@2009 - Sue Ashby

Updated09/02/2009

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When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection
is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most
sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.

—Marquis de Lafayette, 1790

North Carolina Governors

North Carolina's history as an organized governing system led by a governor 
may be viewed in fivechronological stages: the Virginia colony, the southern plantation, the Lords Proprietors, the Royal colony,  and thestate of North Carolina. A chronology of  governors serving during each of these stages is listed at the bottom of the page.

The Virginia Colony

In the sixteenth century the nations of Europe began a period of exploration and colonization in the "NewWorld." England sought to maintain her interests in the struggle for new territories and resources among other contending nations, principally Spain. Queen Elizabeth commissioned Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a settlement in the "New World" to secure England's claims to territory. This new colony was named "Virginia" in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen. The territory of that original colony included what is now North Carolina as well as many other States.

The Southern Plantation

After the mysterious disappearance of the "Lost Colony," the first successful English settlement was made at Jamestown. From Jamestown, settlement spread south. Eventually a distinction began to be made by the colonists between Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay area, and Old Virginia or South Virginia, the RoanokeIsland area. When the latter area, now a part of North Carolina, became more settled it became known as the Southern Plantation. A "Commander of the Southern Plantation"
was created by the governor of Virginia. The actions of the
Virginia governor outpaced his authority under the English Crown,
and the Southern Plantation and its Commander were short-lived.

The Lords Proprietors

The Stuarts succeeded Queen Elizabeth as monarchs of Britain. Charles I was beheaded in 1649 and Oliver  Cromwell ruled during the "interregnum." Charles II returned the Stuarts to the throne in 1660 and rewarded his loyal supporters. Eight of these loyalists (Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon; George Monck, Duke of Albemarle; William
Craven, Earl of Craven; John Lord Berkeley; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of   Shaftesbury; Sir George Carteret; Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia; and Sir John Colleton) were  rewarded by King Charles II by being made
Proprietors of his new colony, Carolina, which reached from  the southern boundary of Virginia, incorporating the Southern Plantation, to the northern boundary of the Spanish colony of Florida. The western boundary of Carolina was to be the "South Seas."

The Royal Colony

The Proprietors had difficulty in managing the colony. There were border disputes with Virginia, Indian wars  with the Tuscarora, and piracy at the hands of the notorious Blackbeard. A portion of Carolina had emerged as its own organizational unit and became the royal colony of South Carolina in 1719. Advisors to the British  king recommended direct royal control of the colonies. In 1729 seven of the eight Lord Proprietors sold their colonial holdings in Carolina to the Crown. The lone Proprietor was John Carteret, Earl Granville, who retained the Granville Tract in North Carolina without governing control until the American Revolution.

The State of North Carolina

Under the rule of the king, dissent within North Carolina grew. The Regulators rose in the western parts of the state protesting corrupt colonial government. The ladies of Edenton signed their resolve to support the American cause in what has become known as the Edenton Tea Party. The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in 1775
signified that the people of the western areas of the colony supported a separation from royal control. On July 15, 1775, Josiah Martin, pursued by North Carolina patriots, fled from Fort Johnston with his family to the protection of the British
warship, Cruizer. He was to be the last royal governor of North Carolina.


 

Chronology of North Carolina Governors

Original Virginia Colony

Ralph Lane, 1585 - 1586
John White, 1587

Commander of the Southern Plantation

Samuel Stephens, 1662 - 1664 
(later governor under Lords Proprietors)

Lords Proprietors

William Drummond 1664 - 1667
Samuel Stephens 1667 - 1669              (prev Commander of                                   the Southern Plantation)
Peter Carteret 1670 - 1672
John Jenkins 1672 - 1677 (first of two terms)
Thomas Eastchurch 1676 - 1678 (never actually served)
Thomas Miller 1677 
John Harvey 1679
John Jenkins 1679 - 1681 (second term)
Philip Ludwell 1689 - 1691
Thomas Jarvis 1691 - 1694
John Archdale 1694 - 1696
Thomas Harvey 1696 - 1699
Henderson Walker 1699 - 1704
Robert Daniel 1704 - 1705
Thomas Cary 1705 - 1706 (first of two terms)
William Glover 1706 - 1708
Thomas Cary 1708 - 1711 (second of two terms)
Edward Hyde 1711 - 1712
Thomas Pollock 1712 - 1714 (first of two terms)
Charles Eden 1714 - 1722
Thomas Pollock 1722 (second of two terms)
William Reed 1722 - 1724
George Burrington 1724 - 1725 (later royal governor)
Richard Everard 1725 - 1731

Royal Governors

George Burrington 1731 - 1734       (previously governor under
                            the Lords Proprietors)
Gabriel Johnston 1734 - 1752
Nathaniel Rice 1752 - 1753
Matthew Rowan 1753 - 1754
Arthur Dobbs 1754 - 1765
William Tryon 1675 - 1771
James Hasell 1771
Josiah Martin 1771 - 1775

Governors of the State of North Carolina

Richard Caswell 1776 - 1780 (first of two terms)
Abner Nash 1780 - 1781
Thomas Burke 1781 - 1782
Alexander Martin 1782 - 1785 (first of two terms)
Samuel Johnston 1787 - 1789
Alexander Martin 1789 - 1792 (second of two terms)
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr. 1792 - 1795
Samuel Ashe 1795 - 1798
William Richardson Davie 1798 - 1799
Benjamin Williams 1799 - 1802 (first of two terms)
James Turner 1802 - 1805
Nathaniel Alexander 1805 - 1807
Benjamin Williams 1807 - 1808 (second of two terms)
David Stone 1808 - 1810
William Hawkins 1811 - 1814
William Miller 1814 - 1817
John Branch 1817 - 1820
Jesse Franklin 1820 - 1821
Gabriel Holmes 1821 - 1824
Hutchins Gordon Burton,  1824 - 1827
James Iredell, Jr. 1827 - 1828
John Owen 1828 - 1830
Montford Stokes 1830 - 1832
David Lowry Swain 1832 - 1835
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr. 1835 - 1836
Edward Dudley Bishop 1836 - 1841
John Motley Morehead 1841 - 1845
William Alexander Graham 1845 - 1849
Charles Manly 1849 - 1850
David Steele Reid 1851 - 1854
Warren Winslow 1854 - 1855
Thomas Bragg 1855 - 1859
John Willis Ellis 1859 - 1861
Henry Toole Clark 1861 - 1862
Zebulon Baird Vance 1862 - 1865 (first of two terms)
William Woods Holden 1865 (first of two terms)
Jonathan Worth 1865 - 1868
William Woods Holden 1868 - 1870
Tod Robinson Caldwell 1870 - 1874
Curtis Hooks Broaden 1874 - 1877
Zebulon Baird Vance 1877 - 1879 (second of two terms)
Thomas Jordan Jarvis 1879 - 1885
James Lowry Robinson 1883 (acting governor for 27 days)
Alfred Moore Scales 1885 - 1889
David Gould Fowle 1889 - 1891
Thomas Michael Holt 1891 - 1893
Elias Carr 1893 - 1897
Daniel Lindsay Russell 1897 - 1901
Charles Brantley Aycock 1901 - 1905
Robert Broadnax Glenn 1905 - 1909
William Walton Kitchin 1909 - 1913
Locke Craig 1913 - 1917
Thomas Walter Bickett 1917 - 1921
Cameron Morrison 1921 - 1925
Angus Wilton McLean 1925 - 1929
Oliver Max Gardner 1929 - 1933
John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus 1933 - 1937
Clyde Roark Hoey 1937 - 1941
Joseph Melville Broughton 1941 - 1945
Robert Gregg Cherry 1945 - 1949
William Kerr Scott 1949 - 1953
William Bradley Umstead 1953 - 1954
Luther Hartwell Hodges 1954 - 1961
Terry Sanford 1961 - 1965
Dan Killian Moore 1965 - 1969
Robert Walker Scott 1969 - 1973
James Eubert Holshouser, Jr. 1973 - 1977
James Baxter Hunt, Jr. 1977 - 1985 (first of two terms)
James Grubbs Martin 1985 - 1993
James Baxter Hunt, Jr. 1993 - Present
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