One of the colonies that struggled, through neglect and almost insurmountable hardships, into permanent existence was Carolina. Before its settlement, other colonies had successfully established themselves in New England, and in Maryland and Virginia. In 1663, Charles II., in the second year after his restoration, granted the region south of Virginia and extending from 31° to 36° north latitude, and westward within these parallels across the continent, to some of his adherents, to whom he was indebted for distinguished services. It is stated in the grant that this extensive region is called “Carolina,” a name used before, and now, no doubt, retained in honor of the king.[704] The favored noblemen are thus introduced to us: “our right trusty and right well-beloved cousins and counsellors, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, our High Chancellor of England, and George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of our Horse and Captain-General of all our Forces, our right trusty and well-beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkeley, our right trusty and well-beloved counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, Chancellor of our Exchequer, Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet, Vice-Chamberlain of our Household, and our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Berkeley, Knight, and Sir John Colleton, Knight and Baronet;” who, we are deliberately informed, “being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of” the British dominions, humbly besought leave of the king, “by their industry and charge, to transport and make an ample colony” of his subjects, “in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of Almighty God.”[705] Had these high functionaries of the realm acted in accordance with this solemn announcement of their pious zeal for the propagation of Christianity, the blessing of Heaven would, no doubt, have rested more largely upon their noble enterprise.
An adverse claim was soon made to the same territory under a grant obtained in 1629,[706] by Sir Robert Heath, attorney-general of Charles I. But he had failed to form a colony, and the claims of those to whom he had conveyed his rights were on that account set aside. The Proprietors under the new charter began to make immediate exertions to form a settlement, that the king might see they did not “sleep with his grant, but were promoting his service and his subjects’ profit.”[707]
AUTOGRAPHS OF THE LORDS PROPRIETORS.
These follow fac-similes given in the Charleston Year Book, 1883.
Before this, settlers from Virginia had moved at various times southward and taken up their residence on some good lands on and near the river Chowan, in what is now the northeastern part of North Carolina. Among these was a considerable number of Quakers, at that time subject to religious persecution. It happened that Sir William Berkeley, one of the new Proprietors, was governor of Virginia. He was empowered by the other Proprietors to form a government forthwith in this settlement, and appoint its officers; the appointment of surveyor and secretary alone being reserved to the Proprietors in England. “We do likewise send you proposals to all that will plant, which we prepared upon receipt of a paper from persons that desired to settle near Cape Fear, in which our considerations are as low as it is possible for us to descend. This was not intended for your meridian, where we hope to find more facile people, who, by your interest, may settle upon better terms for us, which we leave to your management, with our opinion that you grant as much as is possible rather than deter any from planting there.” Sir William, it is inferred, followed these instructions. William Drummond was appointed governor;[708] the tract of land, at first forty miles square, was named Albemarle in honor of the duke, and a council of six was constituted to make laws with the consent of the delegates of the freemen. These laws were to be transmitted to England for approval by the Proprietors. Lands were granted to all free of rent for three years; and such lands as had been taken by previous settlers were confirmed to them.
Almost simultaneously another colony (Clarendon) was settled in what is now North Carolina. As early as 1660 some adventurers from Massachusetts had gone to the Cape Fear, sometimes called the Charles, River, and purchased lands from the Indians; but in a few years abandoned the situation, leaving their cattle and swine in care of the natives. To the same locality the attention of the inhabitants of Barbadoes[709] was directed on the grant of the territory to the powerful noblemen whose names are given in the charter. The passage already quoted from the letter to Sir William Berkeley had reference to them and their proposal. Explorers, employed by “several gentlemen and merchants” of Barbadoes, were sent out (1663) under command of Hilton, who ascended the Cape Fear far inland, and formed a more favorable opinion of the country than the New Englanders had been enabled to form near the mouth of the river. They purchased from the Indians “the river and land of Cape Fair,” as they express it, and returned to Barbadoes on January 6, 1664. An account of their exploration was published the same year, to which were appended proposals from the Proprietors, through their commissioners, Thomas Mudyford and Peter Colleton, to all who should settle, at their own hazard and expense, south and west of Cape Romano, sometimes called Cape Carteret. This was a bid for volunteer settlers south of the Cape Fear settlement. Nothing whatever, it appears, was accomplished under this offer of the commissioners. In a Description of the Province, with liberal privileges offered to settlers, issued also in London (1666), it is stated that a new plantation had been begun by the English at Cape Fear on the 29th of May, 1664. In the following November, Robert Sandford was appointed secretary and John Vassall surveyor of “Clarendon County.”[710] It was time the Proprietors should agree upon some definite and satisfactory terms for settlement in their territory. While they did not sanction the purchase of lands from Indians, as they had also disallowed the claims of the New England adventurers, they made to all colonists, from Barbadoes and elsewhere, liberal offers for settlement; and under “concessions and agreement” a method of government was framed, and John Yeamans of Barbadoes was knighted by the king (through means of Sir John Colleton), and commissioned, in January, 1665, governor of the newly formed Clarendon County[711] and of the territory southward as far as Florida; for in this direction the Proprietors designed to place a third colony or county.
The two counties, Albemarle and Clarendon, were formed under the charter of 1663. Another charter was granted by the good-natured king in June, 1665, enlarging the limits of the province to 36° 30´ on the north, and on the south to 29°. This extension may be ascribed to the desire of the Proprietors to secure beyond doubt the section on which the Chowan colony happened to be formed near Virginia, and to embrace, southwardly, the limits claimed with respect to Spanish Florida.
We have very little knowledge concerning the administrations of Drummond and of Yeamans. It is said that the latter, being near the sea, began at once to export lumber and opened a trade with Barbadoes; and reports so favorable were carried thither, and so many were induced to follow the first emigrants, that the authorities of the island interposed, and forbade, under severe penalties, “the spiriting off” of their people. In Albemarle, Drummond was succeeded by Samuel Stephens as governor in 1667. In Clarendon, the colony soon ceased to prosper, and most, if not all, of the colonists had abandoned it in 1667. We shall understand better why they did so if we bear in mind that the territory of the Lords Proprietors was very extensive. There were other places, not yet explored, more convenient for commerce, more defensible, more fruitful, more desirable in all respects; the advantages of which would naturally draw off settlers from the less favorable localities selected before a thorough knowledge of the country was obtained. The Proprietors, as we have said, thought of forming, with larger preparations, a colony still further south. The famous harbor of Port Royal, in what is now South Carolina, was the locality they desired to occupy and (with unusual display of wisdom) to fortify. For reasons, however, which will appear hereafter, when we treat of South Carolina, the colonists, after visiting Port Royal, and after a temporary settlement at Albemarle Point on the western bank of the Ashley River, finally settled down on the opposite side, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and founded the present city of Charleston. There was, indeed, enough to discourage the settlers at Cape Fear independently of the more extensive preparation by the Proprietors to place a colony in a better situation. Secretary Sandford (in his Relation of his voyage in 1666) incidentally mentions: “Wee were in actuall warre with the natives att Clarendon, and had killed and sent away many of them, for they [the more southern Indians] frequently discoursed with us concerning the warre, told us the natives were noughts, their land sandy and barren, their country sickly.” Surveyor-General Vassall, in a letter from Virginia (Oct. 6, 1667), speaks of the loss of the plantation on Charles River and his furnishing shipping to carry away “such weak persons as were not able to go by land.” And a letter from Boston (Dec. 16, 1667) states that Cape Fear was deserted, and the settlers “come hither, some to Virginia.”[712]