Impressed with the importance of frontier defenses against the Indians, he recommended the erection of forts on the Yadkin. Governor Glenn, of South Carolina, at the same time caused forts to be erected on the borders of the Cherokee country along the Savannah River. With the exception of occasional Indian hostilities, and a sort of "anti-rent" outbreak, * nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the province from that period, until two or three years after the signing of the treaty of peace at Paris, in 1763.
The passage of the Stamp Act produced great uneasiness in the public mind in North Carolina, as well as in the other provinces. Already the extortions of public officers in the exaction of fees for legal services had greatly irritated the people, and they regarded the requirements of the Stamp Act as a more gigantic scheme for legal plunder. The first published murmurs, as we have seen, was at Nut BushJune 1765 (see page 556) then in Granville county. At about the same time, the inhabitants of Edenton, Newbern, and Wilmington, assembled in their respective towns, and asserted their hearty concurrence in the sentiments expressed by the people of the Northern colonies unfavorable to the Stamp Act. During the summer and autumn, denunciations of the measure were boldly expressed at public meetings, notwithstanding the presence of Tryon, the lieutenant governor. Tryon had been acting governor and commander-in-chief of the province from the death of Governor Dobbs, on the first of April of that year, and now began his career of misrule in America. He was appointed governor toward the close of the year. This was the same Tryon, afterward governor of
* The outbreak alluded to is known as the Enfield Riot. It occurred in 1759. Extortion had become rife in every department of government. Deputy-surveyors, entry-takers, and other officers of inferior grade, became adepts in the chicanery of their superiors. The people finding their complaints unavailing, and that Corbin, who had the chief direction of the land-office, was increasing his fees without authority, resolved to redress their grievances themselves. Fourteen well-mounted men crossed the Chowan, a few miles above Edenton, by night, seized Corbin, took him to Enfield, and kept him there until he gave a bond in forty thousand dollars, with eight sureties, that he would produce his books within three weeks and return all his illegal fees. As soon as released, he commenced suits against four of the men who seized him, and they were committed to Enfield jail. The next day an armed posse cut down the prison doors, and released them. Corbin was obliged to discontinue his suits and pay the costs. In Mecklenburg county, in May, 1765, a number of people, with their faces blackened, forcibly compelled John Frohock, a surveyor, to leave the lands of George A. Selwyn, who possessed large tracts in that county, and who had sent him there to survey them.
** William Tryon was a native of Ireland, and was educated to the profession of a soldier. He was an officer in the British service. He married Miss Wake, a relative of the Earl of Hillsborough, secretary fur the colonies. Thus connected, he was a favorite of government, and was appointed lientenant governor of North Carolina, in 1765. On the death of Governor Dobbs, lie succeeded him in office, and exercised its functions until called to fill the same office in New York, in 1771. The history of his administration in North Carolina is a record of extortion, folly, and crime. During his administration in New York, the Revolution broke out, and he was the last royal governor of that state, though nominally succeeded in office in 1780 by General Robertson, when he returned to England. His property in North Carolina and in New York was confiscated. The public acts of Governor Tryon, while in Ameriea, are recorded upon various pages of these volumes. The seal and signature on the preceding pane are referred to on page 570.
Revolutionary Proceedings at Wilmington.—Ruins of St. Philip's Church at Brunswick.
New York, whom we have already met at the conflagrations of Danbury, Continental Village, and other places. Haughty, innately cruel, fond of show, obsequious when wishing favors, and tyrannical when independent, he was entirely incompetent to govern a people like the free, outspoken colonists of the Upper Carolinas. Fearing a general expression of the sentiments of the people, through their representatives, on the subject of the odious act, Tryon issued a proclamation in OctoberOct 25 proroguing the Assembly, which was to meet on the thirtieth of November, until the following March.