Thank you for sharing this. ----- Original Message ----- From: John Collins <johnc@datalinkc.com> To: <NCPERQUI-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 2:36 AM Subject: [NCPERQUI] Early names, boundaries, and religion > Roanoke Island - the site of an initial English visit in 1584, the > short-lived military settlement of 1585-6 (removed by Sir Francis Drake > following his sacking of St Augustine, Florida, because of fears of a > retaliatory Spanish attack), and the first permanent English settlement in > North America, the so-called Lost Colony of 1587 - was at that time > referred to as being in Virginia (named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen). > > During the reign of her successor, James I, what is now known as Virginia > was settled (initially at Jamestown) from 1607-24 under the auspices of the > joint stock Virginia Company of London. On May 24, 1624 the Company's > charter was declared vacated, and the colony of Virginia came under control > of the crown as the first royal colony in English history. It included most > of the area from just north of modern New York city southward to Cape Fear. > > On October 30, 1629, in the fifth year of his reign, James' son Charles I > granted to his Attorney General, Sir Robert Heath, the territory between 31 > and 36 degrees north latitude. This is the region now lying from about 30 > miles north of the Florida state line to the southern side of Albemarle > Sound. In 1632, with royal approval, Heath assigned his New World interests > to Henry Frederick Howard, Lord Maltravers. > > In 1637, Charles I directed Governor Sir John Harvey of Virginia to assist > in the work of settling "Lord Maltravers province of Carolana". Harvey's > compliance took the form of a patent to Maltravers establishing the County > of Norfolk "in the Southern part of the Colony" of Virginia. The reason for > the name is that one of the Howard family titles, still used today by the > head of the family (who is Earl Marshall of England and an important > participant in Coronation ceremonies), is Duke of Norfolk. The Howards are > the only Roman Catholic family to have successfully maintained an important > position in the English aristocracy. Included in Maltravers' County of > Norfolk was the area from just south of modern Suffolk, Virginia (the > actual city, not what was Nansemond County) to about present-day New Bern. > > Records of actual settlement are scanty, but Sir John Colleton (one of the > later proprietors of Carolina) once mentioned a plantation "started by one > Mr Mariot, steward to the Duke of Norfolk," Maltravers' son. > > On May 15, 1630 an agreement was drafted for a Carolana settlement, one of > the parties to which was George Lord Berkeley. > > Governor Sir William Berkeley of Virginia sent an expedition against the > Indians along the Chowan River in 1646, presumably in preparation for > southernward settlement. > > About 1648 Henry Plumpton of Nansemond County, Virginia, just north of the > Chowan region, in co-operation with Thomas Tuke and several others, bought > from the Indians "all the Land from the mouth of the Morratuck [Roanoke] > River to the mouth of Weyanook Creek". > > In 1650 a Virginia merchant, Thomas Bland, was one of a party of eight who > explored the Chowan, Meherrin, and Roanoke river valleys. His petition to > the Virginia assembly for permission to settle "to the Southward" was > approved October 20, 1650. The Assembly instructed him and his associates > to "secure themselves in effecting the said Designe with a hundred able men > sufficiently furnished with Armes and Munition". In 1651 he published a > promotional tract, "The Discovery of New Brittaine, 1650". > > In 1653 the Virginia Assembly made a grant of 10,000 acres, in response to > a petition from the Rev. Roger Green, "unto one hundred such persons who > shall first seate on Moratuck or Roanoke river and the land lying upon the > south side of Choan river and the branches thereof" and "to the said Roger > Green, the rights of one thousand acres of land, and choice to take the > same where it shall seem most convenient to him, next to those persons who > have had a former grant". > > In a pamphlet entitled "Virginia's Cure", printed in London in 1662, the > Rev. Green cited the colony of Virginia as being bound "on the North by the > great River Patomak, on the South by the River Chawan". > > A manuscript map, drawn in 1657 by Nicholas Comberford, is in the National > Maritime Museum at Greenwich in London. On the neck of land between the > mouth of the Roanoke River and Salmon Creek (now in Bertie County) this > shows a neatly drawn house with the label "Batts House" identifying it. In > his journal for 1672, George Fox, the Quaker missionary who visited the > area, mentioned "Nathaniel Batts who had been Governor of Roan-oak". > > Following the execution of Charles I, England was a Republic for 11 years, > 1649-60, until the coronation of Charles II. On March 24, 1663, Charles II > revoked his father's grant of 1629 to Sir Robert Heath and granted the > Carolinas to eight English noblemen who had supported the Royalist cause > during and after the English Civil War (1642-49). These were the initial > Lords Proprietors: Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (Lord High Chancellor); > George Monck, Duke of Albemarle (Master of the King's Horse and > Captain-General of all his forces); William Lord Craven (an old friend of > Charles' father); John Lord Berkeley; Anthony Ashley Cooper (Chancellor of > the Exchequer, later made Earl of Shaftesbury); Sir George Carteret > (Vice-Chamberlain of the King's Household, who had entertained Charles in > his Jersey home during a part of the time he was in exile); Sir William > Berkeley (who, as Governor of Virginia, had induced the colony to adhere to > Charles II as sovereign even while he was in exile); and Sir John Colleton > (a Barbadian planter, who had maintained the royal cause in Barbados). The > first official use of the name Carolina occurs in this Charter. > > In September 1663 the other proprietors sent a series of instructions to > Sir William Berkeley. Carolina affairs were left almost entirely in the > hands of Berkeley as the nearest resident Proprietor, and it was more than > two years before those remaining in England showed signs of being aware > that the Albemarle region, as the former Carolana area was now called, was > not within their domain. On June 13, 1665, they received a new charter > making their northern boundary approximately the same as the present North > Carolina-Virginia state line. > > The Lords Proprietors concentrated most of their initial efforts on a > fruitless attempt (1663-67) to establish Clarendon County in the Cape Fear > region. > > William Drummond was the first Governor appointed for Albemarle County > (1664-67). > > Roanoke Island was owned by Samuel Stephens who, on October 9, 1662, had > been appointed "commander of the southern plantation" by the council in > Virginia, and was later (1667-69) Governor of Albemarle County. > > Colleton (now Collington) Island had been granted to Sir John Colleton, and > was where Governor (1670-72) Peter Carteret lived after moving to Carolina > from his family home on Jersey in the Channel Islands. > > By October 1668 Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, and Perquimans precincts had > been formed in Albemarle County. From 1679 for about 6 years, Perquimans > was renamed Berkeley Precinct. > > In 1689 Albemarle County as a unit of government ceased to exist, although > the name continued intermittently in use for at least a further 10 years. > Government of Carolina "North and East of Cape feare" was established, with > Philip Ludwell as Governor (1689-94). In 1691 the Lords Proprietors > appointed him governor of all Carolina, headquartered at Charles Town, with > a deputy governor for the northern part of the colony - the beginning of > the division of the province into North and South Carolina, though not so > called at this time. Thomas Jarvis was the first deputy governor. > > Early Albemarle County had no formal religious life, other than Quaker > meetings in private houses in Perquimans precinct. The Quaker missionary > William Edmundson found one Quaker household in 1672, that of Henry Phelps > (Phillips), who had moved down from New England in 1665 with his wife. > There were more on his return in 1677 and, by 1680, monthly meetings were > being held. Since the Quakers were the only church available, they > attracted numerous converts, especially in Perquimans and Pasquotank > precincts. Under the encouragement of the Quaker Lord Proprietor and > proprietary governor (1694-96) John Archdale, they became the dominant > political force in the county - which stimulated the Anglican community to > seek passage of the Vestry Act. The Upper Meeting House (later Wells) was > built by 1704, Little River Meeting House was erected in 1705, and Lower > Meeting House (later Old Neck) appeared by 1706. At the end of the > proprietary era, in 1729, Friends maintained Meetings at Wells, Old Neck, > Suttons Creek, Yeopim, and Piney Woods. (Piney Woods is still functioning.) > Friends residing west of Little River in Perquimans were attached to the > Pasquotank Monthly Meeting. Friends have to receive their Meeting's > permission before marrying, so the records from Quaker Meetings provide > most of the available early information on marriages in this area. > > The Anglican missionary John Blair, writing in 1704, reported that he had > baptised a great many children but had not been able to marry anyone > because only the magistrates were authorized to marry. He found three > church buildings and glebes. > > The Church of England, or Anglican Church, envisioned by the authors of the > proprietary charters and the Fundamental Constitutions as the dominant > religious institution in a tolerant province, was finally made the > established church of the province in 1701 and again in 1703 or 1704. The > statutes erected parishes, named vestries, and authorized the imposition of > taxes to support the clergy. At the same time, the Society for the > Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), organized by Thomas Bray and Associates in > 1701, began to send missionaries to the province. > > In Perquimans an Anglican chapel was under construction, but remained > unfinished because of the death of Major Samuel Swann, Sr in 1707; the > Anglican Nags Head Chapel, in use by 1736 and probably the result of the > efforts of vestryman Albert Albertson, occupied the site of the later New > Hope Methodist Church; and the Anglican Yeopim Chapel, constructed on land > donated by John And Elizabeth Mathias in 1732, eventually became the site > of Bethel Baptist Church. > > Bath County was formed in 1696 and, four years later, the Rev. Thomas Bray > shipped books from England to St Thomas Parish with the Reverend Daniel > Brett for the first public library in the colony. The parish also > established a free school for Indians and blacks. In 1705 Beaufort, Craven, > and Hyde precincts were established in Bath County. In 1705 Bath became the > first town created in the colony. Construction of St. Thomas Church, oldest > existing church in the state, began in 1734. > > The parish of St Paul's was organized in 1701 as the first Anglican parish > in the colony under the provisions of the Vestry Act of 1701. A > post-in-ground church building was erected the next year on an undetermined > plot of land just east of Queen Anne's Creek on what is now known as Hayes > farm; the town of Edenton would not be founded for another eleven years. In > 1736 construction was begun of the present St Paul's on the town lots set > aside for church and churchyard (cemetery) before 1722. > >