School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

KING CHARLES II. AND THE LORDS PROPRIETORS.

A. D. 1663.

After the discovery of North Carolina, in 1584, by Amadas and Barlowe, many years had gone by before the period now reached in this narrative. Not only had James succeeded Elizabeth, but Charles had succeeded James and had been beheaded as a traitor to the land he pretended to rule. Cromwell had lived, ruled and died, and Charles II. was on the throne of his fathers, and thus again royal bounties became possible and fashionable.

2. Many men in England had heard of the goodly land which was being peopled around Albemarle Sound, beyond the jurisdiction of Governor Berkeley. He, too, with his bitter and envenomed soul, took part in a scheme which was to give him some authority over the refugees who had imagined themselves beyond the reach of his cruel rule.

1663

3. In the year 1663, His Majesty Charles II., King of England, Scotland and Ireland, granted to George, Duke of Albemarle; Edward, Earl of Clarendon; William, Earl of Craven; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret, Sir John Colleton, and Sir William Berkeley, as "Lords Proprietors," all the territory south of the lands not already granted to the province of Virginia, down to the Spanish line of Florida.

4. There were some remarkable men among these titular owners of the land we now inhabit. The Duke of Albemarle had been General George Monk before the restoration of King Charles, and was made a nobleman on account of his part in that transaction. He was not possessed of very great ability, and only became famous by the accidents of fortune.

5. Very different was the astute lawyer, Edward Hyde, who, for his abilities, was made the Earl of Clarendon and Lord High Chancellor of England. He was a selfish and crafty man, and lost his offices in his old age, but had two granddaughters who became queens of Great Britain.

6. Lord Ashley, afterward the Earl of Shaftesbury, will ever be remembered for the part he bore in establishing the writ of habeas corpus as a part of the British Constitution. He was a bold, able and profligate man, who marred great abilities by greater vices. He combined within himself all that is dangerous and detestable in a demagogue.

7. Sir William Berkeley, then Governor of the province of Virginia, was another of these Lords Proprietors. He was the embodiment of the cruelty and religious prejudice of that age. He whipped and imprisoned people who worshipped God in a way not pleasing to himself, and was immortalized by the remark of King Charles II., who said of him: "That old fool has taken more lives without offence in that naked country than I, in all England, for the murder of my father."