THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT OF CAROLINA. BY A. M. BARNES. AS is well known, no permanent English settlements were effected within the territory now covered by the United States of America until the reign of James I., for by this time every trace of Raleigh's colonies had disappeared. In 1606 a land charter was given by James to Sir Thomas Gates and " certain knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventur ers." This grant to specified lands in the new world was bestowed with the under standing that they were to divide into two colonies. It stipulated that those from the city of London were to establish themselves at some favorable point on the coast of Vir ginia, while those from the cities of Exeter, Bristol and Plymouth were to plant their colonies within the New England domain. It was under this charter that Virginia was colonized in 1607, and New England in 1620. The first English colonies in America were founded under charter governments. They were each a kind of municipality, or civil corporation with the power of not only directing its political affairs, but also with that of making its own laws for interior reg ulation, subject, of course, to the stipulations of the charter. The next form of government was the Proprietary, and it was with the introduction of this that the political cauldron, already a-simmer, began truly to boil. That it bub bled over finally, burning many, and giving all more or less a blistering was no wonder. The first proprietary grant of land in the new world was to the Earl of Marlboro by James I., whereby he was given " full claim and title " to the Island of Barbadoes. This grant was afterwards set aside by Charles I., who bestowed this island, along with all the Caribbees, to his favorite, the Earl of Car lisle. This latter charter, which afterward
became so noted because of the precedent it set for the other proprietary charters, was dated June 2, 1629. In the following year the same monarch, through a second grant, conveyed to his Attorney General, Sir Rob ert Heath, the Province of Carolina, or as it was then spelled, " Carolana." To be more explicit this charter gave to Sir Robert sole possession of " all that region lying south of Virginia, extending from 310 to 360 of north latitude, and westward within these parallels across the continent from ocean to ocean." Two years later the grant was enlarged by a second, which extended the territory to 29 north latitude. The London Council on August 12, 1663, revoked this charter, de claring it null and void, because of failure to comply with its conditions, foremost of which was that requiring the peopling of the terri tory. Instead, there had been only feeble and unsuccessful attempts at colonization, so that for more than thirty years the vast ter ritory had remained practically unsettled. The proprietary charter under which the Carolinas were really settled, becoming a province of His Majesty, was that given by Charles II., shortly after the Restoration, to certain of his faithful supporters. The men thus specified and rewarded were Edward, marle Earl of; William, ClarendonLord
- George,
CravenDuke
- John,
of AlbeLord Berkley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkley and Sir John Colleton. Aside from the distinguished ser vices rendered the crown, another ground upon which they petitioned their sovereign for the rights to a " certain country in the parts of America," was that they were " incited by a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the gospel .... among barbarous people having no knowledge of God." That none of these gentlemen were really actuated by
