Francis Nash was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Prior to the war,he was a lawyer,public official,and politician in Hillsborough,North Carolina,and was heavily involved in opposing the Regulator movement,an uprising of settlers in the North Carolina piedmont between 1765 and 1771. Nash was also involved in North Carolina politics,representing Hillsborough on several occasions in the colonial North Carolina General Assembly.
Lieutenant-General William Tryon was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of North Carolina from 1764 to 1771 and the governor of New York from 1771 to 1777. He also served during the Seven Years' War,the Regulator Movement,and the American War of Independence.
Province of North Carolina was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776.(p. 80) It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monarch of Great Britain was represented by the Governor of North Carolina,until the colonies declared independence on July 4,1776.
The North Carolina Council of State is the collective body of ten elective executive offices in the state government of North Carolina,all of which are established by the state constitution. The Council of State includes the Governor,Lieutenant Governor,Secretary of State,State Auditor,Treasurer,Superintendent of Public Instruction,Attorney General,Commissioner of Agriculture,Commissioner of Labor,and Commissioner of Insurance. Together with the North Carolina Cabinet and several independent agencies,the Council of State offices constitute the executive branch of North Carolina's state government.
Samuel Johnston was an American planter,lawyer,Grand Master of Freemasons,enslaver,and statesman from Chowan County,North Carolina. He represented North Carolina in both the Continental Congress and the United States Senate,and he was the sixth Governor of North Carolina.
Robert Howe was a Continental Army general from the Province of North Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. The descendant of a prominent family in North Carolina,Howe was one of five generals,and the only major general,in the Continental Army from that state. He also played a role in the colonial and state governments of North Carolina,serving in the legislative bodies of both.
Sir John Yeamans,1st Baronet was an English colonial administrator and planter who served as Governor of Carolina from 1672 to 1674. Contemporary descriptions of Yeamans described him as "a pirate ashore."
The Regulator Movement,also known as the Regulator Insurrection,War of Regulation,and War of the Regulation,was an uprising in Provincial North Carolina from 1766 to 1771 in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials,whom they viewed as corrupt. Though the rebellion did not change the power structure,some historians consider it a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War. Others like John Spencer Bassett take the view that the Regulators did not wish to change the form or principle of their government,but simply wanted to make the colony's political process more equal. They wanted better economic conditions for everyone,instead of a system that heavily benefited the colonial officials and their network of plantation owners mainly near the coast. Bassett interprets the events of the late 1760s in Orange and surrounding counties as "...a peasants' rising,a popular upheaval."
Josiah Martin was a British Army officer and colonial official who served as the ninth and last British governor of North Carolina from 1771 to 1776.
Edmund Fanning was an American-born colonial administrator and military officer. Born in New York,he became a lawyer and politician in North Carolina in the 1760s. He first came to fame as the focus of hatred of the Regulators,and led anti-Regulator militia in the War of the Regulation. When the American Revolutionary War broke out,he was driven from his home in New York,and joined the British Army,recruiting other Loyalists. He served during campaigns in New England and the South. At the end of the war in 1783 he became a United Empire Loyalist,settling in Nova Scotia.
The North Carolina Provincial Congresses were extra-legal unicameral legislative bodies formed in 1774 through 1776 by the people of the Province of North Carolina,independent of the British colonial government. There were five congresses. They met in the towns of New Bern,Hillsborough (3rd),and Halifax. The 4th conference approved the Halifax Resolves,the first resolution of one of Thirteen Colonies to call for independence from Great Britain. Five months later it would empower the state's delegates to the Second Continental Congress to concur to the United States Declaration of Independence. The 5th conference approved the Constitution of North Carolina and elected Richard Caswell as governor of the State of North Carolina. After the 5th conference,the new North Carolina General Assembly met in April 1777.
James Moore was a Continental Army general during the American Revolutionary War. Moore was born into a prominent political family in the colonial Province of North Carolina,he was one of only five generals from North Carolina to serve in the Continental Army. He spent much of his childhood and youth on his family's estates in the lower Cape Fear River area,but soon became active in the colonial military structure in North Carolina.
Tryon Palace,formerly called Governor's Palace,Newbern,was the official residence and administrative headquarters of the British governors of North Carolina from 1770 to 1775. Located in New Bern,North Carolina,the palace was often at the center of state occasions and hospitality. The residence was seized by patriot troops in 1775. Shortly after the state capital was relocated to Raleigh in 1792,the main building burned to the ground. A modern recreation faithful to the original architect's plans and some period appropriate support structures were erected on the site in the 1950s and opened to the public in 1959. The palace garden was also recreated,with 16 acres (6.5 ha) of plantings,representing three centuries of landscape and gardening heritage. Today,the palace is a state historic site.
Brunswick Town was a prominent town in colonial North Carolina. It was the first successful European settlement in the Cape Fear region,a major British port in the 18th century,and home to two provincial governors. Brunswick Town lasted 50 years (1726–1776) until it was raided by the British Army during the American Revolutionary War and never rebuilt. During the American Civil War,86 years after the town was abandoned,a large portion of the town was covered by earthworks for the construction of Fort Anderson.
Abraham Alexander was a public figure in Mecklenburg County,North Carolina,during the American Revolution. He chaired the meetings that produced the radical Mecklenburg Resolves and,allegedly,the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
The Battle of Alamance,which took place on May 16,1771,was the final battle of the Regulator Movement,a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control,considered by some to be the opening salvo of the American Revolution. Named for nearby Great Alamance Creek,the battle took place in what was then Orange County and has since become Alamance County in the central Piedmont area,about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of present-day Burlington,North Carolina.
John Sampson (1719–1784) was a politician in North Carolina during and after the American Colonial era. After immigrating to the colony from northern Ireland,he settled near Wilmington. He was appointed to local offices,raised a militia to defend against the Spanish Alarm,and served as a Revolutionary War Patriot militia officer. He was an early settler in Duplin County,North Carolina. He served as mayor of Wilmington,North Carolina starting in 1760.
Margaret Wake Tryon was an English heiress and the wife of William Tryon,who served as the Colonial Governor of North Carolina and the Colonial Governor of New York. The namesake of Wake County in North Carolina,she is one of three women,along with Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Virginia Dare,to have a North Carolinian county named after her. She was known for her interest in military strategy,which was controversial for upper-class women of her time.
The Province of North Carolina General Assembly of 1775 was a bicameral legislative body of the Province of North Carolina that met from April 4,1775 to April 8,1775 in New Bern. The upper house of the legislature was the Executive Council,which was appointed by The Crown as was the Governor,Josiah Martin. The lower house,the House of Burgesses,was elected by the eligible voters in the 34 counties and nine major towns as certified by the local sheriff.
The Second North Carolina Provincial Congress was the second extra-legal unicameral body of the North Carolina Provincial Congress that met beginning in 1774. They were modeled after the colonial lower house. These congresses created a government structure,issued bills of credit to pay for the movement,and organized an army for defense,in preparation for the state of North Carolina. These congresses paved the way for the first meeting of the North Carolina General Assembly on April 7,1777 in New Bern,North Carolina. The second Congress met in New Bern from April 3 to April 7,1775.
