Third North Carolina Provincial Congress | |||||
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Overview | |||||
Legislative body | North Carolina Provincial Congress | ||||
Jurisdiction | North Carolina ( de facto ) | ||||
Meeting place | St. Matthew's Church, Hillsborough | ||||
Term | August 20, 1775 – September 10, 1775 | ||||
Provincial Congress | |||||
Members | 213 delegates | ||||
President | Samuel Johnston | ||||
Sovereign | |||||
Monarch | HM George III | ||||
Governor | HE Josiah Martin |
The Third North Carolina Provincial Congress was a meeting of the provincial congress of the de facto provincial government of North Carolina, composed of 213 delegates from 35 counties and nine towns. The congress convened in Hillsborough on August 20, 1775, and ended on September 10, 1775, during the final year of Josiah Martin's gubernatorial administration. Samuel Johnston was unanimously chosen as president as the former president, Colonel John Harvey, had died. [1]
The Third Provincial Congress, which included representatives of all 35 counties and nine towns, established itself as the highest governmental body within the Province of North Carolina after May 24, 1775, when British governor Josiah Martin fled the Governor's Palace at Newbern, ending sixty-three continuous years of colonial rule. The last North Carolina provincial assembly met at Newbern from April 4 to April 8, 1775, before Governor Martin prorogued the House of Burgesses. [2] [3]
The Third Provincial Congress divided the province into six militia districts for purposes of organizing the militia and for determining representation on a provincial council. The militia districts included Edenton, Halifax, Hillsborough, New Bern, Salisbury, and Wilmington. Later, an additional district, Morgan, was added for the western part of the province, including counties that eventually became part of Tennessee (Davidson, Greene, and Washington). Much of the deliberations of the congress dealt with the safety of its residents and preparation for war with Great Britain. [4] [3] [5]
To govern the province when congress was not in session, a 13-man provincial council was elected, constituting the first executive body free of British rule. Cornelius Harnett was elected the first council president. [3] [5]
The following 13 members were appointed to the North Carolina Provincial Council by the Provincial Congress: [5]
The delegates formed a committee of safety at the provincial level. The delegates also elected members of the military district Committees of Safety "for their common defence against their Enemies, for the Security of their Liberties and properties". These committees at the district level would become the roots of the militias. The following persons were elected to the Committees of Safety for military districts: [5]
The following is a full list of delegates to the third congress by constituency.
Constituency | Name |
---|---|
Anson County | David Love |
Anson County | William Pickett |
Anson County | Samuel Spencer |
Anson County | William Thomas |
Anson County | Thomas Wade |
Beaufort County | John Cowper |
Beaufort County | Roger Ormond |
Beaufort County | John Patton |
Beaufort County | Thomas Respess Jr. |
Bertie County | Thomas Ballard |
Bertie County | William Brimmage |
Bertie County | William Bryan |
Bertie County | John Campbell [7] |
Bertie County | Peter Clifton |
Bertie County | William Gray |
Bertie County | Charles Jaycocks |
Bertie County | Jonathan Jaycocks |
Bertie County | John Johnston |
Bertie County | David Standly |
Bertie County | Zedekiah Stone |
Bladen County | Walter Gibson |
Bladen County | Thomas Owen [8] |
Bladen County | Nathaniel Richardson |
Bladen County | Thomas Robeson Jr. |
Bladen County | William Salter |
Brunswick County | Thomas Alton |
Brunswick County | Robert Ellis |
Brunswick County | Robert Howe |
Brunswick County | Roger Moore |
Brunswick County | Parker Quince |
Bute County | Thomas Eaton |
Bute County | Green Hill |
Bute County | Rev. Henry Pattillo |
Bute County | William Person |
Bute County | Josiah Reddick |
Bute County | Jethro Sumner |
Carteret County | John Eason |
Carteret County | Solomon Sheppard |
Carteret County | William Thompson |
Carteret County | Enoch Ward |
Carteret County | Bryce Williams |
Chatham County | John Birdsong |
Chatham County | Elisha Cain |
Chatham County | William Clark |
Chatham County | Jeduthan Harper |
Chatham County | Richard Kennon |
Chatham County | Matthew Jones |
Chatham County | Ambrose Ramsey |
Chatham County | Joseph Rosser |
Chatham County | Robert Rutherford |
Chatham County | John Thompson |
Chowan County | Thomas Benbury |
Chowan County | James Blount |
Chowan County | Josiah Grandbury |
Chowan County | Thomas Hunter |
Chowan County | Samuel Johnston |
Chowan County | Thomas Jones [9] |
Craven County | Jacob Blount |
Craven County | William Bryan |
Craven County | Richard Cogdell [10] |
Craven County | James Coor |
Craven County | Edmund Hatch |
Craven County | Joseph Leech |
Cumberland County | Farquard Campbell [11] |
Cumberland County | Alexander McAllister |
Cumberland County | Alexander McKay |
Cumberland County | Thomas Rutherford |
Cumberland County | David Smith |
Currituck County | Thomas Jarvis |
Currituck County | Gideon Lamb |
Currituck County | Solomon Perkins |
Currituck County | James Ryan |
Currituck County | James White [12] |
Dobbs County | Andrew Bass |
Dobbs County | Simon Bright |
Dobbs County | Richard Caswell |
Dobbs County | James Glasgow |
Dobbs County | George Miller |
Dobbs County | Abraham Sheppard |
Dobbs County | Spyars Singleton |
Duplin County | Richard Clinton |
Duplin County | William Dickson [13] |
Duplin County | Thomas Gray |
Duplin County | Thomas Hicks |
Duplin County | James Kenan |
Edgecombe County | Robert Bignal [14] |
Edgecombe County | Thomas H. Hall |
Edgecombe County | Thomas Hunter |
Edgecombe County | Henry Irwin |
Edgecombe County | Duncan Lamon |
Granville County | Memucan Hunt |
Granville County | John Penn |
Granville County | Thomas Person |
Granville County | John Taylor |
Granville County | John Williams |
Guilford County | George Cortner |
Guilford County | William Dent |
Guilford County | James Park Farley |
Guilford County | Thomas Henderson |
Guilford County | Alexander Martin |
Guilford County | Ransom Sutherland |
Guilford County | Nathaniel Williams |
Halifax County | John Geddy [15] |
Halifax County | James Hogun |
Halifax County | Nicholas Long |
Halifax County | David Sumner |
Halifax County | John Webb |
Hertford County | Lawrence Baker |
Hertford County | Matthew Brickel |
Hertford County | William Murfree |
Hertford County | Day Ridly |
Hertford County | George Wynns |
Hyde County | Joseph Hancock |
Hyde County | John Jordan |
Johnston County | Needham Bryan |
Johnston County | William Bryan |
Johnston County | John Smith |
Johnston County | Samuel Smith |
Johnston County | Benjamin Williams |
Martin County | John Everitt |
Martin County | Whitmell Hill |
Martin County | Kenneth McKenzie |
Martin County | William Slade |
Martin County | John Stuart |
Martin County | William Williams |
Mecklenburg County | John McKnitt Alexander |
Mecklenburg County | Waightstill Avery |
Mecklenburg County | James Houston |
Mecklenburg County | Samuel Martin |
Mecklenburg County | John Phifer |
Mecklenburg County | Thomas Polk |
New Hanover County | John Baptista Ashe |
New Hanover County | Samuel Ashe |
New Hanover County | William Hooper |
New Hanover County | John Alexander Lillington |
New Hanover County | George Moore |
New Hanover County | James Moore |
Northampton County | Jeptha Atherton |
Northampton County | Howell Edmunds |
Northampton County | Drewry Gee |
Northampton County | Allen Jones |
Northampton County | Samuel Lockhart |
Onslow County | Isaac Guion |
Onslow County | John King |
Onslow County | Henry Rhodes |
Onslow County | John Spicer |
Onslow County | Edward Starkey |
Orange County | John Atkinson |
Orange County | Thomas Burke |
Orange County | Thomas Hart |
Orange County | John Kinchen |
Orange County | John Williams |
Pasquotank County | Thomas Boyd |
Pasquotank County | Dempsey Burgess |
Pasquotank County | Devotion Davis |
Pasquotank County | Edward Everagin |
Pasquotank County | Joseph Jones |
Perquimans County | Benjamin Harvey |
Perquimans County | Miles Harvey |
Perquimans County | Thomas Harvey |
Perquimans County | Andrew Knox |
Perquimans County | William Skinner |
Pitt County | William Bryan |
Pitt County | James Gorham |
Pitt County | James Latham |
Pitt County | Robert Salter |
Pitt County | John Simpson |
Rowan County | William Kennon |
Rowan County | Matthew Locke |
Rowan County | William Sharpe |
Rowan County | James Smith |
Rowan County | Samuel Young |
Rowan County | Moses Winslow |
Surry County | Martin Armstrong |
Surry County | William Hill |
Surry County | Robert Lanier |
Surry County | Joseph Williams |
Surry County | Joseph Winston |
Tryon County | Robert Alexander |
Tryon County | William Graham |
Tryon County | Frederick Hambright |
Tryon County | Joseph Harden |
Tryon County | John Walker |
Tyrrell County | Jeremiah Frazier |
Tyrrell County | Thomas Hoskins |
Tyrrell County | Stephen Lee |
Tyrrell County | Joseph Spruill |
Tyrrell County | Peter Wynn |
Wake County | Thomas Hines |
Wake County | John Hinton |
Wake County | Theophilus Hunter |
Wake County | Tignal Jones |
Wake County | Joel Lane |
Wake County | John Rand |
Wake County | Michael Rogers |
Bath Town | William Brown [16] |
Edenton | Jasper Charlton |
Edenton | Joseph Hewes |
New Bern | James Davis |
New Bern | Richard Ellis [17] |
New Bern | Abner Nash |
New Bern | William Tisdale |
Wilmington | Cornelius Harnett |
Wilmington | Archibald MacLaine |
Brunswick | Maurice Moore |
Halifax | Willie Jones |
Hillsborough | William Armstrong |
Hillsborough | Francis Nash |
Hillsborough | Nathaniel Rochester |
Salisbury | William Kennon |
Salisbury | Hugh Montgomery |
Campbelton [note 1] | James Hepburn |
Campbelton [note 1] | Robert Rowan |