---

The fifth and sixth volumes cover the period from the death of Governor Johnston to the death of Governor Dobbs in March, 1765.

Upon the death of Governor Johnston, which, it will be remembered, took place on the 17th July, 1752, Nathaniel Rice, the President of the Council, became ex officio Commander-in-Chief of the Province, but his career as Chief Executive was both brief and uneventful, almost the only thing worthy of note during his administration being the visit of Bishop Spangenburg to the Province and the location by him of the lands bought from Earl Granville for the Moravian settlement.

President Rice, who was old and feeble, died on the 29th of January, 1753, and Matthew Rowan, as “next in Council,” took the oaths of office as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Province, and continued to exercise the duties of Chief Executive until the 31st October, 1754. The other members of the Council were James Murray, James Hasell, James Innes, John Rutherford, John Swann and Lewis DeRosset. James Murray was made Secretary of the Province.

President Rowan, though of Scotch descent, was doubtless of Irish birth. According to Burke's Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, the Rowan family was established in the parish of Govan, in the county of Lanark, in Scotland, as early as 1548. In 1661, however, the Rev. Andrew Rowan, eldest son of John Rowan, of Govan, was inducted into the rectory of Dunaghy, diocese of Connor, County Antrim, in Ireland, and died in 1717. His second son, Rev. John Rowan, married Margaret Stewart, of County Down, and had issue—1, John; 2, Andrew; 3, Alexander; 4, Stewart; 5, Matthew; 6, William; 7, Robert, a clergyman in Ireland; 8, Hugh; 9, Acheson. In his will, which was made on 18th April, 1760, just before his death, and which is now of record in the office of the Secretary of State, President Rowan, then of New Hanover county, made bequests to children of his brothers Andrew, Acheson and William, by name.

At what time President Rowan first came to North Carolina is not definitely known. He appears first on our records as one of the church wardens for the parish at Bath, in 1726, and next as a member of the Assembly in 1727. His name is also upon a list of persons recommended in London by Governor Burrington, on 6th August, 1730, to the Board of Trade for seats at the Council Board, and later in the year, in the formal instructions to Governor Burrington from the King, as one of the persons who were to constitute the Council of the Province. For some years he lived at the town of Bath as a merchant, and dealt in “Irish goods,” for which he made voyages to and from the old country. In November, 1733, Governor Burrington, as an evidence of the amount of coin in circulation in the Province, stated that Mr. Rowan had told him that he had “caryed to Ireland above one hundred pounds silver money in a voyage,” money that had been taken in at Bath.

On the 17th January, 1732, in the town of Edenton, he was duly sworn into office as a member of the Council, of which he continued a member until his death, and of which for seven years he was President. He was also the Surveyor-General of the Province, and, in 1735, was one of the Commissioners appointed to run the boundary between North and South Carolina. His last appearance in public affairs was, so far as our records show, in 1760, when, on the 9th January, he sat as President of the Council.

During President Rowan's administration there were two sessions of the Legislature, the first on 27th March, 1753, and continuing till the 12th April following; the second on 19th February, 1754, and continuing till 9th March following.

Called to the head of the government at a critical juncture in the affairs of the Province, President Rowan seems to have acted with vigor, directed by prudence and a wise discretion, so much so as to draw forth commendation from the authorities in England without alienating the affections of the people in the Province.

On the 31st October, 1754, Arthur Dobbs, who, on the 25th January, 1753, had been appointed Governor of the Province, arrived in New-Bern and took the oaths of office.

Governor Dobbs was an Irishman, born, according to the account that seems best corroborated, in 1684; according to another not until 2d April, 1689. In 1720 he was High Sheriff of the county of Antrim, the county in which it will be remembered the Rowans lived. He was also a member of Parliament for many years, for Carrickfergus, and Engineer and Surveyor-General of Ireland under Sir Robert Walpole. He was best known to the public, however, by his attempt to discover the Northwest Passage. Nor was he unknown to the literary world, having in 1729 published a work called “The Trade and Improvement of Ireland”; in 1744 another called “Captain Middleton's Defence,” and in 1745 still another called “An Account of the Countries Adjoining to the Hudson's Bay.”

He reached Hampton, Virginia, on the 6th October, 1754, on the ship-of-war Garland, after a passage of ten weeks, from Plymouth, in England, during which a violent storm was encountered, causing the main-mast to be lost and the fore-mast to be sprung. On the next day he set out for Williamsburg, where he remained until the 23d of that month. From there he made his way to New-Bern, where he arrived on the 31st, having lost one day at Edenton “by a contrary wind so fresh that the ferry-boat could not pass the ferry, which was above eight miles over.” President Rowan and Mr. Murray, of the Council, met him at Bath and returned with him to New-Bern, where he took the oaths of office in the presence of such members of the Council as could be assembled.

In some respects, the time of Governor Dobbs's arrival was an auspicious one, coming as he did when the Province, tired of strife, was anxious for harmony. A foreign war, too, then actually in progress, was as usual dwarfing all mere local issues, and accustoming the people to act together in a common cause. Besides, Dobbs having been one of the original complainants against Johnston, there was room to hope for better things, and so when he came he was received with open arms. It was the habit, too, of the people to welcome a new Governor with the greatest courtesy and hospitality, as if unwilling to pass judgment upon him before giving him an opportunity to develop his character and purposes. Governor Dobbs was especially fortunate, moreover, in bringing

over with him the King's order disallowing or repealing Governor Johnston's act of 1746, taking away from the northern counties their right of representation in the Legislature. With the call of a Legislature, which he proceeded at once to make, recognizing in full the rights of those counties, so long denied them, peace seemed at once to be restored, and this, too, in spite of the fact that he brought with him another royal order that, if enforced, would have created very great confusion and universal dissatisfaction in the Province. The point at issue, in this last order, was the right of the Legislature to authorize counties to elect members of the Assembly, which was claimed to be a matter solely of royal prerogative. To put an end to the dispute twelve acts creating new counties and towns were disallowed or repealed and the Governor was directed to re-establish them by charter when desirable, and to give such representation in the Assembly as to him only might seem expedient; and the royal order to this effect was brought over by the new Governor. The evil effects of its execution, however, were at once so apparent, and promised to be so great, that Governor Dobbs prudently refrained from its official publication until proper representation could be made in the premises to the authorities at home. At any other time, and under other circumstances, the repeal of the acts in question would doubtless have produced great bitterness and excitement among the people and have precipitated a condition of affairs not unlike that brought about by the effort to deprive the northern counties of their right of representation. As it was, with the new Governor actively and openly on their side, the order of disallowance was received in a very kindly spirit by the people, who contended themselves with sending a legislative memorial to the King, in which it was represented that, by the rapid increase of population, it was often necessary to divide counties and erect new ones, as well as to alter their boundaries, which could not be done were they established by charter, inasmuch as every corporation must remain entire, unless the charter was forfeited or surrendered by general consent; that if the acts of incorporation were disallowed the lands whereon the public buildings were erected would revert to the former owners or their heirs; that the inhabitants of a town in such case would be wholly divested of their tenements (which would also revert to their former owners or their heirs), having no other title than deeds executed by Commissioners authorized by the acts of incorporation. The result of it all was a compromise by which the Legislature was permitted to re-establish or revive the counties and towns already incorporated, and from time to time in future to erect new ones and alter their boundaries, as might become necessary, reserving to the Governor, as the representative of the Crown, the right to confer by charter authority to elect members of the Assembly. It was also conceded to be a part of the royal prerogative to fix places for holding courts of justice, and accordingly we find that the Governor was invited by the Legislature to name counties and to fix and name the sites for county towns. And, too, the first acts of Governor Dobbs's administration were vigorous, intelligent and wise, and seemed to justify the hopes of those who looked for better things than had for years befallen the Province. Orders were at once given to get at the strength of the Province by ascertaining the number of its taxables, the number of its women and children, the strength and discipline of the militia, the quantity and condition of the ammunition on hand and in store, the names of the officers and the number of Indians. A new Legislature was at once called, and met in New-Bern on the 12th December, with a full representation from the northern counties. In spite of all this, however, Williamson gravely asserts that “none of the counties any longer claimed the right of sending five members.”¹ The Governor's speeches and messages were well received, and everything gave promise of the greatest harmony, and it really seemed that the troubles of the Johnston administration had been healed over, and that the Province, though at war abroad, at home was at peace.

But this happy condition of affairs did not last very long. Well advanced in years, being, according to the most favorable account, in his 66th year, and according to the other in his 71st, Governor Dobbs, soon after his arrival in the Colony, found himself confronted in difficult times with a people singularly impatient of control under the happiest circumstances; and for near ten years, year by year, the difficulties increased, as year by year his capacity to cope with them diminished. Patriotically

anxious to do her full part against the common enemy and eager to help her neighbor Colony, North Carolina had perhaps improvidently, as will be seen, taken upon her slender shoulders a heavy burden of debt for the prosecution of the war then going on. In spite of this, however, the demands upon her for fresh levies were both constant and urgent and far beyond her resources, and Governor Dobbs pushed them in season and out of season. Unfamiliar with the resources of the Colony, a stranger to her people, a zealous servant of the Crown, a sworn foe to the French, fanatical in his hatred of their religion, and expecting to govern by prerogative alone, he was precisely the man to exhaust the resources of the Colony in the war then going on, and that being done, to find himself inextricably involved in difficulties with the people, and at their mercy. For a time, as we have seen, his course was vigorous and intelligent, but as the years went by, his mental faculties, probably never very great, weakened and finally gave way under the strain upon them to meet increased demands with diminished resources, and in December, 1762, a stroke of palsy, that deprived him of the use of his lower limbs all the winter, put an end to all hope, for the time, at least, of his future usefulness. He rallied, however, and if he did, indeed, escape the drivelling imbecility of old age, he committed its supreme folly by marrying a very young girl. Complimented in 1755 for his vigor and intelligence, in 1762 he was told by the Lords of the Board of Trade that his dispatches were so very incorrect, vague and incoherent that it was almost impossible to discover his meaning, and that as far as they could be understood, they contained little more than repetitions of propositions he had made to them before, and upon which he had received their sentiments fully and clearly expressed. Finally, in 1764, he was given permission to return to England, and never expecting him to resume his duties as Governor, a Lieutenant-Governor was sent out to take charge.

Tradition says he was inordinately fond of Irishmen in general, and of his kindred in particular; that he brought a swarm of these latter with him, and quartered them on the government. This statement, however, seems scarcely to be justified, as the only relatives, so far as the records show, provided for by him were his nephew, Richard Spaight,

who, by the way, lived to enjoy his share of the spoils only a few years, and a son, Edward Brice Dobbs, an officer in the British army, then on leave of absence, who was given a company in the troops sent to Virginia and New York, and afterwards given a commission as Major.

His frequent short prorogations of the Legislature have often been brought against him as proof of ill temper and bad humor. Rightly understood, they are far from making such proof. In that day the old rule of parliamentary law, that no act could be amended at the session in which it was passed, was in full force, and hence, when a bill had passed that he could not or would not sign, and there was hope of a compromise of the question at issue, he would prorogue the Legislature for a night or for a day, or some other short time, in order that the old session being ended, and a new one begun, it might be possible to accommodate matters. Another reason at times for proroguing the Legislature was that a minority could do no business whatever, not even adjourn, and hence, when, as frequently happened at the beginning of a session, a quorum was not present, the Governor would formally prorogue the Legislature from day to day, in order to keep it alive, as it would die if the day for which it was called should expire without any further day for its meeting having been fixed. Our Constitution now provides that a minority may adjourn from day to day.

His policy towards the Indians has been commended. He thought they ought to be treated with fairness and justice, and believed they could be won over by kindness and square dealing, and when he first came over, at least, he had no race prejudice against them. Indeed, he went so far on the other side as to propose that the soldiers should take unto themselves Indian wives, a practice that he thought would do much toward the permanent establishment of Britain in America. At a later period, when his experience with “the noble red man” in and about the Province was greater, he said he thought the proper plan in war, at least, was to kill the warriors and enslave the women and children, a conclusion which, however harsh it may seem, it is believed most white men have come to after a like experience.

On the 17th July, 1752, Governor Johnston died and Nathaniel Rice, President of the Council, took the reins of government.

In August, 1752, Bishop Spangenburg and his party set out from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania for Edenton in this State to locate the lands bought the year before from the Earl of Granville for the Moravian settlement. Leaving Edenton about the middle of September, their route lay through Chowan, Bertie, Northampton, Edgecombe and Granville, to its western border near the Virginia line, and from thence along the Indian Trading Path, as near as can now be ascertained, to the Catawba River, thence up that river to its upper waters, thence by mistake over the divide to New River, thence back to the head-waters of the Yadkin and thence down the Yadkin to Muddy Creek, where, some ten miles from the river and on the “upper Pennsylvania road,” they found some 100,000 acres in a body unoccupied, which they proceeded at once to take up. In January, 1753, they returned home, having surveyed 73,037 acres of land, to which were added 25,948 acres surveyed by Mr. Churton in the same tract, making in all 98,985 acres. A general deed for the whole tract was made on 7th August, 1753.

At Wilmington, on the 29th January, 1753, President Rice died and Matthew Rowan, as “next in Council,” became President and Chief Executive of the Province.

Early in the year 1754 began one of the most eventful periods in the history of North Carolina, covering as it did the struggle between England and France, growing out of the attempt of the latter to connect her extensive dominions in America by uniting Canada with Louisiana. To accomplish their end the French took possession of territory claimed by England to be within the Province of Virginia, and commenced a line of military posts from the lakes to the Ohio. Acting under general instructions from the Crown given to the Governors in anticipation of such a seizure of territory, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia straightway demanded in the name of Great Britain that the French should abandon designs which it was insisted violated the treaties between the two Crowns. The bearer of this demand was George Washington, then quite a young man. The answer of the Commandant of the French forces being an emphatic denial of the British claims to the territory in question,

preparations were made to maintain them by force, and the Virginia Legislature voted to raise a regiment of 300 men for that purpose. Governor Dinwiddie also, on the 29th of January, 1754, wrote to President Rowan asking his immediate assistance in dispossessing the French. The contingency had now arisen in which, under the royal instructions, the Colonial Governors were directed to make common cause against the French and Indians. The answer of North Carolina to the appeal of the Virginia Governor for help was prompt and decided. The Legislature, which, looking forward to such an emergency, had been prorogued by President Rowan to the last of March, met and at once voted £12,000 to equip a regiment of 750 men to go to Virginia.

These were the first troops raised by any British Colony in America to fight outside of its own borders in behalf of a common cause and in the general common defense, and their officers were James Innes, Colonel; Caleb Grainger, Lieut.-Colonel; Robert Rowan (a kinsman of the President), Major. The other officers were Thomas Arbuthnot, Edward Vail, Alexander Woodrow, Hugh Waddell, Thomas McManus and Moses John DeRosset. The number of these troops was fixed at 750 enlisted men at the outset, under the impression that North Carolina would not be required to maintain them after their arrival in Virginia. Finding out, however, that every Province would be required to maintain its own troops, the number was reduced to 450 enlisted men, just 150 more than Virginia had raised, and this, too, when it was Virginia soil that was invaded, and when Virginia had more than three times as many whites as North Carolina.

And just here began the greatest trouble North Carolina encountered during the war, that is to say, the provisioning and paying her troops. This trouble arose from the fact that there was little or no silver or gold or English money in the Province, and her own paper money was not current outside of the Province. The result was that beef cattle or hogs were driven with the troops or to them, and sold for local currency for their use. In some instances pork was bought at home and shipped to Virginia and sold for the same purpose. In other instances shipments were made to the West Indies and the cargoes sold for bills of exchange on New York to pay and feed our troops in service in that Province.

The consequence was, especially in the earlier days of the war, that the expense of maintaining her troops was very greatly increased, the pork and beef cattle being generally sold at unremunerative prices, being put upon a dull market and offered under a well known necessity.

The contributions on the part of North Carolina to the common defense, in view of her scant resources, were, perhaps, more generous than wise, as will be seen later on, and were certainly out of all proportion to the contributions of the other Colonies; but it has never been her habit to permit patriotic impulse to be dwarfed by scanty means. Governor Dobbs said North Carolina “could not be expected to defend its western frontier, assist the other Colonies and also maintain an independent force to defend the forts and protect the navigation of the Colony.” Yet that is precisely what she did, although it was admitted on all hands, the Board of Trade in England and Governor Dinwiddie included, that North Carolina was not able to do as much as the other Colonies, because of her narrower resources.

But the events of this protracted struggle belong to general American History, and will be treated of in these pages no further than may be necessary to explain the action of North Carolina in connection with them. It may not be amiss, however, to refer briefly to the career of a man whom this struggle brought prominently before the American public, one who, by his character and public services, deserves more than a passing notice in the annals of North Carolina.

Colonel James Innes was a native of Scotland, and was probably born not later than the year 1700, as in 1754 he suggested he was too old to take chief command in an active campaign. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, who had tendered him the appointment, replied that his age was nothing when his regular method of living was considered. He told him, too, in answer to some suggestion as to the probable expectations of Virginians in regard to the chief in command of the forces, that he always had regard to merit and knew his, and that he need not have any fear of any reflections from them. Washington greeted his appointment with the declaration that he would be glad to serve under “an experienced officer and a man of sense.”

Between Colonel Innes and Governor Dinwiddie, who usually addressed him as “dear James,” and was constantly sending messages to him from his “wife and daughters,” there seems to have been a strong bond of attachment. At the time of his appointment to the command of the expedition against the French and Indians in 1754, Colonel Innes was a member of the Council in North Carolina, having been appointed thereto on 5th July, 1750, by Governor Johnston, on the death of Eleazer Allen—his first appearance in public life in the Colony, so far as the records show, though he had been recommended to the King for the place as early as 1734. That he was residing in the Province, and his appointment as assistant Baron of the Exchequer Court as early as 1735, also appear from the Council Journals of that date. Doubtless he was one of the Scotchmen who came over with the Governor of that nation. In 1740 he was one of the captains in the North Carolina troops on the expedition against Carthagena, in South America. He had also seen other service in the British army. Later on he was one of Granville's agents and Colonel of a militia regiment in New Hanover county.

In spite, however, of Governor Dinwiddie's favorable opinion of him, Colonel Innes was allowed to hold his commission as chief in command only about