pitied him, 
and blamed the wicked Hunter, Gelaspie, Howell, Husband, 
Butler, and others who deceived and seduced him."* 

Captain Merrill's dying request for the restoration of his 
property to his family was forwarded to the King by Gov- 
ernor Tryon, who wrote Lord Secretary Hillsborough a letter, 
from which we take the following: "Benjamin Merrill, a Cap- 
tain of Militia, at the hour of his execution, left it in charge 
to the officers to solicit me to petition His Majesty to grant 
his plantation and estate to his wife and eight children. He 
died under a thorough conviction of his crime and the justice 
of his sentence, and addressed himself to the spectators to take 
warning by his suffering. His Majesty's indulgence to this 
request would, I am persuaded, be dutifully and affection- 
ately received by his unhappy widow and children." This 
restitution was accordingly made in pursuance of an order 
transmitted to Governor Martin by Lord Hillsborough, who 
said : "In the last letter I received from Mr. Tryon relative 
to the affairs in North Carolina, and which is dated from 
New York, he expressed a wish that the plantation and estate 
of Benjamin Merrill, a Captain of Militia, and who was one 
of the six rebels executed on the 19th of June, may be granted 
to his wife and the eight children he left behind him, and I 
have it in command from the King to signify to you His 
Majesty's pleasure that you do accordingly take the proper 
measures that whatever property, belonging to that unhappy 
person, became forfeited to the Crown by his conviction, 
should be regranted to his widow and children."f 

* Morgan Edwaxtls, quoted in David Benedict's History of the Baptist Denondnatiaii in 
America iedition of 1813), VoL H, pp. 117-118. 

t Colonial Records of N. a, VoL Vm. p. 660: n>id.. VoL IX. pp. 6&-«6. 



OF NOETII CAROLINA. 149 

In the Life of Caldwell* by Caruthers, there is an affect- 
ing tale from a Tennessee newspaper, in which a writer gives 
an account of the death of Captain Messer. But in justice 
to Doctor Caruthers it should be observed that he says he 
never heard of it from any source other than the one quoted. 
This is to the effect that when Messer was about to be hanged 
on the day after the battle, one of his children went to Tryon 
and asked to be hanged in the place of his father. "Who 
told you to say that?" asked the Governor. "No one," re- 
plied the child. "Then why do you ask ?" continued Tryon. 
"Because," was the answer, "if you hang my father, my 
mother and her children will starve." Then the account goes 
on to tell how the heart of the wicked Tryon was momentarily 
softened, and that Messer was not hanged (hat day, but after- 
wards released and sent to take Hermon Husband — the re- 
ward of which service should be a pardon to the captor ; how 
Messer failed in his effort, returned, and was executed with 
due formality; and how tlie little boy who had pleaded for 
his father's life was taken away by the Governor to act as his 
foot-page — with the addition of a few more distressing details 
which it is not necessary here to repeat. Altogether it makes 
a very dramatic narrative, but the probability is that the 
"Mercer" whom Tryon reported in the list of those who were 
pardoned was none other than this Messer. Mercer and 
Messer are written enough alike to cause a mistake, and the 
latter is a name still found in the Piedmont section of North 
Carolina. 

Concerning James Pugh, Caruthers says: "When placed 
under the gallows, he appeared perfectly calm and composed ; 

* Life of CaldwelU p. 106. 



160 GOVERNOR TRYON 

told them that he had long been prepared to meet his Qtod in 
another world ; refused to make any acknowledgment of what 
he had done; and requested of the Qt)vemor permission to 
address the ])eople for one-half hour in his own defence. 
Having obtained this permission, he told them that his blood 
would be as good seed sown on good ground, which would 
soon produce a hundredfold ; recapitulated the causes of the 
late conflict ; asserted that the Regulators had taken the life 
of no man previous to the battle, nor had they aimed at any- 
thing more than a redress of their grievances ; charged the 
Gk)vernor with having brought an army there to murder the 
people instead of taking sides with them against a set of dis- 
honest oflBcers ; advised him to put away his corrupt clerks and 
tax-gatherers, and be a friend of the people whom he was 
appointed to govern; but when he told him that his friend 
Colonel Fanning was not fit for the oflBce which he held, he 
was suddenly interrupted ; the barrel was turned over, at 
the instigation of Fanning, and he was launched into eternity 
before he had finished his speech, and before the half-hour 
which had been promised him was expired."* 

According to Oaruthers, nearly everything which hap- 
pened to the Regulators was "at the instigation of Fanning." 
As an instigator, the bold, bad Colonel seems to have been 
quite successful. Conmientinfi: upon the description of Pugh's 
execution as given by Doctor Caruthers, an apt comment has 
been made as follows : "It was the habit of those at the period 
at which this accoimt was written (long after the event, and 
the writer depending upon tradition or rumor for his facts), 
to bring Fanning in, as the suggesting fiend or active demon 

* Life of Caldwell, by CaruUiera. p. 166. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 151 

when any specially dark scenes were depicted. In the first 
place, Fanning was the Colonel in charge of the Orange de- 
tachment, and with such a commander as Tryon, a thorough 
soldier and a stickler for forms, it would have been a serious 
breach of military discipline for him to leave his place and 
communicate with the Sheriff of the county who had the 
execution in charge. This Tryon would never have allowed. 
Again, the hanging of these men was not a lynching. They 
were executed in due form of law. They were drawn to the 
place of execution in carts or wagons, of which there were 
many with the army, and if any improvised platform was 
needed one of these was used. The probabilities, then, are 
all against the use of as crude a means as a barrel, particularly 
as Tryon, if not present at the execution, took an active inter- 
est in all the preliminaries."* 

In pronouncing sentence upon each of the condemned in- 
surgents, Chief Justice Howard used the form prescribed by 
the laws of England in cases of treason, to-wit, that the pris- 
oner should be carried to the place from whence he came; 
that he should be drawn from tlienoe to tlie place of execution, 
and hanged by the neck ; tliat he should be cut down while yet 
alive ; that his bowels should be taken out and burned before 
his face ; that his head should be cut off ; and that his body 
be divided into four quarters, which were to be placed at the 
King's disposal. It is needless to say that the blood-curd- 
ling details of these sentences were never carried out. Yet 
in New England, where there had also been some troubles 
with the authorities, the newspapers seized upon the matter 



*Hillflbon>: Colonial and Revolutionary, by Francis Nash, p. 25. 



152 GOVEENOB TBYON 

for eflFect,* One of these papers, the Massachusetts Spy, 
contained articles signed "Leonidas'' and "Mucins Scsevola/' 
which were published after Tryon went to New York. The 
people of New Bern seem to have been greatly incensed at 
this attack on their former Governor, and held an indigna- 
tion meeting which ordered the oflFending periodical to be 
publicly burned by the common hangman.f Then the meet- 
ing proceeded to pass resolutions, reading a stately lecture to 
the editor (editors were called printers in those days), in 
which it was said : "It is certainly diflBcult to conceive to what 
a degree of iniquity a man may arrive, who, like Leomdas, 
has the effrontery to set truth and decency at defiance; and 
you, Mr. Printer, in undertaking to be the publisher of such 
vile calumnies, fall little short of him in point of guilt. Be 
it known to him, and to you, sir, that the beloved memory of 
Governor Tryon is, and will continue to be, deeply impressed 
on our grateful hearts, and we trust will be transmitted by 
us to our latest posterity; while the stigmatized nime of 
Leanidas, and yours, Mr. Printer, will be consigned to that 
infamy justly attendant on such egregious calumniators." 

Then follows a defense of Tryon's campaign against the 
Eegulators. This says of the course pursued by him on that 
occasion : "His Excellency tried every expedient that human 
prudence could suggest to prevail on the miscreants to lay 
down their arms, take the oaths to government, and surren- 
der up to public justice their outlawed chiefs, promising 
them upon such easy terms His Majesty's most gracious 
pardon for all their past numerous transgressions; but they 
rejected his offers with contempt Nay, some of the auda- 

*Account of the Resrulation. by Dr. J. S. Baaaett in Beport of the Ameriean Historical 
Association for 1894, p. 209. 
tColonial Beooxds of N. C. VoL X, pp. 1019-1024. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 153 

cious wretches cried out to his troops : Tire and be damned !' 
Others exclaimed : 'Here's death in one hand, and no mercy 
in the other ! Battle ! Battle !' He then directed the Sheriff 
to order them to disperse, agreeable to the riot act, which the 
Sheriff did, but to no purpose. Yet still he forebore attack- 
ing them, till the hour allowed in such cases by the said act 
was expired; and even then he sent an express messenger 
to inform them that the hour was elapsed, requiring them 
once more to lay down their arms and submit to the govern- 
ment — declaring that, in case of their refusal, he would, 
without further delay, fire upon them ; but they spumed his 
threats and contemned his admonitions, still crying out: 
^Battle! Battle!' In such situation, what could or ought 
His Excellency do but perform his duty (which he most 
gallantly did) as a brave and experienced officer, by reducing 
to reason and proper submission a parcel of abandoned prof- 
ligates, who seemed to set all laws, divine and human, at 
defiance, and were overrunning the country with every species 
of rapine and violence. Yet these are the men of whom 
Leonidas and Mucins Scoevoh, and their partisans, are advo- 
cates ; and dare, in their behalf, to attack and traduce one of 
the brightest characters on this continent." 

This stinging rebuke to "Mr. Printer" declared, in con- 
clusion, that a sight of the resolutions passed should shock 
his guilty soul and force him to curse the day he unhappily 
undertook to make his paper the infamous vehicle of such a 
detestable slander ; while "Leonidas" and "Mucins Scsevola" 
were admonished to pacify the Divine vengeance for their 
awful crime by imfeigned repentance and "publicly asking 
pardon of Qtod and the world, and of His Excellency Oov- 
emor Try on in particular. '^^ 



* 



154 OOVEENOR TBYON 

Of the letter signed "Leonidas," Dr. Samuel Cooper, of 
Boston, was supposed to have been the author. This we 
learn from the diary of Josiah Quincy, junior, who visited 
North Carolina in 1773. 

It was while with his troops at Hillsborough, in 1771, that 
Tryon received intelligence that he had been appointed Gk)v- 
emor of New York. Accordingly he left his army on the 
21st of June, and returned to New Bern (reaching there the 
24th) to make his preparations for departure.* Before leav- 
ing the army, it was drawn up in two long columns, facing 
inward, and through these lines the Governor rode, "taking 
an affectionate and painful leave of those brave men, through 
whose spirit, obedience and attachment he had surmounted 
all his difBculties." His "After Orders,'' for the disposition 
of his army, were as follows : 

"His Excellency having received at Hillsborough camp His 
Majesty's commands to repair inmiediately to New York to 
take upon him the government of that province, he cannot 
quit this army without a particular and sincere acknowledg- 
ment to the officers and men for the steady and uniform con- 
duct they have observed throughout the campaign. He will 
embrace the first opportunity to represent to His Majesty 
the important services that through their zeal and bravery 
they have rendered to their King and country. 

"Colonel Ashe will take command of the army and march 
with them to Colonel Bryan's (excepting the Wake detach- 
ment, which will be discharged at Hunter's), from whence 
the several detachments will march under the command of 
their respective conmianding officers to their particular coun- 

* Colonial Records of N. C. Vol Vm. pp. 650. 676; Ibid.. VoL XIX. pp. 868. 864. 



OF NOETH CABOLINA. 155 

ties and be there discharged. The Commissary will supply 
the army with provisions as usual until they get to Colonel 
Bryan's and then furnish the commanding oflBcers of the 
several detachments with a suflBcient quantity to serve them 
to tlieir respective homes. The whole of the artillery and 
ammunition to be escorted from Colonel Bryan's to New 
Bern by the detachment under the command of Colonel 
Leech." 

Probably the most laughable mishap which occurred dur- 
ing Tryon's campaign was near the Yadkin river, after the 
battle.* It seems that several hundred horses were turned 
loose at night to graze, each having tied to his neck a bell, 
intended to aid in finding any which might stray. Near 
their pasture was a garden containing some bee-hives, from 
which several soldiers attempted to steal honey. In the dark- 
ness the hives were overturned and the bees began stinging 
the horses, which thereupon set out at a full gallop for the 
near-by camp, demolishing fences as they went, and carry- 
ing with them their hundreds of discordant bells, which 
made night hideous. The outer sentinels at once fired their 
pieces, and the cry to arms rang through camp, for it 
seemed that all the Regulators in Carolina had joined in 
this furious night attack. But soon the cause of the dis- 
turbance became known, and quiet reigned once more. 

After Tryon left North Carolina and had been installed 
as Governor of New York, Judge Maurice Moore fired a 
farewell shot at him, under the pseudonym of "Atticus," in 
a letter of which the following is a copy : 



* state Records of N. C. Vol. XIX« p. 849. 



156 GOVEENOR TEYON 

To His Excellency William Try on. Esquire, 

I am too well acquainted with your character to suppose you can 
bear to be told of your faults with temper. You are too much of the 
soldier, and too little of the philosopher, for reprehension. With this 
opinion of Your Excellency, I have reason to believe that this letter will 
be more serviceable to the province of New York, than useful or enter- 
taining to its governor. 

The beginning of your administration in this province was marked 
with oppression and distress to its inhabitants. These, sir, I do not 
place to your account; they are derived from higher authority than 
yours. You were, however, a dull, yet willing instrument, in the hands 
of the British ministry, to promote the means of both. You called to- 
gether some of the principal inhabitants of your neighbourhood, and in a 
strange, inverted, self-affecting speech, told them you had left your native 
country, friends, and connexions, and taken upon yourself the government 
of North Carolina with no other view than to serve it. In the next 
breath, sir, you advised them to submit to the Stamp Act, and become 
slaves. How could you reconcile such baneful advice with such friendly 
professions? But, sir, self-contradictions with you have not been con- 
fined to words only; they have been equally extended to actions. On 
other occasions you have played the governor with an air of greater dig- 
nity and importance than any of your predecessors; on this, Your 
Excellency was meanly content to solicit the currency of stamped paper 
in private companies. But, alas! ministerial approbation is the first 
wish of your heart; it is the best security you have for your office. 
Engaged as you were in this disgraceful negotiation, the more impor- 
tant duties of the governor were forgotten, or wilfully neglected. In 
murmuring, discontent, and public confusion, you left the colony com- 
mitted to your care, for near eighteen months together, without calling 
an assembly. The Stamp Act repealed, you called one; and a fatal one it 
was! Under every influence your character afforded you, at this as- 
sembly, was laid the foundation of all the mischief which has since 
befallen this unhappy province. A grant was made to the Crown of 
five thousands pounds, to erect a house for the residence of a governor; 
and you, sir, were solely entrusted with the management of it. The 
infant and impoverished state of this country could not afford to make 
such a grant, and it was your duty to have been acquainted with the 
circumstances of the colony you governed. This trust proved equally 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 157 

fatal to the interest of the province and to Your Excellency's honour. 
You made use of it, sir, to gratify your vanity, at the expense of both. 
It at once afforded you an opportunity for leaving an elegant monument 
of your taste in building behind you, and giving the ministry an in- 
stance of your great influence and address in your new government. 
You, therefore, regardless of every moral, as well as legal obligation, 
changed the plan of a province-house for that of a palace, worthy the 
residence of a prince of the blood, and augmented the expense to fifteen 
thousand pounds. Here, sir, you betrayed your trust, disgracefully to 
the governor, and dishonourably to the man. This liberal and ingen- 
ious stroke in politics, may, for all I know, have promoted you to the 
government of New York. Promotion may have been the reward of 
such sort of merit. Be this as it may, you reduced the next assembly 
you met to the unjust alternative of granting ten thousand pounds 
more, or sinking the five tliousand they had already granted. They 
cho^e the former. It was most pleasing to the governor, but directly 
contrary to the sense of their constituents. This public imposition upon 
a people, who, from poverty, were liardly able to pay the necessary ex- 
penses of government, occasioned general discontent, which Your Ex- 
cellency, with wonderful address, improved into a civil war. 

In a colony without money, and among a people almost desperate with 
distress, public profusion should have been carefully avoided; but un- 
fortunately for the country, you were bred a soldier, and have a natural, 
as well as acquired fondness for military parade. You were entrusted 
to run a Cherokee boundary about ninety miles in length; this little 
service at once afforded you an opportunity of exercising your military 
talents, and making a splendid exhibition of yourself to the Indians. 
To a gentleman of Your Excellency's turn of mind, this was no un- 
pleasing prospect; you marched to perform it, in a time of profound 
peace, at the head of a company of militia, in all the pomp of war, and 
returned with the honourable title, conferred on you by the Cherokees, 
of Oreat Wolf of North Carolina. This line of marked trees, and Your 
Excellency's prophetic title, cost the province a greater sum than two 
pence a head, on all the taxable persons in it for one year, would pay. 

Your next expedition, sir, was a more important one. Four or five 
hundred ignorant people, who called themselves Regulators, took it into 
their heads to quarrel with their representative, a gentleman honoured 
with Your Excellency's esteem. They foolishly charged him with every 



158 GOVERNOR TRYON 

distress they felt; and, in revenge, shot two or three musket balls 
through his house. They at the same time rescued a horse which had 
been seized for the public tax. These crimes were punishable in the 
courts of law, and at that time the criminals were amenable to legal 
process. Your Excellency and your confidential friends, it seems, were 
of a different opinion. All your duty could possibly require of you on 
this occasion, if it required anything at all, was to direct a prosecu- 
tion against the offenders. You should have carefully avoided becom- 
ing a party in the dispute. But, sir, your genius could not lie still ; you 
enlisted yourself a volunteer in this service, and entered into a nego- 
tiation with the Regulators which at once disgraced you and en- 
couraged them. They despised the governor who had degraded his own 
character by taking a part in a private quarrel, and insulted the man 
whom they considered as personally their enemy. The terms of accom- 
modation Your Excellency had offered them were treated with con- 
tempt. What they were, I never knew. They could not have related 
to public offences; these belong to another jurisdiction. All hopes of 
settling the mighty contest by treaty ceasing, you prepared to decide it 
by means more agreeable to your martial disposition, an appeal to the 
sword. You took the field in September, 1768, at the head of ten or 
twelve hundred men, and published an oral manifesto, the substance of 
which was that you had taken up arms to protect a superior court of 
justice from insult. Permit me here to ask you, sir, why you were ap- 
prehensive for the court? Was the court apprehensive for itself? 
Did the judges or the attorney general address Your Excellency for pro- 
tection? So far from it, sir, if these gentlemen are to be believed, they 
never entertained the least suspicion of any insult, unless it was that 
which they afterwards experienced from the undue influence you offered 
to extend to them, and the military display of drums, colours, and 
guards, with which they were surrounded and disturbed. How fully 
has your conduct, on a like occasion since» testified that you acted in 
this instance from passion, and not from principle! In September, 
1770, the Regulators forcibly obstructed the proceedings of Hillsborough 
Superior Court, obliged the oflicers to leave it, and blotted out the re- 
cords. A little before the next term, when their contempt of courts 
was sufficiently proved, you wrote an insolent letter to the judges and 
attorney general, commanding them to attend it. Why did you not protect 
the court at this time? You will blush at the answer, sir. The conduct 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 159 

of the Regulators at the preceding term made it more than probable 
that these gentlemen would be insulted at this, and you were not unwill- 
ing to sacrifice them to increase the guilt of your enemies. 

Your Excellency said that you had armed to protect a court. Had you 
said to revenge the insult you and your friends had received, it would 
have been generally credited in this country. The men, for the trial 
of whom the court was thus extravagantly protected, of their own ac- 
cord squeezed through a crowd of soldiers and surrendered themselves, 
as they were bound to do by their recognizances. 

Some of these people were convicted, fined, and imprisoned; which 
put an end to a piece of knight-errantry, equally aggravating to the 
populace and burthensome to the country. On this occasion, sir, you 
were alike successful in the diffusion of a military spirit through the 
colony and in the warlike exhibition you set before the public; you at 
once disposed the vulgar to hostilities, and proved the legality of arm- 
ing, in cases of dispute, by example. Thus warranted by precedent and 
tempered by sympathy, popular discontent soon became resentment and 
opposition; revenge superseded justice, and force the laws of the coun- 
try; courts of law were treated with contempt, and government itself 
set at defiance. For upwards of two months was the frontier part of 
the country left in a state of perfect anarchy. Your Excellency then 
thought fit to consult the representatives of the people, who presented 
you a bill which you passed into a law. The design of this act was to 
punish past riots in a new jurisdiction, to create new offences and to 
secure the collection of the public tax; which, ever since the province 
had been saddled with a palace, the Regulators had refused to pay. 
The jurisdiction for holding pleas of all capital offences was, by a 
former law, confined to the particular district in which they were com- 
mitted. This act did not change that jurisdiction; yet Your Ehccel- 
lency, in the fullness of your power, established a new one for the trial 
of such crimes in a different district. Whether you did this through 
ignorance or design can only be determined in your own breast; it was 
equally violative of a sacred right, every British subject is entitled to, 
of being tried by his neighbours, and a positive law of the province you 
yourself had ratified. In this foreign jurisdiction, bills of indictment were 
preferred and found, as well for felonies as riots, against a number of 
Regulators ; they refused to surrender themselves within the time limited 
by the riot act, and Your Excellency opened your third campaign. These 



IGO GOVERNOR TRYON 

indictments charged the crimes to have been committed in Orange 
county, in a distinct district from that in which the court was held. 
The superior court law prohibits prosecution for capital offences in 
any other district than that in which they were committed. What dis- 
tinctions the gentlemen of the long robe might make on such an occasion. 
I do not know; but it appears to me those indictments might as well have 
been found in Your Excellency's kitchen; and give me leave to tell you, 
sir, that a man is not bound to answer to a charge that a court has no 
authority to make, nor doth the law punish a neglect to perform 
that which it does not command. The riot act declared those only 
outlawed who refused to answer to indictments legally found. Those 
who had been capitally charged were illegally indicted, and could not be 
outlaws; yet Your Excellency proceeded against them as such. I mean 
to expose your blunders, not to defend their conduct; that was as inso- 
lent and daring as the desperate state your administration had re- 
duced them to could possibly occasion. I am willing to give you full 
credit for every service you have rendered this country. Your active 
and gallant behaviour, in extinguishing the flame you yourself had 
kindled, does you great honour. For once your military talents were 
useful to the province, you bravely met in the field, and vanquished, an 
host of scoundrels whom you had made intrepid by abuse. It seems 
difficult to determine, sir, whether Your Excellency is more to be ad- 
mired for your skill in creating the cause, or your bravery in suppress- 
ing the effect. This single action would have blotted out forever half 
the evils of your administration; but alas, sir, the conduct of the general 
after his victory was more disgraceful to the hero who obtained it than 
that of the man before it had been to the governor. Why did you stain 
so great an action with the blood of a prisoner who was in a state of in- 
sanity? The execution of James Few was inhuman; that miserable 
wretch was entitled to life till nature, or the laws of his country, de- 
prived him of it. The battle of the Allemance was over; the soldier 
was crowned with success, and the peace of the province restored. 
There was no necessity for the infamous example of an arbitrary execu- 
tion, without judge or jury. I can freely forgive you, sir, for killing 
Robert Thompson at the beginning of the battle; he was your prisoner, 
and was making his escape to fight against you. The laws of self- 
preservation sanctioned the action, and justly entitle Your Excellency to 
an act of indemnity. 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 161 

The sacrifice of Few, under its criminal circumstances, could neither 
atone for his crime nor abate your rage; this task was reserved for his 
unhappy parents. Your vengeance, sir, in this instance, it seems, 
moved in a retrograde direction to that proposed in the second com- 
mandment against idolaters; you visited the sins of the child upon 
the father, and, for want of the third and fourth generation to extend 
it to, collaterally divided it between brothers and sisters. The heavy 
affliction, with which the untimely death of a son had burthened his 
parents, was sufficient to have cooled the resentment of any man whose 
heart was susceptible of the feelings of humanity; yours, I am afraid, 
is not a heart of that kind. If it is, why did you add to the distresses 
of that family? Why refuse the petition of the town of Hillsborough in 
favour of them, and unrelentingly destroy, as far as you could, the 
means of their future existence? It was cruel, sir, and unworthy a 
soldier. 

Your conduct to others after your success, whether it respected person 
or property, was as lawless as it was unnecessarily expensive to the 
colony. When Your Excellency had exemplified the power of govern- 
ment in the death of a hundred Regulators, the survivors, to a man, be- 
came proselytes to government; they readily swallowed your new- 
coined oath, to be obedient to the laws of the province, and to pay the 
public taxes. It is a pity, sir, that, in devising this oath, you had not 
attended to the morals of those people. You might have easily re- 
strained every criminal inclination, and have made them good men, as 
well as good subjects. The battle of the Allemance had equally dis- 
posed them to moral and to political conversion; there was no necessity, 
sir, when the people were reduced to obedience, to ravage the country 
or to insult individuals. 

Had Your Excellency nothing else in view than to enforce a sub- 
mission to the laws of the country, you might safely have disbanded 
the army within ten days after your victory; in that time the chiefs of 
the Regulators were run away, and their deluded followers had returned 
to their homes. Such a measure would have saved the province twenty 
thousand pounds at least. But, sir, you had farther employment for the 
army; you were, by an extraordinary bustle in administering oaths, and 
disarming the country, to give a serious appearance of rebellion to the 
outrage of a mob ; you were to aggravate the importance of your own ser- 
vices by changing a general dislike of your administration into disaffec- 



162 GOVEKNOB TRYON 

tion to His Majesty's person and government, and the riotous conduct, 
that dislike had occasioned, into premeditated rebellion. This scheme, 
sir, is really an ingenious one; if it succeeds, you may possibly be re- 
warded for your services with the honour of knighthood. 

From the 16th of May to the 16th of June, you were busy in securing 
the allegiance of rioters, and levying contributions of beef and flour. 
You occasionally amused yourself with burning a few houses, treading 
down corn, insulting the suspected, and holding courts-martial. These 
courts took cognizance of civil, as well as military offences, and even 
extended their jurisdiction to ill-breeding and want of good manners. 
One Johnston, who was a reputed Regulator, but whose greatest crime, I 
believe, was writing an impudent letter to your lady, was sentenced, in 
one of these military courts, to receive five hundred lashes, and re- 
ceived two hundred and fifty of them accordingly. But, sir, however 
exceptionable your conduct may have been on this occasion, it bears lit- 
tle proportion to that which you adopted on the trial of the prison- 
ers you had taken. These miserable wretches were to be tried for 
a crime made capital by a temporary act of assembly, of twelve months 
duration. That act had, in great tenderness to His Majesty's sub- 
jects, converted riots into treasons. A rigorous and punctual execution 
of it was as unjust as it was politically unnecessary. The terror of the 
examples now proposed to be made under it was to expire, with the law, in 
less than nine months after. The sufferings of these people could there- 
fore amount to little more than mere punishment to themselves. Their 
offences were derived from public and from private impositions; and 
they were the followers, not the leaders, in the crimes they had com- 
mitted. Never were criminals more justly entitled to every lenity the 
law could afford them ; but, sir, no consideration could abate your zeal in 
a cause you had transferred from yourself to your sovereign. You 
shamefully exerted every influence of your character against the lives of 
these people. As soon as you were told that an indulgence of one day 
had been granted by the court to two men to send for witnesses, who 
actually established their innocence and saved their lives, you sent an 
aide-de-camp to the judges and attorney general, to acquaint them 
that you were dissatisfied with the inactivity of their conduct, and 
threatened to represent them unfavourably in England if they did not 
proceed with more spirit and despatch. Had the court submitted to in- 
fluence, all testimony on the part of the prisoners would have been ex- 



OF NOBXn CAROLINA. 163 

eluded; they must have been condemned, to a man. You said that your 
solicitude for the condemnation of these people arose from your desire 
of manifesting the lenity of government in their pardon. How have 
your actions contradicted your words! Out of twelve that were con- 
demned, the lives of six only were spared. Do you know, sir, that your 
lenity on this occasion was less than that of the bloody Jeffries in 1685? 
He condemned five hundred persons, but saved the lives of two hun- 
dred and seventy. 

In the execution of the six devoted offenders, Your Excellency was as 
short of General Kirk in form, as you were of Judge Jeffries in lenity. 
That general honoured the execution he had the charge of with play of 
pipes, sound of trumpets, and beat of drums; you were content with the 
silent display of colours only. The disgraceful part you acted in this 
ceremony, of pointing out the spot for erecting the gallows, and clear- 
ing the field around for drawing up the army in form, has left a 
ridiculous idea of your character behind you, which bears a strong 
resemblance to that of a busy undertaker at a funeral. This scene 
closed Your Excellency's administration in this country, to the great 
joy of every man in it, a few of your own contemptible tools only ex- 
cepted. 

Were I personally Your Excellency's enemy, I would follow you into 
the shade of life, and show you equally the object of pity and contempt 
to the wise and serious, and of jest and ridicule to the ludicrous and 
sarcastic. Truly pitiable, sir, is the pale and trembling impatience of 
your temper. No character, however distinguished for wisdom and vir- 
tue, can sanctify the least degree of contradiction to your political opin- 
ions. On such occasions, sir, in a rage, you renounce the character of a 
gentleman and precipitately mark the most exalted merit with every 
disgrace the haughty insolence of a governor can inflict upon it. To 
this unhappy temper, sir, may be ascribed most of the absurdities of 
your administration in this country. It deprived you of every assistance 
men of spirit and abilities could have given you, and left you, with all 
your passions and inexperience about you, to blunder through the du- 
ties of your office, supported and approved by the most profound ignor- 
ance and abject servility. 

Your pride has often exposed you to ridicule, as the rude petulance of 
your disposition has to contempt. Your solicitude about the title of 
Her Excellency for Mrs. Tryon, and the arrogant reception you gave to 



164 GOVERNOR TRYON 

a respectable company at an entertainment of your own making, seated 
with your lady by your side on elbow-chairs, in the middle of the ball- 
room, bespeak a littleness of mind which, believe me, sir, when blended 
with the dignity and importance of your office, renders you truly ridicu- 
lous. 

High stations have often proved fatal to those who have been pro- 
moted to them; yours, sir, has proved so to you. Had you been con- 
tented to pass through life in a subordinate military character, with 
the private virtues you have, you might have lived serviceable to your 
country and reputable to yourself; but, sir, when, with every disquali- 
fying circumstance, you took upon you the government of a province, 
though you gratified your ambition, you made a sacrifice of yourself. 

Yours, Ac., 

Attigus. 

In caustic style and eleg^ant invective the above letter 
would be difficult to equal. Yet some of the criticisms come 
with poor grace from Judge Moore. The act he ridicules for 
converting riots into treasons was passed by an Assembly in 
which he himself was a leading member; furthermore, he 
was chairman of a legislative committee which recommended 
measures against the Regulators "at once spirited and deci- 
sive," and it was probably this recommendation which caused 
the Johnston Act to be introduced and passed.* The same 
committee, through Chairman Moore, gave voice to regrets 
nothing short of lamentations on the "afflicting occasion" of 
Tryon's purposed departure from the province in 1770, de- 
plored the "ill-fated means" which would cause North Caro- 
lina to lose his services, and made the "warmest return of 
gratitude and respect" for the "well-known benevolence of 
his disposition and friendly concern for the welfare of man- 
kind." If the first campaign against the Regulators were 
simply a costly display to gratify Tryon's vanity — "a piece 

* Colonial Becoida of N. C, Vol Vm. pp. 811-818. 



OF NORTH CABOLINA. 165 

of knight-errantry equally aggravating to the populace and 
burthensome to the country" — it is strange that Mr. Moore, 
in his military capacity, deemed it his duty to go into that 
expedition. He was an oflBcer in the Governor's army, and 
could not have been ordered out against his will; for, as 
Tryon officially announced before the troops at Salisbury, 
only volunteers were desired. Concerning the disturbances 
of 1768, he tells the Grovemor: "All your duty could possibly 
require of you on this occasion, if it required anything at all, 
was to direct a prosecution against the offenders.'' Yet 
Orange county in 1768 was far more turbulent than was 
Rowan in March, 1770, when Moore complained to Tryon 
that no legal process of any kind could be there executed. 
And if the Grovemor were a bloody Jeffries for allowing to be 
even partly carried out the sentences of the Court assembled 
at Hillsborough, certainly a Justice of that Court should be 
slow to cast reproach upon him for it. But when Judge 
Moore, in this "Atticiis" letter, declared that he could freely 
forgive the Grovemor for killing Robert Thompson, that asser- 
tion no doubt came with all sincerity from the depths of his 
soul : for Mr. Thompson it was who had harangued the Regu- 
lators in a speech wherein he denounced Moore as a rascal, 
rogue, villain, and a scoundrel; and said that, while acting 
as Judge, the latter had attempted to cheat him out of his 
landed possessions for the benefit of a counter-litigant to 
whom he was partial.* And this Thompson, by the bye, who 
was hand in glove with Regulators of the most rabid variety- 
men who openly advocated the indiscriminate assassination 
of public officials — ^this Thompson is the same whose blessed 

'Colonial Records of N. a. VoL Vm. p. 620. 



166 GOVERNOR TRYON 

memory as a peace-maker is thus preserved by Doctor Hawks 
in an account of the battle of Alamance: "Among other 
peaceful men who passed to and fro, in the good work of con- 
ciliation, was Robert Thompson, a man deservedly beloved 
and respected for his irreproachable character. He was 
without arms, and was not one of the Regulators."* 

While treating of the War of the Regulation, it may be 
well to speak of three aspects which thus far we have omitted 
to mention: first, the part later borne in the Revolution by 
the men who fought against the Regulators ; second, the part 
borne in the Revolution by the Regulators themselves ; third, 
the religious character of those engaged in the revolts of 1768 
and 1771. 

Tryon himself was an ardent and active Royalist in the 
Revolution, as was also Edmund Fanning; and almost all 
members of the Governor's Coimcil, in North Carolina, sym- 
pathized with Great Britain. With these exceptions, nearly 
every officer of note in the army under Tryon, at Alamance, 
went heart and soul into the struggle for freedom during the 
Revolution; and, were the names of this galaxy of patriots 
omitted from the annals of the fight for independence, little 
material would be left for the historian of that epoch in 
North Carolina. Though he little realized it at the time, 
Tryon gave practical instruction in the art of war to a set 
of apt pupils who would soon make use of their knowledge in 
a way not much to his liking. One of these, Robert Howe, 
marched at the head of a Continental Regiment in December, 
1775, to the assistance of Virginia, aided in the operations 
against Lord Dunmore (though too late for the fight at Great 

* Hawks, Graham, and Swain Lectures on the Revolutionary History of North Caro- 
lina, p. 88. 



« 
1 



OF NOBTH CABOLINA. 167 

Bridge), was formally thanked for his services by the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, and afterwards rose to the rank 
of Major-General in the Continental amiy; Francis Nash, 
another of Tryon's pupils, became a Brigadier-General, first 
served against Sir Henry Clinton in South Carolina and 
afterwards joined Washington, under whom he fell while 
fighting at Germantown in 1777 ; James Moore, likewise a 
Brigadier-General of Continentals, was a splendid type of 
soldier, whose untimely death by sickness, early in the war, 
lost to North Carolina a patriotic and fearless defender ; John 
Walker, whom the Regulators treated with such brutality while 
a prisoner, distinguished himself as an ofiBcer of the Line, and 
was an aid-de-camp to General Washington; John Baptista 
Ashe, whom the Regulators maltreated with Walker, was Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of Continentals, and also Governor-elect at the 
time of his death ; Thomas Clark, a Brevet Brigadier-General 
of Continentals in the Revolution, had also served under Try on ; 
then there were Generals GriflBth Rutherford, Alexanider Lil- 
lington, John Ashe, and Richard Caswell, all of whom held 
commissions in either the State or the Continental forces. 
Caswell was likewise Governor during the war ; as also were 
Abner Nash, and Willie Jones (acting), while Alexander Mar- 
tin, whom the Regulators "severely whipped" at Hillsborough, 
was Governor for several terms, besides having served as a 
Colonel in the Continental Line. John Patten, whose Beau- 
fort county men fought so desperately at Alamance, entered 
the American army at the outbreak of the Revolution and 
remained to its close in 1783, when he was Colonel of the 
Second Continental Regiment. In the years 1777-'78-'79 
he was in the principal battles fought by Washington in the 



1C8 OOVEBNOR TBYON 

North ; and, in 1780, was serving under (General Lincoln in 
Charleston when that city was beleaguered and captured by 
Sir Henry Clinton. For some time after that he was a 
prisoner of war. His name is often misspelled Patton in the 
records. 

Besides the above officers of Tryon's army, let us recall 
such names as Polk, Pliifer, and Alexander of Mecklenburg; 
Hinton of Wake; Cogdell, Bryan, and Leech of Craven »; 
Bryan of Johnston ; Osborne, Montgomery and Dobbins of 
Rowan; Clinton of Duplin; Hawkins of Bute; Fenner of 
Halifax; Mebane, Lytle, and Thackston of Orange; Salter 
of Pitt ; Cray of Onslow ; Spencer of Anson, and hosts of 
others — all these aided in suppressing the mob violence aimed 
at North Carolina by the Regulators; and these, too, again 
stood by the old State in her hour of need, when those selfsame 
Regulators united with the troops of King George in endeav- 
oring to effect her subjugation in the dark hours of the Revo- 
lution. Besides these we should take into consideration the 
civil services of such great Revolutionary patriots as William 
Hooper, Cornelius Harnett, Samuel Johnston, and others of 
like character, who, either in the Assembly or in the courts, 
were active supporters of Tryon's administration when it was 
opposed by the Regulators. Even the ultra-democratic John 
Harvey seems to have been most friendly in his disposition 
towards the Governor,* though many times has his name 
been cited by historians as a leader of opposition to govern- 
ment measures during the insurrections of 1768-'71. If the 
R^ulators were patriots, and Tryon, while operating against 
them, was playing the part of a tyrant, then the above men 



* Colonial Recoids of N. C„ VoL Vm. pp. 697-698. 



OF NORTH CABOLINA. 169 

were either the tools or the dupes of a tyrant; and North 
Carolina can ill afford to make this charge against her brave 
sons who, during seven long years, fought, starved, and shed 
their blood in her defense. 

While the above names are being recorded a feeling of sad- 
ness is awakened that General Hugh Waddell no longer figures 
in our narrative. In the prime of a vigorous manhood, yet 
old in the school of war, this great soldier passed away in 
1773— 

"Like a summer-dried fountain, 
When our need was the sorest." 

In the French and Indian War, during the administration 
of Governor Dobbs, he had served with great distinction ; had 
proved his devotion to North Carolina by resisting the earlier 
parliamentary encroachments of Great Britain, and again 
by volunteering against the faction which destroyed the col- 
ony's domestic tranquility: yet just on the eve of the Revolu- 
tion, when his splendid talents would have found a wider 
and more useful field, death sounded the final roll-call, and 
his long service was at an end. His life has been most 
fittingly portrayed in a volume of biography which is the 
work of one of his many gifted descendants. Honorable 
Alfred Moore Waddell. From General Waddell also sprang 
the noted North Carolina lawyer, Hugh Waddell, and Com- 
mander James Iredell Waddell, an officer in both the United 
States and Confederate States Navies, whose cruiser, the 
Shenandoah, was the only vessel which ever carried the flag 
of the Southern Confederacy around the world, and which, 
. in the number of prizes captured, ranked second only to the 
far-famed Alabama, 



170 GOVERNOR TRYON 

But, calling a halt on this digression, we must now return 
to the subsequent history of the Regulators. For some time 
after they were routed at Alamance, these persons were 
kept busy endeavoring to secure pardons for their partici- 
pation in the uprising. "Either through friends or in per- 
son," says an account we have already quoted, "Jeremiah 
Field, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Matthew Hamilton, James 
Hunter, Thomas Welborn, William Butler, and John Fruit 
petitioned the Governor for pardon."* To do Hunter full 
justice, however, it must be said that his neighbors were far 
more solicitous for his safety tlian he himself was. After an 
absence of about ten months, he returned to his old home; 
and, on all occasions, appeared in public as if he had nothing 
to fear. In holy horror, on March 8, 1772, Governor Martin 
wrote the Earl of Hillsborough that it was with the utmost 
concern that he had the honor to inform His Lordship that 
Hunter, the outlawed ring-leader of the insurgents, had made 
his appearance publicly at the Inferior Court lately held in 
Guilford county, and that the magistrates, sitting in their 
judicial capacity, and armed with all the powers of the laws, 
though repeatedly moved to order him to be apprehended, 
had shamefully suffered him to brave the offended justice 
of his country with impunity, and to depart at leisure and 
without noticcf Later in this letter, Martin says: "Hunter 
is a most egregious offender. He was the leader of the 
insurgents in arms, was called their general, and has ap- 
peared from the beginning a ring-leader in sedition. He 
is said to have a better capacity than his associates, who 

* Account of the Resrulation. by Dr. J. S. Baasett, in Report of the American Historical 
Aaaociation for 1894. p. 207 (citinjr authorities), 
t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL IX. pp. 268-269. 



OF NORTH CAEOLINA. 171 

pay him implicit obedience and treat him with a respect 
savouring of enthusiastic reverence. He received, among 
other of these graceless wretdies, the King's pardon for trea- 
sons and violences committed in the year 1768 ; and yet seems, 
like them, hardened rather than reclaimed, by His Majesty's 
most gracious indulgence." Hunter not only had the temer- 
ity to appear at court, but he also appeared in person before 
Governor Martin himself, when the latter passed through 
Guilford county in 1772.* Along with some other Regu- 
lators, he visited His Excellency to apply for a pardon, 
and seems to have made quite an impression upon the there- 
tofore irate Chief Executive. Somewhat more moderate is 
a second letter from Martin to Lord Hillsborough, giving an 
account of the interview, which says that he reprehended 
Hunter for his defiance of a Court of Justice by appearing 
in the face of it, while he stood in so criminal a state, with 
any other design than to render himself up. To this reproof, 
says Martin, Hunter submissively replied that, if he had 
offended by so doing, it was innocently and ignorantly, and 
that he heartily asked pardon for it. After his observations 
concerning Hunter, Governor Martin sets forth a scathing 
arraignment of the county officers, saying that his progress 
through the scenes of the recent disturbances had completely 
opened his eyes with reference to the ills to which the people 
had recently been subjected — that now he could clearly see 
that they had been provoked by the insolence and oppression 
of a set of mercenary attorneys, clerks and other petty officers, 
who first brought down upon themselves the resentment of 
the inhabitants, and then worked up the government in their 

* Colonial Recorda of N. a. Vol. DC. pp. 818, 829. 



172 GOVEENOR TRYON 

own defense by representing that the vengeance which the 
wretched people, in folly and madness, aimed at their oppres- 
sors, was directed against the constitution or government itself. 
Martin adds that since becoming acquainted with the barba- 
rism and profound ignorance of these oppressed and wretched 
people, all of his indignation had been melted into pity. 

In December, 1771, the Assembly petitioned Governor 
Martin to grant a general pardon to all persons concerned in 
the recent insurrection, except Hermon Husband, Rednap 
Howell, and William Butler, whose crimes the petitioners 
declared were too atrocious to merit any degree of lenity. 
This pardon would cover many exceptions at first made, 
including James Hunter (who commanded the Regulators at 
Alamance after Husband's flight), and also the nine men 
engaged in the "gimpow^der plot," by which (General Waddell's 
ammunition was destroyed. Colonel Moses Alexander, of 
Mecklenburg, had interested himself in behalf of those last 
mentioned, who were: James White, junior, James Ashmore, 
Joshua Hadley, Robert Davis, Benjamin Cochrane, William 
White, William White, junior, John White, and Robert 
Caruthcrs. Though willing that a general pardon should 
issue, Governor Martin did not think he had power to grant 
it, but laid the matter before the home government, with a 
recommendation for favorable action.* In reply, Lord Hills- 
borough said that the King authorized the Provincial Assem- 
bly to pass an act of grace,* suspending proceedings till His 
Majesty's pleasure should be known to the contrary. 

To what has been said of James Hunter, some additional 
remarks may be made. In August, 1775, it was rumored 

•Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. IX, pp. 67. 68-69. 98, 169, 172, 276. 



OF NORTH CAEOLINA. 173 

that he would bring an armed force against the Provincial 
(Congress at Hillsborough, but no such movement was at- 
tempted.* In February, 1776, he was one of those whom 
Governor Martin authorized to enlist Loyalists for the Cross 
Creek rendezvous. This, in itself, would not stamp Mr. 
Hunter as a Tory ; for, in the same manifesto were named 
several prominent Whigs, either for the purpose of winning 
them over to the Royal standard or injuring their influence 
with the Americans by exciting suspicion against them. 
Hunter^s name, however, does appear along with that of Par- 
son Micklejohn and others of the same vicinity, in a list of 
prisoners paroled by the Provincial Congress at Halifax 
(April, 1776), and ordered to the eastern part of the State, 
where their influence would not be felt.f Whether Hunter 
went, however, is doubtful, for, on September 6, 1776, he 
took the oath of allegiance to North Carolina.:): 

It had doubtless been agreed by the State authorities that 
Hunter should be allowed to remain neutral; for, in Sep- 
tember, 1780, when drafted into the army, he refused to 
serve. Thereupon the Sheriff levied upon his property ; and, 
with six thousand pounds (in the plentiful paper currency 
of that day) employed a substitute to act in his stead. At 
the next session of the Assembly, in 1781, Hunter peti- 
tioned for redress, which was granted in a joint resolution 
ordering "that the Sheriff of Guilford county be and lie is 
hereby directed to refund to James Hunter, of said county, 
all the effects and moneys levied upon ****** for the 
purpose of hiring a substitute," etc.§ 

* Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, VoL I, pp. 261-262. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL X. p. 560. 

} Colonial Records of N. C. VoL X. p. 826. 

9 State Records of N. C. VoL XVII, pp. 644, 726, 786. 



174 (K)VERNOE TEYON 

Hunter's two old associates, John and Daniel Gillespie, 
rendered the State faithful service, as did also Thomas Per- 
son, though the last named Regulator was not among those 
arrayed at Alamance. With these exceptions, nearly all the 
old Regulators who later engaged in the Revolution were 
Loyalists. 

Time and again has the statement been made that the Revo- 
lutionary patriot. General Jolm Butler, of North Carolina, 
was a Regulator. This is a mistake, probably due to confus- 
ing his name with that of his brother William. The latter 
was a Regulator and a very pronounced one. With John, 
however, the case was different. He was one of the witnesses 
for the prosecution when the Regulators were indicted at 
Jfew Bern ;* and, shortly after the battle of Alamance, we 
find him petitioning for the pardon of his brother, as one who 
he said was "very sensible of his folly, and who sincerely 
promised never to be of such a riotous party again. "f Had 
John been a Regulator, it is probable that he would have 
realized that his intercession would not favorably influence 
the Governor. William Butler himself declared : "It is with 
the utmost abhorrence that I reflect on the proceedings of the 
people formerly called Regulators, being fully convinced that 
the principles which they espoused are erroneous, and there- 
fore most sincerely promise never to engage in the like again." 
If we may judge by the wording of their petitions, all the 
Regulators were penitent enough after the battle. But they 
should not be too harshly criticised on account of this sudden 
change of front ; for, though Satan is authority for the state- 

• Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. Vm. p. 682. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. IX. pp. 99-100. 



OF NOBTH CAKOLINA. 176 

ment, it is too often true that "all that a man hath will he 
give for his life." Then, too, the fact that the families of 
many were reduced to want by their absence, no doubt had a 
powerful influence in bringing the Regulators to seek pardon. 
This is shown by many of their petitions, including that of 
William Butler. 

About the beginning of the Revolution the Regulators re- 
ceived all sorts of pardons from all sorts of sources — from the 
King, the Royal Grovernor, and the rebel Congresses (both (Con- 
tinental and Provincial). Each of the contending coimtries 
was graciously moved to overlook their past misconduct, if 
they would only prove by their deeds that they were worthy of 
forgiveness. On the 3d of May, 1775, Lord Dartmouth 
wrote from the Court of St. James to Governor Martin that 
the addresses to the King from the North Carolina counties 
of Guilford, Dobbs, Rowan and Surry, breathed such loyalty 
and attachment to Great Britain that royal clemency would 
soon be extended to all of the old Regulators except Hermon 
Husband.* Tlie promised pardon was later issued in due 
form. The petition from Guilford, mentioned in Dart- 
mouth's letter, was headed by the name of John Field, and 
the one from Rowan and Surry (these two counties jointly) 
by Samuel Bryan — both Loyalists in the Revolution, and one 
(Bryan) sentenced to death for high treason in 1782, though 
afterwards pardoned and exchanged. On the address from 
Dobbs county the name of Joseph Taylor, junior, comes first; 
but on none of these petitions are the lists of subscribers given. 
Dartmouth also said in his letter that, if war came, it would 
be politic for Governor Martin to hold out encouragement to 

*Coloniml Records of N. C. VoL DC. pp. 1127, 1160, 1161. 124L 



176 GOVEBNOB TBYON 

the Regulators by issuing military commissions to the lead- 
ing men among them.* Before receiving this communica- 
tion, Martin had written His Lordship that if the King him- 
self pardoned the Eegulators it would have a better effect than 
if he allowed the North Carolina Assembly to do so. If the 
Assembly issued the pardon, the Governor said, it would 
diminish the credit which would go to the Grown in conse- 
quence of this act of magnanimity.f But the Whigs of 
North Carolina were bent on showing the Regulators that the 
King was not tlie only pardon-granting institution in exist- 
ence; so, when the Provincial Congress met at Hillsborough 
in August, 1775, a committee was appointed to quiet their 
fears by assuring them that they would be protected if Great 
Britain should attempt to harm them.:|: Protection promised 
from such a source against such a power as the forces of King 
George no doubt seemed ludicrous in the extreme. The Con- 
tinental Congress later employed missionaries to ease the 
"tender consciences" of the Regulators by absolving them 
from their allegiance. On the above committee from the Pro- 
vincial Congress at Hillsborough were several of Tryon's old 
officers whom the Regulators had good cause to hate — Maurice 
Moore, Richard Caswell, and others. One old Regulator, 
Thomas Person, also served as a member of this committee, 
but was in a hopeless minority. Had he then been able to 
engage the influence of James Hunter (who later came over to 
the American side), and that of a few other leaders of the 
revolt of 1771, the movement might have met with better suc- 
cess. As it was, the Regulators pondered a while over their 

•Colonial Records of N. C. VoL DC, p. 1241. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. IX. p. 1258. 
I Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. X, p. 169. 



OF NOETH CAROLINA. 177 

embarrassment of riches, in the way of pardons, and then 
came to the worldly-wise conclusion that the battle would be 
won by the strong, so sided with King George and Governor 
Martin. Later their judgment was destined to be rudely 
shaken. 

Next to the recently arrived Scottish Highlanders — includ- 
ing many who had survived the carnage of Oulloden — ^the 
Regulators were Governor Josiah Martin's main reliance 
during the Revolution. The very word Regulator became a 
synonym for Tory. As to the Highlanders, loyalty was a 
part of their very being ; in fact, their so-called rebellions in 
Scotland had been nothing more than ultra-loyalty to a race 
of monarchs whose right to the throne, so far at least as 
heredity counts, all must admit. 

When General Donald McDonald began his movements in 
1776 for re-establishing royal rule, the Regulators were 
prompt to co-operate with him. On the other hand, those 
North Carolina troops who opposed him were commanded 
by Brigadier-General James Moore, a veteran of the Ala- 
mance campaign, who had fought under Tryon. Moore, how- 
ever, was not personally present when the Royalists were 
finally intercepted, as it had been uncertain where the fight 
would occur. But many of the oflScers in his command — 
as C5olonels Richard Caswell of Dobbs, Alexander Lillington 
of New Hanover, John Hinton of Wake, and others — ^had 
also received their first lessons in war while serving under 
Tryon ; and for a second time they conquered the Regulators, 
in a battle fought on the 27th of February, 1776, at Moore's 
Creek Bridge. 

Colonel William Purviance, an officer in the American 



> • 



178 OOVEBNOB TRYON 

service, reported in February, 1776, that there were not two 
hundred old Regulators in the army under McDonald.* But 
if they were not there then, they came later ; and many, who 
were on their way to join the Royal standard, turned back 
when they heard how the battle had gone. In April, 1776, 
a committee was appointed by the State to look into the cases 
of prisoners who had been taken.f In this list, though a 
large majority are Highlanders, we find many names which 
look strangely familiar to those who have studied the history 
of the Regulators. There are the names of Devinney, Field, 
York, and others. Devinney, who had formerly been fined 
and imprisoned for his violence when a Regulator, now had to 
answer the charge of belonging to a party of Tories by whom 
Captain Dent was shot. William Field was once a member 
of some sort of court, instituted in 1770-'71 by the R^ula- 
tors, which sentenced George Mabry to exile unless he should 
pay a disputed debt, and which also enforced said sentence by 
a threat to whip Mabry and bum his home if he failed to leave 
the colony. Now Field had been captured while "Colonel of 
a Division" in the Royalist forces.:]: He violated his "solemn 
assurances" to the Whig government that he would remain 
neutral, though possibly he was one of those too conscientious 
to violate the oath Tryon forced on the Regulators. With 
him, as prisoners, were his three brothers: Robert (captain 
of a company of sixty men), Joseph (a lieutenant), and Jere- 
miah. One of these, Jeremiah, had been spokesman of the 
mob which broke up the court that Judge Henderson was hold- 
ing at Hillsborough in 1770. As William and Jeremiah were 

* Colonial Records of N. C, Vol. X. pp. 465^468. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL X, pp. 6d8-«08. 84L 
t Colonial Recozda of N. C. Vol. X. pp. 1018-1019. 



• • • 



OF NOBTH CABOLINA. 179 

with Comwallis at Yorktown, they seem to have gotten back 
into the British service after their first capture. Among the 
"Lamentations of Jeremiah," after the war, was the asser- 
tion that he had fought twice — once for his country and once 
for his King — had been beaten both times, and would fight 
no more.* The Yorks, too, had been prominent Regulators, 
and one of them, Robinson, is said to have been "clerk" of the 
mock court which made the famous docket entries at Hills- 
borough in 1770. Now, he and Seymore York, probably his 
brother, had been locked up by the Whigs because each was 
commanding a company of Loyalists. Robinson, when sent 
a prisoner to Maryland, broke jail in September, 1776, and, 
in the advertisement for his recapture, he was described as 
having "red hair, curled on his neck, remarkable large lips, 
and bad teeth," and as being "a very chattering fellow." 
Lyman York was another captain in the royal service, f 

When the Regulators were repairing to McDonald's ren- 
dezvous at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), one prophetic in- 
dividual wrote from New Bern: "An express arrived here 
yesterday from the back country, informing us that the Regu- 
lators and Tories were making head there, and intended 
marching to Cross Creek, and from thence to Cape Fear. I 
am of opinion they will get well flogged before they reach 
Cape Fear, provided they will fight.":]: And well flogged they 
were — so well that when the British invasion of 1781 was in 
progress, Comwallis was much disheartened at the small 
number of Regulators which turned out at his call. From 
His Lordship's own pen (April 10, 1781) we have the state- 

* Life of Caldwell by Caruthera. p. 177. 

t Sabine's American Loyalists (1864 edition). Vol H. pp. 468-464. 

t Colonial Records of N. C. Vol. X. p. 462. 



180 OOVEBNOB TBYON 

ment: "Many of the inhabitants rode into camp, shook me 
by the hand, said they were glad to see us and to hear that 
we had beat Greene, and then rode home again. I could not 
get 100 men in all the Regulators' country to stay with us, 
even as militia."* Like their compatriot, Jeremiah Field, 
these people probably knew when they were beaten enough. 

Before leaving this subject, let us see how the movement, 
culminating in the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, was 
viewed in Great Britain. An old English publication, the 
Annual Register, for 1776, in giving an account of this cam- 
paign, says: "The connection he [Governor Josiah Martin] 
had formed with a body of desperate people, lately consid- 
ered rebels to the King's government, now equally enemies 
to the provincial establishment, whom we have frequently 
had occasion to take notice of under the name of Regulators, 
as well as the Highland emigrants, seemed to insure the re- 
duction of the insurgents, even independent of the expected 
force [from Ireland]. That Colony [North Carolina] was 
deemed the weakest in America, except Georgia ; and the two 
parties we have mentioned were numerous, active, daring; 
and the former were at this time, as well as [were] the latter, 
zealously attached to the royal cause. The Highlanders were 
considered as naturally war-like, and the Eegulators, from 
situation, habits, and manner of living, to be much bolder, 
hardier, and better marksmen than those who had been bred 
to other courses, and in more civilized parts of the country." 
This same account later says: "The provincial parties were 
so close in the pursuit, and so alert in cutting the country and 
seizing the passes, that M'Donald at length found himself 

*Clinton-Ck>rnwalli8 Contxovenor (1888 edition). Vol. I. pp. 896-897. 



OF NOBTH CAEOLINA. 181 

under a necessity of engaging a Colonel Caswell, who, with 
about a thousand militia and minute men, had taken posses- 
sion of a place called Moore's Greek Bridge, where they had 
thrown up an intrenchment. The royalists were by all ac- 
counts much superior in number, having been rated from 
3,000 to 1,500, which last number M'Donald, after the action, 
acknowledged them to be. The emigrants began the attack 
with great fury ; but M'Leod, the second in command, and a 
few more of the bravest officers and men, being killed at the 
first onset, they suddenly lost all spirit, fled with the utmost 
precipitation, and, as the provincials say, deserted their Gen- 
eral, who was taken prisoner, as were nearly all their leaders, 
and the rest totally broken and dispersed. This victory was 
a matter of great exultation to the Carolinians. They had 
shewn that their province was not so weak as was imagined ; 
for though their force actually in the engagement was not 
considerable, they had raised 10,000 men in about ten days. 
But what was still more flattering, and, perhaps, not of less 
real importance, they had encountered Europeans (who were 
supposed to hold them in the most sovereign contempt, both 
as men and as soldiers) in the field, and defeated them with 
an inferior force. If the zeal of these people could have 
been kept dormant until the arrival of the force from Ireland, 
it seems more than probable that the Southern colonies would 
have considerably felt the impression of such an insurrection. 
But now their force and spirits were so entirely broken, their 
leaders being sent to different prisons, and the rest stripped of 
their arms and watched with all the eyes of distrust, that 
no future effort could be reasonably expected of them."* 

* Annual Reffister for 1776^ star-iMiffes 156^168. 



182 OOVBBNOB TBYON 

Among the number of Highland settlers at Cross Creek 
was Flora McDonald, the Scottish heroine, who had axjcom- 
panied her husband to America. 

One North Carolina officer who personally participated in 
the Moore's Creek campaign was Nathaniel Rochester, for 
whom the city of Rochester, in New York, was afterwards 
named. In an autobiography, Rochester says: "On our ar- 
rival about daybreak at Devo's Ferry, about 20 miles from 
Cross Creek, or headquarters, we met about 500 men with 
Gteneral McDonald on their retreat, they having been met 
and defeated at Moore's Creek Bridge by Colonel Caswell, 
commander of a regiment of minute men. ***** We 
took the 600 prisoners. Being, however, in a sparsely settled 
country, where provisions could not be obtained, I was obliged 
to discharge all but about fifty, who were appointed officers 
by McDonald, after swearing those discharged that they 
would not again take up arms against the United Colonies; 
notwithstanding which they did afterwards join Lord Com- 
wallis when he marched through North Carolina, * * * * 
They were sent under a guard as prisoners of war to Freder- 
ick Town, in Maryland, where they remained until exchanged. 
In disarming the prisoners at Devo's Ferry, the Scotch gave 
up their dirks with much reluctance, these having, as they 
said, been handed dovm from father to son for many gener- 
ations."* 

The brilliant achievement of the patriots at Moore's Creek 
Bridge was of such importance that more than four years 
elapsed before the Tories again made an organized stand on 
the soil of North Carolina ; and then, at Ramsour's Mill, on 



*See autobioflraphy of Rochester on p. 99 of "Fraffments of Revolutionary Hiatory." 
edited by GaiUard Hunt for the District of Columbia Society of Sons of the Revolution. 



OF NOBTH CABOLINA. 183 

the 20th of June, 1780, they were again badly beaten. 
Though we may be sure that the news of Moore's Creek waa 
not many weeks in reaching Old England, it has not even yet, 
it seems, reached some of the people of New England; for 
the Massachusetts statesman, Honorable George F. Hoar, con- 
temptuously intimated in the United States Senate,* on the 
5th of January, 1901, while engaged in a debate, that this 
was a battle of which he had never heard ! As a matter of 
fact, the number of men engaged at Moore's Creek Bridge 
was more than double the entire forces present at both of the 
world-famous battles of Lexington and Concord, in Senator 
Hoar's own State; and, unlike the two Massachusetts fights, 
Moore's Creek was a great victory for the Americans. 

What has been said in this chapter concerning the part 
borne by the Regulators in the Revolution is not simply for 
the purpose of casting reproach upon them. Though too 
many of them were animated by personal hatred of the Whig 
leaders and fear of Great Britain, some, no doubt, sincerely 
believed in the righteousness of the Royal cause and so deemed 
themselves justified in pursuing the course they did. Many 
men remained loyal from conscientious motives. But as it 
is so often said and reiterated that the Regulators "began the 
Revolution," truth demands evidence to show which side they 
espoused in that war. 

It is proper to add that when Governor Martin ordered a 
rally of the royal forces just prior to the battle of Moore's 
Creek Bridge, he included in his commission some members 
of the American party, among whom were Paul Barringer 
of Mecklenburg, Philemon Hawkins, senior, and Philemon 

* Coiiffressioiial Record. VoL 84, Part I, p. 689. 



184 OOVSBNOB TBYON 

Hawkins, junior, of Bute, and possibly others. Of the three 
just mentioned. Governor Swain, in one of his published 
addresses, says : "These gentlemen were sturdy and well-tried 
Whigs throughout the Revolutionary War. Governor Martin 
may have been misinformed in relation to them, or may have 
inserted their names in order to render them objects of sus- 
picion, and strip them of their influence among the Whigs. 
***** Similar injustice may possibly have been done 
to others."* 

Many surmises and speculations have been made as to why 
nearly all of the Regulators became Tories. Some of their 
defenders say it was because they were too conscientious to 
violate the oath of allegiance they had been compelled to take 
after the battle of Alamance. But this belief is diflScult to 
accept. They were not superior in morals to the great pa- 
triots of the Revolution, many of whom — Washington in- 
cluded — ^had held military commissions and civil offices prior 
to the war and, hence, had sworn allegiance to the King. The 
real causes of the disaffection of the Regulators were hatred to 
the Revolutionary patriots who had defeated them at Ala- 
mance and fear of Great Britain. The ablest defense of the 
Regulators ever written is from the pen of the great North 
Carolina historian. Honorable William L. Saunders, LL. D.f 
That writer, in part, says: "The famous Hillsborough Pro- 
vincial Congress in 1776 made haste on the first day of its 
session to resolve that the Regulators who broke their oaths 
ought to be protected from punishment therefor, and ap- 
pointed Caswell, Moore, Patillo, and others, a conmiittee to 

* Hawks. Graham, and Swain Lectures on the Revolutionary History of North CazoUna, 
p. 117. note. 
t Colonial Records of N. C. VoL Vm. Pr^atory N0U9, p. zxxiv. 



OF NOETH CAROLINA. 185 

persuade them that they ought to break them — Caswell, 
whose bayonets had forced the oaths dovm their throats; 
Patillo, who, with the other Presbyterian pastors in the 
province, had addressed a laudator^' letter to Tryon and a 
denunciatory one to their congregations about the crime of 
being a Eegulator ; and Moore, who had been on a court that 
convicted twelve of the Regulators of treason and sentenced 
them to death !" This quotation from Saimders will form the 
basis of a true analysis. It was largely to pay old scores that 
the Regulators became Tories. Then, too, there was another 
cause, as given by the earliest Tennessee historian, Judge 
John Haywood, a native of North Carolina, who says that 
fear of British authority made them Tories ; and the writings 
of Judge Haywood certainly do not display any love for 
Tryon or the civil oflScers under his administration which 
might prejudice him against the Regulators. Probably the 
best summing up of the whole movement was that written in 
October, 1780, by John Adaitis, of Massachusetts, while 
Minister to Holland.* Adams says: "There were some 
warm disputes in North Carolina concerning some of the 
internal regulations of the province ; and a small number of 
people in the back parts rose in arms, imder the name of Regu- 
lators, against the government Governor Tryon marched 
at the head of some troops drawn from the militia, gave battle 
to the Regulators, defeated them, hanged some of their ring- 
leaders, and published proclamations against many others. 
These people were all treated as having been in rebellion, 
and they were left to solicit pardon of the Crown. This 
established in the minds of those Regulators such a hatred 

* See Life and Works of John Adams, VoL VII. p. 284. 



186 OOVEBNOB TBYON 

towards the rest of their fellow citizens, that in 1776, when 
the war broke out, they would not join with them. The King 
has since promised them pardon for their former treasons 
upon the condition that they commit fresh ones against 
their country. ***** In conjunction with a number of 
Scotch Highlanders they rose ; and Governor Caswell marched 
against them, gave them battle, and defeated them. This 
year they have risen again, and been again defeated. But 
these people are so few in number, and there is so much ap- 
parent malice and revenge, instead of any principle, in their 
disaffection, that any one who knows anything of the human 
heart will see that, instead of finally weakening the cause in 
North Carolina, it will only serve to give a keenness and an 
obstinacy to those who support it." 

Some writers say that those who resisted the Stamp Act 
and those who rose up as Regulators were alike, in that both 
movements were against British oppression. But exactly 
wherein the British — either King or Parliament — ^had any- 
thing to do with alleged irregularities of county officials in 
the backwoods of North Carolina is difficult to see. The 
abuses which caused the Regulators to rise were no more 
attributable to the King or government of Great Britain than 
to the Shah of Persia or the Holy Roman Empire. On the 
other hand, the Stamp Act came from the highest legislative 
authority of Great Britain. Nor did the people of Cape 
Fear, in 1766, seek to substitute anarchy for the administra- 
tion of the laws of the colony, even though they did tempo- 
rarily coop up the Governor and bully a few Crown officials. 
Some also there are who say that the Regulators slain at 
Alamance were the first martyrs of the Revolution; if this 
be true, they were very different in principles from those who 



OF NOETH CABOLINA. 187 

survived the battle, for, as has already been shown, the sur- 
vivors were among the most bitter enemies of the Revolu- 
tionary movement. 

In polities, religions, irreligious, and manias the Regu- 
lators were quite variable. Accordingly as the whim moved 
them, they praised the reigning monarch as the best of rulers, 
or drank: "Damnation to King George and success to the 
Pretender." They foimd fault with Judges Moore and Hen- 
derson because they were "not appointed by the King." To 
Governor Martin, in 1772, they made "the most solemn protes- 
tation of their innocence and abhorrence of the design to sub- 
vert the government" One of their principal written agree- 
ments began : "Being conscious of our loyalty to King George 
the Third, on the present throne, and our firm attachment to 
the present establishment and form of government," etc.* 
If they themselves are to be believed, the Regulators had no 
quarrel in particular with Great Britain, yet Tryon was 
right when he said that, had they succeeded in the battle of 
Alamance, all law and order in North Carolina would have 
been at an end. 

At the time of their uprising all of the religious denomi- 
nations in the colony held the Regulators in the utmost abhor- 
rence. Yet not a few writers in more recent years have 
attempted to make it appear that they were a deeply religious 
set and only sided against America in the Revolution because 
they were too pious to violate the oaths of allegiance taken 
prior to the war. Caruthers, in his Life of Caldwell,jf says 
that they, for the most part, had been religiously educated and 

'Colonial Records of N. C. Vol Vm. pp. 246. 519; Ibid«. VoL DC. p. 829; Hoaband'a 
Book, reprinted in Wheeler's History of N. C Part U, p. 809. 
tUfe of Caldwell, pp. 115. 148. 



188 OOVBENOB TRYON 

taught to regard the Bible as a revelation from heaven. He 
also intimates that they were largely Presbyterians. Yet 
Tryon always spoke with gratitude of the aid afforded him 
by the Presbyterians, and quite a number of Presbyterian 
clergymen (including Doctor Caldwell himself) issued a 
pastoral letter to their flocks in 1768, saying that very few 
of their faith were engaged in the insurrection, but that to 
these — "who had been seduced from the peaceable deportment 
and loyalty of their profession and ancestry" — they would 
sound a note of warning. These same clergymen, in an ad- 
dress to Gk)vernor Tryon, on August 23, 1768, gave utterance 
to extravagant professions of loyalty, which need not be here 
quoted, and also say: "We humbly hope Your Excellency 
has found but a very small proportion of the people of our 
denomination among the present insurgents; and we assure 
you, sir, if any there are, they have departed from the inva- 
riable principles of their profession, which some, bred in the 
wilderness, for want of proper instruction, may be supposed 
ignorant of."* 

In endeavoring to prove that the Regulators were mostly 
Baptists, a great deal has also been written ; yet a noted Bap- 
tist divine, the Reverend Morgan Edwards, who passed 
through the scene of the then recent disturbances a little over 
a year after the battle of Alamance, says that he made it his 
business to inquire into the matter, and could aver that there 
were ordy seven Baptists in the entire movement, and these 
had every one been expelled from congregations to which they 
belonged in consequence of a resolve passed by the Baptist 
Association at Sandy Creek on the second Saturday in Octo- 

* Colonial Records of N. C. VoL VU, pp. 818-816. 



OF NORTH CASOLINA. 189 

ber, 1769, which said: "If any of our members shall take 
up arms against the legal authority, or aid and abet them that 
do so, he shall be excommunicated." Of the Regulators 
afterwards indicted, says tlie same authority, only one (Cap- 
tain Merrill) was a Baptist. Edwards also states that on one 
occasion an armed band of Regulators marched into a meet- 
ing of Baptists and threatened to disperse it in consequence 
of the passage of the above resolution.* 

Again, it has been said that many Quakers sympathized 
with the insurrectionists; yet Doctor Stephen B. Weeks, in 
his work on Soutliem Quakers and Slavery, ^[ quotes records 
to show that all Quakers were expelled from their societies 
who had anything to do with the movement — not only for 
joining the Regulators, but even for "aiding them," as in the 
case of one Humphrey Williams. 

The author of the present biography being of the Anglican 
"persuasion," and not a great admirer of the Regulators, has 
until recently rejoiced in the belief that no one ever charged 
members of the Church of England with being engaged in the 
outbreak, but this rejoicing is now turned into humiliation 
and sorrow ; for in the book written by Husband himself ij: is 
the statement : "We found our body to consist promiscuously 
of all sects, but the men who we put the most trust in were 
of the Church of England communion." 

In connection with that deeply religious character which 
the Regulators are supposed to have possessed, it is of interest 
to recall the entries on the docket-book in Hillsborough which 

* Morgan EklwardB, quoted in David Benedict's History of the Baptist Dencnnination in 
America {edition eft 813), VoL H, p. 116. 
r Southern Quakers and Slavery, pp. 182-188. 
t Reprinted in Wheeler's History of N. C, Put U, p. 816. 



190 GOVEBNOB TBYON 

they made when holding a mock court after driving out Judge 
Henderson at the September Term, 1770. One entry by 
them says: "The Elect pays cost" Another, in the suit of 
Isaiah Ilogan vs. Hermon Husband: "Hogan pays & be 
damned." On the case of John Mcllund vs. William Court- 
ney, is the remark : "Damned Rogues." In Michael Wilson 
vs. David Harris, appears the entry: "All Harrises are 
Rogues." In a judgment by default, in Sales Brown vs. 
William Lewis : "The Man is sick. It 'tis damned roguery." 
In Solomon Tur\'il vs. James Turvil, where an execution was 
levied on two negroes : "Xegroes not worth a dam. Cost ex- 
ceeds the whole." In Ezekiel Brumfield vs. James Ferrel, 
for slander, is the advice and charitable observation: "Let 
them agree, for Ferrel has gone Hell-ward." 

We are not advised of the religious denomination to which 
the parties belonged who made the above entries. They 
were probably not those religiously educated Presbyterians 
who had been taught to regard the Bible as a revelation from 
heaven, for they adjudged that the "elect" should pay the 
costs. And the phraseology employed does not bear any 
striking similitude to the dialect (so easily recognizable) 
which is used by the Society of Friends: hence it is prob- 
able that the Quakers did not do it, either. So it must have 
been the work of some members of the Church of England, 
or those seven excommunicated Baptists mentioned by Mor- 
gan Edwards. 

Upon Tryon's departure from New Bern, James Hasell, 
President of the Council, qualif.ed as Governor pro tempore 
(July 1, 1771). On August 11th the new Governor, Colonel 
Josiah Martin, arrived by sea from New York, after a pas- 
sage of nineteen days, and was sworn in on the day after his 



OF NOETH CAEOLINA. 191 

arrival. Tryon reached New York and had a consultation 
with Martin just before the latter set out for North Caro- 
lina.* Colonel Martin belonged to a very ancient English 
family, of Nonnan origin, whidi traced its descent from 
Martin of Tours, a general in the army of William the Con- 
queror. Like Tryon, Governor Martin was a soldier by pro- 
fession. He married his cousin, Elizabeth Martin, a daugh- 
ter of Josiah Martin, of Long Island, New York. One of the 
Governor's brothers was later created a baronet This 
was Sir Henry Martin, of Lock Inge, in Berkshire. The 
father of Sir Henry and Governor Martin lived for many 
years on the West Indian Island of Antigua, and there the 
Governor was probably bom.f Some authorities state that 
Governor Martin died in New York. This is a mistake, 
probably caused by confusing him with his uncle or a rela- 
tive of the same name. 

On his way from England to North Carolina, the new 
Governor was taken sick in New York, and bitterly com- 
plained in a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough of being unable 
to proceed to the government with which he had been en- 
trusted, in time to share the dangers of the war there exist- 
ing.:!: Ultimately, however, he was rather friendly to the 
Regulators. The historian Williamson ascribes this to jeal- 
ousy. That writer says : "Martin sickened at the praises of 
Tryon. He had little reason to expect that his own achieve- 
ments would ever swell the trump of fame. He could hardly 
rise to the standard of Tryon, but he might possibly reduce 
the character of Tryon, in the province, to his own level. 

* Colonial Recoida of N. C, Vol. IX. pp. 8, 9, '15-17. 
tBethun's Baronetage. Vol. IV. pp. 21(>-2U. 
X Colonial Records of N. a. Vol. IX. pp. 18-17. 



192 OOVEBNOB TBYON 

The man who scatters censure is sure to please the ignorant 
and the disappointed. He takes the beaten road to popu- 
larity. It may be trodden without the aid of virtue or tal- 
ents."* 

If such ungenerous feelings as those suggested by William- 
son indeed found place in Martin's bosom, it is certain he 
concealed them under a polite exterior, for never did he men- 
tion Tryon in his letters save with respect. Nor, in those 
letters, did he ever attribute to his predecessor aught but 
credit for the Alamance campaign, though he severely de- 
nounced the extortionate county oflScials, who, he said, stirred 
up the trouble. 

One thing seems certain, however, that the North Carolina 
Assembly always looked with far more favor upon Tryon than 
upon Martin. As late as December, 1773, when desiring to 
have an important measure laid before the King, the Assembly 
passed a resolution entirely ignoring their own Governor and 
ordering that a committee "do address His Excellency, Wil- 
liam Tryon, Esquire, the present Governor of New York, 
who, happily for this country, for so many years presided over 
it, and of whose good intentions to its welfare we feel the 
fullest conviction ; that they forward to him our dutiful ad- 
dress to His Majesty, and request that he should be pleased 
to convey the same to our most gracious sovereign, support 
our earnest solicitations with his interest and influence, and 
that he accept of this important trust as a testimony of the 
great affection this colony bears him, and the entire confidence 
they repose in him." Governor Martin was cut to the quick 
by this insult, yet preserved his temper under the provoca- 
tion with more than ordinary grace. Concerning the Assem- 

* WiUifunaon'a History of N. C. Vol. II. p. 168. 



OF KOBTH OABOLINA. 19S 

bly and its action, he wrote Lord Hillsborough a letter saying: 
"I am glad, with all my heart, that their evil dispositions 
towards me have drawn upon my friend Governor Tryon a 
compliment and mark of confidence to which his services in 
this country so greatly entitle him. It is a real mitigation of 
the pain I have felt from the wound given me, through him, 
that his merits are illustrated by it; and it is my sufficient 
consolation that I have been assured that all but the imme- 
diate contrivers of it look back with shame and indignation 
to the unmerited insult in which they blindly concurred."* 

Strange as it may now seem, North Carolina was a more 
populous colony than New York in 1771. Indeed, so late as 
1790, when the first official census was compiled. North Caro- 
lina had 393,751 inhabitants, while New York had only 
340,120. Nor do these figures include Tennessee as a 
part of North Carolina. Only two States, Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, then exceeded North Carolina in population. 
By the most recent census (1900), North Carolina drops 
down to the fifteenth place, yet ranks ahead of Virginia, and 
has more than twice the population of any State in New 
England except Massachusetts; while Tennessee (North Caro- 
lina's daughter), which had only 35,791 inhabitants by the 
census of 1790, contains a greater population, by the census 
of 1900, than either North Carolina cr Virginia. 

Not only was North Carolina more populous than New 
York in 1771, but the Governor's salary in the former seems 
to have been larger, while the Palace at New Bern was the 
most elegant structure in America. All this being true, it 
is somewhat strange that Tryon should have preferred the 

'Colonial Raeordi of N. C. VoL IX. pp. 787, 800. 



194 OOVBBNOB TBTON 

northern colony. If he foresaw, in even a small degree, its 
future greatness, it speaks well for his sagacity. 

On July 9, 1771, two days after his arrival in New York, 
Tryon was sworn in as Governor. His predecessor in that 
office was a Scottish nobleman of the House of Murray, whom 
one Revolutionary poet, no respecter of persons, has described 



That Billy old fellow, much noted of yore. 

And known by the name of John, Earl of Dunmore. 



» 



Lord Dunmore had been Governor of New York for a very 
brief period (since October 19, 1770), and left that province 
to become Governor of Vir^nia, where he remained until 
the war put an end to Royal authority. He seems to have 
been transferred f i-om the Governorship of New York to that 
of Virginia against his will, as he endeavored to persuade 
Tryon to exchange governments with him, which arrangement 
had been authorized by the King, if agreeable to both parties. 
Tryon, however, preferred New York, and was sworn in 
accordingly.* Next the members of the Council qualified, 
and a procession was formed which proceeded in state to the 
Town Hall, where the appointment of the new Governor was 
formally proclaimed to the multitude. 

* Documents Relatiiiflr to the Colonial History of the Stmte of New York. VoL Vm, p. 278. 



OF NORTH CABOLINA. 195 



GHAPTEK IX. 

OBSERVATIONS OX TRYON'S CAREER IN REVOLUTION—MAJOR- 
GENERAL OF LOYALISTS, AND LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
AFTER RETURN TO ENGLAND— TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARAC- 
TER BY JUDGE JONES, OF NEW YORK— DEATH-— OBITUARY 
IN GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE— BURIED IN FAMILY VAULT 
AT TWICKENHAM— HIS WILL AND THAT OF HIS WIFE- 
CONCLUSION. 

As this narrative is limited to Xorth Carolina, it leaves 
untold some of the most momentous events of Tryon's life. 
At first it was the author's purpose to follow him through 
the years he ruled New York, to tell of the rupture with 
Great Britain, and to place on record the part he bore as a 
Major-General in command of American Loyalists, when 
vainly endeavoring to re-establish Royal rule. But on second 
consideration it has been deemed preferable simply to devote 
a few concluding remarks to his administration in the more 
northern province, and let a detailed account await the pen 
of some New Yorker, "native and to the manner bom." That 
writer, if the task be undertaken, should bring to his work a 
generous appreciation of the circumstances by which Gov- 
ernor Tryon was beset. He was an Englishman, not an 
American, and should not be harshly criticised for refusing 
to turn against a monarch who had twice confided to him 
the government of important provinces. 

In a private letter to the author of this present work, a 
distinguished North Carolina lawyer writes: "Tryon has 
been the worst misrepresented man in our history." This is 
too true; nor has misrepresentation been confined to North 
Carolina. In New York as well, his years of toil in the 



196 GOVBBNOB TBYON 

upbuilding of that province have been to a large extent lost 
sight of, while the minutest details of his hostility are cher- 
ished and exaggerated. Do we ever stop to think that Tryon 
committed no act during the entire Revolution which did not 
have its counterpart in the warfare carried on by Americans ? 
Historians aver that he attempted to kill or capture General 
Washington, and therefore denounce him as a savage, as if 
war could exist without such methods. Indeed, Washington 
himself was none the less a savage; for, while writing to 
Richard Henry Lee, on December 26, 1775, concerning the 
Loyalist Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, he said: *T[ 
do not think that forcing His Lordship on shipboard is suf- 
ficient ; nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will 
secure peace to Virginia."* Did Tryon bum and destroy 
in his Connecticut expeditions? Yes, but the Americans 
were no better in dealing with their enemies. In both New 
York and New England it was nothing unusual for the homes 
of Loyalists to be burned. Nor can North Carolina or Vir- 
ginia cast the first stone at Tryon for warfare of this char- 
acter. In January, 1776, when Norfolk, in the latter State, 
had been partly burned by the British, the Virginia House 
of Burgesses authorized Colonel Robert Howe, of the North 
Carolina Continentals (afterwards a Major-General), to bum 
up the Tory section of the town. This he accordingly did, 
and afterwards was honored with an official vote of thanks 
by the Virginia Convention for his services to that provinocf 
Indeed, the history of war, in all times, is more or less a 
record of devastation and smoking ruins. We read, in the 
one authority worthy of all credence, how Samson caught 

* WrftinffB of Washinjrton (1887 edition). Vol. m. p. 216. 
t Jonee'B Defence of North Carolina, p. 242, 9t mq. 



OF NOBTH OABOLINA. 197 

three hundred foxes, put fire to their tails, and sent the 
affrighted incendiaries scampering through the cornfields of 
the Phillistines. Then, passing over the succeeding ages and 
coming nearer home, it is not pleasant to scrutinize too closely 
our "domestic infelicity'* of 1861-'65. When Sheridan laid 
waste the Valley of the Shenandoah, and then boasted that a 
crow would starve in attempting to fly over it without carry- 
ing a supply of rations, little praise was accorded him by 
inhabitants of Virginia. When Sherman made his famous 
march to the sea, and burned more houses in a day than Tryon 
did in a life-time, it is equally true that very few of the poems 
and songs, commemorative thereof, were the products of 
Southern bards. When the city of Chambersburg was sent 
up in smoke by Confederate troops under General Early, it 
was not considered a very commendable exploit by the people 
of Pennsylvania. Yet Sheridan, and Sherman, and Early, 
all find favor with historians of their respective sections. 
And as to Samson — ^well, it is neither necessary nor profitable 
to discuss that gentleman's military record, for foxes are too 
few ever again to be employed with any degree of success in 
the warfare of nations. 

As every well-equipped representative of royalty is sup- 
posed to be provided with an hereditary title, the historical 
writers of both North Carolina and New York have seen to 
it that Governor Tryon shall not be lacking in this respect. 
Sometimes they give him the honor of knighthood, as Sir 
William Tryon; others confer upon him a baronetcy, as Sir 
William Tryon, Baronet ; and occasionally he is even elevated 
to the peerage, as Lord Tryon! If King George had con- 
ferred all these splendid honors upon the Governor during his 
life-time it would have been very flattering to the latter's 



198 OOVBENOB TBYON 

vanity; but, unfortunately for Tryon, peerages and other 
titles emanating from American historians and pamphleteers 
have never been officially recognized by the House of Lords 
or His Majesty's College of Arms. 

Tryon remained nominally Governor of New York until 
March 22, 1780, when James Robertson qualified as his suc- 
cessor by appointment from the King. Of course neither 
Tryon nor Robertson was recognized by the State after its 
independent government had been established. The name 
of Governor Tryon appears at the head of the list of names 
enumerated in the confiscation acts of both North Carolina 
and New York, and the counties of Tryon in these States 
were expunged from the map. Shortly after relinquishing 
the government of New York, he sailed for England, where 
he finally rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General. 

Among the Loyalists Tryon had his enemies as well as 
among the Whigs, yet many of the former were his devoted 
friends. Judge Thomas Jones, the Loyalist historian of 
New York, was one of his admirers, and writes of him thus : 
**He was beloved, esteemed, and almost adored by the people 
in the colony. While Governor he heard all complaints with 
the utmost patience. His ears were always open, as well to 
the poor as to the rich ; he was easy of access ; he refused ad- 
mittance to no man; he was kind, charitable, himiane, and 
benevolent; had ever the good of his country at heart; de- 
spised, abhorred, and abominated all kind of peculation; he 
never did a mean act while Governor of the colony ; he was 
universally looked upon as a brave soldier, an honest man, 
and a good Christian."* 

* Histxny of New York, by Judge Thomaa Jonee. VoL I. p. 166. Judge Jones wm an 
American Loyalist and died in 1792. but his work was not published till 1879. 



OP NORTH OASOLINA. 199 

The death of Governor Tryon occurred in London, at his 
house on Upper Grosvenor Street, January 27, 1788. In the 
Oentlemans Magazine, for February of that year, appeared 
the following obituary : 

Died. — ^At his home in Upper Grosvenor sir., sincerely lamented, 
Lieut.-General Tryon, Colonel of the 29th regiment of foot, late Governor 
of the province of New York, and commander in chief of his Majesty's 
forces there. His remains were deposited in the family vault at Twicken- 
ham. The importance of his character in the annals of this country pre- 
cludes the necessity of expatiating on the eminent services that distin- 
guished his life. Illustrious as a legislator, he suppressed the rising 
seeds of revolt in North Carolina, during the time of his administration 
in that province. Calmed to peace under his mild and beneficent sway, 
the people relinquished every other ambition than that of looking up 
with filial attachment to their friend and protector, whose jurisprudence 
breathed much of paternal tenderness, as of legislative authority. Called 
to the government of New York, a wider field of action opened to this 
accomplished statesman, whose superior powers of wisdom and philan- 
thropy were unceasingly exerted for the real welfare of the colonists. 
His princely munificence extended to the most inconsiderable of the 
people; and the heart- felt gratitude that pervaded every branch of the 
community will make the name of Tryon revered across the Atlantic 
while virtue and sensibility remain. In private life the benevolence of 
his heart corresponded with the endowments of his mind, diffusing hon- 
our and happiness in an extensive circle, and obtaining permanent ad- 
vantages for those who, being in early youth elected to his patronage, 
now live to pour the tear of sorrow over his honoured tomb. 

The passage in this obituary, telling how the Regulators 
were calmed to peace under Tryon's mild and beneficent sway, 
is calculated to provoke a smile; for it will be remembered 
that it was not mildness which broke up their revolt, nor was 
it beneficence. These means failed. Then the military 
power of North Carolina was employed, and proved more 
potent 



200 OOVSBNOB TBTON 

For interment the remains of Governor Tryon were carried 
to the burial-ground of the old parish church of St. Mary's 
in Twickenham, Middlesex, and deposited in an altar-tomb, 
where rest many other members of his family. On the top 
of this tomb are three inscriptions, which read : 

HERELIETH 

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 

SELINA, COUNTESS DOWAGER FERRERS, 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 

MARCH 2arH, 1762, 

IN THE SOth year OF HER AGE. 



HERE LIETH THE BODY 

OF THE 

HONOURABLE LADY MARY TRYON, 

WIDOW OF CHARLES TRYON, ESQ' 

OF BULWICK IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, 

AND DAUGHTER OF ROBERT, EARL FERRERS. 

SHE DIED MAY 17th, 1771, AGED 68. 



ALSO THE BODY 

OF 

LIEUT.-GENERAL WILLIAM TRYON, 

SON OF CHARLES TRYON OF NORTHAMPTON, ESQ' 

AND OF THE AFOREMENTIONED LADY MARY, 

LATE GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW 

YORK AND COLONEL OF THE 2»th REGIMENT OF FOOT, 

WHO DIED THE 27th OF JANUARY, 1788, 

AGED 68 YEARS. 






¦.'I'il I '. .! ? 






¦» . 



¦¦ '.\t'V. ^'IK. 






.1 ^ • - i li ; ;¦;•• ¦ i 

' :^ ')!¦ riw. .v: ¦ J".'";:; :(-\r:i) i,..r>v \fAhV. 

.' ¦ ¦¦ . : :'i ¦ ¦ •,»!¦' .JAN'.AKY. 17SS. 

¦« .• •¦.>:m;?>. 




r 






• * • 









OF NORTH CAROLINA. 201 

On a panel, on the south side of the tomb, is an inscription 
of which the following is a copy : 

HERE ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS 

OF 

MRS. MARGARET TRYON, 

LATE OF GREAT YARMOUTH IN THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK, 

RELICT OF THE AFOREMENTIONED LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 

WILLIAM TRYON, 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 16th DAY OF FEB^ 1819, 

IN THE 86th YEAJl OF HER AGE. 

On the north side is another panel, which contains two in- 
scriptions, as follows : 

HERE LIETH THE BODY 

OF 

MISS MARGARET TRYON, 

DAUGHTER OF THE LATE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 

TRYON AND MARGAJIET TRYON, 

WHO DIED JULY 28th, 1791. 

AGED 30 YEARS. 



ALSO OF 
MISS ANN TRYON, 
DAUGHTER OF THE LATE CHARLES TRYON, ESQ', 

AND OF 
LADY MARY TRYON OF BULWICK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, 

WHO DIED JULY IOth, 1822, 
AGED 82 YEARS. 



202 OOVBBNOB TBTON 

Though many other men of note (among them Alexander 
Pope) are interred near the last resting-place of Governor 
Tryon, the sepulchre of most interest to Americans is in a 
vault beneath the chancel of the adjoining church ; for there, 
unmarked by any memorial, lie the remains of the old cava- 
lier, Sir William Berkeley, sometime Governor of Virginia 
and one of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. There, too, 
rests the body of Lord John Berkeley, also one of the Carolina 
Proprietors and a brother of Sir William. Of the remains 
of Governor Berkeley a most remarkable circumstance is re- 
lated by the Reverend R. S. Cobbett, in his Memorials of 
Twickenham* while referring to the interment in St. Mary's 
Church of Admiral Byron (grandfather of Lord Byron), who 
died in 1786. This is to the effect that when the vault was 
opened the body of Sir William Berkeley was foimd lying on 
the ground without a coflSn, cased in lead exactly fitted to the 
shape of the body, showing the form of the features, hands, 
feet, and even nails. The lead appeared to be beaten firmly 
over the body, which presented the appearance of a figure in 
armor. 

Though they were not contemporaries (Berkeley died before 
Tryon was born), it is a singular coincidence that these two 
old Governors of adjoining American colonies should, after 
years of turmoil and strife spent in the New World, be 
brought together in a quiet church-yard of their native Eng- 
land — 

"Among familiar names to rest, 
And in the places of their youth." 

(Jovemor Tryon has no lineal descendants now living, 
though at least two children were bom to him — one before 

* Memorials of Twickenliam. p. 87. 



OF NOKTH CAROLINA. 203 

he came to North Carolina, and the other after his arrival in 
the colony. In an old letter, so stained by age that it is 
almost illegible, written at Wilmington, North Carolina, 
by Mrs. John Burgwin, to her sister, Mrs. Hugh Waddell, on 
the 22d of November, 1768, I find the passage: "You no 
doubt heard long ago that Mrs. Tryon has a son." This little 
child is probably the same whose death Grovernor Tryon an- 
nounced to the Earl of Hillsborough on the Slst of Mardi, 
1769, saying: "I thank you, my Lord, for your communica- 
tion of the happy increase in Their Majesty's family by the 
birth of a princess, an intelligence that afforded me much 
satisfaction, though I received it while under affliction for the 
death of my own son." Margaret Tryon, daughter of the 
Governor, died unmarried at the age of thirty. She was born 
in the year 1761, before her father was sent to North Caro- 
lina. She was the young lady who made such a narrow 
escape from death by fire in New York, on December 29, 
1773, when the Governor's house, in Fort George, was acci- 
dentally burned. In this conflagration, it may be added, all 
of Tryon's private papers, which he had been years in accu- 
mulating, were destroyed.* The New York Assembly voted 
him five thousand pounds to indemnify this loss, but much of 
the property, particularly the papers, could not be replaced 
at any price. 

The last will and testament of Governor Tryon is now on 
file in the Principal Registry of the Probate, Divorce, and 
Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, in London, 
as is also that of his wife, Mrs. Margaret Tryon. Copies of 
these documents are now before me. The Governor, in his 

* Docoments Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York. VoL Vin. p. 407 



204 GOVEENOE TBYON 

will (executed November 21, 1Y8Y; probated Feljruary 21, 
1788) styles himself: "William Tryon, of Upper Grosvenor 
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, Lieutenant- 
General of His Majesty's Forces, and late Governor of the 
Province of New York, in North America." The will is a 
trifle too complicated in its terms and conditions to be here 
set forth. It disposes of an estate amounting to thousands 
of pounds, largely invested in stock of the Bank of England. 
Among the legatees are the testator's w^ife, Mrs. Margaret 
Tryon (also sole executrix) ; his daughter, Margaret Tryon; 
his four sisters, Ann, Mary, and Harriot Tryon, and Mrs. 
Sophia Bulstrode; his friends. Fountain Elwin, Robert 
Palmer, and Edmund Fanning ; Mary Stanton, of the town 
of Northampton, Elizabeth Saunders of the same town, and 
William Saunders, youngest son of the last named. It was 
provided that the legacy to Mrs. Saunders should be a life 
estate, with a reversion to any children thereafter bom by her, 
and "not be subject or liable to the intermeddling, debts, or 
engagements, of her present husband or any after taken hus- 
band." It was also provided that all domestic and household 
servants in the employ of tlie testator should receive one yearns 
wages over and above the amounts due them for their services. 
Mrs. Tryon, widow of the Governor, survived her husband 
many years, also outliving her daughter, and died on the 
10th of February, 1819, in the eighty-sixth year of her age. 
In 1Y57, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Tryon, then a 
Captain in the Foot-Guards, the Oentleman's Magazine 
alluded to her as : "Miss Wake, of Hanover Street, London." 
In her will (executed May 30, 1818; probated March 3, 
1819) she refers to herself as: "Margaret Tryon, formerly 
of the Parish of Saint Luke's, Chelsea, in the County of 



OF NOBTH OABOLINA. 205 

Middlesex, but now of Great Yarmouth, in the County of 
Norfolk, widow of the late Lieutenant-General Tryon," 
Though the class receiving her legacies included many per- 
sons, the most numerous beneficiaries of Mrs. Tryon's will 
were members of a family named Elwin, possibly her rela- 
tives, though she does not so state. The will begins by setting 
forth that, owing to the previous death of her daughter Mar- 
garet, the sum of fifteen thousand pounds (left by the father 
of the testator, Mrs. Tryon) has come into her possession as 
representative of her said daughter. Disposition of her prop- 
erty is then made as follows : Thomas Horatio Batchelor, of 
Horstead, in the County of Norfolk, seventeen hundred 
pounds; Mrs. Mary Ann Ficklin, of the city of Norwich 
(widow of the Reverend Robert Ficklin), fifteen hundred 
pounds ; Hastings Elwin, late of Sloane Street, Chelsea, three 
hundred pounds; Fountain Elwin (son of Hastings), one 
hundred poimds; Harriot Elwin (daughter of Hastings), 
fifty pounds ; Reverend Robert Elwin, of the city of Norwich 
(son of the late Robert Elwin), one hundred pounds; Phil- 
ippa Elwin, Caleb Elwin, and Fountain John Elwin 
(daughter and sons of the late Thomas Elwin), one hundred 
pounds each ; Thomas Henry Elwin (son of the said Foun- 
tain), three hundred pounds; Rebecca and Philippa Elwin 
(children of the said Fountain), twenty pounds each; Mrs. 
Virtue Elwin, of the city of Norwich, widow, one hundred 
pounds; Major Fountain Elwin, of His Majesty's Forty- 
fourth Regiment of Foot, one hundred pounds and a silver 
waiter; Lieutenant Jonathan Wrench, late of His Majesty's 
Forty-fourth Regiment of Foot, fifty pounds; Mrs. Ann 
Wrench, of Islington, widow, one himdred pounds per annum 
during her natural life ; Miss Wrench (daughter of Mrs. Ann 



206 OOVEBNOB TEYON 

• 

Wrench), one hundred pounds; Mrs. Ann Reed (widow of 
Surgeon William Reed), fifty pounds; Mrs. Dorothy Longe, 
of Coltishall, in the County of Norfolk, widow, one hundred 
pounds ; Captain Robert Longe, of the East Norfolk Militia, 
one hundred pounds per annum for his natural life ; William 
Pennington, and his wife, Penelope, of the Hot Wells, Bris- 
tol, the remainder of a lease, owned by testator, on property 
in Sloane Street, Chelsea, occupied by Lady Skipwith, and 
one hundred pounds additional to the said Penelope Penning- 
ton; Mrs. Howard (wife of William Howard, of Sloane 
Street, Chelsea), one hundred pounds; Mrs. Mary Leigh 
Bennett (daughter of the Reverend John Leigh Bennett), 
one hundred poimds and a diamond ring ; Miss Mary Tryon, 
of Winchester, spinster, one hundred poimds; Miss Ann 
Tryon, formerly of Hounslow, spinster, fifty pounds; Miss 
Margaret Burton, of Knightsbridge, spinster, twenty-five 
pounds; Mrs. Mary Barrett, of Great Yarmouth, widow, 
twenty pounds ; Mrs. Sparrow, wife of a carpenter at Knights- 
bridge, five guineas. To her servants, William Rix and Ann 
Newborn, she bequeathed twenty pounds each, and one year's 
wages in addition to what should be due them at the time 
of her death, together with mourning ; to Mary Harbord and 
Sarah *Saxton, two other servants, were bequeathed ten pounds 
each, one year's additional wages, and mourning. Fifty 
guineas went to the poor of the parish of Saint Luke's, Chel- 
sea; and Fountain Elwin, of Enfield, was named as resi- 
duary legateeC The executors were Fountain Elwin, of 
Enfield, Major Fountain Elwin, of the Forty-fourtli Regi- 
ment of Foot, and Hastings Elwin, formerly of Sloane Street, 
Chelsea. 



OP NOETH GABOLINA. 207 

It 18 noted at the end of Mrs. Tryon's will that a bequest 
of twenty guineas to Captain Eobert Palmer, of Shrewsbury, 
had been stricken out. Possibly Captain Palmer had died. 
It is probable that tliis was the same Robert Palmer who had 
been a member of Governor Tryon's Council in North Caro- 
lina, as the councilor went to England, as heretofore noted. 
Palmer, it will be remembered, is also mentioned in the Gov- 
ernor's will. William Pennington, mentioned in Mrs. Try- 
on's will, was the same who had been Comptroller of Cus- 
toms at Cape Fear, and had there encountered so much oppo- 
sition in attempting to execute the duties of his office. In the 
fashionable English resort at Bath, he was master of cere- 
monies for some time. 

CONCLUSION. 

This contribution to the biographical and historical liter- 
ature of North Carolina is now finished. Many writers there 
are who could have performed the task more creditably ; but, 
as no one seems to have been moved to such an effort, I have 
thought it well to put forth what I have been able to learn of 
the life of our sometime friend and final enemy. The enmity 
of Tryon, however — ^his career in the Revolution — has no 
direct bearing on the history of North Carolina ; and I believe 
that it was against his personal inclination ever to engage in 
hostilities against any of the American colonies. Even from 
a stand-point of policy, if we give him credit for no good 
qualities whatever, it must be conceded that he had nothing to 
gain and all to lose by a war between the colonies and their 
mother country. But when the time came that no man could 
serve both Britain and America, he chose to array himself 



208 GOVEENOB TETON 

in the cause of his own country, and under the banner of his 
royal benefactor, with feelings, mayhap, akin to those voiced 
in after years by a naval hero who offered the toast, with ref- 
erence to America: "Our country! In her intercourse with 
foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our 
country, right or wrong." In the bloody tribunal of war the 
cause of independence won, and it may be that Great Britain, 
as well as America, is better for the separation. This mutual 
benefit was anticipated by Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of 
Connecticut, as early as the 23d of April, 1778, when, in 
his military correspondence with General Tryon, he said: 
"The British nation may, perhaps, find us as affectionate and 
valuable friends in peace as we now are determined and fatal 
enemies, and will derive from that friendship more solid 
and real advantage than the most sanguine can expect from 
conquest." 



INDEX. 



Acklin, Christopher, wounded at 
Alamance, 12U. 

Adams, John, quoted, 185. 

"Alabama" cruiser, 169. 

Alamance, Battle of, 74, 77, 120 et 
acq., 152-153, 100, 166-107, 170, 
184, 186, 192. 

Alamance Battle Monument, 139. 

Alamance Creeks, 138-139; see also 
Alamans. Alleraance, Great Ala- 
mance and Little Alamance. 

"Alamans" probable origin of Ala- 
mance, 138. 

Alexander, Abraham, 85. 

Alexander, Moses, in Cherokee 
boundary expedition, 67; acts 
against Regulators, 95-96, 116, 
119, 168, 172. 

Alexander family, 26. 

"Allemance," 138, 160; see also 
Alamance. 

Alva, Duke of, 10. 

American Historical Association, 
Publications, quoted, 78, 88, 
152, 170. 

Anderson, Fort, 25. 

Annual Register, quoted, 106, 180- 
181. 

Anson County (N. C), 90, 92, 
119, 168. 

Antigua, Island of, 191. 

Ashe, John, leads demonstration 
against sloop "Diligence,". 38, 
41; acts against Regulators, 96, 
118, 124, 154; Revolutionary pa- 
triot, 167. 

Ashe, John Baptista, acts against 
Regulators, 118; captured and 
beaten, 124-125; Revolutionary 
patriot, 167; elected Governor. 
167. 

Ashmore, James, 172. 

"Atticus" letter, written by Mau- 
rice Moore, 156-164; see also 69, 
100, 138, 155. 



Avery, VVaightstill, Trustee of Lib- 
erty Hall, 26; captured by Reg- 
ulators, 114. 

Bagge, Traucott, 142. 

Baplirtts, 28-29. 148; disclaim Reg- 
ulators, 188-190. 

Barbadoes, 46. 

Barrett, Mary, 206. 

Barringer, Paul, Revolutionary pa- 
triot, 183. 

Bassett, John Spencer, quoted, 78, 
88, 152, 170. 

Batchelor, Thomas Horatio, 205. 

Bath (England). 207. 

Bath (N. C), 15, 48. 

B:ittlc, Kemp P., quoted, 75. 

Beasley, Fearnaught, 130. 

Beasley, , killcKl at Ala- 
mance, 130. 

Beaufort County (N. C), 118, 
124, 131. 

Bedford, William, acts against 
Regulators, 96. 

Benedict, David, Baptist historian, 
quoted, 132, 148, 188. 

Bennet, John Leigh, 206. 

Bennet, Mary Leigh, 206. 

Benton, Samuel, acts against Reg- 
ulators, 96. 

Berger, George Henry, acts against 
Regulators, 116. 

Berkeley, Lord John, his grave 
near Trvon's, 202. 

Berkeley, Sir William, Governor of 
Virginia, his grave near Tryon's, 
202; remarkable state of his 
body when exhumed, 202. 

Berry, Charles, Chief Justice and 
Councilor, 46-48. 

Bertie County (N. C), 83. 

Bethabara; see Moravians. 

Betham*8 Baronetage, quoted, 50, 
191. 



210 



INDEX. 



**Black Boys'* blow up VVuddeirB 
ammunition, 122, 127, 172. 

Blackledgc, Richard, acts against 
Regulators, 118. 

Bladen County (N. C), 43. 

Bond, Sweeting, wounded at Ala- 
mance, 129. 

Booklet, quoted, 44. 

Ik)ono8boro (Ky.), 101. 

Borg, , a Regulator, 142. 

Boston (Mass.), 49, 154. 

Boston Gazette, quoted. 132. 

Botetourt, Lord, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, 59. 

Boundary, Cherokee, Tryon's ex- 
pei8, Thomas J., Governor, 68. 

Jarvis, , a Regulator, 142. 

Jeffries, Judge, 163, 165. 
Johnston, Gabriel, Governor, 19, 

47-48, 73. 
Johnston, Samuel, Governor, 73; 

Assemblyman, 111, 188; draws 

"Riot Act," 112. 
Johnston, William, removed from 

command of Bute militia, 120. 
Johnston, , a Regulator, 162. 



"Johnston Act," 112, 162, 164; 
English opinion oif, 113; see 
also "Riot Act." 

Johnston County (N. C), 73, 83, 
90, 109, 117-118, 123-124, 168. 

Johnston, Fort, 37, 43-44. 

Jones, Jr., Charles C, quoted, 135. 

Jones, Jo. Seawell, quoted, 74-75, 
106, 196. 

Jones, Marmaduke, Councilor and 
Attorney-General, 50-51. 

Jones, Robert ("Robin"), 29, 51. 

Jones, Thomas, New York histo- 
rian, quoted, 197. 

Jones, Willie, acts against Regu- 
lators, 118, 133; Acting Gov- 
ernor, 167. 

Jones, , of Furnival's Court, 

London, 51. 

Jones' Defence of North Carolina; 
see Jones, Jo. Seawell. 

Kentucky, 101. 

Kersley, Thomas, wounded at Ala- 
mance, 129. 

Kilpatrick, Tliomas, wounded at 
Alamance, 129. 

Kin^, , acts against Reg- 
ulators, 89. 

"King's American Regiment," 79. 

King's (Columbia) College, 84. 

King's Mountain, Battle of, 29. 

Kingsbury, Theodore Bryant, 
quoted, 101. 

Kirk, General, 163. 

Knightsbridge (England), 208. 

Knox, , acts against Reg- 
ulators, 95. 

Lane, Joel, 101. 
Lee, Richard Henry, 198. 
Leech, Joseph, acta against Regu- 
lators, 118, 155, 168. 
Leeds, Dukes of, 98. 
Lenoir, William, 72. 
Lenoir County (N. C), 72. 
"Leonidas" (pseudonym), 152-153. 
LeRoy, Caroline, 49. 
Lesley, Susan I., quoted, 49. 



INDEX. 



217 



I-iCttcrs of James Murray, Loyal- 
ist, quoted, 49. 

Lexington, Battle of, 183. 

Lewis, Howell, Assemblyman, 83. 

I^wis, William, 190. 

Liberty Hall ; see Queen's College. 

Licbfiohl (England), 55. 

Lillin^on, Alexander, 41 ; acts 
against Regulators, 96, 117; 
Revolutionary patriot, 167, 177. 

Lincoln, Benjamin, 72, 168. 

Lincoln County (N. C), 72. 

Lindsay, Walter, acts against Reg- 
ulators, 96. 

Lindsay, William, acts against 
Regulators, 119. 

Little Alamance Creek, 138-139. 

Lloyd, Thomas, 41. 

Lloyd, Thomas, acts against Regu- 
lators, 89, 91, 96. 

Lobb, Jacob, Captain Royal Navy, 
spikes guns of Fort Johnston, 
43-45. 

London (England), 12, 51, 54-55, 
199, 203-2()4. 

I^ng, Daiyel Albright, 139. 

I^ng Island (N. Y), 190-191. 

I^nge, Dorothy, 206. 

Ix)nge, Robert 1^ 206. 

I^rds Proprietors of Carolina, 9, 
202. 

Lossing, B. J., historian, quoted, 
12, 34-35, dry. 

Luckie, William, acts against Reg- 
ulators, 119. 

Lunsdale, W'illiam, wounded at Al- 
amance, 129. 

Lutherans, befriended by Trj'on, 20. 

L\i:le, , acts against Reg- 
ulators, 89, 168. 

Mabry, George, threatened by Reg- 
ulators, 178. 

Macartney, Ceorge, Chaplain in 
Tryon's army, 102, 117. 

McCulloh, Alexander, Councilor, 
46-47. 

McCulloh, Henry, 53. 

McCulloh, Henrv Eustace, Coun- 
cilor, 46-47, 53-55. 



McDonald, Donald, in command of 
Tories, 130, 177-182; defeated 
and captured at Moore's Creek, 
177-182. 

McDonald, Flora, Scottish heroine, 
in North Carolina, 182. 

McGuire, Thomas, Admiralty offi- 
cer, 42. 

McKinlay, James, 70. 

McIxMjd, , killed at Moore's 

Creek, 181. 

McMund, John, 190. 

M.ickilwean, Francis, acts against 
Regulators, 118. 

McRee, Griflith John, biographer, 
quoted, 50, 54-55, 70, 107, 173. 

Maddock's Mill (N. C), 87. 

Magazine of American History, 
quoted, 135. 

Malcom, John, acts against Regu- 
lators, 118, 123. 

Manila (P. L), 66. 

Mansion House, London, 65. 

Marshall, Frederick W'illiam, 142. 

Martin, Alexander, Governor, 73, 
167; assaulted by Regulators, 
105, 167. 

Martin, Elizabeth, of Long Island, 
N. Y., marries her cousin, Gov- 
ernor Josiah Martin, 191. 

Martin, Francois Xavier, histo- 
rian, quoted, 42, 50, 60, 65, 72, 
74-75, 123-125, 131. 

Martin, Sir Henry, 191. 

Martin, Josiah, Trvon's succes-sor 
as Governor, arrives in North 
Carolina. 190; his family and 
ancestry, 191 ; his opinion of 
Regulators, 170-172; sentiments 
towards Tryon, 191-193; snubbed 
by Assembly, 101-192; raises 
Lovalists, 177, 180-184; see also, 
50,' 59, 61, 70, 73, 145, 148. 

Martin, Josiah, of Long Island, 
N. Y., uncle and father-in-law 
of Governor Josiah Martin, 191. 

Martin family of Long Island, N. 
Y., 191. 

Martin's History North Carolina; 
see Martin, Francois Xavier. 



218 



INDEX. 



Martin County (N. C), 73. 

Maryland, 51, 135, 171), 182. 

Masjjadiuartts, 183, 185. 

MaHsachusctts Spy, quoted, 152. 

Matcur, Robert, a Regulator, 
hanged, 144-145. 

MatKon (England), 55. 

Mattbewson, , Surgeon's 

Mate in Tryon's army, 118. 

Meade, William, quot^nl, 60, 102. 

Mebane, Alexander, acts against 
Regulators, 89, 168. 

Mebane, Giles, 138. 

Meeklenb\irg County (N. C), 26, 
28, 53-55, 72, 74, 83, 90, 93-96, 
116, 119, 122, 143, 168, 183. 

Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 27. 

Mercer (Messer?), Forester, a 
Regulator, 145, 149. 

Mercer, George, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of North Carolina, 60-61. 

Merrill, Benjamin, a Regulator, 
hanged, 127, 144-145, 147-148, 
189; bis speech from the gal- 
lows, 147. 

Messer ( or Mercer ) , Forester, 145, 
149. 

Micklejohn, George, 172; preaches 
to Tryon's armv, 20, 101-102. 

Middlesex (England), 200, 204- 
205. 

Miranda, Don Francisco de, 66. 

Mississippi River, 58. 

Montgomery, Hugh, acts against 
Regulators, 96, 168. 

Monument to Regulators at Ala- 
mance, 139. 

Moore, Alfred, 100. 

Moore, George, 41. 

Moore, James (New Hanover), 
acts against Regulators, 96, 117- 
118; Revolutionary patriot, 167, 
177. 

Moore, James (Wake County), acts 
against Regulators, 118. 

Moore, Maurice, 99^100; writes 
"Atticus" letter, 69, 100, 138, 
155; copy of letter, 156-164; 
acts against Regulators, 96; de- 



nouncetl by Regulators, 114; 

libelled by Husband, 107-109; 

presides over trial of Regulators 

for treason, 144; inconsistency 

of, 100, 164; sec also 106, 111, 

176, 184-185, 187. 
, Moore family, 62, 99. 
Moore's Creek Hridge, Battle of, 

120, 130, 177-182. 
Morant's History of Essex, quoted, 

10. 
Moravians at Wachovia, Salem and 

Bethabara entertain Tryon, 20- 

22, 141-142; see also 126, 134. 
Morgan, John, 79. 
Mountaineers of North Carolina, 

29. 
*'Mucius Scajvola" (pseudonym), 

152-153. 
Mulgrave, Lord; see Phipps. 
Murpbcy, Archibald De Bow, 

quoted, 101. 
Murray, James, Councilor, 47-49. 
Murray, John, Earl of Dunmore 

and Governor of Virginia, 194. 

Nash, Abner, Trustee of Queen's 
College, 26; seizes artillery at 
New Bern, 69; acts against 
Regulators, 96, 118; Assembly- 
man, 111; Governor, 167. 

Nash, Francis, acts against Regu- 
lators, 82, 89, 118; escapes from 
Regulators, 105; killed m Revo- 
lution, 167. 

Nash, Francis, historian, quoted, 
150-151. 

Neale, Christopher, acts against 
Regulators, 117-118. 

Neel, Thomas, acts against Regu- 
lators, 119. 

Nelson, James, wounded at Ala- 
mance, 129. 

Nelson, William, Acting Governor 
of Virginia, 115. 

Netherlands, Tryon family said to 
have come from, 10-11; see also 
Holland. 

Neville, John, wounded at Ala- 
mance, 129. 



INDEX. 



219 



New Bern (N. C), 12, 15, 17, 19, 
23, 36, 47, 49, 60, 62-72, 76, 83, 
92, 106, 109, 115-116, 129, 132, 
152, 154-155, 179, 190, 193. 

New Bern Academy, 18. 

New England, 49, 193, 196. 

New Hanover County (N. C), 43, 
74, 117-118, 124. 

New Jersey, 98, 103. 

Newman, Anthony, Surgeon-Gen- 
eral in Tryon's array, 96. 

**New Lights" (religious sect), 20. 

New York, Tryon's administra- 
tion in, 195, et acq.; see also 10, 
15, 59-60, 75, 79, 148, 152, 154, 
156-157, 190-191, 193-194, 200. 

New York Gazette, quoted, 106. 

New Zealand, 55. 

News and Observer, quoted, 75. 

Non-conformists, see Dissenters. 

Norbury Park, a seat of the Try on 
family in England, 10. 

Norfolk County (England), 201, 
205-208. 

Norfolk (Va.). 196. 

Norma nby. Marquis of, 40. 

North American Notes and Que- 
ries, quoted, 39. 

North Carolina Gazette, quoted, 
107. 

Northampton (England), 204. 

Northampton County (England), 
11, 200-201. 

Northuml)erland, Earl of, Vice-Ad- 
mirnl of American Colonies, 51. 

Norwich (England), 206. 

Notes and Queries, North Ameri- 
can, quoted, 39. 

Nova Scotia, 83. 

"Ohiah Equah" (Great Wolf), In- 
dian name for Tryon, 68. 

Old Churches and Families in 
Virginia, quoted, 102. 

Old North State in 1778, by Ca- 
ruthers; f^ee Caruthors. Eli W. 

Onslow County (N. C), 117-118, 
124, 168. 

Orange County (N. C). 74. 77, 79, 
86, 88, et s'eq., 118, 124, 168. 



Orton Plantation, 24-26, 62. 
Osborne, Adlai, Trustee of Liberty 

Hall, 26; see also 98. 
Osborne, Alexander, 98; acts 

against Regulators, 93-96, 104, 

168. 
Osborne family, 27, 98. 
Oxford University (England), 83. 

Palace, Tryon, 12, 60, 62-72, 166, 
et seq., 193. 

Palmer, Robert, Councilor, 46, 48; 
Commissioner to run Cherokee 
boundary, 56-57; acts against 
Regulators, 96; removes to Eng- 
land, 204, 207. 

Palmer, William, acts against Reg- 
ulators, 118. 

Parishes of St. Ann (England), 
49; St. James, 24-25; St. Luke 
(England). 204, 206; St. Marga- 
ret, 74; St. Mary (England), 
200, 202 ; St. Philip, 24-25. 

Parsons, George, a Regulator, 132. 

Patillo, Henry, 184-185. 

Patten, John, acta against Regula- 
tors, 118, 131; Revolutionary 
patriot, 131, 167-168. 

Pegram, Daniel, wounded at Ala- 
mance, 129. 

Ponn, William, 136. 

Pennington, Penelope, 206. 

Pennington, William, Collector of 
Customs. 42-43 ; removes to Eng- 
land, 204, 206-207. 

Pennsylvania, 136, 138, 193. 

Pennsylvania Magazine of History, 
quoted, 72. 

Person, Thomas, a Regulator and 
Revolutionary patriot, 174. 

Peyton, William, acts against Reg- 
ulators, 118; wounded at Ala- 
mance. 129. 

Phifer, Martin, acts against Regu- 
lators, 95-96, 188. 

Philadelphia (Pa.), 64, 130. 

Phipps, Constantine John (I>ord 
Mulgrave), Captain of sloop 
"Diligence," 37, 39-40. 

Phipps, Henry ( Ijord Mulgrave ) ,40. 



220 



INDEX. 



Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 
73. 

Pitt County (N. C), 73, 118, 108. 

Plant agenet. Royal House of, Gov- 
ernor Tryon descended from, 12. 

Polk, Thomas, Trustee of Liberty 
Hall, 26; Assemblyman, 83; 
City Treasurer and Commis- 
sioner of C'harlotte, 85; acts 
against Regulators, 116, 119, 
168. 

Polk County (N. C), 58, 73. 

Polk family, 27. 

Pope, Alexander, his grave near 
Tiyon's, 202. 

Population of North Carolina 
compared with that of other 
colonies, 193. 

Postal system improvetl by Tryon, 
14-15. 

"Potter" (Patten), 131. 

Powers, , Surgeon's Mate 

in Tryon's army, 118. 

Presbyterians, 18-20, 28-29, 188- 
190; disclaim Regulators, 20, 
188. 

Prince Edward Island, 83. 

Pugh, James, a Regulator, 132; 
hanged, 145; speech from the 
gallows, 150. 

Pugh, John, a Regulator, 115. 

Purviance, William, Revolutionary 
patriot, 177. 

Quakers, 20; disclaim Regulators, 

189-190. 
Quebec. 39. 
Queen's College, Queen's Museum, 

or Liberty Hall, in Charlotte, 

26-28. 
Quincy, Jr., Josiah, 154. 

Raleigh (N. C), 67-08, 74, 121. 
Ramsgate ("Ramcat") Road, cut 

by Tryon, 121. 
Ramsoui-'s Mill, Battle of, 182. 
Ranck, Greorge W., quoted, 101. 
Reed, Ann, 206. 
Reed Isaac, wounded at Alamance, 

129. 



Reed, William, 206. 

Regulators, Insurrection of, 20, 77, 
ct seq. 

Rhamkatte Road, see Ramsgate. 

Rhode Island, 49. 

Richards, , Surgeon in 

Tryon's army, 119. 

Richmond, Duke of, 73. 

"Riot Act," 112-114, 144, 162, 164; 
see also "Johnston Act." 

Rix, William, 206. 

Robertson, James, succeeds Tryon 
as Governor of New York, 197. 

Rochester, Nathaniel, Revolution- 
ary patriot, his autobiography 
quoted, 182; city of Rochester, 
N. Y., named for, 182. 

Ross, Francis, acts against Regu- 
lators, 119. 

Rowan County (N. C), 27, 83- 
85, 90, 03, 95-96, 119, 129, 143, 
165, 168, 175. 

Rumple, Jfthro, quoted, 84-85. 

Russell, John, Captain in Royal 
Na>y, 62. 

Rutherford, Griffith, Assemblyman, 
83; acts agiinst Regulators, 
116; Revolutionary patriot, 72, 
167. 

Rutherford, John, Councilor, 46- 
47 ; Commissioner to run Chero- 
kee boundary, 56-58 ; acts against 
Regulators, 95- 11 7. 

Rutherford County (N. C), 72. 

Sabine, Lorenz9, quoted, 179. 

Saint Ann's Parish (England), 49. 

Saint James' Church at Wilming- 
ton, 24-25. 

Saint James, Court of, 23. 

Saint John's Island, 83. 

Saint Luke's Parish (England), 
204-205. 

Saint Margaret's Parish in Wake 
County. 74. 

Saint Mary's Church, in Twicken- 
ham, England, burial place of 
Governor Tryon, Governor Berke- 
ley, Lord Berkeley, et al., 200, 
202.