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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Christopher Gale to Edmund Gibson
Gale, Christopher, ca. 1679-1735
April 06, 1732
Volume 03, Pages 340-341

[From North Carolina Letter Book of S. P. G.]
MR. GALE TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON

Edenton No Carolina. April 6, 1732

My Lord:

Your Lordship having been so good as to permit me to address you, on the account of the State of Religion, in No Carolina, and not meeting with any one in London, whilst I was there whom your Lordship thought fit to send upon such a mission, I take leave to inform your Lordship that here is now at Edenton one Mr. Bevil Granville, who seems to have the General approbation of the inhabitants, and who was designed for Maryland at the request and by the direction of the Lord Baltimore, but falling in here in his passage thither, the Govr has prevailed with him to stay for one year, and he so well likes the place, that he promises to continue with us, in case he has encouragement to support him. For this year the people have made very considerable subscriptions to his satisfaction, but as those methods of support are too Precarious to be depended on for continuance, If your Lordship thinks fit to approve of him for the mission upon the footing I laid down to the Society, he says he shall very willingly accept of it, and make his abode amongst us, but as he is under the misfortune of not being known to your Lordship yet being sensible of your tender care in not approving of any Missionaries but such as are well recommended, be beggs leave to refer your Lordship for his charackt to the Lord Ducy & the Lord Lansdown, who (he says) know him very well, as for myself I have but once heard him perform divine service or preach, but I must say he did both, in so devout and graceful a manner, that I cannot forbear mentioning of it to your Lordship. But as I presume his Excellency the Govr may

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have writ to you on his acct., Nothing but the duty I owe to your Lordship and the concern I have for the yet unhappy state of religion in this Province, would have occasioned you this trouble from,

My Lord, your Lordship's most devoted humble servant
GALE.

(P S) My Lord, Since your Lordship was pleased to talk with me on Carolina affairs in general and being in Council when, the Petition of Mr. Smith, Ch: Justice against our Govr and others, was read, I hope your Lordship will not take amiss my informing you, that the facts in that Petition, now I am upon the Spot, appear to me more notoriously, not only to be false and Scandalous, as I said in London, but to be form'd only, by himself and one or 2 busy fellows, without any authority that I can learn from the several bodies of people he pretends to represent. His accusation against the Gentleman he mentions, and his pretense of the Govr Screening them, is equally groundless, and as little truth is there in his representation of the Govers Conduct, who has acted with remarkable caution and temper.

Your Lordship's &c.
C. G.